Cafe Mysteria(Xmas)(Otome)(New Demo)

[AsHLeX]

Updated the front page !!! Get keen everyone It's only 3 more days until the demo!!

[AsHLeX]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! THE TEASER DEMO HAS BEEN RELEASED!!

DOWNLOAD LINKS AVAILABLE ON ITCHIO OR THE FIRST POST OF THIS THREAD

[AsHLeX]

Giveaway open! Please refer to main post for details

[Reina-chan]

It's been a while since I actually commented instead of lurking...but here goes nothing. (Obviously...spoilers for the demo below)
Overall, I have to say I went into the game not expecting much, mostly because I feel like I've outgrown the "butler and princess" theme, but I was pleasantly surprised.
There isn't much of a story right now due to the whole thing being a short demo, however I'm definitely intrigued by all the characters. I didn't think that there would be so many choices, especially in Haru's case, a lot of the options didn't match my expectations for what his "route" (quoted because it's still a demo so essentially no route exists yet) would be like at all. If I'm remembering correctly, Haru probably has the most spicy choices compared to others?? And I like that. Teasing him was fun, but I get the impression that he really isn't as innocent as he appears to be as he understood a lot of the spicy connotations, and of course I'm interested in his past as well. It was a nice touch that only his design had white gloves, initially I thought it was an artistic choice but it being part of the story is even better. Though I do wonder why he always has his headphones on. Is that part of his background that'll be reveal later? It's kind of odd to be talking and taking orders like that...
It also pained me to give him harsh comments lol... I've never been to a butler cafe irl (and probably never will) but I just don't have the personality to hate on the food right in front of the waiters or blatantly say things like I'll never come back here again. Haruki's presence was a nice touch, though I feel like it would've been more surprising if I hadn't read the game description too closely haha. That said, I do hope the 4th wall breaking will play a considerable part in the plot later on rather than simply being there as some sort of gimmick.
Anyhow, Haru ended up being my favorite character even though he's definitely not the type I'd go for in otome games. I pursued him last but his "route" really ended the demo on a good note lol. That's part of the charm of using conversations to build up affection I suppose!
Both Shin's and Kyou's "routes" turned out to be as I expected. But there were more choices for Shin, hence I like his "route" more because I just had more fun playing around with the different combinations haha. Having the option to bite him was kind of crazy since I pursued him before Haru, and realizing the fact that this game includes ridonkulous choices gave me a good laugh xD Kyou (sadly) is placed last on my favorite character list in this game. All of the choices for him was pretty tame without much room to test his reactions to different prompts. I'm not just talking about all the spicy options why would anyone assume that about me, but also the funnier ones like in Shin's case. Plus, he had a copious amount of melancholic and sombre lines that just popped up out of the blue, and since I barely know him that kind of pull me out of immersion for a bit. I get that he's supposed to have a serious and solemn vibe but since the "trafficking" joke exists as one of the choices for him, I hope maaaybe in the full game we will get to see a more fun side of Kyou?
I want to mention that I love how there are multiple combinations of choices that can lead to a good "ending" too. It makes for a comfortable experience and really gives the player more freedom.
As for dear Zhang Tian...he was my favorite character right off the bat the moment I began the game! But man it was an arduous journey... I started off selecting the obvious and honest choice of not knowing Chinese, and I went with Zhang Tian first. Yeah, that should work out well right?? Noo. I could only read on in exasperation as streams of Chinese text kept appearing. I couldn't even tell how the day went because I couldn't understand a thing lol. I'm guessing it didn't go too well based on his expressions.
After playing through the "routes" of Zhang Tian -> Kyou -> Shin -> Haru in order, I decided to mess around with the customization at the beginning. I could barely make out the Chinese characters for "obtain, get" and "not" in the first two Chinese options, so I selected the first one. Aaand to my surprise, it unlocked a whole new world for Zhang Tian - that I still couldn't understand. Aside from basic characters from my very bare-bones Chinese knowledge like "I", "you", "I love you!", "Do you love me?", "Very good"...etc I couldn't read anything else (that wasn't described in English). I think I haven't felt so desperate in a long time lol... But from the expressions, Zhang Tian seemed happy?? So that must be good??
On a serious note, I'm truly wondering what your plans are regarding Zhang Tian's route. I admit that having no idea what he's saying is part of his route's quirk, but that can get tiring real fast. Using machine translation is an option, but that should almost never be forced upon the player imo. Hopefully there will be options to toggle English translation for his lines, or at least that should be an unlockable feature after the player (magically somehow) clears his route once, or clears all the others' routes first.
Of course, I said before that Kyou was last on my list. And that point still stands lol. Zhang Tian's aura is fits my type too much and sometimes that's all it takes to be high on the list - even though 99% of the time I have no idea what he's saying. He's probably second right after Haru.
Other than that, the various options at the start about giving the guys your name were wild lmao. Especially one where we demand to see the manager. I felt like I entered "Karen simulator - the game". But since this is an otome game, admittedly I thought I unlocked a HiDdEn manager "route" but...I was wrong and I'm very sad. Haruki's solution to the problem was also a lot lighter than I expected too, considering his behavior in Haru's ending was very different. I even thought the whole naming fiasco being a big deal was alluding to the fact that he could get the player's real name from the computer system, but in the end that didn't come up;; Did I mention that the option to input height at the start was fun to mess with too? I got a good chuckle out of teasing Haru with it. Though I'm not sure if it affects anything else... There's also the birthday info...
All in all, it was a fun demo with a lot of choices to try out. It definitely took a lot longer than 25 minutes for me haha...
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During my playthroughs, I also documented some typos and errors I encountered. Here they are:
On Zhang Tian's route (selected don't know Chinese at the beginning) - After bringing out food, the line "he leaves me to enjoy my food in peace" wrongly has Zhang Tian’s name label. I think it was part of the narration that shouldn't have a name.
On Kyou's route - when he described Cafe Mysteria as "a place of reprive" → isn't it "reprieve"? Sorry if I misunderstood anything orz.
On Shin's route - if I select "I don’t believe in fairytales" an error occurs, it's possible to just ignore and move past it.
On Haru's route - when talking about the toilet and selecting "...find my way there on my own...eventually" → After that there's a line describing him "His averts his gaze", shouldn't it be "He averts his gaze"?
At one of the choices (when talking about Haru's name), after pressing enter when done typing to guess his name’s meaning, an error occurs. It's possible to just ignore and move past it.
And Haruki's line - both during Haru's ending and at the beginning of the game if the MC demands to see him - contains this part "manager and proprietor or this establishment", that's "of" right?

Also, sometimes, a wide white space appears between an apostrophe and the character immediately behind it, making it look like this: Here’ s an example.
The ones I found are:
At the start, the option "I don't understand Chinese..."
Choosing Refuse to give name → Kyou’s line "...a reason why you don’t want to…".
Choosing Refuse to give name → "give up" → "You’re all strangers" → Haru’s line "You can’t say that we’re strangers…".
Asking Haru how he started working here → less condensed version → The line "That’s a story for another time". Also the next 2 lines "this humble butler that’s at your service" and "It’ll be almost criminal..., don't you think?".
And lastly Haruki’s line at the end "...don’t think that I’ll let it slide…".
I noticed that the apostrophe in the above lines are different from other normal apostrophes in the game's font. These probably occur due to mistyping, or copying text from somewhere else into the game's scripts. I keep notes on Google Docs and sometimes that happens to me as well.

Whewww that was long... I hope I didn't say anything offending ^^"

[AsHLeX]

@Reina-chan
Congratulations on being the first person to leave a comment!!! As per the giveaway rules, you will get a FREE copy of the game upon its completion and get to ask any of the four butlers one question that will be answered in the final game!!! What would you like to ask?

And thank you for the very detailed review, it was hilarious and made me laugh at times, especially your reaction to Zhang Tian's route.

I can reassure you that almost all of the things that you're worried about has already been / will be addressed in the full version of the game - your limited knowledge of Chinese will not impact your enjoyment of Zhang Tian's route, I promise.

All of the information that you're required to fill in has a reason to it - albeit some that you'll only understand in the full game, and some in a special hidden scene where only 0.01% people will stumble across it

I'm glad that you enjoyed it, all I will say is that the day 1 demo is only an extremely small snapshot of what the actual game is like, but based on your thoughts about it so far I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The typos and errors list was super helpful too so thanks!

[Reina-chan]

@AsHLeX
This is so hard lol there are too many miscellaneous things to ask about. But...since Zhang Tian's Chinese, I'll go with "If he were to have a wedding, would he prefer a traditional Chinese wedding, or a Western-styled one, or both (as in I've heard that some couples organize two ceremonies to get the best of both worlds)? Why?"
I know "why" is like cheating in an extra question so it's okay to ignore it orz

I'm glad I'll be able to enjoy Zhang Tian's route without having to worry about the language barrier! But who knows, depending on when the full game is out, maybe by then my Chinese would've improved (if I'm not lazy.......) xD
Knowing that the demo is only an extremely small part of the full game makes me look forward to it even more! I love games that provide the player with many choices and variety, so this is totally up my alley. However, I know to make such a game requires a lot of work from the developers. Hope you get enough rest in-between work time!

[AsHLeX]

@Reina-chan

Thank you! I'll add that question to the final game. His answer to that came pretty much immediately to me, but you'll have to wait for a bit, unfortunately :'D

[AsHLeX]

11 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!
Thank you to everyone who has supported the creation of Cafe Mysteria, I have an important announcement to make!
A new demo will be released on Christmas Eve covering much more content, new minigames, new CGs and new UI art!!

For now, here's a teaser trailer of the new UI, with much more updates to come in the next few days.



Stay excited!!!

Credit for the beautiful UI goes to khoai.

[AsHLeX]

10 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Here's a cute CG teaser for today's update!!
Just one of the many ways you can bully poor Shin ☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆
Poor Shin. ( ◡‿◡ *)



Credit for the beautiful chibi artwork goes to Hunyo.

[AsHLeX]

8 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!

Here's a little preview for Shin's minigame!!



Hate minigames? Don't worry, every minigame will be optional in Cafe Mysteria in the final release!

Credit for the minigame code goes to mudora23.
Credit for the UI goes to khoai.

[AsHLeX]

6 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!!!

I made a little teaser trailer about why you should check out Cafe Mysteria