It's hard not to compare Magician's Quest to Nintendo's famed Animal Crossing, especially when it unashamedly shares, at least on the surface, so many similarities with said title. You can decorate your room, talk to the town's inhabitants, invite friends to visit your town via local wireless or Wi-Fi—heck, even the basic toolset (shovel, watering can, fishing pole, net) is eerily similar, and you'll of course be watching the real clock to see when you should expect things to be happening in your game.
But even as it begins there, Magician's Quest diverges and takes its own tack. The setting isn't simply an idyllic forest paradise where you make your own goal; no, Magician's Quest puts you in a school of wizardry, drawing somewhat on the also-popular influences of Harry Potter. There are, in addition to the normal passing of seasons and all that come with it, weekly quests handed out as part of your "education". The result is that the whole thing feels a whole lot less free-form... more structured.
If it seems like it took me a long time to review this game, well, it did. This is not a game that can be burned through rapidly; I wanted to get for myself an expansive sampling of what one could expect over the full year it would take a normal player. My wife, who I've played a lot of both of Animal Crossing's first two installments with, joined me with her own copy of the game. It proved to be interesting, actually, to contrast my experiences with her own.
I was pretty intrigued by what Magician's Quest had to offer me, a long-time Animal Crossing fan who was becoming quite troubled with Nintendo's failure to innovate on the series. Most interesting to me was the weekly magic classes that came as part of my in-game education. The game has something called "magic linguistics," an arsenal of symbols that can be linked together to cast spells and make incantations and create all sorts of neat effects in the world around you, as well as communicate—on a very basic level—with others.
The game's theme is particularly interesting, too. Above and beyond the simple bugs, fish, and flowers Magician's Quest adds its own fantasy element—sometimes charming, sometimes slightly disturbing—and it works very well. There are numerous neat things to do, as well, in particular the music system: if you listen to a tune, you can "learn" it and engage in impromptu jam sessions with nearby citizens. The whole game is full of neat little touches like that, particularly with spell effects—it's clear the programmers were in their element making a very interactive world.
That said, there was one key thing that I found seriously lacking in Magician's Quest: the textual interaction with the other residents of the town. I never felt like my character's relationship with the other students was changing at all, despite the ability to go on dates or "play" together. They never really had anything other than gossip for me when I would speak to them, and that was generally nonsensical. I suspect this was more a failing of the script than anything—the game's systems seemed allright on this front—but it weighed heavily on me and I ended up rarely speaking to them at all.
The weekly questing grated on me somewhat as well; the objectives seemed obtuse and the mechanics often pointlessly difficult—the unexplained and insane fishing controls being a serious thorn for both my wife and me. But where I was annoyed, my wife has been really enjoying the regular challenges. She'll routinely tell me about what she's up to, even after I've decided I'd rather skip class and go maintain the plant life in the conservatory instead.
It makes for an interesting contrast, her and I. I suspect that we both have approached Magician's Quest with different expectations in mind; I, always the gardener and idle chatter in Animal Crossing, was hoping for an expressive canvas and found merely basic trappings and a stifling structure, while she, interior decorator and achiever of merits, found joy in helping everyone with their problems as they came up from week to week.
I think that, in the end, Magician's Quest may have succeeded in reaching a particular group of people and not so much others. Though there is a surface resemblance to Animal Crossing, its sense of structure imposes enough on the game to make it something that isn't necessarily guaranteed to appeal, but may also engage one who is yearning for just that even more. It all depends on what you're looking for.
But even as it begins there, Magician's Quest diverges and takes its own tack. The setting isn't simply an idyllic forest paradise where you make your own goal; no, Magician's Quest puts you in a school of wizardry, drawing somewhat on the also-popular influences of Harry Potter. There are, in addition to the normal passing of seasons and all that come with it, weekly quests handed out as part of your "education". The result is that the whole thing feels a whole lot less free-form... more structured.
If it seems like it took me a long time to review this game, well, it did. This is not a game that can be burned through rapidly; I wanted to get for myself an expansive sampling of what one could expect over the full year it would take a normal player. My wife, who I've played a lot of both of Animal Crossing's first two installments with, joined me with her own copy of the game. It proved to be interesting, actually, to contrast my experiences with her own.
I was pretty intrigued by what Magician's Quest had to offer me, a long-time Animal Crossing fan who was becoming quite troubled with Nintendo's failure to innovate on the series. Most interesting to me was the weekly magic classes that came as part of my in-game education. The game has something called "magic linguistics," an arsenal of symbols that can be linked together to cast spells and make incantations and create all sorts of neat effects in the world around you, as well as communicate—on a very basic level—with others.
The game's theme is particularly interesting, too. Above and beyond the simple bugs, fish, and flowers Magician's Quest adds its own fantasy element—sometimes charming, sometimes slightly disturbing—and it works very well. There are numerous neat things to do, as well, in particular the music system: if you listen to a tune, you can "learn" it and engage in impromptu jam sessions with nearby citizens. The whole game is full of neat little touches like that, particularly with spell effects—it's clear the programmers were in their element making a very interactive world.
That said, there was one key thing that I found seriously lacking in Magician's Quest: the textual interaction with the other residents of the town. I never felt like my character's relationship with the other students was changing at all, despite the ability to go on dates or "play" together. They never really had anything other than gossip for me when I would speak to them, and that was generally nonsensical. I suspect this was more a failing of the script than anything—the game's systems seemed allright on this front—but it weighed heavily on me and I ended up rarely speaking to them at all.
The weekly questing grated on me somewhat as well; the objectives seemed obtuse and the mechanics often pointlessly difficult—the unexplained and insane fishing controls being a serious thorn for both my wife and me. But where I was annoyed, my wife has been really enjoying the regular challenges. She'll routinely tell me about what she's up to, even after I've decided I'd rather skip class and go maintain the plant life in the conservatory instead.
It makes for an interesting contrast, her and I. I suspect that we both have approached Magician's Quest with different expectations in mind; I, always the gardener and idle chatter in Animal Crossing, was hoping for an expressive canvas and found merely basic trappings and a stifling structure, while she, interior decorator and achiever of merits, found joy in helping everyone with their problems as they came up from week to week.
I think that, in the end, Magician's Quest may have succeeded in reaching a particular group of people and not so much others. Though there is a surface resemblance to Animal Crossing, its sense of structure imposes enough on the game to make it something that isn't necessarily guaranteed to appeal, but may also engage one who is yearning for just that even more. It all depends on what you're looking for.