Magical Diary

Some games are just visual novels like Doki Doki Literature Club. Others are just first-person RPGs like Etrian Odyssey. Then there’s Magical Diary that takes both genres, blends them together and throws in a hefty amount of Harry Potter inspiration for good measure. This mix amalgamates into a unique story-driven experience with tons of replayability where each playthrough can take you on a completely different path.

Here’s everything you need to know about Magical Diary:

Join a Magical School

Magical Diary: Horse Hall invites you to attend a school of magic where everything and anything can both go surprisingly well and horribly wrong. You start off by customizing your own character, after which you’re thrust into the crazy world of becoming a witch or wizard.

Just like with every school experience, you’ll encounter all types of characters in Magical Diary: Horse Hall. From the strict teacher to the shy yet cute classmate, no trope or paradigm is absent from this game. The story itself isn’t original but what it has it executes well with a vibrant, upbeat tone.

Approach Your Way

Your daily life in the school of Magical Diary: Horse Hall is filled with choices and decisions. Pretty much every aspect of the game can be approached with more than one way. You can choose which characters you want to romance and befriend. How you solve puzzles and events comes down to your preference and build. With over 70 spells to learn and master, taking on challenges and dungeons will also boil down to how your character’s abilities are moulded.

Secrets Galore

Depending on the choices you make in Magical Diary: Horse Hall, you may find yourself unlocking a host of secrets. By speaking to the right people and responding to them in a certain way could lead you down the path of unlocking a secret plotline. Tackling a dungeon or puzzle in a certain way could also trigger a hidden event that would otherwise go untapped. This adds a lot of replay value to Magical Diary: Horse Hall as it’s nearly impossible to experience the whole game in a single playthrough.

The Bottom Line

Visual novels and RPGs are well-known for having hidden secrets and events. For the most part, they’re simply additive to the experience. Magical Diary: Horse Hall makes this facet an integral part of what makes it highly replayable. The number of choices and decisions you make can easily lead you down a completely different path from your previous game.

Pros

• Lots of replay value thanks to its multitude of options
• Customizable main character
• Lots of characters to befriend and romance
• Mutliple endings and storylines to unlock

Cons

• The main story feels extremely derivative of Harry Potter and other magical school tropes
• If you don’t enjoy multiple playthroughs, it can possibly feel very short