In Yoosung’s Route, Zen, a semi-successful actor/dancer/singer, is mentioned as a smoker who wants to quit. He has a fan club and enjoys smoking, drinking, and exercising at night. Zen’s favorite cigarettes are “Black Angel”, possibly referencing the real cigarettes “Black Devil”.
Despite his less problematic nature, Zen still smokes and drinks, and his career issues are a concern. He flirts with MC in a playful way, similar to Tamaki in the anime Ouran Host Club. To unlock all of Zen’s endings, players must first end up on his route after completing the first four days in casual mode. A Mystic Messenger walkthrough will help gather the maximum possible hearts from the red-eyed bae and unlock the Zen route.
Zen admits that he wishes she went on the messenger more, as they aren’t as close as they could have been. In the chatroom, Jumin asks if the player has any experiences with weed, and the Mystic Messenger email guide page provides answers to every email for every guest, including the V and Ray Route (Another Story) answers.
In the Casual Story of Mystic Messenger, Zen is a semi-successful actor/dancer/singer who leads a subtly hardcore life, enjoying cigarettes, drinking, and exercising at night. One day, MC Saeran and Vanderwood react to an MC who smokes Hyun Ryu, and Zen feels really bad about it.
In summary, Zen, a semi-successful actor/dancer/singer, is a character who is a smoker and wants to quit. He has a fan club and enjoys smoking, drinking, and exercising at night.
📹 VAPING GAVE US CANCER #stopvaping
Who does Zen love?
Zen, a young man, unexpectedly kissed Shirayuki, a woman he had held feelings for for a long time. Despite being embarrassed, Zen decided to ask her consent before acting on the impulse and ensured her feelings before tying anything further. He later revealed his feelings to Shirayuki, who agreed to take his hand as his significant other. Their relationship is not yet public knowledge.
Zen’s relationship with his older brother, Izana Wistaria, is complex, but he greatly respects her. As a child, Zen admired Izana’s ability to rule but has since become aware of her manipulative and mocking personality. Zen prefers respectful, open discussion and honest proceedings over her brother’s style of pulling the strings behind the scenes. As Shirayuki becomes a bigger part of Zen’s life, Izana’s meddling in their relationship frustrates him.
However, since Izana started acknowledging Shirayuki, the relationship between Zen and Izana is not as distant as it used to be.
How old was Zen when he died?
In a recent interview, Nick Cannon, an actor and television host, discussed the loss of his son, Zen Scott Cannon, one year after the infant’s death. In a poignant Instagram post, Cannon articulated his reflections on the past year and the process of healing, expressing gratitude for the brief time he spent with his son and acknowledging the most challenging day of his life.
Why does Yoosung hate V?
Before Rika’s death, V and Yoosung had a less antagonistic relationship. However, after Rika’s supposed death, their relationship broke down, and Yoosung began to blame V for Rika’s death, becoming distrustful of everything he said. Yoosung despised V for not appearing as upset as he was when Rika was announced dead, leading to his distrust of the older man. Despite this, V cares deeply for Yoosung and helps him, letting Yoosung take his anger out on him. He lies about Rika’s death to avoid losing his image and never tells Yoosung about Rika’s mental illness battle.
V comforts Yoosung after learning about the MC’s danger and depression after losing Rika. During Yoosung’s route, Yoosung becomes furious with V for putting the MC in danger and blames him for the situation. V explains himself to Yoosung and yells at him before noticing V’s blindness. The two finally overcome the distrust and bitterness in their relationship, and at the end of Yoosung’s route, their relationship has healed significantly and they are on more friendly terms.
How many endings does Zen have?
Zen has three bad endings and two bad relationship endings if the player does not get enough hearts for him. On Day 7, a bad ending occurs if the player is indifferent or hostile towards Zen and the other RFA members. The player leaves late, feels uncomfortable around Zen, and is cold to him on messenger. Zen apologizes for not understanding the player’s feelings earlier and reaffirms his love for them.
In the chatroom, Jumin asks the player if they had convinced Zen to model for his cat food commercial, to which the player responds no. The player also tells Jumin they are spending the night at Zen’s place, which Jumin disapproves of. The player returns to the apartment to work on the party. Back in Zen’s room, Zen hints that their indifferent attitude has added fuel to his feelings for them and wishes to make love to them.
Does Jaehee Kang like Zen?
Jaehee is a fan of Zen’s works and often supports him in his admiration and compliments. She believes that romantic relationships between actors and fans are detrimental to their careers. Jaehee’s boss, Jumin, trusts her and recommended her for the job. V, her boss, admires Jaehee for her hard work and refers to her as a role model.
Yoosung, a character with a serious personality, doesn’t agree with Jaehee’s addiction to video games. However, she shows a caring side towards him and encourages him to take his life more seriously. In a Christmas special, Yoosung and Jaehee work together for the C and R fundraiser, and Jaehee expresses pride in Yoosung for his hard work. Jaehee’s love for Zen and her caring nature make her a strong supporter for her character.
Did V really love Rika?
Ray forces V to take an elixir, which causes him to become delirious and refuses to leave the MC alone. Rika rejects him, but eventually admits that their relationship was toxic and not love. Rika breaks down, begging V to love her again, but V’s obsession with the MC and her safety worsens her mental state. 707, working with Jaehee Kang and Jumin Han, infiltrates Mint Eye to save V and the MC.
V’s body deteriorates, and 707 warns them that the drug could potentially kill him if they don’t get to a hospital quickly. V refuses to go to the hospital, fearing it would be traced back to Rika. The MC helps V heal before Vanderwood comes to detoxify him.
The MC embraces V, leading him to confess that the last person who held him was his mother. To protect the RFA and their location, 707 forces everyone from the app and shuts it down. Ray collects enough data to recover some, and Ray and Rika can talk with 707, V, and the MC. They discuss their past relationship, V’s attempts to help Rika through his love alone, but Rika becomes annoyed and blinds him as a test of his love. Rika hates V for trying to kill the darkness in her and refuses treatment to avoid anyone killing her devil.
Why did V go blind?
V, a renowned figure in the world of espionage, had a profound love for Rika, whom he considered his “innocent soul” and his sun. He was aware of Rika’s mental illness and encouraged her to seek treatment. Despite his efforts, Rika’s worldview worsened, and she blinded him. V tried to protect her and preserve her memory, but she ultimately sacrificed his life for her.
In the Secret Ending, Rika’s hatred of V deepened, and she became a shadow of herself, rarely responding to others and her environment. In Another Story, Rika’s hatred of V deepened, as she believed he had never truly accepted her, the dark version of herself. V begged Rika not to hurt the MC and let him take her place, but Rika rejected him, expressing her deep hatred towards him.
When V admitted that their love was an obsession, Rika was shocked that she had never truly been loved by anyone in her life. As V moved on past their relationship, Rika begged him to return while discussing her disgust for him. Eventually, V ended their relationship, causing Rika to break down again, begging and threatening the MC to bring back her sun.
As V mourns for his failed love, he now realizes that the love they had was toxic and wants to move past it with the MC.
How do you get Zens happy ending?
The Zen Normal End involves reaching the party with 0-9 opened RSVP emails, while the Zen Good End involves reaching the party with 10 or more opened emails. To achieve the Zen Bad Story End, select incorrect answers (hostile or bored with Zen) until the Day 7 branch point, then switch to incorrect answers (push Zen to quit his job). After two chats and two visual novel sections, switch to incorrect answers (hostile to 707 and the RFA) and trigger Bad End 3 after the Day 10 branch point.
To achieve the Zen Bad Relationship End, score below 30 chat participation or win more hearts for another character than Zen on Days 5 through 7, then pass the Day 7 branch, then score below 30 chat participation or win more hearts for another character than Zen on Days 8 through 10. To achieve these ends, reload your save six times, costing 30 HG in total. The most efficient method is to avoid opening RSVP emails after three correct replies, make a manual save after reaching Day 5, and then achieve Bad Relationship End 1. Reload your save, progress to the Day 7 branch point, make a second save, and achieve Bad Story End 3. Reload your second save, open all RSVP emails, and achieve Good End.
How do you not get bad ending in Mystic Messenger Zen?
To avoid bad endings in a relationship, flirt with Zen, avoid jealousy, and don’t let Jaehee and other fans dictate his life. Visit him and support his career. Don’t side with Jumin, as it may indicate a conflict. Side with either Jaehee or Zen, but be aware of when they’re in the wrong. Allow Zen to make his own decisions and get a lot of hearts from him, but avoid getting hearts from other members. These tips can be applied to other days and can help avoid negative outcomes.
Does V from Mystic Messenger smoke?
V, a French photographer, is known for his photography skills and enjoys simple French bread. His favorite quote is “The bud of our love will swell up during the summer wind, and blossom into a beautiful flower next time we meet”. He works as “Jumin Han’s chief assistant” and has family members living abroad. V enjoys jigsaw puzzles and smoking pipes. He believes he would find a connection with someone he can feel connected with and believes he would still be creating art in another field if he could have another job.
His first date would be at one of his exhibitions, and he would like to give his date a picture of the sun. V has 20 spoons at his home and was originally planned to release a route in August 2017. His homeroom teacher and old classmate found him unhappily and confused about his art interests. V’s belongings include a rarely used cell phone, camera, tripod, film camera, portrait lens, wide-angle lens, super macro lens, USB accessed by fingerprints, and a wallet.
How old is Zen from Mystic Messenger?
Mystic Messenger is a South Korean otome game developed by Cheritz, released in 2016 for Android and iOS. The game is a “storytelling messenger game” and is available in Korean, English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese. The protagonist, a 24-year-old musical stage artist, downloads a mysterious app that leads her to live in either a closed, secured apartment owned by Rika, the founder of the RFA, or the Mint Eye HQ. She is tasked with organizing a party by inviting guests.
In Another Story, Unknown tricks the protagonist into playing the game and brings her to Mint Eye, keeping her by his side. The protagonist can choose one of seven routes, each with their own backgrounds, and learn the truth behind the RFA. In 2017, Mystic Messenger was awarded Best Indie Game at the 2017 Korea Game Awards.
📹 the ssum is worse than you think
Now that it’s been a year since the ssum came out, is it better? is Harry Choi our savior? the answer may surprise you! (spoiler: it’s …
I think the reason the cgs look so…bad, is because theyre traces over real life photos. You can tell by how the bodies are so inconsistent in style/porportion to the heads of the characters that they traced a real picture of a dude, drew the love interest’s head in the normal style, and then just…put it together without actually scaling or stylizing the body to match the head.
The best parts of MM were things like 707 pranking Yoosung to drink tons of chocolate milk and Zen insulting Jumin’s cat. The characters interacted with each other, not just with the player. It felt like it really was a chatROOM, not just a chatGPT conversation. Those characters bickered and joked and had mundane conversations between themselves at 3AM about article games and allergies. They were quirky, interesting, and made the characters feel alive. I didn’t play MM for the (admittedly kind of goofy) story, I played it for the characters. I skipped The Ssum because it feels so.. Lonely. Like, Theo seems nice enough, but it’s a far cry from walking in on Yoosung preparing to die because 707 tricked him while Jaehee calls them both stupid.
I guess the problem is that rather than telling a story, this game is just trying to be a virtual boyfriend simulator. The appeal of MysMe was the plot and quirky characters and their dynamics with each other. 11 days was just enough to tell the story from beginning to end, but 200 days with Generic Boyfriend where nothing story-relevant happens is just boring Sure there’s an audience out there for these kind of simulators, but it’s different from otomes
I remember someone on otome subreddit digging out Cheritz’s personnel history from some Korean sources (as in who was let go and who was hired/who they were hiring atm) and it appeared that the crew was completely overhauled sometime in between the beta and the Ssum’s initial release. As in only the higher-ups remained while none of the writers and artists who used to work on mysme and earlier games were there anymore. Which, if true, would explain how this game is such a mess and not at all correlates with all of the previous work Cheritz has done because it’s literally no longer the same Cheritz beyond the name and the leftover reputation. Which feels somewhat tragic of an end to such a promising gaming company. There’s no way people behind mysme (who were donating a part of their income to various charities during the lifetime of the game) would come up with that predatory monetization system of the Ssum. This article was highly entertaining and informative, great job! If I ever need to explain to someone why I dropped the game even before reaching Teo’s confession, I’m certainly sending them this article for reference lol
The 10-day mystic messenger storylines were a whole package story arc that made you feel like you spend weeks developing a relationship with the love-interest. There was drama, character development, storylines and action to move towards a satisfying ending. You’re telling me that 200 days barely scratches the surface of that? If you can’t write a satisfying story in 100/200 days, something is horribly wrong with your writers. I do think that a longer otome game could be very interesting and refreshing and I’m all for slow-burn. But 200 days is way too long to begin with, in my opinion. It asks a lot of the attention span of its users and even if the storyline is fantastic, real life can easily get in the way of logging in. Besides, what kind of story do you want to tell in 200 days that you can’t tell in 30 days? Are you going somewhere, or is it useless pandering and small talk for 50-70% of the time? What are you doing so that your target audience stays motivated? With what you told about the story itself, it doesn’t have one cohesive story line that leads anywhere. Even if the art isn’t great, that should have been the bare minimum and I’m shocked they ask so much money for an otome game that basically functions as an A.I. chat.
Whenever the beta test for Ssum came out people were speculating that Teo was going to be a surprise yandere because some of the chats sounded sounded a little dark under the surface. Not to mention that by entering your schedule into the game, he would know pretty much everything about you. I know yanderes are controversial but that would have been such a cool idea instead of just making him a generic soft boy.
The problem with the semi-realistic art style is that it makes the unrealistic parts stand out too much. You can maybe get away with blindingly unnaturally pale skin and not having a nose with a more anime or cartoon style, but next to real-looking eyes and lips it becomes horrifying. But seriously, the lack of nose I’m pretty certain single-handedly ruins the art style. There’s just these voids or maybe vague smudges on so many of those faces.
I was so excited when The Ssum was announced because I loved Mystic Messenger and enjoyed Nameless. However, once they announced that ridiculous monthly pricing, I lost all interest. While I’m glad I didn’t waste any money on this game. It’s still disappointing to hear that the Ssum just isn’t good overall. (Those Teo CGs are nightmare fuel.) I was kind of hoping it would have been really good and then I would have swallowed my pride and paid to play. But my wallet is saved. Oh Cheritz, how the mighty have fallen. Thanks for making an in-depth update and sticking to the 200 days of content. I imagine it must have been mind numbing after a while. At least Harry looked good!
When I started playing Teo’s route I accidentally MISSED day 14 completely (didn’t know it was important) and came back to find Teo had ASSUMED I accepted his confession and reciprocated. Returning to see the only text options not even have a transition with me ‘involved’ and just jumping straight into the relationship just irked me so much—I stopped playing Teo’s route. It makes me wonder if the same thing could’ve happened in mystic messenger…
on the one hand, I sort of understand why they didn’t want any major storyline deviations in a 200-day long game, since if you got a bad ending on day like, 150, you might feel resentful about having to replay such a long game because you made a mistake in your responses somewhere. But I feel like 1) Otome game fans have enough time on their hands that this isn’t that big of a concern and 2) A simple auto-save feature could fix this, adding save states to the game before game-changing decisions are made.
I’ve only played 2 weeks worth of the SSUM before calling it quits, but I’m so glad this 1h vid can show me what I “missed” out on. It honestly feels that Cheritz took away the worst conclusions from MysMe success. Interactive chat format that revolutionized the otome scene? It must mean players are asking for 100 day long routes! Working adults complaining about how much of their irl time MysMe takes up? Let’s make them wait 1h for the LI to type a 3 sentence reply! In fact, put a ton of bloatware features like a daily r/askreddit forum and pet simulator because otome games have not done it before, wow so quirky! Not to mention, the best part of MysMe was arguablely the group dynamic of the RFA that most players can ignore the eyeless notherburger that is the MC. Sure MC might be a blank slate self insert, but the hijinks the RFA were up to more than made up for it! But with Teo as the only LI at launch and no one else in chat, it is basically 2 pieces of cardboard talking to each other. I’m glad that Harry route was a step in the right direction, but the damage and goodwill that Cheritz had was long done unfortunately. Also it’s nice to know the shadow guy in the beginning of Teo route went nowhere. I remember back at launch, some people were chugging the copium that the game was purposely being boring on purpose to spring a big twist, like DDLC. Honestly… Cheritz could just make MysMe 2 with the same UI and a completely different cast and have a decent hit on their hands.
(My Opinion) As an Otome game fan, I was one of the few people who played MM when it was new (around 2016 or 2017). I really enjoyed the story, and I loved seeing references to the Wizard and the other Cheritz games. Although Nameless is the best game in my opinion, it was cool to see Cheritz make a game for the mobile market (in a time where companies weren’t interested in making mobile ports). However, I lost interest when Cheritz decided to add additional routes like Rika, V, and Saeran. As a company it makes sense that they want to make more money, but it felt a little too desperate for cash. Of course, people were hyped for these routes and they were good (or so I heard). Fast forward a couple years and the Ssum was announced. I wasn’t really hyped for it, but I hoped that Cheritz would regain their spark. The game came out and I heard stuff about it, but then it got erased off my mind. Now that I’m seeing this article, I’m super disappointed with the company’s decisions. Like many people said already, they need to let MM go and focus on creating better games. I don’t really care if they go back to the ‘traditional’ PC market or stay on mobile, but they need a good game. It’s been so long since I’ve been this let down by an Otome game/company.
I was playing Harry’s route and I initially liked him. But after a while I got bored of having hundreds of missed messages only to go in and see they were all from Pew Pew. There was one little plot where I got invested, but then I got bored again and dropped the game. So in my case, Pew Pew wasn’t great. Just let me date Pew Pew if all the messages are gonna be from them. I’ve played Hatoful Boyfriend, I don’t mind dating a bird! But I don’t want to go on and on talking to them and not Harry if it’s Harry’s story.
I wouldn’t say the realistic style like this is inherently difficult to do facial expressions in. The problem with this style in particular is that often artists that use it are trying to portray the characters they draw as beautiful as possible, therefore not allowing them to do anything ‘ugly’. Which would include things like having wrinkle lines or face creases when emoting. It results in a very stiff, same facey sort of feel where everyone has just distinct enough facial features to look different, but they are not ‘allowed’ to have anything that doesn’t fit the beauty precedent.
Spoiler below, but if you were curious about the mysterious figure following Teo around in the hospital, I actually got that dialogue! Basically, it was a woman that had a crush on Teo and heard he was being discharged. So she wanted to confess her feelings before then… I forget now what made her start crushing. I think because he was asking for movie suggestions and doing other things around the hospital, that she noticed him.
God, reading the messages scrolling through make Teo look so… milk toast. I couldn’t imagine wasting time and moeny for bland convos, you treat us too well EDIT: Harry Choi is the superior route bc he’s a LOT like Jumin Han. An emotionally stunted rich man who is in a forced engagement? It was entertaining with Jumin but feels like it was just shoved into Harry’s story for extra ~drama~ without the spice of the bad endings.
I know it’s a very financially draining for smaller companies, but I wish Cheritz would make another game in the style of Dandelion and Nameless, to be honest. They explored interesting concepts, and they had really nice and relatable MCs. But thank you for the article! I dropped during the beginning of the second planet, so I’m grateful you took time to play through and what happened later. I was also bugged by Theo’s dream being shoved aside, as well as his childish puppy behaviour. It does feel like your suggestion of the story flow would be much better, to be honest, because it would also be easier to understand and rationalize Theo’s immaturity and him switching from doing one thing to another.
The hair color change without being acknowledged thing made me realize even Love Plus, a freaking DS dating sim from 2009 does that better because your love interest basically changed them (either hairstyle or colors) based on some conversations you had and basically “surprised” you during a date with it. And you can acknowledge if you like it or not so they’ll change it back lol. Even that was a pretty engaging “log in when you feel bored” kind of dating sim in comparison. Honestly I get that they want to be “real-life BFE with less unrealistic fiction-only shenanigans” as possible with the realistic CGs and mundane daily lives conversations (albeit that didn’t stop them from the celebrity audition thing and the whole mysteries with the Mint Eye cult and the lab) and whatnot but man this is the epitome of a mobile game promising quantity over quality.
Do you know what I think would have made this game much much better: If we actually did something in the story. In MM your actions had impact, and you were always doing something for the story to progress (be it inviting guests, or being kidnapped in numerous occasions). In the ssum, I felt like I was reading teo’s diary. You don’t do anything but to hear about his day.
I’ve always been such a huge cheritz fan! I was sooo excited for this game.. I remember refreshing my phone in 2017 for the initial due date, and then everytime they announced a delay I’d grit my teeth and wait… So when it eventually came out, me and 2 friends all got it, and we all dropped it before 11 days … Such a shame
i quit after 3 months and that was 3 months too long… good to know i wasn’t missing much regardless lol. thanks for taking one for the team on this…………… i still don’t understand what cheritz was thinking. all of their other otome have been genuinely interesting and well written. like what went wrong, here?
just wanted to say THANK YOU for mentioning nameless and dandelion, because when people think of cheritz they instantly think of only mystic messenger which i get because its f2p and one of the few otome that managed to break out of the bubble and go kinda mainstream i get that the ssum was in development for a long time and its not like they could completely overhaul it, but the (western) otome community is way different than what it was back in mysme’s prime. like we got and are still getting way more otome games compared to back then, even voltage who were one of the pioneers of mobile otomes released their first switch exclusive. obv mobile otomes are not dying soon, but i feel like theres more of a focus on console/pc otomes now. its just crazy to me that for a pretty new game, it already feels just so. dated to me
I’ve been waiting for this article for so long 😂 I dropped Teo’s route about 120 or so days in cuz I couldn’t stand him 🙃 and I just loved Harry’s route so much, it made me happy and made me want to keep playing, but life’s been mean to me so I haven’t been able to play the updated 100 days more, I loved your insights on how they could have made Teo’s route better, he is awfully inconsistent and that’s annoying, I never understood why he was so mad at losing the idol thingy because that was never his dream or anything, he was basically forced to do it lol sorry it’s been literally forever since I played anything related to Teo and it still upsets me 😂 I only wanted to finish his route to see glimpses of Saeran/Ray but I couldn’t. Also on Harry’s route I overslept and got to see the bad future and it has that same picture you get on the good one of them holding hands but ripped in half (I traveled to the past because I wasn’t about to have the bad one as cannon in my playthrough lol) and I don’t know if that means anything or not Anyway, sorry for the long comment 😂 I loved your article, I always enjoy seeing this long essays, and an hour from you is just 😘👌
I restarted with Harry’s route earlier last year and I was sad that it was very bland thanks to pew pew… but my mom kept thinking I was texting/talking to Harry Styles for whatever reason (she’s 60 and works with 5 year olds so I understand i guess.) so I kept playing to keep the lie alive in her heart but as soon as I moved out in the fall I deleted that app ❤😊 sorry Susan.
I really enjoyed ssum but I DEFINITELY SEE YOUR OPINION, I honestly agree even if I am a year late, right now I am with June route on season 2, and I know he isn’t in the article since he wasn’t in the game at this time.. but I just hope they make up meet up with them just like they do with MM, like come on, you are telling me that I can’t see my lover that I CHOSE AND SPENT MONEY ON.. while he is mostly gone dealing with so much insane life experiences—with his route his deals with serious life issues(in my opinion) and I can’t be there to save him or anything? Like come on.. 😞😞 but I am so glad I picked him then the others you are talking about in this article; also agree with your thoughts!!
this one sounded so promising too 😭 they were too ambitious with that 200 days thing fr… anyway i have a suggestion for yall! if youre looking for a “realistic” message-type mobile dating game, “picka: 30 days to love” is great! currently, theres about 4~ different stories (in the global version, the korean version of the app has a lot of stories yet to be translated) and multiple endings and routes for all of them. the main story, “30 days to love” (tdl) has 2 seasons so far (as in 2 different stories with different casts of characters but with the same setup) and it plays like a 30-day long program where the characters purposely join in order to find love. the chemistry between the group’s immaculate and i love the characters! plus, all the main characters have personality theres other stories that sometimes references small aspects of each other but are completely disconnected, like a story where the mc’s camera was found by a group of guys that just so happens to go to the same college as her but they end up all being friends (and maybe more…) it’s a fun time so i hope yall will have fun with this too!
Okay so, I’m one of the people who played the beta, and was waiting excitingly for the game for all these years, suffering through the wait. I was pretty okay with the old art, even when it was obvious it was drawn on top of irl pics. Because of this hype, I bought the most expensive package subscription, and I was also one of the lucky people who got the merch package because of a post I shared (which was fanart in my case). SHOCKING! I actually enjoyed the first month, despite the bad things (probably cuz I didn’t have to suffer through free version). But as soon as his hair (and face and body) changed in the second planet, the experience went downhill. I overlapped the first and second planet’s faces and tried to adjust Teo’s face to the old one just to prove myself that I wasn’t nitpicking, and the features change A LOT. Not only the hair, the nose, the lips, the face shape, the neck shape and even the size of the hand. It felt I was “dating” a whole other person, and worse, sometimes I could only tell him he was handsome like BISH HE IS NOT. I felt like I was lying to him and myself every single day. After Mewry it only got worse and worse, I kept playing for a month more just cuz i paid for it, but I can’t remember most of the things. I received my merch package after I was already sick of Teo, and the diary that comes with it is theme matched to write daily along side the game. I probably used it once or twice. Fun fact that the box of the package says 2019. Compared to Teo, I actually enjoyed Harry (and his pics *drools*) way more.
After perusal this article I was also honestly underwhelmed. While yes, I didn’t expect it to be as action packed as MM, as they described it as a calm ride, a lack of satisfying story arc means I probably would have dropped the game a week or so in anyways if I did decide to play it. I thought the whole appeal of games with choices is that you can influence the story a bit and see what happens, since this game doesn’t have multiple endings it doesn’t even have that. What would have been the main draw then are the characters you interact with. I enjoy Genshin Impact for example, even though the MC is kind of blank and i am indifferent to them, the story and the lively world with all its different peoples, histories, and scenery makes it a nice place to experience. Despite all the extra issues with Ssum like microtransactions or sheer length, I genuinely believe that this game could have been really good and unique if the character development and storyline were executed well. I can think of no other game that would involve a 200+day real time slow burn like that. The SSum intrigued me with the mysterious parts of the forbidden lab and the fact that even after playing for months reveals no answer or explanation for the world it is set in is so very much a let down It does make me wonder what happened to Cheritz exactly. I saw news for this game back in like 2018, there was radio silence and then only recently did an actual game get released. It is possible that something big shifted inside the company itself and this game was super rushed as a result.
AHHH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS AND TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM!! i dropped it after teos personality was giving plank of wood,, the most shocking thing to me is that they never brought up the horror elements from the first planet again?!@?!? WHAT WAS THE REASON???? but harry does look scrumptious ngl, knew there was something under that horse mask. a shame they arent doing anything with the plot 🙁
As someone who will always love the Nameless and Dandelion installments of Cheritz, this is an amazing article to see what can only be considered a catastrophe if the price range reaches over $50 for what, exactly?? Really miss the times Cheritz made the more classic PC Otome games that aren’t on irl time based decisions/events…. Let’s hope that this is a learning experience for Cheritz to maybe find themselves again?
The worst part is, The Ssum was “released” years ago already in a couple of countries, but the servers were wonky as hell and the feedback was so bad that Cheritz took it back down and “reworked” it. I can’t tell if it was some sort of beta release or something because it’s been so long, but I don’t think it was. iirc, back then we had 2 or 4 weeks worth of content? leaning towards 2 weeks and I haven’t met a single person who said it was fun lol. From what I remember – because I didn’t play it for long back then, bc Teo is boring and the artstyle creeps me out – nothing really has changed except for the UI and the amount of content. I tried again in the “re-release” and it was still boring as hell. Especially coming from Mystic Messenger where every character has such a strong and distinct personality, Teo feels like a wet wash cloth.
Wow what an insight. I also think that the art and story is not perfect. The art in Teo’s route is messy because they edited it from real picture, not doing real art. I feel pity and understand Cheritz situation though, because they have internal issues and short of staffs. It must be difficult for them. And the story..hm..it would be better if they connect it to the filmmaking story more. Teo’s story has less drama, only at the beginning where he was hospitalized and the fact that his parents were in a bad situation in the film industry. After that, Teo is fun and worth it as a daily comfort and daily companion. I think I need more days with Teo, since I like the comfort I got from him in the ssum. Overall, I still recommend this game and Teo’s route to my friends who like comfort things and simple companion~
Your commentary was so on point, I haven’t played this game but you really gave us a thourough tour and I definitely don’t feel the need to try it out for myself now, especially since I agree completely that the writing is…. well… not what the fans ere expecting, to say the least. Also, it for sure isn’t your fault you went into the game with such high expectations, because Cheritz themselves advertized it as something as exciting as Mystic Messenger and nobody was expecting such a slice of life, cheesy dating sim that does not even delve into the original idea AT ALL, at least it hasn’t yet The secret Lab remains a secret, I suppose Your take on the Teo’s route is a good twist, I think Cheritz needs to listen to some of this criticism and make some changes
I was so excited for another otome done in the style of MM, but I feel like Cheritz missed what made it so popular. A huge part of it was seeing all of the characters chat chat each other. Even if the topics were ‘mundane’ there was the group dynamic to spice it up which The Ssum does not have. Infinite Blue looks like it’s going to try and follow in MMs footsteps so I’m looking forward to that.
Damn. I kinda hoped for this to be the next mystic messenger. I loved mm even though I’m not the target audience (I’m a guy). The story and characters were just so good and fun to experience. I found out that I like otome games as much as those from male’s perspective thanks to it and it lead to me finding some of my favourite media ever (comis, webtoons etc.). Such a shame…
i’m not that far into this vid yet but it feels like the ssum’s main game play should be the side game play for a different much fuller game. Like imagine if there was a plot to a different game and when you hit milestones in the main game(ex – dating on day 14) you see it reflected in the cute slice of life side gameplay.
god,, this article is so cathartic for me, i was waiting for the ssum ever since it was first announced. there were so many warning flags during that point and until release. i thought id be able to make it through at least teo’s route after all the waiting, but i MISSED the chat where he confesses and like??? that just really ruined things for me jaehee showing up in teo’s route made me so happy but just made me want to play mysme again
Watching this really makes me miss the days when mobile otome games were priced for the primary download (with 3-4 LIs included most times) and then additional LIs were a micro transaction, but it was a one time thing and it fully unlocked all the content relating to said characters. No stamina, no annoyingly basic dress up games/room decoration games, and no paywalls for additional CGs. When they made the change to stamina and micro transactions I had to stop playing them. Good to see that they market hasn’t gotten much better.
You’re really amazing for playing all of this. If I remember well I couldn’t stand it for 5 days. I was waiting to discover that in the end it was really emotional, and I would avoided the spoilers and fell all the emotions. But seems this don’t will happen. Ah! Thank you for the great article and your precious time.
I think the biggest problem that cheritz made with their game was making routes last 100 or 200 days. It made writing other endings ultinaty pointless because no one whould play over again 100 days to get bad ending. It made variations useless by extend. Theres also so many daus a person can be engager in something before dropping their interest
I started playing MM at the time the Ssum beta recently closed, I think I even played a few days of it. MM blew me away and made me obsessed with it for a few years (heck, i still love it to the end, just don’t have time to play), I supported it in any way I could – playing, posting about it, making friends play, buying merch, in-game things, drawing, etc etc. I also played a bit of earlier Cheritz game (Dandelion) which I also liked pretty much, so I knew what they are able of. So when the news about the Ssum rebooting dropped, I was ready- no, I was ARMED AND READY to like it! I was following all their media, hyping it up to my friends, spreading info and making memes… The fact, that the release was postponed SEVERAL times shoud’ve been our first warning, but we all just blamed it on corona. Though it really proves the point of the game being rushed, by them trying to release it as early as possible. I was aware of the fact, that the game’s genre would be ‘realistic’ progression of romance but didn’t care as I believed that Cheritz can make anything interesting. …that was exactly my flaw. I got bored by the day 4 and deleted the app on the day 10. It just wasn’t working out for me. I knew it was supposed to be realistic, so I tried not to be upset about little things (Teo having hyperventillation sessions every 5 minutes of the dialogue, typos and mistakes, having only one interest, weird art, etc etc.). But the thing, that I loved the most about MM – that ambience, the feel of experiencing the story, your involvement in it and interest – nothing of those were present. It felt very shall, empty, boring, meaningless. Like you said, it wasn’t that Teo is bad, but after awhile you really stop caring about chats. Gosh, in MM we had chats about some diseases that make people die after drinking chocolate milk, about random dreams, Seven’s scams, etc. but they were still fun to read. You don’t have to have important plot discoveries every day but just making chats fun and interesting in any way or another would help a lot. I absolutely agree with your points on why it failed to capture most of people’s interest. Which makes me really sad. I used to think of Ssum as of Cheritz’ dream. It was their big idea, big project they tried to make happen lots of years ago. MM being succesfull as it is helped them in gathering resourses towards achieving their goal. It could’ve been that amazing story, when you grab your abandoned dream by the tail and make it happen, but it… didn’t happen. I dunno if the effort was not enough or the idea itself is flawed (it is still a very original concepr – real-time otome game – which means creators wouldn’t know where to go in this field) but the outcome really didn’t live up to expectations I sincerly hope Cheritz will learn from this experience and overcome it, as if MM’s decline is real and their budget starts to drop, this might be their last game… gosh, idk why i just wrote this essay, guess im really that sad amazing article, 10/10, the analysis was so good <3 hope to see someday a Ssum article from you titled 'i was wrong' lol or about a new Cheritz game or smth, i just really want them to find the pace again
I think Teo and Harry twitters? (I forget what it is called) are one of a big part of the story, like, everyone should be able to read without spending money. And the ads are too overwhelming. It is like this game is not created by Chetitz I knew in the past… so disappointing fr. Harry route seems better than Teo (with waiting time and art aspect), but after 200 days it seems change to his friend story. I am so sad that I spend 100 days just for THIS story, Jo Malong story. This game has a potential but… yeah
I think you also hit the nail on the head of why I like the game so much – it really is a slice of life otome. Which objectively can be super boring. I know Im in the outlier as a fan – and objectively I see the validity in your criticism. I enjoy the “scooter ride’ they created – but I can see why that fell flat for a large majority
How did i even forgot about this game, I played it free for 100+ days (i don’t remember the specific day I was in last time) The last time i played was when I saw some pink hair Teo arts were improved and were in the same quality as black hair Teo. Ngl the first planet CG arts are good. I tried to stay in the game despite the fact i was really bummed when Teo changed his appearance, AND SAME i also had a first impression theory that this pink Teo is a different Teo from the last. It’s like we’re changing universes, so i thought the game was going for to “meet Teo in different alternate universes.” But NOPE, it’s just he changes his appearances Well, there are some lore about the Ssum Lab from those blue dots u see if u click on the left arrow of the home screen (sorry i forgot some names cuz i haven’t played for a while) and that’s kinda cool. But man, the in-chat lore rarely talks about the mystery of the app and Piu Piu itself. This game has loads of potential and i hope it will improve more in the future And for now, i will not be playing the game, sorry Ssum
Now I didn’t play this game but based off what you’re saying and that I used to be a Mystic Messenger fan. I think this game is trying to appeal more to parasocial fans rather than story driven fans. In my opinion, they are failing both of them because the reality is they aren’t being interesting at all :,) It’s a rly huge let down because it took years for them to complete the Mystic Messenger storyline and we all sat through it. Even when the art was getting tough and game wasn’t being so kind, we all felt loyal to the interest and connection we created. They’ve been in the works for this game for YEARS….I’m extremely disappointed that this is what my mystic messenger money and interest went into
I’m kind of surprised people had such high hopes for another game from Cheritz. My first introduction to Cheritz was through “Dandelion: Wishes Brought To You” Which is an overly complicated, long drawn out, and an overall nothing story. Add in that some of the love interests are down right abusive (Weirdly both the cats) and two were lackluster, finding out that Mystic Messenger was also made by Cheritz surprised me. Until I started noticing the telltale signs of a Cheritz game. 1: at least one character getting no love from the devs at all (Less events/less specials or after story specials) 2. Always have to have at least one character that gets shit on throughout the game, love interest or not. 3. Always a notable favorite, even by the devs. (Jisoo was pushed HEAVILY by Dandelion and the same with Seven from MysMe) 4. Dragging out stories. Whenever certain events happen, it will take days-weeks in their stories for the event to continue. 5. Their designs always try to mix pretty boy with masculine and it can come off very, very off putting sometimes. I really wish they didn’t make the switch from making PC Dating Sims to mobile ones, because at least then it wouldn’t be as predatory with the in-app purchases.
honestly, I adore slice-of life otomes that don’t go anywhere, basically providing you with a daily dose of “being loved”. But… The Ssum is just… the characters feel so stale. I only played three days of June’s route and was already annoyed – nothing I say matters, nothing I want to know is answered but it’s teased as if he had cancer or sth amd it will be a super emotional story. And what’s the big reveal? Spoilers, his sickness is basically ignored (other than the constant “dw about me” that makes me feel like his therapist rather than love interest), but wowza, he’s Jumin’s half-brother. Wow. Just wow. I mean, I never finished it and he’s new, so MAYBE he’s redeemable, please let me know.
I remember playing the beta in 2018… and the supposed release date for the same year, if I remember correctly? But it never got released, though the website with the release date remained up and without any information about the delay for serveral MONTH. And two years later they showed some news about it with the new artstyle and everything. I was already dissapointed with how they gave 0 information on the delay but than the downgrade compared to the beta – uff. I can’t wrap my hand around that this is what they deliver after such a long time of development.
This popped into my recommendation and I have to say I really enjoyed the long form article essay style of article! The editing is great and I appreciate that there’s subtitles too ❤ Though I’m not an otome game player, I’ve been interested in the genre, I’m definitely looking forward to your next articles !! 😀
As someone who played all 200 days of Teo’s route and liked it, I think the biggest problem with the Ssum was that it’s not an otome game really, but idk what would have been a better way to clearly market it, so people didn’t expect it to be something it wasn’t. An otome game usually has multiple love interests and routes with multiple endings. But the Ssum isn’t that. But idk what the SSum is instead. This will sound out there, but I feel like it’s more a kin to the games that I play that are like Neko Atsume (you set up a cute space and cats come, you don’t neccerilly interact with the cats, but you collect pictures and the more they visit, the more you get to know them), Tiny Bird Garden (similar to Neko Atsume but with birds lol, but the birds sometimes will say something to you too along with leaving letters), A Kinder World (watering virtual plants but then you can do other stuff like meditate, gratitude journal, write encouraging letters to people, etc). The Ssum feels like these games but packaged into something trying to be an otome game. These games are slow paced, mundane, and don’t really have a story, and that’s what makes it enjoyable, I feel like Cheritz tried to do something like this with the Ssum but didn’t execute it well. This is just what I think. I personally liked it. I thought Teo was relatable + we had similar interest, so I enjoyed listening to Teo talk about his day and go through his life. I liked the pacing too and that the convos happened during a set time that we pick (Granted I wish you didn’t have to pay to change the times, b/c I definitely slept through a handful of wake up convos lol) and I liked that you didn’t have to respond right away to stuff.
I’ll say it: Cheritz need to go back to making visual novel type games. They can make them amazing and innovative, they have only made two pc games ffs. MM was amazing but needs to end there. Or maybe use a similar type of app and create a new plot with new characters. We need new content (and not the boring boyfriend AI type), I don’t want it to keep going back to mint eye, we know all about it. The only thing you could add to MM organically would be a Rika route and that’s not happening apparently so let it go and make new worlds. (Also please bring back the wizard from dandelion, I NEED a route of the crazy man)
As a person with Common Sense™, I am utterly apalled that this game has a SUBSCRIPTION service to TEXT someone that DOESN’T EXIST WHAT Like, 130 dollars? Jesus Christ. I feel so bad for everyone involved… This whole thing feels kinda predatory and parasocial too. I mean $20-$25 per month is a lot of money to play a game, especially for one that’s as unbaked as this one is. It’s been a while the last article and I have a terrible memory, so I forgot just how scummy the two models came across as. After seeing this, it’s even more yikes. As someone who can’t keep up with a piece of media or obsession for too long before inevitably burning/fizzling out each time, the very idea of a game that takes place over hundreds of irl days sounds horrible to me, no matter how good it could be (quality and personal enjoyment is unrelated to my burnouts). Not to mention the fact that the medium of the story (exclusively text messages) sounds limiting to a suffocating degree. I feel like the only people who’d actually give this experience a chance are existing otome game fans who already are aware of and like the formula or something. While I haven’t played it, I know a little bit about Simulacra, and it does the whole “texting game” thing much, much better by a) being a MUCH shorter and tightly-written experience b) having many other features of the phone actually be used as part of the story/to immerse you into its world and c) actually being good. Until the ending, so I’ve heard. Oh and maybe d) not having a scummy subscription service that relies on you signing up for it out of frustration when in fact its main selling point should be in the base game no questions asked.
I mean like….I’ve been obsessed w mysmes since 2017 cuz it was entertaining. The storyline didn’t make sense sometimes (ex. Yoosung where he fourth wall breaks and says everyone’s a robot 😭) but the entertainment, the drama, and the BOMB (best character btw) kept me excited! I might be biased by the anime artstyle of mysmes but just this semi realistic jeff the killer artstyle of the ssum immediately drew me away from the game. All in all, I’m sad the ssum is mediocre at best, but ngl it made me motivated to play mysmes again 🫶
The character sprites/art looks like it can’t choose between anime and realism in the most awkward and uncanny way possible. I honestly had no clue the Cheritz even made a new game. I remember being so hyperfixated on MysMes. And from what I’ve seen of Ssum from this article and some others, it’s sad to see that this game was a let down and tried to get popularity by riding off of and making as many MM connections as it could.
Okay, so I’m one of the first players of the game and I cannot thank you enough for this because I did NOT have the time or resources to play Teo’s boring route for 200 days. It’s all so disappointing. I was an early player of MM and have enjoyed dandelion so I was expecting so much from Cheritz. I remember still keeping faith after the game got delayed countless times and for what? 90% of what the game offers is insufficient at best, irrelevant at worst. I stopped playing after day 14 because I was getting nothing out of it and my personal life got a lot more interesting than Teo could ever be so I entirely missed the Harry update. I think I’ll try playing the game for his route only. I find it hilarious how everyone at first was talking about dating the horse dude and turns out we really can 💀 It pains me that I have to pay a subscription for it though. Having a functional game should not be part of a monthly subscription
tbh i stopped paying attention to anything cheritz related a long time ago and i was just perusal this to see what i was missing, but i just gotta comment about the art. teo’s all look like someone took real life pictures and just traced over it, and i think that’s why it’s all so uncanny, but harry’s looks like someone was actually hired to draw something from scratch (or at least put more effort on the clean up). also, the shirtless scenes- teo’s looks so unrealistic that it turns it from “possibly hot” to “are they purposely or accidentally implying that teo is the kind of guy who photoshops his pics to look like he has abs”. they did much better on harry tho, now that’s a guy that can get it.
Loved the article! 🤗🤗 I started playing soon as it came out but dropped it about 2 weeks later. It was just too long to get a response back from a fictional character, I could have the same thing happen with a real person. The story just seemed to be all over the place and I’m glad I didn’t keep going. For about 3 days I didn’t get any notifications when I had them set and literally forgot about it even tho it was on my home/main page. It would of been way better if they just continued with MM using some of the layout this game had. They could of had it where u play for 4 days or more then it would choose which character route u get, like how it is. Then had it where depending on how many hearts u got for the character u could play the continuation of the Normal or Good ending. Despite how we got a lot from MM content it could of been a 2nd game and could of gotten people to play the first one to experience it or play it as a recap kinda like Obey Me. Also I’d absolutely LOVE if u could make a article where MM was referenced/mentioned. You really caught me off guard with the whole Mint Eye thing!
honestly i enjoyed the planet interactions with the emotion orb things more than actually talking to teo, but to be fair i was there when it was first teased and i was 19 but by the time the game came out i was 23 so ‘virtual boyfriend u casually talk to every day’ wasnt as appealing to me anymore 😅
6:17 Can confirm, the features of his face are NOT placed well on that head, and the head itself looks pasted onto the body like a sticker with seemingly no regard for how his chin and jaw should be interacting with his neck. It’s flat with no suggestion of depth. It gives the effect of a guy wearing a cardboard cutout of an anime guy’s face over his own, or that his neck is broken with the way he stares at you just barely not dead-on despite his body being at a 3-4ths angle. It’s even worse with the picture at 6:20.
I played 200 days of Teo’s and 100 of Harry’s and I have to say the longer I played the more bored I got, logging into the game and seeing the chats was more of a chore than anything, and also considering that neither of the guys grabs my attention romantically and was mostly playing to see what happens and a bit bc of fomo
i miss the old cheritz days… their old otome visual novels were great, and they were a 1 off purchase. Mysme was also great, tho the story timeline and consistency took a hit when they started to include extra routes (i still enjoyed them tho). But the ssum? its a culmination of the things i dislike about modern day games. Tons of microtransaction, even more time gated chats and “premium” content and choices, all that for a lackluster story that drags on for 200 days… i think cheritz needs to go back to their roots and realized what made their games good
The companies older games were better and honestly the best was dandelion wishes brought to you, what with the fights between certain characters and the art being so charming and original, even though its a stat raising game i still have the best of the best memories with the game and you got A HELLUVA lot more content in the one time payment game than you do with their current games.
i downloaded this game 9 months ago and the next day, i tried it and hated it and was debating wehther to delete it or give it a chance when i stumbled upon your old article and deleted it. i did the same this week. i downloaded it AGAIN because i saw a black haired fella with glasses (probably new love interest?) but i couldn’t for the love of me play this game for all the reasons mentioned in this article. i deleted it then youtube recommended me this article. lmao
Thank you for taking one for the team and going through the game and spend actual money on it 😭. I really enjoyed your review and im just really sad at how cheritz have fallen with this obvious cash-grab game with shallow gameplay and plot. I’m surprised that cheritz is still continuing to support the game considering that i think most people have quit the game and its just not popular with the fans. I hope cheritz does go back to doing pc otome games that are actually complete.
The irony of the concerns of the SSUMs cg art, the examples that was used for good CGs are from Mai Hanamura, who unfortunately had a tracing scandal with not so good body proportions in recent times. She seemed to have recovered, but I know there’s people who are still believing it or extremely nitpicking. Like the Ayato art she commissioned got accused of tracing two different face art, when it’s the same basic face that all three artist could have used the same model, but the styles are still different enough to make it still them drawing.
i wanted to like it sm because i loved mysmes! it was my childhood and i started playing since elementary, and the opening theme still gives me a nostalgic comfort to this day as someone going into her senior year of high school, so when i heard that cheritz was releasing another game that actually adapts to the player’s schedule, i was so excited! when i actually played the ssum though, i found it kind of boring and confusing, and i tried to be patient and give it a chance by looking up tutorials, but i eventually lost interest and ended up deleting the game. i love cheritz, and from what i remember, they were a pretty small company, so i’m sure they’re trying their best, but like other’s have commented, i think they didn’t really get what made mysmes work sm. i remember crying over the characters as a kid because they seemed so real to me; i resonated with them and their backstories, but i didn’t have that same investment in the ssum unfortunately T-T.
I remember playing the game when it came out last year, a lot of creators on Tiktok hyped it up before so I had high expectations. But in the end, it was a complete disappointment. The typing was way too slow in the free version, the schedule thing wasn’t really for me because I never have a consistent schedule and the story was so boring, I’m not even talking about the slice-of-life aspect. I am fine with not too many things happening all at once but it felt like there was absolutely nothing going on. And Teo was a nightmare, I chose him because of his looks, and honestly, that’s all he had going for him, no interesting personality, nothing. After perusal this article, I’m so glad I quit playing after a few days and didn’t keep going for almost a whole year for nothing interesting to happen. Thanks for making the article.
Yeah the CGs are just so bad and have a huge uncanny feel to them. I think it’s mainly because of the face since it looks like they airbrushed it to hell, wearing makeup that makes them look like a ghost doesn’t help (I’m reading a manhwa that did the same thing to the male lead and I’m just so confused why since he looks so bad and it’s so distracting to me), and his eyes and mouth seem like some dude pasted their eyes and mouth on someone else’s face. Like SSUM somehow makes it seem they went full crazy and pasted some real guy’s eyes and mouth on these pictures. It’s creepy.
i remember when it first came i didnt like how character looked ( there was just one. Now i dont know how many there are ) and while i could play MM in school since i could speed it up whole chat but this game ugh every 2-3 messages in just one chatrooom i need to wait like whatever minutes and stuff. Like JUST MESSAGE ME DUDE DONT GHOST ME WHY SHOULD I WAIT 10 MINUTES FOR YOUR STUPID ONE SENTENCE. Then I just gave up quickly… after playing other cheritz games ( nameless, dandelion ) this game just disappointed me. It is money trap. Well like i said i played this game very early i dont know full game( i guess i played while it was still beta ? ) but that was my experience. I wish cheritz just make vanderwood route for MM or they can do somethin like they did to jumin bad end. Fuck it they can do a whole new story with MM mechanics i would be ok. Frankly, These are interests me more and I wouldnt hesitate to give money.
I played the game when it released and only lasted a week with it :/ tbh it seems you need a lot of patience for a whole lot of nothing, i love a slow paced romance but 200 days is crazy i never expected the game to be like this its definitely interesting but seems very boring i think the game could’ve had potential for a better experience idk it must’ve felt like a chore getting on the game every single day which is the last thing you want in a game.
I’ve never had heared about this otome, but cheriz pleaseee haaha whats thiiisss. Btw, I love mystic messenger, idk if it´s a hearty thimg bc ive been playing it since I had access to a mobile phone with wifi or bc I share experience with my girl friends and freak out about the guys and Jaehee (my girlfriend idc what company says)
I loved your article! I hope you keep reviewing Otome. I can’t find a lot of honest reviews. Also I loved Mystic Messenger and was curious about the ssum (kinda cringe name but I get now that it is korean meaning). May you consider making a Mystic Messenger in-depth Review? I need someone yo denounce how they massacred V’s character in the Ray after route. From kind yo drugging the bff, what the actual fuck
I also feel like the MM style of gameplay has also fallen out of favor with some people. I was able to play it when I had a (public transit) commute and had to wake up early and sleep late (F me lmao) but the pandemic…stopped commutes for a lot of people. Games like Obey Me, Wannabe Challenge etc. replicate the chat stuff as cute fun bonus content because they’re live service games with no actual end. Route type games seem less…popular now in the mobile space at least, which is kind sad. I played Love Unholyc for a bit because a spicy fantasy themed MM like game intrigued me, and I liked the characters, but man…I just kept missing so many chats and couldn’t get good ends U_U. Couldn’t imagine keeping up with that for 200 days especially with Chertiz’s current level of writing either, thanks for your sacrifice, lol. Tbh, I was always side-eyeing a lot of MM’s newer updates which just seemed to be mostly fan generated content…the writers and artists from Dandelion, Nameless, etc def aren’t around anymore…the copy paste assets (the hair looks. exactly the same all the time except for the color) and lazily tracing over irl images for Ssum is so sad.
23:18 this is where I’m currently at but I kind of see most of the problems already Actually saw it before and I never downloaded the game because of them but there was only one love interest. which isn’t really a good idea especially since according to you his route is 200 days! it’s better to have at least three so then they could bounce off each other and then they could bounce off you. Let’s face it. They were a too ambitious. But… they weren’t willing to go into work to make it work.
200 days?! That’s almost 10 months! Who on earth is playing this one day at a time?! I’m sure it’ll appeal to some people, but I really don’t get it…In comparison, I really liked the 10-11 day routes in MYSME. It’s enough time to get to know the members & grow to genuinely care about them without overstaying their welcome & becoming boring. The multiple endings in every route also made the game actually worth replying! I can’t imagine enjoying this game if my choices don’t matter. What’s the point of having multiple message options if these options don’t change anything?? ALSO although it sounds like Ssum is going for a more ordinary day in the life approach, (and I appreciate some people would like that) I was high-key livin’ when it came to MYSME’s drama. IMO the appeal of online simulators is it allows people to put themselves in situations they’d most likely never find themselves in – and it allows people to experience a type of emotional intensity which would be exhausting IRL. A whole month with basically nothing notable happening?! Even if you’re going for a dating simulator based more in reality, you need to give the people something! Nah, yawn I’m out. Cheritz asking for a monthly subscription at that point is pure audacity. The character art in this game also does looks awful – you’re right it is givin an uncanny valley vibe lol.
I was so excited for it to be released and then dropped it like in day 4 😭 I was so sure I can handle Teo’s route boringness but oh god…. I just can’t stand them limiting f2p player like in every ways possible. Limited content, too much ads, boring character, bad CGs, like what am I even doing there 🥹 the only good thing was the UI design, it’s so pretty spacey themed. I recently found out they added Harry, he looks cool tho ngl but the the p2p system just makes me think twice
Side note, this is the first time I’ve seen a YouTube website talking about otome’s so that’s fun. As for this game, I was very disappointed. I like otome games for the interesting stories and that doesn’t even mean it needs to be as intense as Mystic Messenger is. I don’t need a cult and I don’t need it to be super dramatic. If it’s slice of life, there can still be a story there though. I could not stand Teo and I deleted the app because of it. I went back again when I saw there was another dude and yeah, Harry is actually way better than Teo. Like oh my god why didn’t it start off like this. Still I didn’t stay long because it gets tiring when you don’t spend money. I never knew a lot about Teo’s story aside from what I just watched. Adding in Minteye to Teo’s is so lazy to make it interesting. I love Mystic Messenger but just…let it stay within its own game. This is a different game, let it do its own thing. Put more effort in the CG’s and the story and I think it really won’t be as disliked as it is. I think this game could’ve been a lot better. Instead it made me want to go back and replay routes in Mystic Messenger.
thank you for such a lengthy article and for spending so much money and TIME on this. I adore Mysme so my excitement for this was huge.. i played 8 days. There were sO many notifications, the game was laggy and It was so time consuming as he sent texts every whatever time. the bad English makes it hard to understand and frankly nothing happened, I was so dissapointed!! so thanks for sharing of it, i don’t feek bad about quitting 😭
Oh shit, I totally forgot about this game… Sad to hear it ended up being a bit of a dumpster fire. Tbh, as you mentioned, the sheer length of the game is just not appealing to I guess more casual players of otomes like myself. Thanks for sticking the game through to the end though! I loved the vid; I feel otomes aren’t a super explored genre for article essays, and ngl, when I saw the clips from Dandelion I lost my damn mind cause Jihae is one of my favs. Looking forward to see what vids you do next!
I remember being both hyped and worried about the new Cheritz game, because it meant either way that MysMe lived its life in terms of content. Alright, maybe new game will bring something to the palate….and what the hell was I looking at. I watched other people play and share the content because I was not bothered to play it, looks like I dodged a bullet😭 perusal you go through it I have to agree that I would also drop the game around the Vanas route, not to mention paying for all that. I’d rather splurge on MysMe than this 😭
Oh you’re goooooooooooooooooooooooood How about covering other vn/dating sim next time? Like for example: Lovelink – pretty ok-ly gay MeChat Picka – i don’t get this one (at this point im just listing the recs from Google Play lol) Lovematch Arcana – art’s pretty good it seems Fictif Ikemen Vampire Otome Games – that’s literally the name word-for-word lmao Whispers – Chapters of Love – nice name among many many many others.
Ooooo! Havent had a chance to watch yet but started the vid now to listen to as i work. I droped the game like, around 20 days in?? I managed to unlock each of the emotion ball planet things and then dipped. The theo part of the game was so bland to me I just kept logging on for the orbs amd once i had each of the emotion planets unlocked i considered it done. Also idk about the art but some of them just, idk seem ai generated? Like really strange mistakes on them that made me less interested in looking at them.
I in fact played the whole of Teo’s route as an F2P player. I really was expecting that it would get better. But I got too tired that I disregarded Harry eventhough I know his route is more interesting that Teo. i think that the problem of having a 200+ day gameplay makes it so difficult to progress. 1) theres no different ending so our choices doesnt really do much difference. 2) it takes too long for a gameplay. It doesnt have replay value. It takes too much time for people to dedicate to it. In some cases where, we want to see what all the love interests can show, i imagine its gonna take years 3) I assume they wanted to do a unique type of gameplay… but this is not. it. I think that it would have been great if they just applied The Ssum in MM’s format. Or just as a standard visual novel. At first when they marketed it, I really thought they would be using an AI system. I hope Cheritz buck up and make their next game because i think this game is kinda overworking themself.. It’s probably a pain to write and develop for the staff. Despite that, I’m hopeful for their future games. I got excited when I saw the tolup sprites (they look so good btw AHH) because I think that it has very good potential but we’ll see. 🥲
I’m not the target audience, as in I don’t play a lot of otome but I only narrowly avoid being the target audience so maybe my opinion is lopsided, but I think Cheritz really should have just made another more traditional otome game like Nameless or Dandelion. I remember people liking those a lot back in the day! I thought, personally, that this was bound to happen when they chased the success of Mysmes a second time. Which is pretty sad
otome games are definitely not for me but I really enjoyed this article!! Your editing and commentary is hilarious — i lost my shit at 42:41 xD I was around when MysMes first dropped and the real time chatting system seemed super cool but ultimately kind of unappealing when I thought of how much time one would have to put into it to be worthwhile (yet I am into the fate series💀). in the end, even though this falls into the “video essay about a game I will never play” category I thoroughly enjoyed it. you def need more subs!
I remarked ages ago on your last article expressing my love for MM and my skepticism and confusion about this game. I wondered if it meant to be an imaginary person to talk to because I wasn’t sure how they would even put story into a game with that many days of real time. Anyways I haven’t even watched the article yet but I’m just soo excited to hear what you have to say! will def comment again or edit this afterwards ^_^
I do agree with some points such as the art especially in Mewry. It would’ve been way better if the art quality was as the pictures you get from planet Pi; also some features should’ve been improved, subscriptions should’ve been lower, and the game is supposed to be easier to play as f2p. Not to mention there were some plots that should’ve been addressed better such as sharing the address, what’s the forbidden lab, the unknown Dr, Angel, etc. And some plots were unnecessary which are the ones that include Mystic Messenger ESPECIALLY the Mint Eye on in Teo’s route However I have some points I have to disagree with. I was being very objective ever since playing The Ssum because all I heard was the bad reviews that sparked my curiosity. As someone who’s playing Teo’s route with 100% participation, I can say that his route is very interesting and actually good. I find it realistic that he doesn’t work on his movie immediately because realistically some people can be lost in life sometimes, and I think Teo was somewhat like that until he met MC and had that argument with Jay at the beginning, also Teo is the type of person who doesn’t want finance support from his parents, therefore he worked in millions of part-time jobs. Teo does start working on his movie around planet Crotune with the directors and it’s an interesting plot because on planet Tolup he decides to meet Harry to talk with him about it because at first it was rejected by the directors because they said his directing style is similar to his father’s.
you can try playing Romance Club, if u r looking 4 a pretty good datesim experience. it’s insanely popular where I live. I used to play it when I was younger. they have a variety of dating games and the original 6-8 games were rly good. i don’t know about the new ones. and yes, they have problems 2, but i’d say they are the better option of datesims on the market
Did anyone else expect something really different from this game based on the marketing? I had expected something between what we have now and a Replika-esque situation, where there is a storyline but it branches less based on choices and more on who you are as a person. I do wonder if that was the original plan but it was out of reach, which I could definitely understand given the size of Cheritz and the state of AI development at the time the game’s creation began. To be honest, the thing that bothered me the most about the game was how selfish Teo felt, but I realized quickly it wasn’t really his fault – the game positions you as a self-insert but you have very little ability to talk about yourself or distinguish who you are in any way. You can only talk to Teo about himself and his life because that is your only option! I don’t really know how to fix that as I’m not a game developer. I don’t want Replika, and I did want a set “boyfriend” with a set storyline, but I would’ve liked it if at the very least my in game choices mattered more. I imagined a level of personalization that was more than your average choice-driven otome, but we didn’t even get that degree of personalization.
I understand they are really pressed about pale skin in korea but these characters do seem a bit lifeless due to the SUPER white skin. it’s practically unrealistic unless someone is a corpse or is skin-bleaching. the characters need more shading, dimension, and contouring as well, I can barely see their noses lol