Monday, February 26, 2018

Ten thoughts on Mystic Messenger...

So...yeah. Finished now with 707's route (Good Ending and Normal Ending). And the After Ending and Valentine's Day. And Secret 1. Have to earn some more hourglasses and hearts before I can read Secret 2.

I have thoughts. On 707 and MM in general.

One, Rika should just die already. Seriously. Lots of people have mental illnesses and paranoid delusions without starting up religious cults and trying to kill people or brainwash people or pretty much any of the things she did. Also, V is an absolute idiot. He's nearly as bad as Rika, maybe more so since he knew about at least some of the stuff she was doing. He's essentially an enabler. He shouldn't have let her go off and go crazy and take people with her (what, exactly, did he think was going on with Saeran all this time?)--if he really loved her, he probably should have committed her. That girl needs some medication. Or a straight jacket. Probably both.

It really makes me wonder about the people I have seen posting in the forums about how much they like Rika and want a route for her. And V, honestly. WTF. I don't get that at all. They are both seriously damaged people that need help.

Anyway. Good thing they aren't real.

Two, I like Seven more now. He worked out okay in the end mostly and he's a guy who is always trying to do the right thing and has been taken advantage of by too many people he trusted. I would not say that his route through the game was my favourite by any means, even if he is obviously the "end game" as far as the plot goes. I was really not liking him much in the middle of his route at all (yeah, let's admit it, that's kind of common to all the routes except perhaps Zen) but by the end I was rooting for him. You have to, really, because he's got everything going against him. And he's sweet in his own way. Still stand by what I said before though; it is by far the route where the MC has to act the stupidest and weakest and put up with the most crap. Even Jumin, with his stupid cage jokes...meh. It was easier to get through that than Seven's. Maybe because I also knew enough about what was coming that I was kinda pissy anyway.

Three, WTF was up with that useless After Ending for Seven that was basically mostly just a dream that didn't happen? What was the point of that? Oh, I suppose it was the one nice CG you get out of it...

I am never a fan of "it was just a dream" plot devices. That should have died with J.R. Ewing. FFS.

Four, the Valentine's Day after ending was good. One of the better ones. If I had to rank them, I'd actually say Seven's (even though the dark chocolate route could be very freaky deaky depending on how you interpret what he says), then Yoosung's (surprisingly--it was sweet) and Zen and Jumin kind of tied. Both of them I wanted to write up my own endings.

Five, Zen is still my favourite, though I'm not at all satisfied with his After Endings either. It's not even so much his route that makes him my fav--it's that he is always the one who says all the stuff that should be said and that the MC should be thinking about. He calls it every time--from Yoosung's crazy fixation on Rika to Jumin's possible S&M streak to needing to be careful of Seven. He really does always look out for you. Yeah, he's a narcissist and you'd maybe hate him in real life, but in the game he's the best thing you've got. It makes me want to play his route again. :) I can see why they say to play him first. If I'd started with Seven, I'd have given up and not played anymore. That said, he has one of the least satisfying After Endings as he and the MC aren't married and are still struggling with how open they can be about their relationship and where it's going.

Six, I might even go back and play Jaehee sometime, which I didn't think I'd want to do considering how much I wanted to smack her in Zen's route. But she's grown on me. I don't mind that it's not a romantic route either as it's hard to think of her that way anyway. But she's the only one I didn't buy a calling card for...hrmmm. We'll see. It can't be this week anyway as I've got way too much to do and two Book Week events and I need to actually SLEEP so I don't look like a zombie while I'm doing the workshops for the kids. So no late night MM for me.

Seven, I have less than no interest in playing Another Story (especially since it is supposed to have occurred before the Original Story). None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I feel bad for Saeran/Ray but only in relation to the pain that he caused Saeyoung. There's no way I'm sitting through 11 days of what must be Mint Eye Hell to play his route. And I don't like V. I was perhaps slightly curious before but after playing Seven's route, I really, really don't want to go there. The only thing I want to do to V is smack him upside the head.

Eight, I kind of want to unlock the CGs that are missing but...I don't really want to play any bad ends. I can't be bad to all my MM dudes. I like them too much. I suppose this is a character flaw in myself? Or maybe not. I dunno.

Nine, well done to Cheritz for creating a very immersive game. Even with it's flaws, it kept me interested and intrigued. As a writer, there were a lot of things I would have done differently but I kind of get why they did what they did. Sort of. Anyway, it has a nice combination of addictive gameplay and well done voice acting. I'd say it's my favourite mobile game that I've tried (I've deleted so many...sigh).

Ten, I'm not sure if I'm more or less interested in playing Cheritz's other games now. Nameless has been on my wishlist but I kind of wonder if the flaws I see in MM are also there? A lot of it comes down to the MC for me. I don't like really weak or stupid heroines. Mostly MM was okay but there were definitely times that I wanted to groan aloud at the choices presented. I've yet to see a game where I loved every bit of it though. Weak heroines seem to be par for the course, for the most part. Not that anyone is perfect. It wouldn't be right if there were no flaws and everything sails along smoothly -- plot doesn't work that way. You could say Aria in my 4th book had a lot of issues there, but that was part of her character arc...by the end, she's come through that. I suppose I just need a believable reason for the MC to start off weak and she's got to grow and change. Maybe that was the issue with Seven's route -- she starts off pretty strong and then gets stupid for no apparent reason.

Anyway, thinking about all of this too much, as per usual.

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