Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Welcome back to Mystic Messenger Trash, where I chronicle playing Mystic Messenger. The following contains spoilers for V’s good and normal routes in the game, passing mentions of the bad endings, and general in-game lore that you learn outside of Another Story. There are also some spoilers for Rika Behind Story.

Another Story, which encompasses both V’s and Ray/Saeran’s routes, takes place six months after Rika’s “death” (unlike the routes in Casual Story and Deep Story, which take place two years after). Another Story is basically an alternative universe of Mystic Messenger, where the player-character shows up earlier than in the Casual and Deep Stories. For the sake of length, I’m going to assume a baseline level of MM knowledge. (more…)

Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Mystic Messenger Trash: Rika Behind Story, Mental Health, and Villainy

Welcome back to Mystic Messenger Trash, a column wherein I chronicle playing Mystic Messenger for the first time. The following contains spoilers for the Rika Behind Story DLC, along with mentions of her portrayal in other routes more broadly. Content warning for mentions of sexual assault and parental abuse, and a brief discussion of suicidal ideations and depression. (more…)

Free and Cheap Games to Play for Every Quarantine Mood

Free and Cheap Games to Play for Every Quarantine Mood

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve been in a serious “I only want to play video games and do literally nothing else” mood since quarantine started. Of course, we on the Sidequest team often want to play lots of games, so I turned to my fellow writers to ask whether there were any free or cheap quarantine games they recommend for this weird time of ours. We gathered our suggestions into categories based on quarantine moods, so hopefully one of these hits your quarantine games itch. If you’re looking for stinky games to play because, heck, why not play games that are questionable, we’ve got a whole other post covering that.

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Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Mystic Messenger Trash: What’s Trash is the Secret Endings

Welcome back to Mystic Messenger Trash, a game diary in which I chronicle playing Mystic Messenger for the first time. The following contains spoilers of Secret Endings 1 and 2. Content note for physical and emotional abuse.

Since I’m covering two endings here, I decided to break this piece up into sections for your reading convenience. (more…)

Mystic Messenger Trash: Behaving Badly in V’s Route

Mystic Messenger Trash: Storytelling Choices in Seven’s Route

Welcome back to Mystic Messenger Trash, a game diary in which I chronicle playing Mystic Messenger for the first time. (Did you miss me?) The following contains spoilers of Seven’s route, Good Ending, and After Ending. Although there will be some discussion of Secret Endings 1 and 2 as it relates to Seven’s character—it’s very difficult to talk about Seven’s story without at least some reference to them—there will be a piece covering those endings. Content note for physical and emotional abuse.

Buckle up, because this summary is a long one. Seven’s route begins as he’s trying to balance keeping you, the player, safe from whoever is trying to hack into the RFA. You learn that he is, indeed, a secret agent, and his colleague Vanderwood, acting as his maid, watches over him. (Side note: Up until now and even through Seven’s route, Seven uses female pronouns for Vanderwood, but he’s actually a man. Why… did they misgender him? Is having a male maid so weird? On another note, why is Vanderwood cleaning up after Seven at all??) But Seven can’t focus because he’s never had a crush before, and soon finds himself coming to Rika’s apartment to protect you in person. This pisses off both Vanderwood and their spy agency, causing them to plan their retaliation to get rid of Seven. (more…)