DISCLAIMER: This is my first written review for SML Podcast! All my game reviews are through SML, and all my reviews start as a live-recorded audio review for the SML Game Review Streamcast on Twitch every Tuesday night at 6PM Pacfic. The following review was delivered as part of a Twitch show, and this is basically a transcript of the script I wrote and read aloud as their otome reviewer for this project. My reviews are written to be read aloud within 10 minutes as part of a variety show performance.
Please enjoy! Your patience while I develop this blog and learn to transition into written content is appreciated. In the future, I will aim to create a separate product from my scripted partycast reviews, so please bare with me as this placeholder is meant as a transcript of this content.
As always, I recommend Blerdy Otome and Otome Kitten as your first and second otome reviewers repsectively – not me. Visit their websites right meow! As a newer game reviewer of only 3 years as part of a comedy-adjacent group Twitch and Youtube project, I aim supply an opinon that comes in addition to those of the seasoned, serious professionals!
You can listen to the audio version directly by clicking this shortcut to the recording of my review:
REVIEW AUDIO: bit.ly/Celestia-Review
INTRO & NARRATIVE SETUP
As this game opens, we learn that long ago there was an angel, and a demon. They boned – stay with me here – and they had kids. But, this relationship was forbidden, and the kids didn’t really belong anywhere.
We, the main character, Aria, are one of those offspring. But, we don’t know it yet. We are just calmly getting ready for our 18th birthday – we’re finally an adult today! It’s my birthday too as you know, in real life, as I give this review for SML tonight – I’m turning (cough, cough) 18 tomorrow…
In the game, maids dress us up for the day as we’re a very rich girl – and not just rich, but our family is nobility. A human nobility of course, what other kind of nobility is there? We don’t even know there are things other than humans. So, imagine our surprise when a RABBIT – that’s right, a rabbit. Calm down Brooke – dressed as a mailman, pops up at our birthday party, to give us a message (stop crying, Brooke):
We have been accepted into Magic School. But wait, magic doesn’t exist – RIGHT?! Mom, Dad?! What is this?!
Mom and dad, and your two brothers, roll up. They’re like, “Oh yeah, it’s finally time to tell you. You’re wizard har- *cough* Brooke – you’re a magical being! And you’re about to go to boarding school for it. Surprise! See ya later.
And, surprise, you’re also specifically half “Angelus” and half “Daemon” – which is rare. That’s like, two kinds of magical beings in one. You were adopted. The original Angelus and Daemon are your parents. You were their literally god-forsaken lovechild. Due to reasons unkown to you, they couldn’t raise you themselves. You’ve been raised with this adopted family you now know and love instead. And, they were great to you!
But now it’s time to go to wizard school with your adopted brother – he’s a full blooded Daemon. His name? Is Damien. Stay with me here.
Once we head out to our new magical academy – the non-family drama begins. We’re not even on platform nine and three quarters yet, but shit has started to go down. Multiple people have to help us. In classic “first day of school or work” otome game opener fashion, this where we meet all of our love interest characters for the first time.
The first one’s name is Ash. He’s got blue hair, he’s got kinda a princely stoic thing going on. He seems nice. But I’m out here tryna talk to his mom. I’m just gonna say it. I don’t care about him, but his mom is smoking. However, aas hot as she is, I have to stay true and state she’s only the second most beautiful blue-haired MILF of otome for me. The first one? Riku’s mom, from Olympia Soiree. So, it goes without saying that if you are a beautiful blue man with a blue mom, you’re probably not my first pick in your family. That was my main takeaway from this game. That’s what I learned about myself through this experience. I did find Ash to be a bit boring for me, but, I usually don’t like the stoic poster boy, especially if they’re princely and not, like, smiling evilly in the corner or something.
And I know Shura’s not Riku’s mom, okay? It’s just a fantasy. Don’t come for me.
The second love interest is Luke.
This is my fav love interest for this game. I love this guy. If you get this game, get it for him. He’s also the only one of them that I think is a type of top I like. He’s sweet, but he’s also just cool, and funny but he does not mess around if someone is bothering you. He won’t tolerate bullshit, and he’s pretty sexy about it too.
Finally, there’s Val de Lucifer. Val for short! Hey. Hey, don’t be like that. Nicest guy you’ll ever meet. He’s a daemon, but he’s a really good guy. He’s one of those people who can’t look away if someone is suffering. I love this in a man. But, he can be a little rude – because he’s just awkward. I don’t hate this in general, and I don’t hate it on him. In fact, we directly benefit from this if we compliment him. If we tell him he’s “cool” he will blush and look down all frustrated-like, and say something like, “C-C-c-c Cool? Uhhh. I guess…” and he’ll often in these moments look kinda pissed off too. He’s obviously freaking out, and trying to ride this wave of being way too affected by your compliment.
So, that’s guy’s alright. If you only have one thing going for you that I would personally like and want to date – that’s actually a pretty good one.
Alright, we’ve discussed setup and our three love interests. So… how did I like the game?
ART & GRAPHICS
Well, let’s just break it down starting with graphics.
The art of this game is really good! The character designs look good. The backgrounds are fantastic. So, it is a bit of a shame if you play this game on Nintendo Switch, all three of the love interests sprites and main character are a little blurry and pixelated. Normally, I can forgive this, because I don’t have a high resolution image need for my visual novel games. Back in my day they didn’t even call it “pixel art.” It was just art!!
But seriously, I truly never care about this and care much less about visuals compared to story when it comes to my romance games. My issue with this game is, not all of the sprites look a little pixelated. Frequently, one sprite is standing next to another. It’s almost impossible to ignore the differences in the resolution of the images at these times. And it’s a shame it’s the love interests and the main character speficially, because it’s an otome game. So, we see and care about them the most. I do think it’s obvious if you’re playing it docked on a big screen, but it’s far far more obvious and difficult to ignore if you play this on Switch handheld mode. Y’all know I have a high tolerance for bullshit. I mean, I’m an anime fan. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is my favorite anime. So, we all know already I don’t need things to be perfect to be a mindblowing masterpiece. But, I could not play this game handheld for Switch, personally. I ended up playing most of it docked on my TV from my couch, being happily nearsighted.
We did reach out to PQube – they said there is not a patch planned for the Switch at this time. I did hear from another reviewer this is NOT an issue if you buy the Steam version of this game (which is also available today!).
MUSIC & SOUND DESIGN
So let’s talk music and sound design. I found the music to be good, definitely something I wouldn’t mind listening to for like, 40 hours of my life. That’s not nothing. The music fit the theme well. And I found the music to make this game more immersive.
This game does not have voice acting, we mentioned that briefly before but let’s make it clear. BUT, it does have sound effects, a lot more sound effects than your average game, and the soundscaping is good, it’s creepy or funny when it’s trying to be funny. I actually found the sound design and use of many sound effects for this game to be far above average for an otome visual novel, even comparing it to major titles of a much higher price point.
OVERALL STORY AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
So, let’s talk the story. This wasn’t my favorite story. I found it to be… a little bit generic for me? It would just simply be hard for me to sell this game on the story and love interests alone. I don’t find any of the characters to be awful, and the story is immersive and playable. It is interesting as a fantasy story! But personally, this just wasn’t my favorite thing to read, and I was a little bored. I felt the story might be lacking a little spirit or depth that I’ve come to expect from a big major release otome game that costs around $30 USD or more published by a major company like this.
I know it’s a little bit personal taste on my part, but, I know that if you’re following me or Hannah (@shipsnavigator on Twitter) in the otome community specifically, I mean – think about BOTH otome panels we talk about from at Anime Expo 2024. In this community, we are grown ass adults playing otome games. Even Hiroto from the Ikemen series, a Japanese otome expert, acknowledges these games are typically now aimed at a much older crowd than they used to be, ESPECIALLY the ones that get localized for the West. I found this story to be more appropriate for what I am suspecting is the youngest of otome fans.
This may be a romance game, but it’s definitely feels meant for more of an innocent coming-of-age story vibe than your average otome. More than Radiant Tale, if that puts it into context.
This game can be emotional, and does certainly have its darker moments the further we get into the plot. This story is well-developed when it discusses concepts around things like not judging someone if they’re a different. Say, if someone is a Daemon and you are an Angelus. That doesn’t mean they’re they’re mean, and you’re nice. People can be horrible – whether they’re human or not. You know I eat these themes up. I liked these sort of lessons, and this game also has its version of a bit of class systems drama; something I always enjoy.
When it comes to the main character, I do like her. It’s interesting to me she is so confident – certainly far more confident thna I am. I mean, this girl was looking in the mirror being like “wow, I look amazing today.” I’m like damn, what the hell is that like? Must be nice. Anyway, it’s nice to see a confident MC. She’s got it going on, and she knows it. That’s not in every otome and it deserves a little shoutout for that wholesomeness.
But would I buy this game as a gift for Hannah, for my friend Lauren, for me – no, I wouldn’t. I’d buy this for a middle school or early high school kid, if I was going to get it for anyone. That’s not a diss for the otome genre. Otome has its roots in coming of age media – and it still has a lot of younger titles. This is one of those titles.
LOCALIZATION
Now that we’ve talked story – let’s talk localization.
I didn’t like the localization of this game. I found the main script to be localized in a way that felt there was a lack of attention this aspect of the game that was lower than average. As I played through the game, I found myself wondering from the beginning chapters on if a native English speaker had localized the script. Some of it felt a little off. I found myself wishing it was more thoughtfully translated for our language, but at times did wonder if it was just my personal taste making me feel that way.
However, unfortunately I did find the localization of the UI and interface itself to be localized in poor quality, in a way I was sure was not just my personal taste.
I noticed this first when I hit the button to test the quick save feature.
When you press that button, screen’s text reads, “Are you sure to quick saving?”
And, whatever is truly happening with the sprites, to me that example alone implies that at least this final Nintendo Switch version – was probably not given a final playtest run by a native English speaker.
OVERALL RATING:
Quick SML ratings explanation and breakdown: SML Podcast asks its game reviewer co-hosts to supply one of three possible ratings for games we receive a pre-release review code for (for games under $5 USD, a fourth category opens up we won’t discuss here).
Here’s how I (Brooke) specifically choose my rating from these categories:
BUY IT – I recommend this game to any gamer already into the subgenre or type of game this is. I may also recommend this game to anyone who is trying the subgenre of this game for the first time (i.e., if I personally give a romance visual novel game or a farming simulator a Buy It, I may recommend this game even to first time otome tryers, or first time farming gamers respectively).
TRY IT – I would encourage those already into the subgenre of game this title represents, to give it a shot if you watch the game’s trailer and are curious about it. I do not necessarily think this game will let anyone down or does not deliver on what it promises.
DENY IT – I cannot recomend this game even to those already familar with the subgenre of game this title represents.
BROOKE’S RATING for Celestia: Chain of Fate:
I gotta call this one a Deny It.
To put this rating into context, this is my first otome in 3 years of reviewing games that hasn’t gotten a “Try it” or better. Charade Maniacs and Winter’s Wish last year were not my favorite titles to play of all time. This is no secret. They’re good games, but I wouldn’t buy either for a friend while crying and begging them to play them and talk to me about them, or anything (there are games I do this with… I need to stop putting this much pressure on people. That’s awful). However, both of those got a “Try It” from me, because I can see objectively they’re both made with love, and I’m glad I gave them each of them this rating before the official release of each! Plenty of players ended up really loving both of these.
For Celestia, at this time sadly, I don’t think even at the non-voiced $30-ish USD price point this makes the mark for my communitiers specifically – to a achieve a “Try It” or “Buy It” rating.
Let’s say patches do happen someday in the future – for the UI localization at LEAST, is cleaned up. And the sprites at LEAST are configured to be the same resolution as each other, no matter which direction you wanna take it in –
I’ll bump this up to a “Try It” for a mostly younger demographic than we’re usually talking to on this show.
And PQube, I love you guys. I have given all of your games you’ve let me review until now – not just Try It, but “Buy It.” Even B-Project. And I don’t even know those characters outside of that game. I know Bustafellows 2 is going to be a flawlessly localized, knockout success – just like the original was – so please don’t be mad at me.
And, please don’t break up with me. Not today! You actually legally can’t break up with me on my birthday. I hate to play that card, but, I mean – what else can you do with a birthday card?
Alright, review over.
