Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart

by Bryony Harrison (follow)

1 player (236)      Android (173)      Single Player (126)      Fantasy (14)      Roleplay (6)      Girls (2)      Story (1)      Manga (1)      Graphic Novel (1)      Magic (1)     

Summary



Take on the role of a young girl who can talk to animals, as she learns magic at the Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy. Read her story, as she meets the boys at her new school.

Description
Type: Roleplay
Platform: Android
Players: Single Player
Age: 11 plus
Game Time: Endless
Developer or Designer: NTT Solmare Corp
Publisher: NTT Solmare Corp

Pros

Cons

Review



The Solmare Corp. Shall We Date? series by NTT Solmare Corp. combines storytelling with gaming. Developed for Android systems, they generally appear to be aimed at teenage girls who like Japanese Manga. The characters are very much in keeping with Manga style art, but the background artwork is more detailed and coloured.



I am not interested in either graphic novels or anything to do with romance, but a video trailer of one game in the series caught my attention, because it was about attending magic school. Most Harry Potter fans would have their interest piqued by this concept.



The basic idea for Wizardess Heart is a 'create your own adventure', in that you are the protagonist of the story, and as you read, you can make choices that will take you down a particular path.



You take on the role of a young wizardess who can talk to animals, and have been sent an acceptance letter for Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy. There is a lot of dialogue to read, most of which includes utterly failed attempts at humour, which is more irritating and patronising than anything else. I could see it appeal to 10 - 13 year olds, but not much beyond that.



The ratio between storytelling and gaming is skewed too far to the former, leaving those wanting some action and adventure bored rigid as they attempt to skip seamlessly endless amounts of text.



When you do get to an activity, your input is still pretty limited. For example, with you click 'extra curricula' work, you just get taken to an automated screen that randomises the success of your achievement. In other words, you don't do anything except click a button.



Gameplay in general is actually pretty confusing. The homepage or 'My Page' simply appears to show your progress in the story, items you've earned, and different things you can do. Among these include changing your school uniform, choosing your boyfriend, extra curricula activities, going on a date (again automated, and I've yet to understand what the outcome of pressing this button achieves), and continuing to read the story. Confusion is added by the fact that it continually advertises new story content and reccomends you read it. When you go to read it, it then warns that it will change the current story path you are one.

For me, the game is confusing, mundane, longwinded, and not as interactive as it makes out to be. On top of that, it just reinforces gender stereotypes, and cliched characters.

Categories
#Roleplay
#Story
#Manga
#Graphic Novel
#Android
#Single Player
#1 player
#Fantasy
#Magic
#Girls

I like this Article - 5

ID: 36618