Evil Avnovice
12-24-2008, 01:18 PM
In this hands-on (http://ds.ign.com/articles/940/940903p1.html) from IGN, they describe this upcoming title from Konami as a Animal Crossing/Harry Potter mashup of sorts. Images and video are also available for viewing, along with a supposed release date of March 2009 for both Europe and North America, with NA getting a more specific date of March 17, 2009.
Magician's Quest is, in almost every way, an Animal Crossing clone, though it does a good job of adding its own spin into the mix, and unlike most "clone" games, is actually fun. Players take the role of a custom-created boy or girl, and enroll in a mysterious magic school in order to become a successful magician. In this Hogwarts-meets-Animal Crossing experience, you'll meet up with a friendly pumpkin-head professor, create your character, head on into your dorm room (with three other rooms available for other friends on your same game cart), and start into the game's main adventure/sim mode. Whether you use touch screen or traditional controls along the way, the experience is all about making use of newly-found magic for not only elaborate, weekly adventures (52 in all, making for a year's worth of story-based gameplay), but also for simple day-to-day tasks such as planting flowers and trees, digging holes, fishing, catching bugs, and all the other tomfoolery we've come to expect from Nintendo's own sim.
With Magician's Quest though, there's a very different art style being done, and it's one that really stands out on the system. 3D is displayed on both screens, with very little frame dipping even in this unfinished preview build (a skip of a single frame every now and then, but hardly noticeable), and it allows for some impressive two-story buildings and elaborate modeling in the world. The city itself is larger than the competition as well, with a main classroom area, a commons ground outside (general trees, benches, paths, and roaming characters), the dorm facilities, a beach, forest, island, caves, haunted house, and shopping district. The shopping district alone holds around eight or so buildings, each offering different aspects of play such as magician equipment, clothes, dorm room furniture, supplies, and even a few services such as a barber shop. If you're bored, you can always head over to the juice bar and try to pick fights, though I was unsuccessful so far; maybe because it's not that kind of game.
Konami's package also allows for some pretty elaborate functions within the game as well. Of course you can fish, plant flowers, and run around town all you want just like in a standard day with Tom Nook, but there are also specific adventures that are scattered throughout, and the ability to interact with the townspeople in a more person-to-person way. Magic in the game is cast via keywords, listed on the bottom screen when in a specific "interact" mode. When casting, it's as simple as combining a few of them together, but when dealing with daily interaction, these same words can be used to convey your questions or comments to computer-controlled players. Slide in the "greetings" tile and the characters will say hello back. Get more complex though, and the system allows you to combine these, by say, adding a greeting and then a weather icon to, at least in theory, talk about the weather with a character. It's a very interesting concept, and we'll have to see how it all works in the context of a day-to-day life sim such as this one.
Magician's Quest will also support local/online for up to four players.
Magician's Quest is, in almost every way, an Animal Crossing clone, though it does a good job of adding its own spin into the mix, and unlike most "clone" games, is actually fun. Players take the role of a custom-created boy or girl, and enroll in a mysterious magic school in order to become a successful magician. In this Hogwarts-meets-Animal Crossing experience, you'll meet up with a friendly pumpkin-head professor, create your character, head on into your dorm room (with three other rooms available for other friends on your same game cart), and start into the game's main adventure/sim mode. Whether you use touch screen or traditional controls along the way, the experience is all about making use of newly-found magic for not only elaborate, weekly adventures (52 in all, making for a year's worth of story-based gameplay), but also for simple day-to-day tasks such as planting flowers and trees, digging holes, fishing, catching bugs, and all the other tomfoolery we've come to expect from Nintendo's own sim.
With Magician's Quest though, there's a very different art style being done, and it's one that really stands out on the system. 3D is displayed on both screens, with very little frame dipping even in this unfinished preview build (a skip of a single frame every now and then, but hardly noticeable), and it allows for some impressive two-story buildings and elaborate modeling in the world. The city itself is larger than the competition as well, with a main classroom area, a commons ground outside (general trees, benches, paths, and roaming characters), the dorm facilities, a beach, forest, island, caves, haunted house, and shopping district. The shopping district alone holds around eight or so buildings, each offering different aspects of play such as magician equipment, clothes, dorm room furniture, supplies, and even a few services such as a barber shop. If you're bored, you can always head over to the juice bar and try to pick fights, though I was unsuccessful so far; maybe because it's not that kind of game.
Konami's package also allows for some pretty elaborate functions within the game as well. Of course you can fish, plant flowers, and run around town all you want just like in a standard day with Tom Nook, but there are also specific adventures that are scattered throughout, and the ability to interact with the townspeople in a more person-to-person way. Magic in the game is cast via keywords, listed on the bottom screen when in a specific "interact" mode. When casting, it's as simple as combining a few of them together, but when dealing with daily interaction, these same words can be used to convey your questions or comments to computer-controlled players. Slide in the "greetings" tile and the characters will say hello back. Get more complex though, and the system allows you to combine these, by say, adding a greeting and then a weather icon to, at least in theory, talk about the weather with a character. It's a very interesting concept, and we'll have to see how it all works in the context of a day-to-day life sim such as this one.
Magician's Quest will also support local/online for up to four players.