There’s little or no that’s extra comforting than my cellphone’s notification ping. Whether it’s a textual content from a member of the family or a Discord message from a buddy, in a world folks can’t meet up for a espresso or a dinner, that is all anybody can do to inspect each other. Of course, typically that notification isn’t a message however one thing else. Sometimes, it’s a notification to inspect a game. But that gives consolation in its personal method.
Mobile titles are principally seen as a distraction, one thing to play whereas ready in line or throughout a piece break. Developers will sometimes attempt to cram traditional game growth philosophies into their cellular titles, however others will go farther, profiting from the completely different points of a smartphone to create a novel expertise.
There aren’t many games that do it higher than Mystic Messenger. An otome title that has you speaking to boys (and a lady) in real-time, over eleven days. The visible novel mimics not solely a messenger service, but also people’s real-life schedules. If you have an interest in a selected man, you’ll need to check Mystic Messenger during the right times and be available for them.
There are different titles that attempt a sure diploma of this. The cellular collection Lifeline additionally makes use of a messenger system and ready in real-time whereas the character on the “other side of the screen” take actions. However, Lifeline is much less about making connections and extra about saving somebody in a ‘choose-your-adventure’ type. Christine Love’s visible novel Analogue: A Hate Story and its sequel Hate Plus each make you wait not less than 12 hours between in-game days, and stagger data and conversations to maintain you coming again.
But no different games actually have that “slice of life” really feel that Mystic Messenger brings to the desk. While you’re not speaking to utterly regular folks (the premise is that you simply’re lured and trapped in an condo to plan a celebration, in any case), the characters of Mystic Messenger really feel extra practical than, say, the AIs of Analogue and the individual you’re attempting to save lots of in Lifeline. The relative sense of normalcy provides the game a sure distinctive enchantment, and that extends to every character having much more strict real-time routines to consider.
It makes Mystic Messenger really feel extra intimate than many different visible novels. The messaging format and having to stick to schedules, versus simply enjoying in your personal time, do extra to copy precise human behaviors greater than the typical otome title. People usually work and sleep, and don’t spend all day ready on a response from you. Why would Yoosung?
This adherence to real-time schedules and habits in Mystic Messenger is nearer to our new real-life regular. “Social isolation is pushing a lot of us to limits we didn’t previously know existed,” Damien Mason, content material editor for ProPrivacy, tells VG247. “While this does make the regular social interactions that we used to have feel surreal, the reliance on technology to communicate during this crisis makes these fictional real-time text-based games feel much more authentic.”
Talking to Zen or Jumin in Mystic Messenger is virtually the identical as texting and interacting together with your family and friends, even when they’re in the identical city. It’s an odd factor, to be answering fictional characters in the identical method you may be speaking to your mom, but it surely’s additionally… oddly comforting, in its personal method. While Mystic Messenger may be a video game, you possibly can play it throughout instances the place others aren’t out there to nonetheless really feel such as you’re socialising.
But there’s one other facet that may make Mystic Messenger really feel extra welcoming than even real-life interactions, not less than proper now. These characters don’t exist in a world that’s tinged with worry and uncertainly concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether we notice it or not, the uneasy emotions about COVID and never understanding what’s going to occur subsequent influnence all of our social interactions. News concerning the outbreak surrounds us, opinions and studies and evaluation frighten us, many individuals are shedding their jobs and safety in an unprecedented worldwide occasion.
But, if even for a number of moments, you possibly can log into Mystic Messenger and speak to those characters about their lives. They’re not utterly regular, however extra regular than our personal lives proper now. Instead of conversations about looking for the closest facemask stockists or how poorly our governments are dealing with every part, you possibly can simply speak about bizarre secret occasion planning with some shady stuff occurring within the background.
