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miraclr (*/M, */NB, free*)

• overall: D+. enjoyment: D-.
• miraclr is a instant-messaging based dating sim clearly optimized for a phone, but also available on PC for a cost. your player is contacted by a group of angels who need your help planning a miracle to reinvigorate faith in the divine. over the course of a week (real time), the angels will text you and set up meetings in a game interface reminiscent of a discord server. the game is cute, with a lot of potential-- but its hindered by several major flaws. the writing, while decent, is dragged down by the pacing. the art is subpar, but salvageable. the real biggest issue: the game just straight up doesn't work. the app is full of bugs, design oversights, and missed notifications. its not entirely unplayable, but its certainly hard to enjoy.
• plot: C. the archangels have been approved to perform a miracle for the first time in 400 years, and theyve selected you, a human, to join their team and help them workshop ideas. but all is not as it seems, and theres a plot by someone on the team to take advantage of the situation. its... honestly a fairly unique setup, with a lot of potential. but not much of that potential is used, unfortunately, and the story is actually very predictable.
• characters: C. theyre not bad. they have their little quirks, and some are more likable than others. their voices are very distinct. none of them are particularly well-developed, though, they tend to be a little one-note. what you see is what you get. points for making it clear that michael is well-intentioned but kind of a prick and lucifer is poor-intentioned but not that bad a dude in the end. the contrast and dynamic between the two of them is the games highest point.
• writing: C. im not going to lie. its pretty funny. the dialogue is catchy, fun to read, and while the romance isnt exactly deep, the flirting feels realistic just because its written the way people really speak. nerds, admittedly, but people. youre not going to get any poignant emotional moments, but the game knows what its trying to be and does a pretty good job at it. the game is very short, but honestly thats a good thing considering its real-time. ... unfortunately, the "common route" (aka. the days before you pick an angel) is more than half the game and it drags on when you have to replay it. its very boring. since the game really expects you to replay, its a real issue that so little changes.
• routes: lucifer > raphael > michael > gabriel > uriel
• gameplay: F. while the game is more or less text only, its still a fairly unusual set up. its structured like a chatroom in a messaging app, with different channels and private messages. gameplay works by logging on at certain times to read chats and make dialogue choices. if you miss a choice, you can rewind by spending "halos" which are gathered by talking to the boys. its a more or less fun way to play. unfortunately... the app just doesnt work. its laggy, it sometimes wont load conversations unless you restart, its at least once replayed an old conversation for me by mistake, and the "real time notifications" about when conversations are happening dont always work. you will of course be punished for missing them, even though none of them are within the scheduled meeting times you can choose. it is absolutely infuriating to be punished for not responding to a private message during a time i told the game id be busy. on top of that, if you choose not to explore a certain subplot, the game will permanently mark one character as having unread messages. and let's not even get started on "redo day", a feature that, if you use it, makes you miss the entirety of the day you're "redoing. i'm not even joking. what the fuck?? possibly the PC version would work a bit better, but that loses the notifications altogether and also costs $10.
• art: D. the art just isnt good. i find myself spending halos relentlessly trying to unlock character pics that arent upsetting to look at. luckily there isnt much art in the game in the first place, and the UI design is fine. but really, that art, its just not good.