Review: Celestia: Chain of Fate Feels Like a Formulaic Otome Game

There are certain otome games that might end up feeling a bit generic, even if they are generally fine, and Celestia: Chain of Fate is a perfect example. It features a limited number of love interests who generally adhere to certain tropes and don’t feel terribly unique, a story with a Mary Sue sort of lead, and an artistic direction that may come across as a bit bland compared to its contemporaries. It borrows a lot of concepts from other fantasy stories as well. The end result is a somewhat bland, harmless love story where the only element that stands out is how surprisingly easy it could be to earn a bad end. It isn’t bad, mind you, but it might not stand out enough to catch a potential player’s eye.

From the very outset in Celestia: Chain of Fate, Agate establishes that the player character in this otome game is special. Aria’s mother was an angel and her father a devil, here referred to as Angelus and Daemon, and their union resulted in her. However, they were also forced apart. She was completely in the dark about this until she came of age, with the only thing setting her apart being the ability to sense intentions based on colors on the wind. She was raised in a powerful, noble family, which turned out to be made up of other Angelus and Daemons and an individual who would be one of her teachers at the Celestia Academy. Because as a half-breed, her magic is also special and strong, and she must attend the school for a year. If she attends and becomes the best, she can have a wish granted.

Given the type of otome game Celestia: Chain of Fate is, Agate doesn’t shy away from quickly making Aria the center of attention and drama. Immediately after her adopted brother/future teacher Damien takes her to a secret train station to board the magical train to the otherworldly academy, she gets the opportunity to interfere in the assassination attempt on the human prince Ash’s mother. When she leaves the train and arrives, before she can even get to school, she ends up involved with an attack that also provides an opportunity to meet the romanceable Angelus Luke and Daemon Val as the two of them work alongside Ash to mitigate the damage. 

I think I’d be a bit more forgiving of Celestia: Chain of Fate’s tendencies if it didn’t suffer from a few fatal flaws. For example, the game is very big on telling, not showing. After knowing Val for a total of five minutes and seeing one example of him handling an altercation and dangerous situation well, you’re fawning over him and calling him “awesome” repeatedly. Compliments in either direction end up feeling a bit hollow. Characters aren’t too well developed, with things that should be reveals Agate leads up to being tossed out. The localization also features a lot of awkwardly phrased sentences, which hurt the immersion. Phrases like “Besides, if you manage to become the best graduate of the academy, they will grant you one wish” and “As soon as the staff’s words were heard, my surroundings became noisy” are prime examples. The generic nature of the love interests, translation, copying of elements from other magical academy works, and fact that Aria can suddenly feel like one of the most important people in the world all kept me from really connecting with things. By the end, I liked Val enough, but didn’t feel like I needed to go back to pursue the others like in other otome games.

The one thing I found really unique is the degree of bad ends you can encounter in Celestia: Chain of Fate. In the introductory moments, you can even trigger one via certain choices. It surprised me a bit, given the general tone doesn’t feel that dark. That sort of thing feels like it’d be more at home in otome games like Piofioreor Virche Evermore. It’s fine, and just means taking a bit more time to save before decisions. 

I also encountered two times in which the game froze after story events involving major transitions in the story. Both happened fairly early on. One was after the altercation upon leaving the train where Aria got involved in seeing Ash, Luke, and Val respond to a hostile attack. The other happened after a scene with Aria and Val recovering a notable woman in town’s missing pet. In each case, I’d saved fairly recently before the instances, and the game didn’t freeze after reloading. Still, it might be something to be aware of as you play. These were minor hiccups that didn’t come up again after those initial incidents, so you may not even experience any issues.

Also, Celestia: Chain of Fate is lacking some common otome game quality of life elements. I couldn’t figure out how to see the backlog for conversations, to see story segments I’d missed. Checking the relationship values to see if you’re on the right route doesn’t give you the clearest answers. There also aren’t the obvious visual or audio cue options to let you know how your choices are received. There are unlockable side stories, however, which appear as you get through the chapters, which is a pleasant option. 

Celestia: Chain of Fate is an okay enough otome game for those in search of a game with Harry Potter-like academy, magic, angels, and demons. However, it doesn’t really do much to stand out otherwise. The character designs aren’t as striking as those in its contemporaries, there is awkward phrasing in the script, the story involves some common situations and tropes, and there are certain absent quality of life features. 

Celestia: Chain of Fate will come to the Nintendo Switch and PC on September 12, 2024.