Mystic Messenger is a dating simulator and has a few capture targets. I am trying to capture Zen’s fictional heart. He is my first capture target from the casual story mode.

The below daily recaps and explanations have been written day-by-day at the end of my day and thus are more like diary entries and not really comprehensive overviews. I have instead added a conclusion at the end of this post as a wrap-up and overall experience if you want to skip the day to day drama and events. I will not be spoiling the game, just giving my overall experience while I was playing.

Who is Zen?

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As a stage actor, Zen is Hyun Ryu’s stage name. He is 23 years old and is quite focused on his physical appearance, some would say narcissistic. He really wants a girlfriend and is determined to pursue and succeed in his career with his own strength and abilities. He does not wish to get by on his looks alone which make him instantly recognisable thanks to his silver-white hair and almond red eyes.

My Play-Through of Zen’s Route in Mystic Messenger

Day 0 – 20 November

I needed to reset my account since it still had my previous dismal attempt at Mystic Messenger. So with a half baked idea at 11 pm on Friday, 20 November 2020 , I reset the account and rebegan the journey with the initial message from the mysterious ~unknow~ and finding my way into a random chatroom.

I was a lot more resistant with ~unknown~ since I knew no matter what I did, the game would make me join the chatroom and it would not impact my game route.

Day 1 – 21 November

I followed the guide prompts and hit every chat that the guide gave answers for, for Zen’s route. I used hourglasses to make up for the missed conversations, where needed, because work got in the way. How dare it?? I had even set an alarm, woke up at 4:30am, followed the prompts in the chat and then went back to sleep and woke at half 7am to make sure I would make the 8am chat. I made sure to participate in every route that the guide provided answers for Zen. I missed one chat due to exercising and I was unwilling to spend the hourglasses needed to complete it.

Chat completion: 70%

Day 2 – 22 November

I can not believe I missed the midnight chat but made the 3am chat. I also overslept and missed the 7am chat but managed to get every other chat. There were no surprises from the day’s chat as it had not changed from the previous time I had played the game. I was glad however the last chat was at 9pm.

Chat completion: 81%

Day 3 – 23 November

I am so glad that I work for myself and from home. Otherwise this would be a whole lot more challenging to complete. Once again I missed two choices but had been pretty much following the guide but changing some answers where I was confident I would earn hearts without risking changing capture targets. I also started to reply to a few emails and had my first confirmed guest. Only 9 to go now.

Chat completion: 81%

Day 4 – 24 November

With having a meeting with a client for most of the morning, I missed a number of chats and since I am saving for 80 hourglasses, I did not go back and spend them on participating in the chats. But the afternoon and evening chats I made sure I interacted with every chat room discussion.

Whoop whoop, I made Zen’s route! My journey thus far has been successful ^^

Chat completion: 66%

Day 5 – 25 to 27 November

25 November – So the server crashed today, and I must say I panicked. I kept trying to load the game and nothing. It just kept repeatedly crashing on me. I had a look on Twitter and saw that I am not the only one suffering through this. It was still down when I went to sleep at 1am.

26 November – Thankfully the game loaded, but unfortunately the game itself does not seem to have registered that it had crashed – meaning that it detected that I had missed most of day 5’s chats. I was not willing to spend the amount of hourglasses I would need to in order to partake in the needed chats. I reloaded a previous save which was the end of Day 4. However, it still had missed chats due to the time of afternoon I reloaded the save.

27 November – At midnight I reloaded my save file so that I would not miss all those chats once again and fully restarted day 5. I could finally enjoy the fact that I was on Zen’s route and that the chats were more specific to Zen. I missed a chat room, once again due to me going for a jog and exercise. ~I can’t let my exercise buddy down over a game.

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Chat completion: 90%

Day 6 – 28 November

Please, please, pretty please do not let my mispress ruin this. I accidentally pressed on an option that called Zed pathetic and now I am hoping I do not need to reload a save again. This all happened because I was mid-conversation and honestly being rude and playing the game while chatting with a friend at dinner. My friend told my Fiance he needs to step up his game because I am playing a dating simulator.

I did enjoy the first Zen story mode. Him telling his doctor to remove his cast after two days was funny. Also, I am actually now starting to develop a soft spot for Zen. Oh and I finally took the time to catch up on my emails. Turns out they can time out…

Chat completion: 72%

Day 7 – 29 December

Story Modes are amazing. So many cute frames and Echo-Girl better back off. She rubs me the wrong way, I can already sense the drama. I have also been pleasantly surprised by the direction of the story. Learning more about Zen has been fascinating too. I have needed the guide less and less for Zen. Knowing his ‘character preferences’ the correct answers are becoming rather obvious. I am making sure to save after each successful conversation and interaction now.

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I am also making sure to keep on top of those emails and replies. I do not want them to time out on me again. I am slightly worried, the game keeps throwing ‘error’ messages my way. I am hoping the server does not crash again.

Chat completion: 100%

Day 8 – 30 November

My drama sensor was not wrong. I did not need to use any hourglasses today and managed to actually partake in every chat room. Zen’s attitude kind of reminds me of one of my friends. The more interactions with him, the more I can easily believe I am chatting with my friend.

Chat completion: 100%

Day 9 – 1 December

I honestly do not blame Zen for his reaction to the harassment as a result of the drama caused by Echo Girl. I do wish I could have had more interaction with Zen for the day, although, there were a lot of chat rooms. I did burn through some of the hourglasses to make up for the chats I missed in the early hours of the morning while I was asleep.

Chat completion: 100%

Day 10 – 2 December

I was not expecting the sudden twist in the story that today brought. The cringe was real too with most of the sappy and sweet lines that Zen was saying. Some of the photo choices for his profile picture and statuses are questionable.

Chat completion: 100%

Day 11 – 3 December

The minor interaction for the final day is kind of disappointing, as is the conclusion to what happened with my character. I made sure not to confirm a high number of guests for the party for my first run-through of it. I then reloaded my save and confirmed 20 guests so that I could get both the normal end and the good end. The good end really cheapens a few lines and actions from the normal end. It was pretty fun to get both ends in a single sit down session though.

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Mystic Messenger Zen Route Completion

Now that it is complete, I feel that the 11 days to play the game went by somewhat quickly. Even though my game was extended beyond 11 days. The game did distract me quite a bit, especially since getting that first 100% completion. I had doubted I would get multiple 100% but I tried really hard. I also noticed after the game crashed, I actually started to get notifications when a chat room opened or anything happened in the game.

Initial feelings – It was hard to say things against cats and thus hard not to take Jumin’s side when the guide made it clear you should not. Personally, in reality I would not have gotten along with Zen in person due to his narcissism in the beginning of the game. However, over the days I grew to like Zen a bit more each day. He really started to remind me of a good friend of mine and once I started seeing the similarities I had a hard time not linking the two.

Final feelings – Although Zen is very prideful of his looks, deep down, he is a hard-working and earnest sweetie. I did have fun on his route and after a few days it was easy to tell which answer I should be giving, without relying on the ‘cheat-sheet’ to earn his affections. I am upset that I have not managed to collect all 44 of Zen’s pictures. I am missing 7 – I am not including the after story or extra content into my album count. Thankfully while playing around I did see that while playing Yoosung’s route, I will be able to fill in some of the blanks.

I had to remind myself that due to the time constraints and format of the game, that the speed at which Zen falls in love works within the mechanics of the game. It freaked me out how quickly Zen was hooked and so deeply in love. I need to remember to shut off my real-world brain and logic when playing these kinds of games.

I am hoping that each route holds different ‘storylines’ for my avatar and not just the same old twist repeated. Overall, I did have fun and I am looking forward to the next route. I am fully planning on turning this into a fun series and will potentially be expanding upon what I have here.

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