Beautiful Mystic Survivors Preview

What’s left to say about the bullet heaven, AKA survivorlike genre? Seriously, I’m asking, because I’ve got to write this whole thing about Beautiful Mystic Survivors, a game entering month 36 of its three-month Early Access journey.

I’d like to preface this by saying that the last update was in April 2023. A Steam news post was made in June 2024 saying that the game would release around October 2024. I recently spotted this in my Steam library, having clearly been purchased when it was on sale, and sunk several hours into it before seeing all of these flashing, neon warning signs.

Beautiful Mystic Survivors differentiates itself from other bullet heaven titles by having all of the playable characters be buxom women, whose outfits get damaged as they lose health. There’s no nudity in the game, and it’s honestly difficult to tell that the clothing is different in any way, but the mechanic is there. The first damage occurs at about one third of their health, then two thirds — losing all health causes them to collapse and it’s game over.

Apart from the very first enemy you encounter being — arachnophobia warning — spiders, most of the enemies are your usual fantasy enemies. Trolls, golems, wolves, plants, dragons… their designs are all great, honestly, and despite the anime look of the player characters the creatures look nice and realistic.

There are 10 characters, most requiring rescuing as is usual for the genre, and they all have slightly different stats and starting weapons, as well as a passive ability, such as doing more damage for every 100 gold you collect. Each also has a powerful ultimate ability, which has a cooldown but is well worth it when you’re in a bind. Orbiting whirlwinds, lancing energy beams — that kind of thing.

On the audio side of things, the game is fairly barebones. The characters speak now and then, but it’s unsubtitled Japanese, so I have no idea what they’re actually saying. There’s forgettable music, and most of the attacks do sound effects, but I couldn’t say that they add a lot to the package.

Beautiful Mystic Survivors isn’t expensive — and it’s on a 40% sale as I write this — but maybe only get this one if you want an easy time grabbing some achievements and have run out of other bullet heaven titles already. 10 characters, three levels, and 53 achievements, all of which will run you about 10 hours depending (largely) on your luck. Just be aware that it’s likely not going to leave Early Access at this rate.