Celestia: Chain of Fate

Genre: Visual Novel

Players: 1

.

Review:

Celestia: Chain of Fate is a Visual Novel released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2024. This game takes place in a world where angels and demons (angelus and daemon in this game’s terms) have had an uneasy piece brokered by humans, with the extremely Hogwarts-esque school, Academy of Celestia, constructed to signify and nurture this peace.

Players take the role of a young woman who discovers that she is unknowingly a rare occurrence of an angel-demon cross-breed who has been invited to attend this school, in doing so discovering a strange and magical side of the world she never knew existed, but also discovering she’s the target of scorn from some of both angel and demon communities due to her rare parentage. Due to events that unfold, she finds herself driven to become the school’s best student and in doing so win the school’s prize of a wish granted to her, while also finding herself drawn to various potential suitors.

While there is some potential here for an interesting story, it quickly becomes clear that there’s a drought of originality pervading throughout Celestia: Chain of Fate. Mash together Harry Potter with an “angels and demons” theme, then toss in every trope of every Otome game ever made, and you know exactly what you’re in for here. To the point where, once it has become clear that your character will be grouped with three other students as a part of her scholastic program in an inane ritual involving a literal Easter egg hunt, you already know exactly which three students she’ll wind up with, as the game has already set them up as potential love interests.

There’s also some really poor world-building here. Let’s talk about that Easter egg hunt, shall we? Not only is this a way for the game to indicate that the protagonist is being paired with partners more-or-less randomly (in a way that anyone can plainly see is not at all random and a contrived way for the game to pair you with your prospective beaus), but it’s given a sense of urgency because we’re told that not finding an egg (okay, it’s technically a gemstone, but it’s the size and shape of an egg) means having points deducted from your school scores.

To compare to Harry Potter, I think we can all agree that Quidditch was dumb, right? It’s a poorly-designed sport with a team position that has almost zero interaction with the rest of the team yet is ultimately the most important part of the game, an idea so stupid that its only purpose was clearly to give the book’s protagonist a thing to do that would highlight him among his students and give them a reason to celebrate him. And what’s more, this absurdity was tied to earning points for the “house cup”, which was made out to be something all the kids found to be important… but at the very least, in Harry Potter, the house cup didn’t have anything to do with scholastic grades, and it was ultimately just kudos to make the kids feel accomplished even if they didn’t actually accomplish anything. But here, we’re told that a dumb easter egg hunt that involves no innate skill or knowledge beyond what you would expect from a toddler… this is going to affect the characters’ final grades?

Sorry, yes, I know I’ve gone off on a tangent here. But I do feel this is indicative of the overall lack of care that has gone into the world-building of this story, and you see it throughout. Here’s another example – we’re told that angels and demons are forbidden from having their fluffy white or bat-like wings out in the school, something intended to make it so attendees are less likely to fall into their innate prejudices based on their race… but then everyone is made to wear lapel pins signifying what race they are… you know, like Germany did in the 1930s. What!? The cognitive dissonance that must have gone into this story choice is simply stunning.

Despite how ham-fisted and ill-advised many of the story choices in Celestia: Chain of Fate are, perhaps the story’s saving grace is how unambitious and formulaic it is, because it mostly hits the story beats you would expect from an Otome game, and it hits them well enough. Your potential suitors are different enough yet have enough positive traits to make them all worthwhile, and each forms different connections to the protagonist, and there’s enough variety in the story to keep things interesting, even if so much of it is absolutely contrived.

However, now I have to knock this game again for having stilted, unnatural dialogue throughout, plus some outright localization issues. They’re nothing truly atrocious, but they’re noticeable enough to inject moments of awkwardness throughout the story.

It’s not all bad news here, though. This game’s hand-drawn anime-style artwork is absolutely gorgeous, with imaginative and evocative backgrounds and some truly marvelous character designs. What’s more, the instrumental soundtrack is truly beautiful, and the game has some really excellent environmental sounds as well. I honestly found myself frustrated that a game with a presentation this wonderful was saddled with such a poorly-constructed story.

Still, if you’re looking for an Otome-style Visual Novel that’s pretty and sounds lovely and don’t mind if it’s dumb and formulaic, I think you’ll be pleased with Celestia: Chain of Fate. As much as I complain about this game’s story, it wasn’t unpleasant, and the lovely presentation kept me engaged even when I kept repeatedly facepalming at the amateurish story. I think you can do much, much better in this genre on Nintendo Switch, but if you enjoy Visual Novels and “pretty and dumb” doesn’t sound so bad to you, you might want to give this a try.

tl;dr – Celestia: Chain of Fate is an Otome-style Visual Novel set in a world with an uneasy peace between angels and demons, with everyone attending a Hogwarts-style school where the game’s female protagonist aims to become the best in her class while surrounded by potential suitors. This game’s story is formulaic, poorly-written, and poorly-localized, but the visuals are nice and the soundtrack is gorgeous. If you’re okay with something pretty but dumb, you may enjoy this.

Grade: C+

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