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magical diary: wolf hall (M/M, M/F, 16+)

• overall: B+. enjoyment: B.
• the second game in the magical diary series -- starring a male protagonist this time. wolf hall is a combination VN and magical dungeon crawler about a young wizard with mysterious origins coming to america for a year to study magic without the pressure waiting for him at home. the story is fantastically done, and it has even more room for variation and replay than the last time around. the gameplay is wonderful, there's a whopping 12 datable characters (4 male and 8 female), and no matter how you play the game you're ensured a fun and unique experience.
• plot: C. you're a pure-blooded wizard from a mysterious foreign country coming to america to study magic, doing your best to hide the fact that you're secretly royalty from everyone, and dealing with the fact that all you know about "america" comes from really bad 90s TV shows you saw back home. given the duplicity and fantastic character concept, you'd expect this story to have a lot more potential. but its commitment to not providing any details about the prince's home life and a marked loss in conflict compared to the first game brings this right back down to average slice of life, which is astonishing.
• characters: A. absolutely wonderful. once again due to the extensive behind-the-scenes worldbuilding, every character has a fully fleshed out, rich, and interesting story going on, even if you as the player aren't always privy to it. even the minor characters are well written, diverse, and three dimensional. they're all easy to like or relate to, too -- with the exception of damien, that is. damien got an upgrade from "overdramatic scheming asshole" to genuine bastard this time around -- though he still has his habit of spouting really dumb sounding lines that the teens in his life fall for nonetheless. while he loses a lot of his likability, it does cement him more as the monster he was probably always supposed to be. but even for the characters that are entirely unlikable (professor potsdam, i'm looking at you), they fit into the world very well and suit the story well. and as for our main character, the prince, he's... not personally to my taste, as he's a bit silly, but he is very carefully designed. he's just a normal kid who likes american TV, hockey, and not thinking too hard about the heavy responsibilities resting on his shoulders. his relationship with grabiner, the only parental-figure he has for the time being, is very well done and speaks a lot to both characters' personalities. the character designs have also kicked it up a notch, with every minor character now having a unique and fitting design.
• writing: S. this game took 9 years to make. now, do i think the developer was writing it non-stop that whole time? obviously not. but the extra time shows, because every moment of this game is clearly incredibly well thought out. it does a fantastic job with every single detail of what are clearly intricate and complicated storylines with huge ramnifications, but manage to come off as natural parts of the characters lives. the game handles the heavy topics it covers very well, and everything that happens just kind of makes sense. there's always that sense that more is going on than you can see, but you're given just enough to draw you in. and as for the romance -- it's lovely. the characters have fantastic chemistry together in nearly every case, and even though the minor routes (and damien) come off more as friendships in many cases, they're still very sweet. the prince himself has a consistent and well-done character arc as well which plays off of his chosen partner, and no matter what you end up doing in the game, you're left with a sense of hope for the future.
• routes: minnie > ellen > manuel > suki > raven > barbara > damien > william > pastel > corrinna > luke > angela
• gameplay: A. gameplay is the same as in the first game, but with some balance updates that make everything a lot smoother. 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 you've learned as well as your character's personality, established early on, impact the story in addition to your choices. this is exactly what i want out of a dating sim, and while i can think of a few improvements (notably i wish the personality aspect wasn't set quite so quickly, and while the dungeons are improved from the first game you can still feel a little rail-roaded at times.) overall it's just incredibly enjoyable to play.
• art: C. while in some ways the art is an improvement from horse hall technically speaking, it comes at the expense of a lot of its charm. characters come off as more generic at times, even if their designs are actually more diverse than in the first game. most notably ellen and damien suffer; other characters are definitely improved, such as raven and suki, and new characters such as barbara and corrinna look fantastic, with nothing to compare them to. there are several decently good-looking CGs that are only a little wonky looking. many scenes are illustrated with charming "chibi" artwork. the UI design definitely suffers, however, going for an extremely basic "text box at the bottom, stats at the top" layout in contrast to the integrated stat + scene page the first game had. overall, the art is "cute". but thats kind of it.

<- Horse Hall review