ミストニアの翅望 -The Lost Delight-

Completion date: January 1, 2025

ALL REVIEWS ON THIS SITE CONTAIN SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Overall rating: 7/10

This game is being localized by Aksys in English and coming in 2025.

Perks:

1. One of the most memorable MCs and a contender for best of all time.
2. Gorgeous CGs with detail to backgrounds as well. Vibrant colours which made the entire game seem anachronistic as if it was a game made pre-2015 with the high colour saturations.
3. Strong seiyuu cast. FukuJun always a treat to listen to but Shirai Yuusuke stole the show this game.
4. In addition to the standard bad end (Clown End) also features a Maze End where MC ends up “lost” and with a different character halfway.

Recommend play order: Alfred > Lucas > Linus > Edward > Ascot > John > Truth

Character ranking: John > Linus > Ascot > Edward > Lucas > Alfred

Truth route was redundant imo. I did not care for it and felt it was a waste of time. It will not be covered in this review. My condolences for those who wasted time on it. In my opinion John’s Dawn End would have been a much more fitting truth route and conclusion to the story.

BACKGROUND

The story is set in a fictional country Grand Albion, which draws heavy parallel to Victorian England with Shakespearean references, under the rule of Tia, the Queen of Fairies. Currently, five royal families serve the Queen: Bernstein, Creswell, Lindel, Sullivan, and Ward. As human descendants of fairies, each family has their own special power.

8 years ago, bloodshed occurred to the Randolph (which was one of the original five noble families, now replaced by Lindel) home in the countryside, supposedly killing all but sparing one survivor, the protagonist Applause (アプローズ) E. Randolph. At one point, she also made a pact with the Fairy King Oberon who enhanced her power as a “vision fairy” – the ability to read into memories by touching people/objects of significance, as well as the induce hallucinations – who appears to have unfinished business with Tia.

With the stage set and actors introduced, Applause vows to find out the truth behind her family’s massacre and swears revenge on the five families and the Queen who ordered this attack…

ALFRED CRESWELL (CV: Umehara Yuuichirou)

Rating: 2/10 the writers really did him dirty

To summarize the route, Alfred is the secret leader of the rebellious group “Ravens of the Sunset (落日のワタリガラス)” that plans to overthrow Tia. He is almost a mirror image of Applause in that they are both calm and calculating. Applause’s identity was exposed very early on but they make a pact instead: to help each other’s goals as allies with the promise that Alfred will willingly give up his life to Applause once Tia is overthrown, as Alfred was the one who used his barrier powers to shut the Randolph family in and have them burned alive. Racial discrimination is highlighted in this game where “minglings” who are mixed people from human/fairy with no significant powers are at the bottom of society with the ruling class not caring for them at all. Alfred disagrees with this and also believes Tia, who has lived for hundreds of years, is now too senile to effectively rule this country.

If it wasn’t for the beautiful CGs and John being locked, I would have dropped this game altogether. The chemistry was non-existent as the story was too rushed to give proper time for romantic development. I got whiplash when Alfred started looking at Applause and blushing when she was transcribing his teachings about gemstones. Prior to this scene, the two were stone-cold business partners. It was also very OOC for Alfred to suddenly go “damn she fine” as he is portrayed as a serious, coldblooded character who will use any means available to achieve his goals.

The writing is also inconsistent regarding Alfred’s character in other scenes. This serious character suddenly started flirting with Applause about whether she was jealous because he came back from the red light district (to gather intel).

The political marriage with Lily Bernstein was completely unnecessary and screams “I have no idea what conflict to give this route so I’ll throw a random ‘love triangle’ instead”. It was painful to sit through and waste an hour of my life for Applause to sulk and be jealous of Lily because she wished she was the bride instead… which goes against Applause’s character too because she is supposed to be this calculating character whose priority is revenge. Without the proper romantic development, I again got whiplash when Applause dropped the idea of revenge and begged John to help Alfred and the Ravens towards the end.

Clown End: The real clown was me sitting through the dawn end. This was the saving grace of Alfred routes. If I could pick this would be my canon. Being consumed by revenge, Applause decides that killing Alfred (who is willing to sacrifice himself) is not punishment enough, she wants him to live in agony for the rest of his life. After Tia left the human world with Oberon forever, the country is in disarray. The discontented people killed the leaders of other four noble families but Applause took the blame. The woman Alfred loved became executed Marie Antoinette style by the same people that Alfred treasured and swore to protect.

Maze end: “I have no idea how to write an NTR end” Applause and Lucas return to Tir na nog & decided to abandon the mundane human world and leave Alfred behind. Weird but okay.

LINUS WARD (CV: Umeda Shuuichirou)

Against recommendations I decided to play Linus route because I needed to recover from the disaster that was Alfred route, and wasn’t sure if Lucas route will make me drop the game completely due to the Maze end last route. In retrospect Lucas route was okay so I would still recommend playing Lucas next as Linus route has the major spoiler that Ascot also works against Tia.

Rating: 9/10

Oh my heart will forever be weak for the fated bittersweet reunion trope. This is it.

The Ward family is known for their physical prowess in combat, as well as their extreme loyalty to the Fairy Queen, earning them the nickname “Queen’s Hounds” (Ciel Phantomhive: someone called?). Applause and Linus (who had an alias “Liam”) met in the village before the massacre as children, and had some cute puppy love going on. Unfortunately, Linus was the one who accidentally leaked Applause’s identity and Randolph family’s whereabouts to his family and thus, the Queen, and brought on the slaughtering. The Randolph family escaped from the capital and hid from Tia because Tia intends to use Applause’s body as her next vessel, given her current body is aging and she cannot be immortal in the human world. Linus has not recovered from that, believing Applause is dead, and still refers to her as his first love and cannot move on. However, upon meeting “Rose” he immediately noticed that she had a familiar air that reminded him of someone that he used to know.

The tension was in the air throughout this route with strong chemistry between the two fated lovers. Linus decides to take Applause for some day drinking (lol) and they shared a cute scene where Applause could not handle her liquor. Linus decides to pose as lovers with “Rose” and take her to an opera as a coverup for a mission. The opera sang about a story where a knight falls in love with a woman from the enemy. The knight carried out his allegiance to his country, but was unable to protect his lover. In the end, he was only to find a patch of his lover’s favourite flowers. However, I beamed at the foreshadowing in this conversation:

Eventually, Applause’s double life gets nearly exposed due to meeting with the Ravens and she gets apprehended. In a panic, Applause professes her love for Linus citing this as the reason that she would not betray the Queen. Linus takes her back to his residence and the two almost have a spicy scene but Otomate reminds them that this is a CERO C game. The conflict also came naturally this route, as Linus has to eventually make a choice between loyalty to the crown/the Ward family name vs. his first love/Applause. The Dawn End was of course the happily ever after but I felt so robbed that all they got was a kissing CG in the ruins. Linus really deserved better.

Clown End: The Hound chose to serve the Queen so Applause made him see hallucinations and kill his whole clan as revenge. Sick but fitting.

Maze End: Unable to make a choice and deciding that there will be no happy ending between him and Applause, Linus intentionally kills himself during a mission. A traumatized Applause lays in bed with Edward but all she sees is a vision of Linus.

LUCAS SULLIVAN (CV: Suzuki Ryouta)

Rating: 6/10 dreamiest CGs thanks to his colour palette

Lucas is the tsundere of this game. He is aloof, openly declares he hates all human interaction, and does not want to participate in any of the noble families’ meetings for he does not care. His poor sole house staff has back issues and Bernstein family tried to send him help, but all of them got turned back within one day. Until, it was Applause’s turn.

Tsunderes are always a coin flip for me. This time it landed in the middle, wobbled a bit, and decided on heads.

Lucas was bullied a lot at school and at home because he was the child of a “lesser wife” (妾) but adopted due to him having the strongest powers. [I am not sure what the best way to translate is. Concubine is not fitting as Lucas’ father was not a ruler. It is also not “mistress” because 妾 are officially married to often wealthy/powerful men but not as their “main” wife.]. Tia also stirred the pot when she openly praised Lucas and mused whether he would be the successor of the Sullivan family given his powers, in front of his two brothers birthed by the “main wife”, lol.

This route dives into Applause’s brother, Riley (ライリー) – which I used to translate to Larry but Riley is the official website translation… He and Lucas used to go to the same boarding school. Riley was the classic extrovert and persistently bugged the introvert until they became inseparable. They communicated in passcodes by slipping notes in a book called Blue Robin, which happens to also be the name of a mysterious organization that donates items to orphanages and under investigation for possibility of being a front for rebellion. This organization was started by Riley and Lucas. However, Riley is now “dead” so Lucas took on the burden of continuing his only friend’s legacy. Riley was clearly a siscon and showed Lucas a picture of young Applause before he left the capital (he also disclosed the true reason to Lucas). Based on this alone, Lucas was able to vibe check “Rose” at their first meeting and feel something was off. Lucas was also able to deduce Applause’s identity early on not only in his route but also other routes. He simply did not have enough loyalty to the crown to expose her.

The Sullivan family’s powers were kept secret, but revealed to be the power of releasing spirits to the underworld and helping them let go of their obsessions with the human world so they do not linger. Unfortunately, for reasons undisclosed in the game, Lucas’ two brothers killed each other and because their obsessions were so strong, they remained in the Sullivan household unable to be released. They continued to haunt Lucas who was thought to be talking to himself but actually to his brothers’ souls.

The route was surprisingly romantic and often romcom-esque. Despite being a human Roomba and able to clean rooms at inhuman speeds, a consistent theme this game is that Applause cannot cook LMAO. So in this route, Lucas ended up making her sandwiches and they shared a cute moment together that way. Once Lucas figured out Applause’s identity, he felt naturally inclined to act as her “big brother” and protect her, now that Riley is gone. This sentiment eventually grew into something more as they became more and more attached to each other.

In addition to the dreamy CGs, I deeply appreciate the fact Lucas and Applause never said “like” or “love” in their route and saved the grand confession to the conclusion of Dawn Ending, through Riley and Lucas’ secret passcode nonetheless. They demonstrated their commitment to each other through their actions.

Clown End: Forced ending but the writers had to write something. I sure could not think of anything better. Lucas literally had no involvement in the massacre but his family did so Applause lost it I suppose.

Maze End: I liked the premise of this ending. The Ravens were posing as The Blue Robin and wanted to lure Applause into joining the rebellion. If Applause could not elucidate that Blue Robin/Lucas never cared about overthrowing the Queen and answered incorrectly, then she will enter the Maze End with Alfred instead.

ASCOT LINDEL (CV: Fukuyama Jun)

Rating: 7.5/10 An interesting story with unexpected twists, but in the end not a good match for Applause.

This is the playboy who has a pattern of breaking women’s hearts. Despite having no experience with men, Applause chose him as her target thinking he will give her easy access to Tia as he seems to like flirting with her. A very bold and perhaps stupid choice indeed. The million-dollar question with writing playboy routes in otome games is and will always be:

How do you rationalize and convince the reader that this LI will find something special in the MC and stay loyal to her only?

The two engaged in a “lovers game” where they each had their own motivations. Ascot’s twisted nature was revealed early on that he enjoyed watching women be jealous, have catty fights, or even kill each other over him. This is later extended to his enjoyment of witnessing all extreme human emotions as… he is not human. He is a pure fairy just like Tia.

The Lindel family appeared out of nowhere after the Randolphs fell. They are also behind the “Changeling” mystery where pure fairy spirits possess human bodies in this world and completely erase the previous personalities/memories. The Lindel family is basically all Changelings hence Ascot couldn’t recognize anyone’s face or name. Ascot also shares Applause’s hatred for Tia. He is bound to Tia by fairy curse and has to stay within her close proximity. However, while fairies are immortal in Tir na nog, they are not infallible in the human world. While Tia has the Randolph family to draw human vessels from, Ascot does not have this luxury, not that Tia cares. If this is to continue indefinitely, Ascot will certainly die from old age (which is his deepest fear) or become old and decrepit and remain in that state forever if he somehow returns to Tir na nog. For this reason, Ascot also has a pact with Oberon who promised him with no other person but Riley Randolph, who was kept alive all this time from the massacre but hidden by Oberon, as his human vessel.

Ascot’s route has revelations on the fairies as a species. Fairies are not wonderful, lovely beings in this game. To the opposite, they are what I would call “innocent childlike evil” which can be loosely equated to sociopathy. Like very little children who have yet to develop object permanence or regard for others, fairies are unacquainted to the customs and emotions of the human world. They do things at their whims and do not care if this hurts other people. They do not go out of their way to hurt others, but only care about their gratification. This is shown in the ways Tia governs Grand Albion, but also Oberon for tricking Applause into doing his deed when he had no intention of killing Tia but only wanted to bring her home. I was shell-shocked when Ascot asked Applause what the matter was with using Riley as his vessel (and erasing Riley’s personality) because she thought he was dead this time anyway, and what difference would all this make?! Mind you this was after he recognized Applause as someone special to him.

I got sidetracked in providing this exposition. Now I will return to the million-dollar question. Because they revealed their true identities and motives to each other, Ascot and Applause were able to have discussions on human emotions, mortality, and the meaning of a finite life. Ascot was baffled how humans were not desperate to maintain an immortal life and sulking from having a finite lifespan, to which Applause replied that, precisely because time was limited, it is even more important to follow one’s heart and live their life to the fullest. Applause also was “not like the other girls” because she didn’t know how to flirt/how to talk to men and as a result, did not play by the book at all. She never acted shy/coy but instead became really forward (even if she was embarrassed inside), and that maintained Ascot’s interest enough for him to know more about her as a person. Applause was the person who taught Ascot everything about what it means to be human, the vulnerability of mortality… and the most important lesson that human love embodies sacrifice.

In the Dawn End, Ascot gave up on his immortality and fairy powers to live and die with Applause in this world. It is very fairytale-esque and I am not entirely convinced why Ascot would do such a thing. My skepticism is suppressed as he had the most beautiful CG in the entire game. In terms of Dawn End content and CG, he really got the poster boy treatment. And it’s FukuJun, what more could I ask for.

Riley also becomes reunited with Applause, at their wedding; RIP Riley:

The alternative endings were also eye-opening in his route. Clown End: Ascot enters a lose-lose situation where he was about to imminently die and decided against his better judgment to make Riley his vessel. Applause, knowing that Riley is actually Ascot in spirit, decides to play dumb and treat him as her “dearest brother” and takes different men to their house every single night. Maze End: Ascot conspires with John to kidnap and “share” Applause together in the dream realm. Applause becomes a lifeless doll.

EDWARD BERNSTEIN (CV: Tamaru Atsushi)

Rating: 6.5/10 Poster boy. The stereotypical fairytale prince who stands for everything just and good in the world.

This is probably the most polarizing character in the entire game. People either loved or hated his route with the critique being his route is the blandest and most predictable of them all.

Edward is the successor to the Bernstein family, who has the power to control wind and are also very sophisticated swordsmen. However, he is kind to everyone regardless of their class, respects everyone’s opinions, and does not believe he is inherently better than others. The theme in his route is basically Noblesse oblige. To win Eddy’s heart Applause has to give up her hatred and will for revenge, and become a softie just like him, and change the country peacefully for the better. The major conflict in this route is between Edward and his father Edmund, who believes power is absolute and that weaklings do not deserve concern or love and should just die off. In the Dawn End, Edward kills Edmund (who put up the facade of a sword fight/uprising against Tia forcing Edward’s hand; as he lived with unrequited love for Applause’s mother his entire life and wanted to die anyway to pay for his sins of leading the massacre, and accidentally killing Applause’s mother), Tia returned with Oberon, Applause marries Edward and has two kids with him – the stereotypical Happily Ever After.

What was deeply unnecessary was the childhood meeting, that neither of them remembered anyway, between the two before Applause left the capital. It wouldn’t have made any difference whatsoever if this scene was deleted. It also felt cheap because people have already played Linus route (where the childhood meeting actually mattered) and this is just reusing the trope again, but for what benefit? Not even going to get started why Applause had brown hair in the scene given she was living as a Randolph and had no reason to mask her identity at the time.

Another criticism was that Edward was patronizing towards Applause, who clearly made up her mind to seek revenge, acting if he knows better than her and telling her that he will take upon the burden to himself. The criticism is certainly valid. However, I don’t have strong feelings about this because this is from beginning to end, the stereotypical fairytale happily ever after ending, and in stereotypical fairytales, the princess is the damsel in distress and saved by the prince, who vows to protect her from all evil in this world. Many people nowadays simply do not accept this as a viable love language, but that’s not my or the scenario writer’s problem.

Clown Ending: Edward wavers between Applause’s revenge and his father, making Applause lose confidence in him. When everything is “resolved” (Edmund lives) she surprises everyone by leaving abroad while pregnant with their child right before the wedding, with her deciding that the best revenge against the Bernstein family is to have their own blood start a war against Grand Albion in the future.

Maze End: I enjoyed this one. Linus discovers Applause’s identity much earlier than he did in his own route and confesses his feelings. In addition, he is more radical and states he will support Applause in revenge (note that Tia has left already so he has no one to be loyal to) including unleashing bloodshed on the other families. He basically becomes Applause’s Hound. As such, Applause got tired of Edward’s peaceful ways and marries Linus instead.

What is interesting is that in both bad endings Edward was caught by surprise. He had no idea that his princess left him and did not appreciate him planning her life out on her behalf, and shielding her from everything. While I found the Dawn End to be a welcomed calmness amidst the chaos this game threw at me, I cannot help but wonder if it would make more sense if one of the bad endings were canon.

JOHN DOE (CV: Shirai Yuusuke)

Rating: 9.5/10 Otome game Pinocchio

This is the character that caught my eye from the trailer, and finished strong as my favourite character from the entire game. Shirai Yuusuke’s voice acting also elevated this character and made his scenes 10 times more emotional. His Clown/Maze ends were not memorable and pretty mid so will not recap them here.

John was Applause’s childhood friend, and the big brother figure that stayed by her side since the massacre. Even in the other routes, John was portrayed as briefly jealous but ultimately supported Applause in whatever she wanted to do, and wished her success.

Now that he gets the one-on-one time with Applause, cracks began to appear in the seemingly perfectly comfortable “childhood friend” trope pairing. John didn’t seem to have common sense that laying in the same bed as a grown woman before marriage was improper and incompatible with the times (cute cuddle CG and good attention to detail where they did not make him blush). John failed to recall many details about his shared childhood with Applause, including when walking in the village ruins he couldn’t even tell Applause where his family used to live. When Applause tried to recall her own childhood, the memories often initially appear as if John didn’t exist at all, but quickly transition to a fabricated memory where John played with her every day, told her stories, and was included in her moments with Riley. All of this plus the obvious fact that John had an uncanny resemblance to Oberon that all of us picked up from their art.

Clever as Applause is, she quickly confronts John who had to reveal that he is a doll made by Oberon used as a device to support Applause (as she was literally a child without means to feed herself and live to carry out Oberon’s bidding) and watch her through John’s eyes. Hence, despite their deep bond Applause was afraid of looking at John in the eye because she was actually looking into the gaze of the Fairy King. He is “John Doe”, to English speakers like us we all know this is used to describe someone with no identity. In the game, the characters John Doe were displayed but pronounced as “no one” (誰にもない).

John was not supposed to have his own will, but these 8 years started making him have a sentience of his own. The conflict then becomes fighting for John’s own identity and free will against Oberon. Applause weighs her priorities and re-negotiates her pact with Oberon that if she fully gives up the idea of killing Tia and helps him take Tia home, that Oberon will grant John his own identity/sentience and let go of his control on John.

Oberon appeared to have agreed, but being the mischievous Fairy King he indulged in his own “genius” joke where “killing someone is the best way of setting him free, and you did not specify how you wanted him free. Ha ha!” In this route, all noble families united against Tia/Oberon for one reason or another. Together, they defeat Oberon and this annoying couple finally left the human world for good – hence why I felt this was fitting enough to be the truth ending. The only caveat is that Riley was never found. The families rebuild Grand Albion while John/Applause travel abroad as a couple and spend the rest of their lives together.

CONCLUSION

I wonder this game will have an FD; I think it could go either way. It’s not hinted as many of the endings were quite concrete instead of open-ended but if there was enough support/sales an FD can always happen.

The artist of this game is Suzushiro Karin (清白 かりん) who also illustrated for NORN9 FD, Cendrillon palikA, Meiji Katsugeki – all well-known titles but I’ve really only played this game and NORN9 FD. Hoping she continues to get commissions for otome games and will be watching out for her works in the future. She has an art book set for release late Jan/early Feb. I will be sitting this out as I did not play many of the above titles.

Overall, as someone who enjoys a plot-heavy fantasy-setting game with pretty CGs and above-average voice acting, this ticked all my boxes. I would recommend it to people with similar tastes. It had a good mix of plot and romance. My only warning would be to the people who want heavy romance & those who expect Applause to stick to revenge towards the end – after all this is an otome game not adventure visual novel.