Star-Crossed Myth - The Department of Punishments - Review by JeminiJess

08/07/2024

Scorpio, Dui, and Ichthys need you to absolve their sins so that they can go back to the heavens. Zyglavis, Krioff, and Partheno must protect you from the Dark King. Be careful not to fall in love.

"If you spend all your time looking backwards to the past, you might miss out on whatever precious chances the future brings."

Note: I only played the S1 & S2 Prologue, Main Story, His PoV, and Epilogue for all of the characters, except for Dui, who I finished all the content for. Each character takes around 12 hours to fully complete and I only did about the first 4 hours for each. 

Anything in black is text that's not included in the Steam review.

Double click on the spoiler area to view that text (my cheap way to try to spoil words on this website).

Synopsis
The heroine of this story has no default name, so you can choose first and last name. This is fairly typical for all mobile Voltage games (at least the older ones. I haven't played any newer ones). She also does not have any eyes (an eyeless MC), which is also typical for older Voltage games. It's meant to make it easy for those who want to self-insert.

The MC works at a planetarium. One night before the Star Festival event, she wishes for the weather to be clear so the event goes as planned. Suddenly, she notices a bright light streaking towards her apartment and out of fear, she closes her eyes. When she opens her eyes, she suddenly finds not one, not two, but six hot men standing inside of her apartment room. These six men have been exiled from the heavens. They are Gods, Princes of the Stars. They tell her that she has stars in her eyes and that she is an ex-goddess. Ridiculous, right? She doesn't remember being a goddess or seeing stars in her eyes. They then claim that she has the ability to erase them of their sins that had cast them out of heaven. She is absolutely flabbergasted. She doesn't know what they are talking about, much less believes them. What a hoax. Threatening to call the police, one of the men named Leon snaps his fingers and suddenly she's floating in the sky. This pompous pri— I mean as— uhh, this pompous, prideful God, teases her and then drops her, letting her fall towards the city below. She then wakes up on the floor of her apartment, assuming that it had all been a dream.

At work the next night, she is on the roof of the planetarium for an event so that people can hang their wishes. Suddenly out of nowhere the same six men show up, telling her that she needs to come with them. A young boy is reaching over the edge of the roof and is knocked off by the wind. She tries to reach for him, but ends up falling off herself.

Which God will you call for in your time of need? In this version of the game, you only have the option of three of these original six due to the game being split between the different departments. This game consists of the Gods from Punishment, who punish mortals for their sins.

There are three other Gods who do not show up in this prologue, who instead show up in the season 2 prologue. The season 2 prologue starts off sometime after the season 1 prologue where you didn't call on a specific god and have absolved those original six gods of their sins. It is here that suddenly the Dark King is trying to resurrect to come back and destroy the Earth and Heavens. He needs the MC, the ex-Goddess of Fate, to be able to fully revive. His minions are after her to attain this goal, so she has to choose which of the other six gods (three in this version) to protect her.

Love Interest's
The six gods in this game include: Scorpio, Dui, Ichthys, Zyglavis, Krioff, and Partheno.

Scorpio - The Scorpio God. Vice Minister of the Punishments Department. Extremely rude personality. Why would you ever choose him right off the bat? He was exiled for using a forbidden power. He's constantly calling MC "stupid woman". Basically stings you like a scorpion with how harsh his words are. He does open up to her and becomes a bit softer as his route goes on though. He loves apples (specifically in the shape of rabbits). The drama of his route is [Spoilers →] deals with a group of mercenaries who are causing trouble. This reminds him of his human days where he was in a similar situation and is his reason for hating humans. MC helps him come to terms with it and due to this, slightly dislikes humans, and her, less. [← Spoilers end]

Dui - The Gemini God. Was exiled to Earth for killing another God. Due to this, [Spoilers →] he developed a split personality. [← Spoilers end] He is normally a very sweet and caring person, but when he sees blood, [Spoilers →] his other side awakes. This side is dark and menacing and the first time you meet this side, he tries to kill you. The Gemini God having two personalities…original, right? [← Spoilers end] He has an obsession with cherries, specifically cherry pie. I actually like him more in other routes. His route deals with [Spoilers →] his two personalities and coming to terms with killing his best friend and that both personalities are actually both him and not separate. [← Spoilers end]

Ichthys - The Pisces God. He is the typical guy that has to play jokes and pranks on everyone, which is the reason for his exile. He is extremely friendly and gets along with Dui. He tends to prank Zyglavis and Scorpio specifically and when he goes to give humans their punishments, he does it in a way of pranking them. He loves Taiyaki. In his route, the drama consists of [Spoilers →] his mortal life and how his pranks are a cover for how he truly feels over it. Despite his life being mortal, he still uses his powers to heal others despite the fact that it drains his life force. [← Spoilers end]

Zyglavis - The Libra God. He is the Minister for the Department of Punishments and is very strict and work-oriented. He is always calling the MC by her full name and is extremely strict and harsh, and honestly is probably a tsundere. He gets possessive once he is in a relationship with the MC. Has a love for chocolate ganache. The drama in his route is that [Spoilers →]  he blames himself for help giving birth to the Dark King. He does not trust that humans can change due to their nature and continues to punish them without feelings, although this isn't quite true. The MC helps him erase the negative feelings in his heart and show him that humans can truly change for the better. [← Spoilers end]

Krioff - The Aries God. Known as the God of Destruction due to the power he holds. He volunteers to be the one to protect you due to wanting the reward the King will grant to the one who protects the MC. He loves vanilla ice cream. The drama in his route involves [Spoilers →] his sister, who chose to no longer be a Goddess and become a human. He blames himself for this because he accidentally burned away her divine powers and wants the reward to ask the King to reinstate her as a Goddess. His main story deals with coming to accept the fact that his sister is now happy as a human and that she does not blame him for what happened. [← Spoilers end]

Partheno - The Virgo God. He's a pervert..or is he? He's the God of Beauty and Love…at least that's what the other God's refer to him as. His route was the most interesting, as it plays out differently than the others. I personally enjoyed his route the most and there are some very steamy parts in his main story and epilogue. In his route [Spoilers →] you find out that he is a demon. Not just any demon, but the Dark King's son. His goal is to revive the Dark King and bring back life to the under realm after it was destroyed by the Heavens in the previous war when MC was still the Goddess of Fate. He uses MC to get what he wants and uses her and hurts her to achieve his goals. [← Spoilers end] 

Negatives

Final Thoughts
The main route for each love interest, basically involves a bit of drama and basically finding a way to solve how to absolve each God of their sins or dealing with the Dark king. With His PoV after seeing the main story through his eyes and the Epilogue involving how the two are adjusting to their love life after the main story (a short three chapters). The one good thing though, is that each route seems to be different in the problems that each character deals with.

If you have a problem with age gaps in games, this may not be the game for you. These Gods are eons older than the MC in her current life. Gods live for quite a long time before they apparently die (and I guess get reborn as humans? This part I don't believe is ever covered. No clue how long they typically live for either or how their deaths work unless specifically killed). The Gods all look the same age as the MC and feel very mortal besides some acting all high and mighty, but there is still that age gap.

Personally I struggled to get through this game. I used to love it back in 2015-2017 when I was first into Voltage games, especially because it deals with zodiacs. I feel this might simply be because it's more of a mundane story than very adventure-filled. I don't think the older Voltage games are for me personally anymore, but if you're new to otome games, this may be of interest to you. Especially if you like to self insert. It's also good for people who want a game with a lot of content and many hours of playtime. I still have an abundance of content to go through myself (I plan to finish it) and there are some things I'm hoping that will be answered. There were a few spicy moments after the main story (in the epilogue and the bonus episode), so I'm actually interested to see if the other stories for each of the characters have more steamy moments. Some of them are actually really nice.

I'll edit this review when I'm finished with the rest of the stories, but for now this is my final thoughts for where I am, and I am off to play other games (and the Wishes side of things).

Otome Lovers wishes to thank Voltage Inc for providing a free review copy for this game.

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