Mystic Messenger (KR: 수상한메신저) is a South Korean otome dating sim game where a female protagonist downloads a mysterious app that takes her to an apartment owned by Rika, the founder of a charity organization known as RFA (Rika’s Fundraising Association). The protagonist can choose one out of 7 routes and romance the character of their choice while figuring out the truth behind RFA.
I had heard lots about this game and I had a friend who was (extremely) obsessed with it so I was pretty eager to try it out, since it would also be my first time playing a dating sim. I played it for around three days, and I was a little sad to see that I could not get into it. I did find the characters likable and attractive (I’m looking at you, 707) and the game mechanics novel, but I couldn’t help but find it intrusive. I think the mechanics just did not mesh with me personality-wise – I need a copious amount of personal space, enjoy my alone time, and I like having more authority regarding my space, time, social/emotional labor, and energy. As someone who often puts their phone on Do Not Disturb and checks notifications in bulk at sporadic intervals throughout the day (as opposed to as the notifications come up), I found the game invasive to the independence I held dear and very punishing when I missed notifications. I understand that this invasiveness can be cathartic to some people – there is excitement in submitting to a game and surrendering control – but it did not quite land for me. Though I can see the appeal to a female audience, I do not think the game quite fits into feminist ideals of acknowledging the time and energy of female emotional labor, as I felt it disregarded my own schedule and autonomy at the whim of another man.
But when I was online and able to engage in real-time, I did enjoy the texting conversations and found them fun. I expected the different fonts to clash and feel jarring, but it actually added more personality and charm to the game, coupled with the deliberate typos, which were entertaining and realistic.
Being Korean and being able to understand and speak the language myself made me notice a few things. First, some translations felt a little off. I can’t remember specific examples, but there were one or two moments during phone calls where the character would speak, and my understanding of what was said would not quite match up with the written translation. I believe this was just an issue of lazy translation where the translation would resort to some cliche/cheesy phrases that would not convey the more heartfelt, elaborate undertones of what was actually said. Second, I found the calls surprisingly intimate. This definitely comes from being an audiophile and having so much love for my native language. Korean has always sounded softer, vocal tones rounded, and consonants warmer. If something flirtatious doesn’t land in English, it most definitely will in Korean lol. Though the game as a whole wasn’t my cup of tea, the few phone calls I did catch (Jumin, ZEN, Jaehee) had me thinking, oh… I kind of get it now… 🙈
I can definitely see the appeal for the game, but I do wish it was less punishing when I missed real-time notifications. I think I definitely could have gotten into it more had that been the case, but then again, the real-time notifications are what makes Mystic Messenger such a unique dating sim. I’d be willing to give it another go when I’m not a struggling, sleep-deprived college student with a strict class schedule.
Hey Izzy, I appreciated reading about how you value your independence and don’t like the intrusiveness of notifications, and how this game violates that for you. Certainly alongside the assumption that the game makes about women being always available to provide emotional labor and support, is the assumption that the time and independence of women is not as important as that of a man, as the games assumes you will have time to provide emotional support to a man and punishes you if you don’t.
Hi Izzy! I definitely agree with you on the notification system being an intrusive and somewhat uncomfortable element of the game — I’m curious as to how you think your experience of the game would have changed if it didn’t involve that mechanic and you were allowed to play it out on your own time/pace and it played like a more traditional dating simulator game?