Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Jan 27, 2017

  Well, I need to give it a down, due to its pay2read mode.* I bet they will also put soundtrack as DLC... * my experiences with paid VNs are bad, I only enjoyed 2 of them. And ~20 others were bad. I can understand why this is paid, at least it put more effort into customizing GUI/HUD, fancy visuals (somehow) and music. But still... Nowhere is marked that it's demo... and it should be considered as one.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 5, 2017

  I followed the production of this game for a very long time before I finally had the chance to sit down and play it. I was very excited to get the chance to experience something new and to support an indie VN developer. However, I am genuinely sorry to say that I have never before have I been so absolutely and utterly disappointed with a game. I wanted to like it so badly. It looked so promising, so interesting and it fell completely short. If it wasn’t already too late, I would request a refund. Since that isn’t an option, I’ll try and provide as thorough of a review as I possibly can. ART The art is lovely, as long as you only look at the sprites. While I saw some inconsistencies with the sprites, overall I would say they are of amazing quality. The sprites are by far the strongest aspect of this game. But only the sprites. The backgrounds were obviously stock and clashed horribly with the art style of the sprites. At times the sprites looked fuzzy and out of place because of the backgrounds, considerably diminishing the immersion. MUSIC I see so many people complimenting the OST that I have to wonder if they were actually listening to the same music I was. The tracks are bland and uninteresting and obvious stock material. The tracks do not loop very well, making it painfully obvious when a track suddenly repeats. For the most part, the tracks did fit in well, except for a few that felt incredibly strange and out of style compared to the rest of the OST. You could play this game muted and it would make no difference. WRITING The writing was by far the weakest point of the game. The Protagonist is vapid, confusing, and inconsistent. The game provides choices that would suggest you’re about to get some world building, and then immediately back pedals and undermines the player’s curiosity and desire to know more about the world by saying “ask me later” and never bringing it up again. A character is introduced as a stranger in the game’s prologue, and once you purchase a route you are supposed to believe that he is the Protag’s long lost friend, and then he is never mentioned again. Every unique thing about the protag that is established in the prologue is strangely forgotten until it’s suddenly convenient to bring it up again. Each character route is advertised as its own complete story, but at the end (of at least Shinji’s route) you know absolutely nothing about the protag. You never find out more about her powers, there is hardly any mention of what happened to her mother or the impact on her family or future, she never focuses on her magic beyond plot device, she never deals with her curse, and she has no resolution to her own dilemma. As the game progressed, she became increasingly annoying. Her character development is somewhere between nonexistent and shoddy at best. Every single time skip felt awkward and unnatural. At times, the game introduces concepts you are simply supposed to accept without questioning. What is this gear thing that instantly changes your clothes like some magical girl anime? Why does the Protag not react to suddenly losing her glasses whenever she transforms? Who knows. I sure don’t. In Shinji’s route specifically, I was completely disgusted how their fight was handled. They did not talk. They did not apologize to one another. They did not address their issues. Instead, everything was resolved with sex. And that was it. The subject was never brought up again. Because sex resolves everything and fixes all relationship problems. Who needs communication? I’m very glad this is the lesson I walked away with. While I enjoyed Shinji as a character far more than the Protag, he had his own fair share of problems, beyond the whole sex solves everything dilemma. It is stressed multiple times that he is a kind a helpful person, but no examples are ever given to prove this. His big secret with the death magic and ghost possession business feels completely irrelevant. Even when it does come into play, it feels disorganized, like a first time writer trying to make their first OC as cool as possible. I found multiple typos while reading and dialogue presented underneath the wrong name. I’m pretty certain that Shinji did not intend to call his own father “my darling husband.” On top of that, the GUI is bland and uninteresting. In the end, I was left starving for more than what I got. I hate the Protagonist, I hate the lack of explanation for anything, I hate how absolutely needless half of the scenes that could have expanded on lore and side characters (who I adored, they were far more interesting than most of the main characters) felt. There was so much potential in this game, and I feel like all of it was wasted. Since I bought this game with Christmas money from my twin and I wish to honor his gift in every way, I'll continue to play what I purchased. Maybe my opinion will change, and I desperately hope that it does. If so, I'll gladly update this review. But as of right now, honestly, in my eyes the only thing that made this game even remotely worth my poor brother's money was Shinji ripping out a still beating heart. That was beautiful. TL;DR Play something else. There are other indie developers more deserving of your time and money.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 6, 2017

  I'm relatively new to these types of games, but I have to say that this is one I really enjoyed. It isn't terribly expensive for the quality, either. The illustrations and routes are plentiful. I started with Taku's route and am about to play another route. The fact that I came back to enjoy another route should speak for itself! :) You can read the first four chapters or so for each character absolutely free. There are plenty of story types, too. Kudos to the creators. I've certaintly enjoyed my time in this world. I say try it out. ^_~v
• gamedeal user

  Feb 18, 2017

  Pay to finish it. ! What a con. Pay to finish ! Only the 1st 3 parts are free. Then there is another 9 more to pay for. It's a con ! Should not say free to play !
• gamedeal user

  Jul 14, 2018

  Well, I was able to get it when it was on sale for $10 ('it' being a bundle). This included everything except the POV and Chaos story, which I was disappointed to find out later. Honestly, they just need to put the whole thing together. The only reason I don't completely write off the aspect of separating each story and epilogues is if someone buys it at full price but can't buy everyting at that time (~$45). However, the game being classified as 'Free to Play' is just ridiculous. Was it worth the price I paid? Absolutely, without a doubt. Am I going to pay another $10 for the 'Deluxe Edition' DLC which is two POV stories and the Chaos story? Nope. Seriously, just wait for it to go on sale. Zero regrets. ~Favorite Route: Shinji~ <3
• gamedeal user

  Aug 4, 2018

  I was very torn about whether or not to recommend this game. On one hand, it's very clear the studio put a lot of effort into it and I think they have a really great concept on their hands. The content is sizeable, the art is beautiful, and the music is great. On the other hand, those things alone do not make a quality game, and I found Mystic Destinies to be incredibly unpolished. First of all, each chapter of every single route in the game was peppered with errors! Sentences like, "I thought knew he felt that way," where you can tell it was originally written one way then was changed and just didn't get edited properly. This happened so many times, it was absolutely ridiculous. A few mistakes here or there are expected, but their number of errors far surpassed the amount you would expect to find in a product you paid for. Second, the content didn't feel edited. I don't just mean structure mistakes, but the story itself. There were numerous moments when information was inserted into the plot when it shouldn't have been (for example, the MC calling a character by their name before the MC had even learned their name) and moments when information was inserted at random and then unexplained. [spoiler]One of the most obvious moments was during Shou's route when the MC recognizes Takumi but then never explains where she recognized him from. The moment just passes awkwardly. I reread it several times trying to see if I missed something but I hadn't.[/spoiler] Third, the script was in desperate need of tightening up. I found it overly verbose to the point of being repetitive and boring, so that every time I started to get sucked in and interested, I got pulled right back out by long-winded internal monologues, time skips, and irrelevant information. On top of that, I really dislike having important information recalled by the MC when it should be something I experience with her, and that happens a lot. Fourth, the presentation started off really strong but then quickly lost momentum. I didn't mind being confused at first because the MC herself was confused about what had happened to her, but then we got some time skips and I was still confused while the MC had apparently learned some stuff. I would've appreciated a longer prologue that fleshed out the game world and lore a little bit more so that I felt more on the same page as the MC. In a game where you aren't limited by which route you can play first, it's important to find that balance of information, and I don't think MDSOA achieved that balance. A few other minor complaints: -I was really unimpressed with the MC. Her growth as a sorceress was really varied and largely underexplored. In most conflicts, she was pretty useless so that by the time she actually did something effective, I had a hard time believing it. -Some of the characters' personalities lacked consistency at times, including the MC. -The endings were dependent upon player choices but there was no intuitive reason why option A, B, and C gave Z-ending. I remember going back through for achievements and was thinking, "What does this have to do with anything?" -The illusion of choice was, 90% of the time, an illusion. What you picked may get you a different ending, but it wouldn't change anything at all about the actual story, which was really unsatisfying. -They just dismissed the prologue's plot entirely and, in some routes, that felt very strange. -There were times when the art didn't line up with the story. -This is just nitpicking, but it annoyed me: in a couple of the routes, nearly every scene where two or more people got together required drinks (often accompanied by snacks). In some places it felt natural, in others it was just weird filler text and it happened often enough to be noticeable. The game was so long-winded and had enough problem areas that I had a hard time investing myself in the characters and their stories. I spent nearly 60 hours getting through this game, and after about 20, I was ready to quit and only kept going because I was determined to get some answers (I had high hopes for the last route and, sadly, it disappointed me the most). I've played free games with more polish and a tighter story than this one. At the end of the day, I think MDSOA has a lot of potential to be an amazing game. It has so many things going for it but, to me, it just fails in the execution.