Mystic Messenger

Mystic Messenger (수상한메신저 Susanghan Mesinjeo, lit. Suspicious Messenger) is a South Korean otome^[1] visual novel game developed by Cheritz.^[2] It was released on July 8, 2016 for Android and August 18, 2016 for iOS. The game is available in both Korean and English.

Gameplay and plot

In Mystic Messenger, the player takes the role of a female character whose name can be changed, and has no default one. The female main character, which often referred as MC, heroine, or simply protagonist, downloaded a mysterious app that leads her into living in a closed, secured apartment owned by someone named Rika, who is also the founder of charity organization known as RFA,^[3] or Rika's Fundraising Association. There, she meets 6 new people - the remaining members of RFA - and is tasked to organizing the third party that the RFA members have been longing for, by inviting guests. The protagonist is able to choose one out of 5 available "love interests", each with their own route and backgrounds, as well as digging out the truth behind RFA.

The game is divided into several parts:

1. Chatroom:^[1] This is where the main conversation goes and where all of player's choice affect the storyline. Some days and routes have a visual novel mode, where the story is told in either first or third view perspective in visual novel style.
2. Text messages:^[1] Takes the shape of a real text messaging system. The player is able to gain Hearts depending on choices they make.
3. Phone calls:^[2] Players are able to pick up a call from one of the 5 characters after finishing a chatroom or visual novel mode. The phone will ring for 10 seconds. If the player doesn't pick up during the time limit, the phone call will remain as a missed call and the player are able to call them back. Players are also able to make a phone call which leads to either them picking up and answering by choosing an option or entering a voicemail when they're busy.
4. Emails:^[2] To invite guests into party, the player need to get a lot of guests as possible. To have them attending the party, the player needs to answer at least 2 of their questions right. Answering 3 right questions will guarantee them to come.
5. There is also a member profile section where players are able to see their latest status message, profile, and cover photo which can be changed according to the chatroom story.

The story in the game lasts for 11 days;^[1] one day concerns the game's prologue, three days for the "common route", six days focusing on a route of a character, and one day for a party. The game plays in real time, where players can receive text messages and join group chats in a special messenger (which takes its place in the game). Throughout conversations in the first four days, the player can give favorable responses to certain characters to increase your likability with them (the likability is symbolized as Hearts; just like its name, takes on the form of heart-shaped objects). By the end of the fourth day, the player will receive the route with whomever the player has favored. During the route, the story will then branch again to determine if the player is able to proceed to the good or normal ending or stopped at that point by getting a bad end.

Every route has one good ending, one normal ending, and three bad endings. To get a normal ending, the player needs to aim for a good ending, but fail to invite more than 15 guests. There is also a special type of ending; the "bad relationship" ending, which the player can obtain by not reaching enough likability with your love interest after a certain amount of time. Bad endings can also obtained in the common route if there are the same amount of character's Hearts obtained by the player. This marked by having the game end at the end of day 4.

There is an in-game currency known as Hourglasses. They allow the player to gain access to chats that the player missed in the past, load a saved file,^{[lower-alpha 1]} or make an outgoing call at the cost of five of the former. These can be gained randomly in the chatroom, by purchasing with real money, exchanging 100 Hearts for one, by completing a story of an invited party guest once, or randomly from 707's spaceship (a spaceship that randomly capture the member's inner thoughts).

Characters

The following Korean romanization follows the official romanization from the game itself; it may be different from the usual pronunciation.

Main characters

Protagonist

Protagonist (also referred to as Main Character, MC, or Heroine) is the female protagonist of Mystic Messenger. The player takes the role of her and gives her a name and a custom avatar. She has no default name, cannot be unnamed, and cannot be named using too many characters; the game will crash if so. After 'stranded' in the RFA and Rika's apartment, she takes Rika's role and organizing the party that RFA's members had been longing for. When voiced, other characters will refer her as "you" in various forms of Korean.

Jumin Han

Voiced by: Yongwoo Shin

Jumin Han (한주민, Han Ju-min) is a 26-year-old heir of C&R International, a company owned by his father. He's always on a business trip, likes to wear 3 layer clothes,^{[lower-alpha 2]} and is not used to 'commoner' food. Jumin is actually a cat lover - claiming that only cats understands as well as loyal to him. He owns a Persian cat named Elizabeth 3rd and hates when someone else nicknames her - especially 707. Due to his very privileged upbringing, Jumin has a very different perspective on the world, which often brings him into direct conflict with Zen. Regardless, he doesn't particularly seem to care what others think about him, but does not hesitate to use his authority to help RFA members when one of them is in trouble.

Jumin initially does not have interest in woman, and hates his father's womanizer attitude despite of their good terms. As a kid, people around him were always kind to him, this is because Jumin is a heir of C&R International, leading him to think that people only after their money. He also does not mix private matters with work matters, and closed himself from women, stating nobody is loyal except cats. When his father suddenly arranged a marriage for him with someone he never knew beforehand, Jumin was made confused as his father is one person he respect so much. In addition of the moment when Elizabeth 3rd is missing, he concluded that even the cat wouldn't continue to be loyal to him, so he began to treat the protagonist, who is currently can't leave penthouse, in the same manner as Elizabeth 3rd.

ZEN

Voiced by: Jang Kim

Zen (stylized as ZEN) is the stage name of Hyun Ryu (류현, Lyu Hyeon), a 23-year-old musical stage artist. Despite being a narcissist due to his handsome face (to the point that he would take selfies and share them in the messenger, exclaiming how handsome he is), he wants people to acknowledge him for his skills instead. He seemed to be oversensitive towards Jumin, nicknaming him "Mr. Trust Fund Kid" and refuses any help from him. Zen is also very protective of other members, especially the protagonist, and always warned her to be wary of the guys and their 'wolf attitude'.

Zen is the youngest son in his family - consisting of a father, mother, and an older brother. Being a conservative family, his parents wanted their sons to have a stable job instead of music related ones. Due to this good-looking face since young days, his parents afraid that Zen will becomes an artist instead of lawyer or doctor, so they always said that Zen is ugly and only his brother defended him. After finding out that his brother 'betrayed' him, he ran away from his home and began to living alone. This leads him to hate people who 'have privilege since early years', like Jumin. Zen joined RFA after Rika gave her a bouquet of flower in his early days as an actor, claiming to be 'his biggest fan'.

707

Voiced by: Youngsun Kim

707, or his real name Luciel Choi (최 루시엘, Choi Lusiel) is a 21-year-old genius hacker and a secret agent, he is also the one who made the RFA Messenger. 707, or also referred to as Seven, is a self-proclaimed devoted Catholic who loves to eat junk food (especially Phd. Pepper and Honey Buddha Chips). He has a very mischievous attitude and loves cats in a 'unique' way. He tends to talk in a very strange way that no other member can understand except the protagonist. His hobbies includes collecting sports cars. His house is so secured that people need to bring an Arabic dictionary to pass the security. Despite of his carefree, easy-going personality, he always warns other members to "keep their distance" from him because of his job as a secret agent. When he's genuinely in love with the protagonist, he intentionally hurts her feelings so that she won't suffer when he's suddenly gone (due to his dangerous job). 707 tends to break the 4th wall more than anyone in the game.

707, whose birth name is Saeyoung Choi (최세영, Choi Se-yeoung), grew up with his younger twin brother, Saeran, in a toxic household. They're illegal children whom father was a candidate of a presidential election at that time. This caused their mother to be driven into depression - she asked him for money in exchange of the information of the twins being kept, only to locked them up in the house. Being the healthier one, young Saeyoung is tasked to do some errands. In his way to home, he met various people at a Catholic church as well as Rika who later made him convert into a Catholic, gaining his baptismal name - Luciel. At the age of 15, Saeyoung was promised by V a better life for his brother in exchange of him working as a hacker and stopped 'having a family', unaware of actually happened much later.

Yoosung★

Voiced by: Kyuhyuk Sim

Yoosung Kim (김유성, Kim Yu-seong) is a 20-year-old college student and an addicted online gamer of a game called LOLOL (stands for League of Loneliness of Life), a parody of the MMORPG League of Legends, he is ranked 2 in the server, with 707 apparently beating him in the first rank. Due to his addiction, he doesn't have time for studying, despite of being smart enough to get a scholarship at his school, SKY University, and get an internship offer from Jumin. Yoosung and 707 are friends since high school; 707 loves to prank him, while Yoosung miraculously would fall for it every time. Yoosung is also Rika's cousin; he is unable to move on after her death, whom he admired so much even though they were only met when he was a 6th grader.

Rika was Yoosung's biggest influence. She's also the reason Yoosung is taking a medical major. Rika's death was apparently hitting him so hard that only playing LOLOL can distract him from his sadness. Due to this, he also initially compared the protagonist with Rika so much to the point that he would see her as Rika's replacement.

Jaehee Kang

Voiced by: Jeonghwa Yang

Jaehee Kang (강제희, Kang Je-hui) is currently the only female member of RFA besides the protagonist. She is a 25-year-old Chief Assistant at C&R International and Jumin's personal assistant. She initially appeared as stoic, serious, and appears to be suspicious of the protagonist's sudden appearance. Despite of this, she's actually a big fan of Zen and her personality changed when she's talking about Zen. She tends to be overworked by Jumin and taking care of Elizabeth 3rd, even though she hates when the cat's hair are all around her house.

Jaehee's mother married a man who was at least 20 years older than her, and passed away quickly. Her mother passed away not long after that, forcing a relative to take care of young Jaehee despite of their unwillingness. Because of that, Jaehee tends to not rely herself towards other people and is afraid if she no longer works for C&R International, something bad will occur. Lately, she's taking an interest in coffee and wants to open her own coffee shop.

Others

V

Voiced by: Hosan Lee

V, or his real name Jihyun Kim (김지현, Kim Ji-hyeon) is a 26-year-old photographer and childhood friend of Jumin. He's also Rika's fiancee, and another person that was driven into sadness after her death. He does not appear in the messenger often and wears a pair of sunglasses to hide his eyes since his eyesight has worsened. Rika, his ex-fiancee, scratched out V's eyes in a backlash to his love for her. V claims that she could do anything to hurt him and he would still love her with all his heart.

Rika

Voiced by: Hyunjin Lee

Rika (리카) is a person who is adored by RFA's members, the organization founded by her and V. When she was alive, she wanted to make everyone happy, with one method being a charity party. She apparently had a mental issue, especially after her dog Sally wound up dead due to her blindness. It is later found out that Rika is not dead, but instead the leader of Mint Eye, the organization after the RFA. Her mental illness completely takes her over, and she attempts to steal party guests from the RFA to invite to her new organization. She claims that she wants the entire world to be happy, and wishes for them to come to "Paradise."

Unknown

Voiced by: Sujin Kang

Unknown (also referred as '???' in the visual novel mode) is a hacker who led the protagonist into Rika's apartment and a part of a mysterious cult called "Mint Eye". The player is able to get a bad end at the prologue chat if they refuse to help him or pretend not to see a security code at Rika's apartment. In 707's route, he is revealed to be his long lost brother, Saeran.

Vanderwood

Vanderwood works in the same agency as Seven and often goes to his house to check on his work. When he visits, he usually cleans Seven's house, which results in Seven giving him the alias of his housemaid. Seven gives him the fake name of Mary Vanderwood 3rd when he is mentioned in the RFA messenger. Because of Seven's security gate, Vanderwood carries an Arabic dictionary. Despite the fact that Vanderwood is referred to as a female at some points by Seven, their figure appears to be male and their voice is masculine. During Seven's visual novel sequences, Seven refers to Vanderwood using the male pronoun "he", and Zen has stated disbelief at Vanderwood being a "guy."

Music

The game features two songs - an opening sung by Han titled "Mysterious Messenger" and ending song sung by Han and Sirius titled "Like the Sun in the Sky". Both are composed by DoubleTO.

About 23 tracks of background music, composed by Flaming Heart, were released along with opening and ending song and 13 tracks of freetalk with people involved in the making via the game's special package.

References

External links

• Official website
• Mystic Messenger on Google Play
• Mystic Messenger on iTunes Preview
• "Mystic Messenger". The Visual Novel Database.