So come on in, see my husbando rankings, and let me know how I’m wrong. My rankings go from worst to best and this list does have some spoilers, but it doesn’t reveal the biggest plot twists of Mystic Messenger. You’ve been warned!
Ray
By the time you can woo Ray, one of the two men of Another Story, you know who he is and what he’s going through. He’s far from mentally stable, for reasons beyond his control, but that doesn’t stop his path from being disturbing. You can argue that you at least know what you’re signing up for as a point to Ray’s advantage over V, but Ray is definitely an antagonistic character and it’s hard to shake that.
There are other reasons I find that Ray is the worst husbando on the list, but explaining them would be some massive spoilers. Just know that using the ‘power of love’ to save Ray from his circumstances is just… not it, chief. Yes, most of his not-bad endings have him going to therapy and getting treatment, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And those bad endings probably need trigger warnings.
V
V, the other character that you can’t romance until Another Story, will never love you. Well, he will if you walk an insanely thin tightrope of choosing the right answers, but in most cases, he’s still in love with his deceased girlfriend.
It’s a shame, he’s pretty hot and an artist. Two great points to V’s advantage. But he is, ultimately, stuck in the past and untangling all of that is difficult. It doesn’t help that the bad endings (which you’ll likely see) are pretty disturbing. Sorry V, I can’t deal with all that.
Zen
Zen’s a bit of an asshole. He seems only obsessed with his looks and it’s really annoying having him spam the chats with his gym and shirtless pics. You know that’s not attractive, bro, right? He does have reasons to do this, but I can’t say I find them very compelling.
Also, his storyline revolves around a woman falsely accusing Zen of sexually harassing her. It goes off this narrative that women do these things often to get something out of celebrities, which is pretty gross. That’s more on the developers than the character, but it’s far from the best. Oh, and one of the bad endings has you being downright abusive to Zen. That’s not cool.
Jumin
Jumin is cold, aloof, loves cats, pretty hot, and flush with cash. What’s not to love? Well, he is distrustful of women (for pretty obvious reasons), so it’s a little hard to woo him. If Jumin does happen to develop feelings for you, he becomes more than a little unstable, becoming extremely obsessive and treating you like a pet, which is… strange. But I guess he only had to deal with cats before now.
You can help him work through it by understanding his feelings but also standing your ground and making it clear that it’s not okay to treat people like that - that’s a surprisingly healthy thing for an otome game. Did you ever play Amnesia: Memories, the one that wants you to be okay with one of the guys putting you in a dog cage? Yeah, no. Telling Jumin this isn’t okay is not going to lock you into a bad ending, if you’re gentle about it. Finally, you get to spend time with a beautiful cat. So that at least gets him a few points over Zen, who is allergic to cats. Zen, you just have so much going against you.
Yoosung
Yoosung is probably the most wholesome of the Mystic Messenger men, but well, every male character in the game has some sort of trauma going on and he’s no exception. It’s obvious from the get-go that Yoosung is having difficulty dealing with his cousin’s death, and quickly attaches his feelings to you as her “replacement”.
If you decide to romance him he very quickly becomes obsessive and attached, but thankfully it’s never as far as other characters go and asserting that you’re not, in fact, his deceased cousin reincarnated gets him to stop quickly enough. Yoosung is definitely going through some stuff, but not nearly on the same level as the majority of these characters, which just makes his path less stressful. And who really needs more stress?
Jaehee
“Excuse me,” far too many people will say, “Jaehee is not a man! How can you make her a husbando?” Because I can, okay? Let’s break some gender norms, shall we?
Jaehee has one of the most relatable stories in the game - overworked and under-appreciated, she’s the assistant to Jumin, who is a workaholic and expects the same out of her. You’ll spend most of her path talking to her about wanting to do more with her life. If you do everything right, she quits her assistant position and opens up a bakery. It’s so wonderful. Follow your dreams, sister.
Seven
Mystic Messenger doesn’t really position any particular character as the ‘lead man’, but honestly, Seven’s probably it. Some of the game’s biggest plot twists require beating his route to unlock, and in general, Seven is one of the two characters most entrenched with everything going on.
And, I mean, in spite of the guy’s really tragic past and current dangerous career, Seven’s a pretty great guy. While it’s obvious to all that his overly flippant nature in the chat room isn’t his true personality, Seven is ultimately a pretty caring guy that is also decidedly NOT unstable. Sometimes you just want someone you don’t have to fix, you know? Need more Mystic Messenger help? Here’s our complete guide to winning hearts.
