Celestia: Chain of Fate Review

Hey, I can’t argue with Fate if it lets me romance all three of you at the same time.

A new otome visual novel releasing and you better believe I’m right there ready for it. With the premise being totally up my alley, as well as the writing style thanks to a demo being released, I’m ready to dive into another otome game. This time, one where you suddenly get thrusted into a whole new world you never knew existed. You have to go to school again, right when you thought you’d be through with high school, but at least there are handsome boys in your future as well as some mystery solving.

Don’t worry, I ended up not including any spoilers here.

Celestia: Chain of Fate follows a lovely young woman who you can rename, but I’ll refer to her by her canon name Aria Silverwings. The game starts with a bittersweet fairytale where an angel known for her kindness and a charming demon fall in love on first sight. Their love was stronger than any disapproval they received and they soon not only fled to live in the human world, but also had a daughter. They were happy, however they were soon found and separated by their families. They were able to send away their daughter to the human world to protect and hide her, but they haven’t been able to reunite. This was told to Aria as a child, which she wished they could be together again, and this fairytale never left her mind as she grew up. She’s still wondering if that angel and demon reunited on her 17th birthday. Little did she know that this fairytale is a lot more real than she thinks.

As we get out of the prologue, we learn that it’s Aria’s 17th birthday and everyone is excited. We learn that Aria has an interesting ability to see other people’s emotions by the color of the breeze, she’s the daughter of the duchy, she has an older and younger brother, and all three of you were all adopted. Yeah, that’s a lot, but there’s more. In the middle of you celebrating your birthday, a bunny dressed like a postman comes to deliver a letter. Opening it reveals to be an invitation for Celestia Academy, a magic school for Angelus (angels) and Daemons (demons). Aria is understandably confused and thinks it must be a prank, but everyone quickly reveals it isn’t. That magic is real and there are angels and demons. Even more shocking, that fairytale she was told was about her. Her biological parents left her with her current adopted ones to take care of her, hide her, and raise her like a human as they wanted her to have a normal life until she would be called to go to Celestia Academy. Aria doesn’t really want to go, but she does choose to go after hearing the consequence for not going and that her older brother Damien will be a teacher there. At least she only has to be there for one year.

Aria’s year at Celestia Academy both starts off really well and really bad. It starts off bad before Aria even gets to the Academy as she witnesses an attempted assassination and she would have gotten killed if it weren’t for three handsome boys who also turns out to be the love interests (LIs). Her being half Angelus and half Daemon brings along shock and surprise as no one believed you were real. It also doesn’t help that she gains two dangerous rivalries: one from an Angelus named Seraph who just hates Aria for having Daemon blood and one from a Daemon named Lilith who kidnapped and forced her little brother into a magic pact and won’t let him go. Well, good news Aria gets to experience a lot of new things, gets some new friends, and got to meet the three LIs who she’ll get to know and help.

Aria soon also learns about the Final Trials. The outcome is very important as it determines someone’s future as it both determines their rank (and their children’s ranks) and ends in the half bloods picking the side they want to live as. There are three trials, one each for the Human, Angelus, and Daemon realms, and everyone conducts the trial as a team and everyone’s results are ranked against each other. A team also only takes trials according to their race, so if a team only has pure Angelus they only take the Angelus Trial. Luckily, Aria gets put on the same team as the LIs. Her team may be an oddity having all three races and thus requiring your team to do all three trials, but they work well together when it counts and they all have the advantage of it being their home turf in their respective home realms. Aria is even more determined to do her best as the best graduate can make a wish and she intends to use it to free her little brother. It might not be the quiet school year Aria suspected, but it’s going to be even better as she’s in for romance, suspense, mystery, and revelations.

There are choices scattered throughout the whole game, both that determines what Aria will say or do. However, a lot of the choices are pretty meaningless. It either adds a line or doesn’t, but there does seem to be a choice the writers had in mind and will lead to it no matter if it made sense or not. There are even times where the choices don’t have a difference so it’s a wonder why it was even a choice. There are choices that are meaningful and they are the ones where you’re asked whether you’re going to do something or not and puts you on the path to seeing the scene if you say yes (which there’s no reason not to). Strangely enough, though, with the choices that involves picking who to hang out with you can do all of them until the very last choice, even if it ends with you making out with all of them or that it was a time sensitive matter.

I honestly loved the story here. It does well in balancing the fluffy scenes with the scenes that process character relationships, characterization, and story. I never felt like any of the scenes dragged on for too long or were boring. It was entertaining throughout. I really liked the humor, especially since it does play on the character’s personality or the interactions between characters, and they picked great reoccurring jokes (and on that note, it hits the perfect balance in terms of how much they get used). The story is also really great. It’s really engaging, I was on the edge of my seat wanting to know what’s going to happen next, and I didn’t want to tear myself away so I could eat or sleep. I also did enjoy learning about the game’s world. It was interesting learning about the Angelus and Daemon Realms, the magic system, and it was clever having the game set in an Academy with a main character that is learning about it with you. It also helps that the information is integrated well as I never felt like I was being lectured to. The only downside is that there are some things that remain unresolved by the end. There is an upside though: there already is a sequel!

I do also think the side characters were written well. You do get a sense that Aria’s adopted family does love each other and the adults that are a part of the Academy were all interesting. There were even some stand outs. Like Maya, Aria’s half Angelus roommate, who is so nice and was worried Aria wouldn’t want to be friends with her and Aria was thinking it would be the other way around. You know she works at a job and you do get to hang out with her in the beginning, but you sadly don’t get many interactions with her which is a shame. I loved how cheery she was, how she was shipping you with Luke, and that she didn’t let Seraph push you two away. Seraph and Lilith both make great rivals and I did like what they did with them by the end. They really make for great hate sinks, while also giving you pause when you notice them not being so terrible. Lilith especially, as she’s someone that just has to keep up appearances. Lastly, I really loved Shadow, the secret informant. He’s pretty mysterious, him hiding and having so many pet wolves, but he certainly is a character. I still can’t believe how he asks for payments before he tells you he practically knows nothing, but at least he kind of gives you discounts and keeps a look out for more information. He does also build up to some great jokes in his later appearances.

I did also like Aria as a protagonist. She was written well as a character suddenly being introduced to a world with magic, let alone finding out she’s the only half Angelus half Daemon there is. How weird it was being the only one at the Academy who didn’t know, while also not caring as she’s amazed by all the new things she’s experiencing. I’m glad she ended up with people that didn’t find it embarrassing or pathetic like the girls you can end up sitting with on the train. I also loved how she thought it was a prank until she was shown definite proof that it wasn’t. Aria, in general, is a pretty bright person who falls in love pretty quickly. If we weren’t in her head, you wouldn’t think that she worries, doubts, and hesitates a lot, but it certainly helps that she does have a lot of help and support around her to help squash those feelings. She can also be pretty snarky when she wants to be. I did also like her feelings she has towards her biological parents and how they evolved as you learned more. All in all, she’s a delight to be in the head of. The only thing is that her being half Angelus and half Daemon doesn’t play much into how she’s seen by other students or their expectations of her. They’re shocked, but no one really cares that much. It’s really only Seraph who just hates Daemons anyway.

Man, it’s pretty weird playing an otome game that doesn’t have a common route that eventually splits into the various LI routes. I debated whether to talk about them like I usually do or not, but I settled on how I usually do it. I decided on a structure for my otome reviews and I’m sticking with them. That said, let’s get into the love interests!

Ash Winterlight

Ash is actually the LI that you encounter first and he’s a half human half Angelus. As opposed to the other two, you meet Ash at the train station before you board it to the Academy. You end up helping in saving his mother from an assassination attempt. You notice a suspicious man surrounded by a black breeze with a knife approaching a woman and delay him enough to where Ash can come in and subdue the assassin. This is where you get a hint how he’s very distrustful and skeptical of others as he even looks at you with suspicion before his mother assures him you helped save her. Then, Ash softens up to you and thanks you. You also learn that Ash is from the royal family in Glasia, where it’s always winter which explains his attire, his ice magic, and how cold he seems at first before he warms up to the bright Aria. There’s even a really sweet scene with him on the train if you choose to sit with him on the ride to the Academy. Unlike the nameless students that will ridicule you, Ash actually doesn’t mind that you’re awed by everything and even brings you to where you can get an even better view than the window. Then, you meet again when all three of them save you from falling debris at the train station.

Ash starts out being pretty cold, but he quickly warms up to Aria once you prove that he can trust you and after spending some time with you where he develops a crush. For someone that looks and seems intimidating, he’s pretty laid back and has his own sense of humor. You even get the great honor of being the first one to tell him he’s funny. As you progress through the game, you also get to learn that he’s someone that wants to repay those that help him, he’s kind, he’s pretty smug when he’s proven that he’s right, finds high energy people tiring and noisy people annoying, and is usually careful with his words. He is also pretty romantic and protective. Ash does get along well with Luke, but he has a rivalry with Val.

Ash does have a goal that he’s trying to achieve during the school year. His mother is under a magic pact with the Glasia Emperor and he’s trying to search for a way to break it. You don’t get to hear much about his past or the Emperor, but you do know that Ash loves his mother a lot. The Emperor, which may or may not be his dad since he does have step siblings, isn’t talked about much, but you do get a sense that Ash is either really apathetic to him at best or hates him at worst for how he treats his mother and doing nothing to protect her. Since you also have a goal to free your own adopted brother from a pact, he naturally invites you to meet the top secret informant who might know how to break pacts or at least put you on the right path to finding out.

Luke Alastair

Next up is Luke and you encounter him when all three of the LIs save you at the train station. He’s a high ranked Angelus who can control plant life as well as being able to communicate with animals. Luke is the more laid back one in a always happy or content way. There are moments where you can catch him being worried or angry though. Luke is pretty perceptive, helpful, kind, has a comfortable and warm vibe, sincere, mindful, observant, and seems to be concerned over others rather than himself. He’s also quite the teaser, flirter, and often does help in being a mediator. Not to mention that he is quite proficient at magic, studies, and tutoring. Even when Val and Ash are bickering, he just smiles, laughs it off, and mentions how much they’re getting along and jokes how the more fighting they do the more they get to know each other. Which, it turns out, Luke was right. Luke may not be a part of the Val-Ash rivalry, but he does try to get them to get along and tease them once one of them compliments the other or shows they do actually care about what happens.

However, despite his happy exterior, he does hold a sadness in him that stems from his dark fate. It takes a lot for his mask to slip to see how he’s really feeling or to see some of his negative thoughts (there’s even an expression I swear he doesn’t use until the one instance he lets himself show how distressed he actually is). Another Angelus who becomes one of your rivals, Seraph, hints at it during your confrontation and you don’t get to know what Seraph meant until later. When Seraph comes around again to reveal it, which is one of the only scenes you see Luke angry and threaten someone. Showing how he hates having control taken from him, doesn’t want identity to dictate how he’s treated, and doesn’t want people to worry on his account.

Luke’s goal during the school year is to figure out how to change his fate. His fate? Well, he’s The Angelus of Prophecy who is destined to undergo a Sacrificial Ritual. Each generation of Angelus sacrifices one of their own to maintain contact with the Angelus Realm’s source of power. You also learn that he’s been treated pretty badly due to his fate, even by his own family. However, Luke always stayed positive and firm in escaping his fate and he finds a light in the darkness during the school year. The last Angelus of Prophecy was able to escape her fate. Now, it’s just a matter of finding out how and Aria is determined to help. Especially when the first information you learn about how the last sacrifice escaped seems awfully familiar…

Also, Maya definitely ships Aria and Luke.

Val de Lucifer

Last up is Val and, just like Luke, you first encounter him when all three save you at the train station. Val is a Daemon who controls lightning where you’d probably suspect it would be fire. Val is pretty much the hothead of the group, partly thanks to him being a Daemon, but most of his personality does go against how Daemons usually are. Right from the start you learn how he gets concerned over others as he chastises you and makes sure to tell you to be more careful. We even get to see this reinforced soon after as he doesn’t hesitate in helping an old woman and chastising the one that could have prevented the incident. It takes a while for Val to remember Aria, but he does quickly warm up to her. It certainly helps that she calls him cool and awesome. While Val does show his scary, dominate side, doesn’t hesitate in speaking his mind no matter how harsh it could come off, hotheaded, stubborn, and impulsive; Val is also kind, shy when complimented, charming, surprisingly observant and mindful, determined, and you can tell he cares about his friends as he takes no shit from anyone whether it’s directed towards him or his friends. Val definitely is rough on the outside, but soft on the inside. Someone you can easily rely on.

And oh boy the rivalry that starts between him and Ash. I loved it. It basically stemmed from them being a Daemon and half-Angelus respectively and those two races don’t get along at all due to having clashing values and personalities. Val may aim to not act like the normal Daemon, but sometimes he can’t help it. It starts as something harmless, like Ash saying he can’t stand noisy people like Val, but it turns into a real rivalry when Ash and Luke walk into Aria and Val practicing magic. When Aria suggests they all practice together, Val says that he won’t practice with Ash, but then Ash riles up Val be suggesting that he’s just too afraid of being compared to him. Of course, Val falls for it and trains with Ash only to show that he’s the stronger one. And thus, the entertaining rivalry between Ash and Val is birthed. Be ready for some entertaining scenes where they bicker with each other about everything.

Val’s goal during the school year is also revealed by a rival, a Daemon named Lilith who also has beef with Aria. Val’s brother died a mysterious death a year ago, but the day before he died his brother left him a box. Val believes the contents within this box has something to do with his brother’s death or has important evidence. However, the box is locked and needs three keys to unlock it. Each key hidden in the three different realms. Val was able to find the one in the Daemon Realm, but the other two is a bit more difficult as there’s usually no reason to visit other realms. Luckily, being on a team with an Angelus and a half human gives him the perfect reason to visit, and thus the perfect opportunity to look for the keys, before graduating. Aria, of course, says that she’ll help him out. You can clearly tell how much he loved his late brother and how his relationship with his late brother shaped Val to the man he is today despite not hearing much about him.

My only complaint with Val is that I did wish his crush took a while to develop or show. Out of the three, Val did seem like someone who would take a while to develop a crush and, once it does, someone that doesn’t let it show. I love how affectionate he is and how sweet he looks at Aria, but I think it would have been so cute when he ended up finally admitting to it after slipping up.

My LI rankings:
Val > Ash > Luke

I ended up quickly loving all the LIs, which I’m sure isn’t that surprising. I did feel all of them seemed similar on the surface level, but once you do have them interacting together and getting a glimpse into their past and backstory you do get to see their differences. Val, Luke, and Ash were all fun to be around and I really loved the dynamic they all had with each other and Aria. Especially with the rivalry that Val and Ash had and how Aria and Luke were just “yep, just a normal Monday”. I swear the Val-Ash rivalry helps characterize everyone in the group. All three LIs are just wonderful, to the point it made me feel bad romancing all three at the same time. Especially when it’s back to back romantic scenes. Though, it was pretty funny the few times the game references you romancing all three.

That said, I did find that amount of romantic scenes did end up wearing me down before I got to the ending. There are just so many romantic and sweet scenes, so many that are back to back (between different LIs and Aria), and they mainly do feel the same. Don’t get me wrong, I gushed at them all and I know they bring Aria to different areas and interact with her differently, but it does get predictable and it doesn’t feel like the relationship progresses much.

I will admit, though, that I do share the blame for this feeling alongside the game and that this is partly due to the game originally being a mobile app with in-app purchases for currency that you sue to be able to pick certain special choices and keys that regenerate and used to unlock chapters. The easiest comparison I can use to easily explain it is that it’s like the Episode -Choose Your Story- app, but better if the other stories are as engaging and well written as this one. This honestly does explain a lot. Like how a lot of choices are more meaningless, how the choices that do matter are used, how this has a structure of a visual novel rather than an otome, and why I felt a mix of the story being written to account for when you did or didn’t see a certain past scene and assuming you didn’t see it. Or even moments that feel like they would have came back to play a part if they had their own route. I did actually like how it had a “what happened last” structure where it replays the last handful of lines before going into the chapter proper, but it does make me wonder if it was meant for you to play all the chapters back-to-back like you can in this version.

At the same time, though, a lot of these romantic scenes are packaged in with story events. Events that will determine how well you do in the story, can come back into play later on, and will either be replaced or skipped over (as well as you guilt tripping you…which definitely made me feel guilty on my second playthrough). Plus, who else wouldn’t want to pick all of the special and romantic choices if you get the option to. So, I’d say the blame is shared.

There are some extras here, which most of them seemed to have been added for the PC and Switch version. Of course, there is a place where you can admire the CGs and look back at the chapters (with a little summary so you know the main events that happened). Don’t worry, there are some interesting extras. Alongside the three semi-endings you can get with each three LI, there are 23 alternative bad endings scattered all throughout the game. You can get these if you pick up the wrong choice at the wrong time and, instead of continuing through the story, you’ll get an alternate scene where you end up dying or abandoning the main story path. A lot are pretty obvious, but there are some that are pretty sneaky and do seem like they’d be the right choice or one of those choices where it doesn’t matter what you pick. When I was going through my first playthrough, I played it like I wanted to and I did end up encountering a couple bad ends, with one of them being on purpose (partly due to it being obvious and partly due to it being one I got in the demo and I wanted to check it off the list in the full release). The bad endings can be pretty developed and range from being brutal, sad, scary, and bittersweet. There’s even two bad endings that have their own CGs. The last extra are the side stories! There are 22 side stories that get unlocked after you complete a chapter and they each follow the perspective of a specific character. Specifically, what that character was doing in that chapter. You don’t have to play these immediately one you unlock them, personally I played them all after finishing the game, but these are some fun scenes. Plus, it gives us more scenes with these characters and more insight on them.

Like every game, Celestia: Chain of Fate does have some negatives. I wished that this game had autosaves, especially since bad ends were added in and the ones that I stumbled upon during my playthrough were pretty unexpected. If you don’t save or quick save the game often enough, you’ll end up having to repeat a chunk of the game. Personally, I ended up saving at the start of chapters, during choices I felt I should save, and then quick saved whenever there was a choice where you could choose to do or not do something. On that note, I did also wish the chapter select Memories functioned like other otomes. Unlike in other otomes where you can select a chapter to start at, adjust the affection, and it’ll continue on past that chapter to the next; in this game, going back to a chapter means just playing that chapter in isolation with default 0% Affection for all the LIs. I guess it’s good if you’re just looking for the bad ends, but not so much when you want to see what happens if you pick the opposite choice for a decision that gets referenced in a later chapter. Or you find out you didn’t qualify to see the last Affection choice at the very end of the game (which is also the only choice where you can only do one and not all) and you have no idea where you messed up. On that, it does seem the Affection meter is a bit inaccurate. I had all the LIs at max, but I couldn’t do Val’s last Affection scene and I was so confused. It seems I didn’t pick the right choice somewhere. I ended up replaying it just to get Val’s ending, and to test the meaningful choices, and I got Val’s ending on only 74% Affection. On top of that, I did find the skip function to be a bit finicky. It’s fine for the most part, but it does randomly stop and it won’t skip through if it’s a scene where it’s just text on a black screen.

The music and art here are pretty great. The music was pretty nice, both having the vibe that you heard it before (unless it’s just me after playing so many otomes) but yet it’s something new. Something that gives off magic vibes. Not to mention the vocal track that comes in for the opening and during really emotional scenes. The tracks always fit with the mood of the scene or what was happening. The sound effects are also good, albeit a bit annoying when you’re skipping through text. The art was beautiful here as well. All the characters and clothing are well designed, the backgrounds are beautiful, and the art style works well for both the character sprites and the CGs. The CGs are especially beautiful and I couldn’t help but admire them for an extra minute before continuing. Sadly, there is no voice acting here.

To end us off, the localization was actually pretty good. I only noticed a few mistakes while I was playing and most of them was just the confirmation text when quick saving and quick loading. The only other thing is that I did notice some weird word choices, but it’s not that big of a deal. Like, the first half of the game really loves to use the word “panorama”; so much so I wished it mixed it up a bit and used a different word. I do also want to mention how well it was brought over to PC and Switch. The team behind it did a great job and I never suspected that this was originally a mobile game. The only downside that I’ve seen is that there is a dress you won’t see Aria wearing.

Verdict

I loved Celestia: Chain of Fate. I do have gripes with it, which ended up being mostly due to this originating as one of the stories on an app with monetization, but I still loved it. The story is engaging, the contents is so fluffy, the characters are all well written, the love interests were all wonderful, the humor did hit for me, the music is great, and the artwork is beautiful. I knew I’d like this game based on the demo, but I never expected to like it as much as I did. Celestia: Chain of Fate’s origin as a mobile game doesn’t do it any favors, but I have to say that I do recommend picking this up if you’re looking for a new otome and the premise interests you. Hopefully, the demo stays up after it releases so those unsure could try it out.

Also, I really hope that this means that not only will the sequel be brought over to PC and Switch, but also the two other otome stories under the Memories app. I had no idea the app existed until I happened to stumble on the website and I don’t exactly have a phone I can game on.