Mistonia no Kibou -The Lost Delight- Review: Mystery revenge meets fairies

This game has been emotionally draining for me. We get mystery, suspense, melodrama, angst, romance, everything! I get so emotionally invested in unraveling the plot one route at a time while going through with MC her years of pain and suffering, and how she wants to find peace through revenge. Perhaps that's why this game took so long to complete. I had to take a lot of breaks and switch to another game in between.

Sypnosis

The Queen Fairy + 5 Fairy Clans created the kingdom
Now these 5 Fariy clans are nobles who have mixed with humans so they are not pure fairies
Humans hate pure fairies and most of them return to fairyland (except the Queen)
There is blatant discrimination with those species more "human" than fairy as fairies are deemed most special
MC lost her parents and brother 8 years ago to a brutal massacre and learned that it was the fault of the Queen + 5 noble families
MC infiltrated the Bernstein's house as a maid to collect info to get her revenge and find out how did her parents die and why

Some info:

Common route has this interactive map to investigate the locations around the game
Common route is 3 chapters
LI route is 4 chapters, there's Best, Clown and Maze End
Warning: some bad ends have NTR
Japanese level: Not very hard once u learned the common kanjis used, N3 and above

LI Impressions

Alfred Creswell

Creswell family, stone maker
A kuu as he can be
Fashionista, his clothes and diff outfits are ON POINT
Umehara's deep and gentle voice OMGGG
Minimal plot revelation, pacing kinda slow
Romance is non-existent, it's kuu vs kuu after all

Lucas Sullivan

Sullivan family, apparently power is he can talk to the dead
Loner and refuses to interact with others
Can cook and paint
GEUHHH why is his route so painful 😭 Ahhh PAINNN
Both of them are tsun-tsun haha so cute!
Romance is well developed tho I wish it was longer cuz they were so cute
Story is also way more compelling than Alfred's imo, me cried a lot

Linus Ward

Ward family, known for their super sense and physical abilities
Very cute and puppy-like but has an unexpectedly cruel side
blushing puppy, shy puppy, just.. PUPPY AWW
Likes opera
His overall positive and honest vibes rubbed off MC, she's more honest in this route
I am low key scared of him
MC also very observant and more strategic in this route
Solid story telling, it can be like a melodrama at some point, me holding back tears

Ascott Lindel

Lindel family, not the original 5 noble families, only after MC's Randolph family is gone, Lindel family becomes one of the 5
Likes books, to MC's surprise LOL
Terrifying AF, Sus AF
So interesting from start to end with all the major plot revelations
The way he fell so hard for her GEUHHH T^T
Turns out to be the best route ever!! IM CRYING SO BAD! They're so beautiful together✨
Thank you FukuJun for voicing this man!

Edward Bernstein

Bernstein family, the one MC infiltrate as a maid
Power of the wind
He's toooo nice to everyone
Quite idealistic, naive and just too "perfect"
Wholesome dynamic with MC but... kinda boring tbh, they lack the chemistry
Some plot revelations but not as interesting in execution as Ascott's
TLDR: disappointing poster boy

John

childhood friend of MC and helping her with revenge
super innocent and a sweetheart!!
can be overprotective
super cute chemistry with MC
route was quite interesting overall with the build up and twists tho the climax fell short
Ascott wingman-ish was quite entertaining

Truth route

A repetition of a lot of things, quite tedious
But tied some knots
Tho climax is not that great
Cute final CG tho

Route Ranking: Ascott > John > Lucas = Linus > Alfred >= Edward > Truth

LI Ranking: Ascott > John > Lucas = Linus > Alfred = Edward

Cons

cannot skip the investigations part, and there are a lot so every time I need to play the common route to get into an LI route, I have to re-do that part... too tedious
I felt the antagonist in the whole story was quite 1-dimensional so all the plot revelation and build up was interesting but climax felt a bit weak at times
story focused, so some routes did not have enough romance and relationship not well-developed
inconsistent pacing among the routes, game is written by 4 writers so some routes were great while some were just alright, almost boring
few plot holes unanswered or not wrapped up well
little romance or steamy scenes in most routes

Pros

ART is gorgeous
CGs are great, dramatic and beautiful
Music very suitable but nothing too memorable
Voice acting, no doubt, FANTASTIC
Overall writing is good on building mystery and suspense but the climax is often not that well executed
MC very strategic, calculating, goal oriented (i.e. She helped another maid hoping she would give her info in exchange)
Super great at being a maid like her cleaning and making tea (maybe not so for cooking)
Serious girl, kuu all the time, she lost her smile T^T
She smiled sooo much when she was young
Can be tsun sometimes too
Deep down really kind and empathetic towards others
She's been through a lot T^T I FEEL SO BAD FOR HER

Themes

1. Revenge

Game got me questioning a lot: What does a perfect revenge look like? MC always starts the route with her ideal revenge but due to her changing feelings about the LI, she has to overcome a lot of inner conflict within herself. She's been living her life in darkness and training so hard for the very day she exact her revenge... But then, the pain she will go through to succeed in the revenge, is that worth it? What about the emptiness that she feels after her revenge is over? The game is heavy and dark (in most routes), I love how it's not afraid to explore these themes. What is "revenge" exactly? How far do you have to go? And on opposite side, what is forgiveness? One memorable quote from a SC about revenge: "You are alive, but held captive by the dead... That's not necessarily a bad thing, and I don't reject it. It's a way of life..."

2. Love & Hate

MC has a lot of darkness within her heart. It's because she loved, that's why the pain is so great, which turned into deep hatred for 8 years. She may seem emotionless most of the time but that's not true at all. She is in fact fueled by her emotions and desire for revenge. To the point where there was a time she questioned... "Yeah but what's wrong with that? Wouldn't it be easier not to have a heart?" The line between love and hate is very thin. When the MC fell in love, we see her struggling with her own emotions on whether to continue to love or hate. It is excrutiangly a painful conflict that she has to deal with on her own. I love how she's very self-aware on this. "The feelings I have now, are a mixture of hatred and love, and are unbearably bitter."

3. Obsession

Another recurring theme in this game is "Obsession". Whether it's obsession for justice, for revenge, for loyalty, for love, a lot of characters are - to a certain extent - inside this loop of obsession that they used to motivate themselve in their own goals to move the plot forward. MC herself is obsessed with a life of revenge. We see the characters stepping the boundaries to the point of unhealthy obsession in bad ends. The twistedness of their actions and decisions fueled by their obsessions led to such ends.

TLDR: 8/10, would recommend to those who like dark fantasy revenge stories! Romance is quite light in a few routes, even in those romance more heavy routes, not a lot of spicy scenes so I wouldn't consider this Cero D a steamy game.

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