Halloween Special: Midnight Invitation (again)

Since I skipped this year's Halloween event cards, I decided to celebrate Halloween by revisiting last year's dates instead, lol. This is another set I miss a lot! The entire deck looks sooo good, and I even had three out of four cards on my old account. So it was pretty depressing when this event had its rerun a week ago and I had to accept once again that those cards are gone and I'm never getting them back...

Anyway, the plan is to read through all the dates again and share my comments and thoughts about them along the way. Feel free to join the party!

The Dates of the Midnight Invitation Event:

• Kiro: Role-playing Date
• Gavin: Carnival Date
• Lucien: Castle Escape Date
• Victor: Eldritch Date (I borrowed the video I was missing from PikaGodnPray's YouTube channel!)

Although only Kiro's date title directly mentions "role-play", all the dates feature elements of live-action role-playing games (LARPs) and escape rooms. MC and the boys go on various adventures together, solving mysteries and completing challenges along the way. Their adventures take them to places like a cemetery, a castle and different urban settings. They also have secret personal missions and rules based on their assigned roles. For example, in Kiro's date, MC plays the Witch of Desire, and her secret mission is to make her partner say the word "satisfied". In Victor's date, physical contact is forbidden, and so on. Gavin's date is an exception, as the escape room quickly turns into his own solo mission. They finish the game early, and spend most of the remaining time wandering around an abandoned amusement park. The event's playful theme song also captures these game-like elements and the overall sense of fun quite well. Despite the Halloween setting, these dates are definitely not among the scariest ones! 

I'd say the classic Halloween catchphrase "Trick or treat?" actually describes the dates pretty well. Even though some of them involve enjoying plenty of candy, the real "treat" is, of course, the romance. Kisses taste like candy in Gavin's and Kiro's dates, while Lucien is practically the embodiment of elegance, mystery and flirtiness throughout his date. The highlight is definitely when he takes the lead in their dance. In Victor's date, he and MC share a little intimate moment in the dark, breaking the rules in a place where the security cameras can't catch them. And surprisingly, Kiro's date even ends with a bedroom scene..! 👀

There are also some "tricks" along the way, such as teasing each other and playing against one another. In Gavin's date, MC makes up some new rules on the spot, which Gavin eventually uses to steal a kiss from her, hehe. Kiro and MC both have secret missions that involve getting the other person to say a specific phrase. They each try to subtly lead the other into letting the words slip so they can win the game. As their dance is about to come to an end, MC suddenly takes over the storytelling and catches Lucien by surprise. Their game eventually leads to a situation where the Jester, who exists outside the story, can control the movements of his Puppet Lady, but as the Queen of the story, MC holds his heart. So, who's really pulling whose strings now? 

And when MC's time runs out in Victor's date, he wants her to bring him over to the infected side so they can stay on the same team. In the end, they work together to lure the last surviving player into a trap. But the best ending definitely belongs to Gavin! Throughout the game, he has been dealing with all the unexpected ghosts and other spooky disturbances without getting startled even once. Then, at the very end, he suddenly jumps at the sight of a children's carousel starting up out of nowhere. MC teases him about it, but he simply responds sweetly that when he's with her, he can openly show all his emotions without feeling embarrassed or having to keep his guard up.

I must admit, though, that I don't particularly love any of these dates. I don't dislike them either, but they're just okay-ish to me. This time, the artwork definitely wins over the stories. My least favorite date was unfortunately Gavin's. It felt a little disappointing that MC barely got to participate and mostly just followed Gavin around during the escape room game, and their aimless wandering around the amusement park afterwards also felt a little pointless too. Lucien's date is also rather difficult to follow in some places. Even though I've read it several times, I still feel like there are things I haven't quite figured out, lol. That's actually quite surprising, considering how similar these dates are to the Carnival Night episode, which I find really interesting!

As I already mentioned, the cards are absolutely stunning. Both MC and the boys look amazing in their Halloween costumes! 😍 However, I have to admit that some of the outfits looked a little weird on their in-game sprites. Those glasses make Kiro look like he's constantly cross-eyed, for example. And seeing the boys wearing these outfits outside the actual stories gave me some pretty funny vibes, especially when they randomly showed up in those clothes in the "Go See Him" section. xD