Celestia: Chain of Fate

Celestia: Chain of Fate is a sizable and engaging romantic fantasy visual novel.

Humans, angels, and demons... as well as love

A pleasant enough visual novel about angels, demons, and their offspring that manages to crib from Harry Potter as well

Celestia: Chain of Fate has a bland story that throws the most important elements of the genre out the window. It strips you of your feelings of connection and accomplishment with your love interest due to there not being dedicated routes, and even the base story does a poor job of standing on its own. The characters can be fun to get to know, as long as you keep your expectations of them low. Add on to that the visuals and music are nothing to write home about and it’s just one big chore. Honestly, there are so many titles out there for the same price tag that I’d suggest leaving this one for the Steam sale or something.

If I had to describe Celestia: Chain of Fate in just a few words it would have to be “what a shame”. When I first saw the teaser for this game, I hoped that Agate Games had created something good. But instead, Celestia is simply unable to stand out in any meaningful way. And honestly, I found it difficult to play this for more than 20 minutes.

As far as independent visual novels go, Celestia: Chain of Fate lands in that growing middle tier of visual novel. Sure it might not have the production values of an Otomate production, or even last week’s Famicom Detective Club by Nintendo. As with all genre’s there’s an A-tier, and Celestia isn’t quite there. Yet it punches far above the typical “indie” visual novel, too, thanks to its absolutely gorgeous art, the complexity of the branching narrative, and… well, the kind of writing that does make you want to see the inevitable CG when the very pretty girl and very, very pretty boys start smooshing lips and bodies together. Celestia is a very believable bit of fantasy romance, which is the point, and it’s one VN fans shouldn’t overlook, despite 2024 being quite a year for the genre.

Although I admittedly have a soft spot for Otome games, Celestia: Chain of Fate has quickly become one of my favorites. Of course, attractive love interests are a must-have, but I’m always looking for a great story to go with them. Celestia goes above and beyond with its storyline, both in quality and quantity.