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• overall: B. enjoyment: A+.
• magical diary is a combination VN and magical dungeon crawler starring a young witch with no magical experience coming to a magical academy ala hogwarts. its a charming coming of age story with an open-ended setting and a lot of room for variation between runs. the spell casting aspect and the large cast of characters (though only 6 are datable) means no two playthroughs will be alike, so there's a lot of replay value. the gameplay itself is very fun, and while the art is a bit controversial overall its a very enjoyable experience that i recommend to anyone.
• plot: C. you're a young wildseed (wizard/witch born to non-magical parents. i.e: "muggle") starting school at a wizards academy to learn magic for the first time, and finding yourself surrounded by powerful people who may or may not have your best interests in mind. "young girl learns about magic and explores world that was under her nose all along" is easy mode for dating sims, but without something a little more complicated behind the scenes there isn't much to it. you get a sense that there's a lot of important world-building going on, but as none of it comes to surface it really just comes down to a girl going to school and getting into some relationship drama.
• characters: B. they're all fantastic. one way the elaborate behind-the-scenes worldbuilding does benefit this game is that every single character, no matter how minor, has a full life they're living and a fleshed out character. they all, for the most part, act realistically for their situations, and they're more or less likable. there are a few exceptions; the main character, mary, is... dumb. dumb to outrageous degrees, sometimes. a fair amount of the problems she faces at school are caused by her doing things that any non-magical 16 year old should have known better than to do. and while i can't fault her entirely for her interactions with damien, as being in an abusive relationship messes with your standards to begin with, sometimes it's a little excessive. damien as well is kind of overdramatic and it's hard to take him as the bastard boyfriend seriously just because he's so... immature himself. he's very fun nonetheless, but i don't think that's what they were going for. in addition, the character designs themselves are very generic, especially the minor characters. aside from the main dates and professors, most characters are just made dress-up game style using the MC's assets.
• writing: B. it's very good. the pacing is perfect, and the game is very good at adjusting its tone from light-hearted to heavy at the drop of a hat without any whiplash whatsoever. emotional topics are given the weight and care they deserve, and the game is very good at showing character motivations and consequences. every single route does a fantastic job at making you care about the people involved, even the relatively low-stakes donald route, and the romance is sweet when it needs to be and silly or overdramatic when it wants to be. the silly moments don't feel out of place, they just feel fun.
• routes: damien > ellen > big steve > grabiner > virginia > donald
• gameplay: A. while story sections are VN, a substantial portion of the game is raising stats, learning spells, and then using those spells in dungeons, where you can move around and solve puzzles in turn based exploration/combat. spells youve learned can also have an impact on the story, providing you more opportunities. its absolutely fantastic. the game has a few balance issues, there are some spells that don't have a real use outside of filling in the gaps in your spellbook, but overall its absolutely ideal.
• art: C. the art is very stylized and hit or miss with a lot of people. i personally think its very charming and has a lot of character to it. however some anatomy is a bit wonky sometimes, and several characters are a bit cookie-cutter; assets are reused for the player and minor characters. the one kiss CG is especially notable, as its essentially identical no matter whos in it aside from hair style and color. its the only CG, as well. UI design is lovely, with a frame-like integrated stat/scene page, but the color scheme is a bit bland. title art is beautiful. damien is a show-stopper any given time he appears.

Wolf Hall review ->