Mistonia's Hope: The Lost Delight might be a romance game, yet within twenty minutes I've not only been thrust undercover on a violent revenge quest, but one slight slip-up has resulted in me having my throat unceremoniously cut open from an unknown assailant while walking the manor gardens. This folkloric world of fairies and magic can be beautiful and gorgeous, but there's an ever-present danger to its class warfare and politics that have me obsessed just as much as its roster of pretty men.
This romance comes from developer Otomate, who are behind some of my favorite otome games in the genre. Otome, for sickos-to-be, is a dating game subgenre in which you usually play a woman taking part in a romance story throughout which you can end up in love with – or disastrously fumbling – a handful of romance partners. Visual novel adjacent, they usually downplay stats in order to focus on telling a narrative (hedging my bets so I'm not jumped by the Jack Jeanne fans), often splintering into scenes and events tied to drawing closer to particular characters. My favorites always blend genres, like Hakuoki's vampiric samurai war story, and Mistonia's Hope is the closest to the romantasy literature phenomenon I've encountered yet: what if Sarah J. Maas was anime?
Under your spell
Within Grand Albion, class status is exacerbated by literal fairy powers – the amount of fae blood dictating how powerful certain demifae noble families who serve the purafae queen are. Those without powers, or whose blood has grown thin enough to make them barely noticeable, make up a downtrodden underclass. Even so, the queen isn't all powerful, requiring demifae sacrifice to maintain her rule in this human realm, lest she be banished back to Tír na nÓg. The Irish mythology is great to see here, and also featured in Hunter: The Reckonening – The Beast of Glenkildove and The Seance of Blake Manor, both of which I also loved playing last year. There's something in the air about it at the moment in gaming, and I'm here for it!
Mistonia's Hope's main character, Aprose Randolph, is from a fallen and betrayed demifae family and, if that's not enough, wanted by the queen for magic siphoning reasons. Taking on the alias Rose (both names can be customized, though), she enters the service of one of the five noble families, certain that at least one of them had something to do with murdering her whole family. And she wants bloody revenge. It's great fuel to click through a little map as you choose which bite size scenes to play out, many of them early on having a 'fly on the wall' quality as you snoop around, observing chatter among the nobles as the ever-unnoticed service staff.
But, naturally, you don't remain unseen for long. Investigating certain characters more than others will set you down a path to grow closer to them, catching their attention and romance becoming a possibility alongside revenge (don't worry, at least in the paths I've played, falling in love doesn't take over this heroine's life). Each has, of course, their own personalities, problems, and even a special flavor of fae power inherent to their family, including the ability to cast magical barriers, being able to turn on a magical level of charm, and more.
Fail to focus enough on picking apart any particular thread, such as trying to balance all of them, and you'll be noticed as the spy you are – which led to my first bloody murder. Mistonia's Hope isn't particularly punishing, the fairly straightforward flowchart is quite forgiving at allowing you to reset parameters and start from earlier on, and isn't as complicated as something like the Psychedelica duology. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but crackle at being brutally offed in this way. Mistonia's Hope does a great job at tone setting – this is a magical world where something horrible lurks just beneath the surface, which feels like a classic fairytale to me.
I've yet to complete my task of romancing every man available, but Alfred has been my standout so far. In particular, I really love the way his own personal story unravels to complement Aprose's own revenge quest. Mistonia's Hope really manages to blend these romance narratives together with the fantasy intrigue in a way that feels quite natural, which can be a struggle for any media that tries to juggle multiple genres at once. I appreciate that the romance doesn't undermine Mistonia's Hope's other themes, but also that it doesn't feel like a sprinkling on-top either – it wouldn't be the same if either element was sidelined.
Triple threat
The bite-size structure keeps this otome from ever feeling like a drag.
Again, the flowcharts in Mistonia's Hope may be simplistic, but the scene construction is effectively done. For the most part, the bite-size structure keeps this otome from ever feeling like a drag – each route, including different possible endings within them, is a healthy length (though could have been a tad longer each) that avoids feeling as overwhelming as some purer visual novels can. Pursuing different endings also provide enough branching events to be worth seeing through even once you've obtained the 'best' one.
In particular, the Love Triangle route available on each main path is a really interesting feature I've not seen before. Once your main route is set by obtaining enough information on a particular romance interest, you can continue to collect more through making various decisions. Here, whittled down to the main romance interest and a returning second one, you can end up initiating a neither fully good nor fully bad bittersweet route in which affections between both play out (usually in a more tragic direction). It's a neat way of having Mistona's Hope take on the character-specific clean-break story structure that's quite common in otome games, while avoiding feeling like the other characters are fully relegated to the backseat.
Tying it all together, as you've probably noticed, is some incredibly gorgeous artwork by Karin Suzushiro (also known for the manga adaptations of the terrific Higurashi: When They Cry and Danganronpa, as well as otome Charade Maniacs and some of the Norn9 games). The European fairytale fantasy aesthetic is wonderfully realized through terrific CGs and character design for characters both major and minor. And you'd best believe these romance partners have multiple outfit changes, and that Aprose of course has different clothing, hair color, and even the presence of glasses or not depending on if she's in a scene in disguise as Rose or walking around as her true self. Mistonia's Hope is lavishly presented, which goes some way to making a narrative adventure that's far from overscoped feel like something special and worth playing through.
Romantasy doesn't just have to come in book form – otome games like Mistonia's Hope have been around for a long time, and they're great, branching adventures to find love (and sometimes revenge) that you shouldn't miss out on trying for yourself.
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