Welcome to my first impressions of Celestia: Chain of Fate! The game promised a celestial adventure, but for me, it fell short. I’ll explore why this game didn’t quite hit the mark (so far) in this post!
Disclaimer: This post contains my opinion, and my opinion alone! My first impressions is also based on playing up to Chapter 10 of the game.
Contents
Basic information
✿ Dev/pub: Agate & PQube
✿ Platform: Nintendo Switch, Steam, iOS/Android
✿ Language: English, Simplified Chinese, Indonesian (mobile only)
✿ Audio: Not voiced
✿ Music: DOVA-SYNDROME, Maou Damashii, MusMus, PeriTune, Purple Planet Music, Zapsplat
✿ Scenario writer: Marcellina Nathania
✿ Character design: Farahdilla M., Nadira Larasati, Nika Trie B.
✿ Genre: Romance, Fantasy
✿ Rating: ESRB T (Teen) / PEGI 12
Visit the official website here (EN).
Synopsis and setting
From PQube:
“
Celestia: Chain of Fate is a romance-fantasy visual novel that delivers a captivating player driven narrative.
The perfect life you’ve known as a daughter of a Duke is about to change forever. With the revelation of your new hybrid identity, as a descendant of Angelus and Daemon, you must learn to live in a new world.
Compelled to accept an invitation to the Academy of Celestia to explore the world of magic, you must set out on a fresh journey in a world filled with demons and angels.
Uncover the secrets of your family history and learn to control the magical abilities you hold. Along the way, you’ll have the chance to develop relationships with one of three romanceable characters, each with their own unique traits and personalities.
It’s down to you to hold your friendships and advance your love interests while also prioritising your education. Remember not to neglect your studies as you’ll need to overcome a series of challenges to graduate!
General trigger warning (click to reveal)
Confinement, violence, mild language, suggestive themes
Main characters
Aria
✤ Voice actor: Not voiced.
✤ Adopted into a royal family when she was small.
✤ A half-angelus, half-daemon.
BRIEF IMPRESSIONS
Aria is bright, cheerful, and strong-willed. She’s easy to like, and clearly, a lot of thought went into her personality. She’s definitely not boring, which is always a plus in my book. I like her!
Val De Lucifer
✤ Voice actor: Not voiced.
✤ A daemon.
✤ DOB: April 16.
BRIEF IMPRESSIONS
Val is adorable but has a bit of a brute edge to him. He’s charming, caring, and blushes a lot, which is super endearing. Despite his rough exterior, he gives off the vibe that he’d have your back no matter what.
Luke Alastair
✤ Voice actor: Not voiced.
✤ An angelus.
✤ DOB: February 8
BRIEF IMPRESSIONS
Luke is sweet and kind. So far I find him a bit bland, though that might just be a matter of personal taste! Sorry Luke fans. But if he changes my mind once I complete his route, then I would be happy to welcome him to my collection of husbandos.
Ash Winterlight
✤ Voice actor: Not voiced.
✤ A half-angelus prince.
✤ DOB: September 9
BRIEF IMPRESSIONS
Ash is the charismatic leader type—and probably the most interesting character to me so far. I’m always drawn to reliable, “I have my shit together” type of characters. His blushing face is also so beautiful, and I can already tell he’s such a gentle lover. I’m looking forward to seeing how his story turns out.
Game features & experience
Main features
✤ Basic features and choices
The game comes with the standard features you’d expect from a visual novel—auto mode, skip function, quick save, and quick load. However, I don’t think you can restart from the backlog, and there’s no skip-jump function either. Quick save and load are helpful, but overusing them causes the game to freeze occasionally, in my experience at least.
I find it frustrating that I can’t tap the screen to advance the text. The lag between lines in auto mode is also too slow for me. I wish there were more options to personalise these settings because little details like this can make or break my gaming experience. With an injury to my right hand at the moment, constantly clicking my Switch button simply isn’t an option (I’m definitely feeling my age here!).
There were a lot of choices throughout each chapter. Some choices don’t really affect level of affection or story progress. In my opinion, the resultant change in conversation was so negligible they could’ve left out these excess choices or perhaps just reduce the amount.
The game is also not voiced. I strongly prefer voiced games, but if you don’t mind this aspect then good for you. I have some head canon of how the male leads would sound with an English dub, and oh, my experience with Celestia: Chain of Fate would have been much more elevated with some good ol’ voice acting!
✤ Endings and extra content
I haven’t seen all the endings yet, so I’m not sure what the true or happy endings are like. After playing through 10 chapters, I’ve noticed that each chapter offers a bad end, and most chapters have one or two side stories. The bad ends I’ve experienced have been moderate—nothing too intense—but that’s just through chapter 10. It’s also cool to see that the game is fairly generous with extra content!
Art and graphics
The game’s UI is clean and simple, I really enjoy it. The art, for me, is a bit hit-or-miss. Personally, I find that the male leads aren’t as attractive as the side characters, which is frustrating. 😂 While they all look distinct, they still come off a little too generic for my taste. Val’s facial structure in his sprite feels slightly off, and Luke, with his soft-boy aesthetic, doesn’t appeal to me. Ash is probably the one I like the most! Not sure what’s with me and characters with baby blue or turquoise hair lately (shoutout to my man Kento from BPRO). I do like their blushing sprites though! The male leads also look amazing in the CGs.
Speaking of CGs, the ones I’ve encountered so far are amazing! There’s also a bit of animation in the CGs (and at times in the backgrounds too during key scenes), which adds to the game’s atmosphere. I like that they implemented the slow zoom in and out and the sliding animations—it made the CGs even more atmospheric.
As for the female characters—wow. Both the protagonist and the side characters are stunning, with a lot of beautifully drawn costume variations. I also love that the protagonist’s face is shown, and we get to see her full sprite at times.
Music and sound effects
The music in this game is delightful; it’s got a warm and inviting atmosphere. I find that the BGM strikes a perfect balance between an enchanting, magical tone and a subtle slice-of-life charm. The opening song / trailer is pretty solid, setting the mood beautifully from the start!
One of my biggest gripes is the overuse of certain sound effects—there’s this incessant “sparkling” sound that’s so overdone, it nearly put me off the game entirely. I don’t know why this irked me so much, but I’m pleading the devs to PLEASE get rid of these! 😩
Length
Although I haven’t finished the game, it’s clear that there’s quite a lot of content. I’ve spent nearly 20 hours on the game so far. It’s slightly on the pricier side for a non-voiced otome game, but given the amount of content and bonus stories, I can see why! However, I’m not sure I’m vibing with the game as much as I would like. It’s something I’ll discuss more in the summary.
Localisation
I haven’t finished the game yet, but up to chapter 10, the localisation seems well done. The conversations sound natural, and nothing felt too jarring. As someone who’s Indonesian, I’m especially curious about what it would’ve been like to experience this game in its original Bahasa Indonesia! It’s also awesome that there’s Simplified Chinese translations available, and they allow people to switch to any language at any time. I wish all games would just do this!
Summary
✤ Overall first impressions
I don’t usually go for unvoiced games, but PQube kindly provided me with a copy of Celestia: Chain of Fate to share my thoughts with my readers. As a fellow gamer, I have a responsibility to share my honest thoughts and experience.
To be honest, the game hasn’t completely clicked for me yet. It feels like a homebrew project—polished, but still a bit amateurish. This could also be because my exposure to indie games is limited, and it’s also harder to please my otome sensors when the game is unvoiced. There is also the lack of personalisation options that impacted my gaming experience, such as the long delay between lines in auto mode and the inability to tap the screen to advance the text.
✤ My personal experience with the plot and setting
The plot is decent with some memorable moments, but it’s not gripping enough yet. I’m up to chapter 10 right now, and while there has been some development, there’s very little that makes me ultra curious or want to keep at it. I am frustrated at myself for feeling this way! That said, I really enjoy the banter between the male leads. There was that one scene where the protagonist made them do some “boys love” actions—that absolutely cracked me up. Amazing stuff!!
I will also say that the magic school theme is a bit overdone; it felt like the team was going for something with mass appeal, which could certainly work, but ended up not really delivering on anything out of the ordinary. Perhaps this is a personal bias in that I expect indie games to “stand out” and/or employ antithesis to mainstream tropes or plot points.
Then again, I’m only halfway into the game and I am very open to having my opinion changed as I progress!
✤ The love interests and romance
There’s a decent amount of variety between the love interests—Ash with his charisma, Val with that rough but sweet charm, and Luke the soft, kind boy—though these variations are fairly generic and safe. Personally though, I find their personalities a bit underwhelming. Since I haven’t finished the game, I’m giving them more time to grow on me. I’m definitely starting to have a small crush on Ash so far!
The romance pacing and/or delivery feels a bit odd at times. Some of the one-on-one interactions gave off “we’re already in love” vibes, including in earlier chapters, so they came off as premature. I noticed this especially with my interactions with Val. I would have preferred if the relationships developed more naturally, given the magic academy setting where the characters are working together towards a common goal. I really enjoy the friendship-building, group interactions though! It’s probably my favourite things about this game so far.
✤ Should you play this game?
While *Celestia: Chain of Fate* hasn’t been a perfect fit for me so far, I’ll keep playing at a slower pace to see how it unfolds. I have to say, as an Indonesian, I’m really proud to see a game from my country getting mainstream attention. I hope it finds an audience that appreciates its charm. I’ve also seen very positive reviews from various platforms and bloggers, so I’m really happy for them!
I am one of those people that discourage gamers from making an entire decision based on reviews alone. We all experience things differently, so please consider your likes and dislikes to make your own informed decision. I sometimes find that games that work for other people may not work for me, and vice versa. Never let a review stop you from discovering your personal gems!
I can’t give a rating for this first impression because I haven’t cleared a single route/character, but at the moment it’s sitting around ~6 due to the lack of that “oomph” factor. I will update this page with my final thoughts if I manage to clear the game someday!
What do you think? Have you played this game?
I’d love to hear your thoughts! While the game hasn’t quite worked for me (so far), I hope those of you who’ve tried it are having fun. ^^
