Gotta say right off the bat that this "review" is going to be missing a lot of details because I am trying REALLY REALLY hard to not get spoiled and so I have not really looked up ANYTHING. Why am I this way? It's a testament to Cheritz and how much I enjoy Mystic Messenger, I suppose, though definitely this game does not seem to have tons in common with MM.
Maybe I'll start there, actually. What does it have in common with Mystic Messenger other than being developed by the same company? Well, Korean voice actors. It's again a game based on a chatting app that the MC (you) somehow gets mysteriously involved with. And...well, actually, that's probably the only real similarities.
So, this time you install an app and some AI bird-thing (seriously, it's very random) invites you to "find your match" and you can even take a quiz to find your "type" that it will match you with. So, I took the quiz and it said my match was Teo. Also, my only choice was Teo. I have no idea how many choices there are, though I do know that there's at least one more, as he mysteriously appears a few days later as an option and his name is Harry.
I have not tried switching to Harry as 1) there's a Harry in Teo's route and...uh, I think he's the dude who wears a horse mask??? and 2) I ain't no cheater, yo. Heck, I would play through Zen and then have to wait a few days before I'd start a route with Seven or Jumin.
Anyway, Teo is stuck in hospital after an accident. He's an aspiring film director and apparently constantly in need to part time jobs to make ends meet, including doing app testing. However, before you arrived on the scene, he was basically on the app all by himself, so at first he wonders if you're a real person and not an AI (hahaha, Chertiz, always wanting to hit those 4th walls). So you and Teo chat and also have some phone calls.
Here's a major difference that is somewhat better (?) than MM. You can set a daily schedule rather than having the calls during the entire 24 hour period. There's basically a wake up set, which kind of runs into breakfast, lunchtime, dinnertime, and then bedtime. There are chats with all of them but not necessarily calls, though I find the interface slightly confusing here. The chats show you sort of a timer countdown to when the next one will be. So do the calls...sometimes. But it also doesn't seem to countdown unless you are actually in the app? And sometimes it just disappears and you've apparently missed it, even though it seemed like you still had time? I'm sure there's some trick to it, but it isn't terribly obvious. I both like and don't like this method. While I definitely appreciate not having to wake up at 3 AM for a chat (ahem), it also seems like you can be in the middle of a chat and then suddenly something happens and it marks you as having not completed it. Maybe it runs into the time it thinks the next scheduled thing is? I really don't know. Also, if you want to change the schedule, you have to buy a pass to change it.
And that's another thing that's WAY different in this app. The pricing structure. It's mostly subscription based. And it's expensive. Expensive enough that I dunno if I'd do it based on what I've seen so far. MM you could buy the phone packs for each LI and I did actually buy all of them except Jaehee. I felt it was worth it and I did re-play the game enough that it was--and I purchased those packs in a spread out kind of way, not having to do it all at once and it was a one time fee. But in the Ssum, if you subscribe, it's $24.99 every month. And I think they actually charge you in £ since I'm in the UK, which makes it even more. There's a lesser sub for $19.99 a month too. Some of the ways they push you toward subscribing are insidious too...like, the chat speed. It's pretty slow. Sometimes you have to wait for over 10 minutes for a response. So one of the things you get with a subscription is "faster typing." Another annoying one is that sometimes Teo will send you images but they are "corrupted" and you can't see them...unless you buy a subscription.
Anyway, some good/interesting points...
- As with MM, the voice acting is on point. Teo is engaging though hell if I believe that he's as old as he's supposed to be. He seems much younger.
- The art is a very different style -- sort of washed out and watercolour. That's neither a good thing or a bad thing. It is more realistic than MM though. Some are like photos with a heavy filter applied.
- It's quite slow paced. I actually started it before we went on holiday (and more on the "pausing" aspect in a minute) and had played for about 18 days wherein things finally progress a bit and he tells you he likes you and wants you to be his girlfriend even though you have never met
- From hints I have seen, it looks like there are over 100 days of content, which could explain the slow pace
- You can unlock "special" or "expanded" content by spending batteries. The batteries can be earned in a few ways or, presumably, bought as part of the subscription?
- I did really like that it's not at all like the MeChat game which just feels like an excuse to be raunchy and/or furry and/or skeevy without any character development or plot
But...the strangest thing is that there's a bunch of sort of space-age-y new-age-y weirdness. As you play, you collect things and unlock different planets. Each planet has a different focus. One is to tell secrets. One is to post about good things in your life. One is to look for help. There's a daily journal-like thing. People can award you the stuff you collect. And you can "incubate" the little coloured dots you collect into "stuff" and feed it to Piu-piu, the weird AI bird-thing. But the app never really totally explains WHY you are doing all this. Some of it, I think, must be to earn batteries. But a lot just seems to go to the planet stuff and I honestly am not sure WHY you need to do it. I can see that there are a lot of people on there that spend gobs of time...but they are all, like, half (or a third or even a quarter) my age. I don't have time for that, yo. And, okay, I like silly. I am silly. But some of it just seems uselessly silly? I don't understand the point. Maybe if I go off and read some of the websites, I can find out if there's more of a point to it. I dunno. I'm just trying really hard not to get spoiled.
I don't want to sound like I don't like it. I do like it. I'd have to say, if pressed, that I like Mystic Messenger more. The Ssum doesn't have the same immersive magic, but it does have its charms and there's obviously a fair bit of chats/content if you can go over 100 days talking to one character. Though, at the same time, the very idea seems a bit daunting and a big commitment of time.
It does also have the weirdness where you are often stuck between a rock and a hard place as far as the options you are given to say. And, weirdly, it also often seems like the options that cost batteries are the ones I'd never pick because they are just plain mean.
Anyway, last thing I will talk about. In MM, you could save the game and then come back and re-load it (costing some hourglasses) if you timed it right during the day. I did go onto one of the planets to ask if the Ssum had something similar because we were going on holiday and there was no way I could do the chats while gone. And people responded that you could by, basically, logging out at a certain time and then being gone for 24 hours and logging back in right after the time, if that makes sense. So I tried it and it didn't work. I had missed chats/calls. So I did go onto Reddit (making sure not to read any other posts!!) and asked. They again said it was possible, but the guy who responded said that they completed a day (i.e. finished the night time chat) and logged off, then logged back in the morning some days later before the wake up chat. As I'd logged off after the breakfast stuff, that could be why it didn't work for me. You need to "finish the day" and then "start the new day."
...well, we've been back from holiday for a bit but I haven't actually opened the app again yet because there's been sick and day trips and house emergencies and what not.
So, tomorrow I'm gonna try it and see if logging off actually worked. It's been a couple weeks...will I have days and days of missed chats and calls or will it actually work? I'll find out tomorrow. Provided I remember to open the app when I wake up.
And I guess that is the biggest difference. While I am enjoying this one, it hasn't compelled me like MM did whereas there I would have opened it as soon as we got back from holiday, no matter what.
