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Magi Trials Character Dakimakuras Magi Trials Original Soundtrack Magi Trials Original Wallpapers Magi Trials Avatar Pack All items are included in the deluxe edition of the game along with the full game.
It’s been a while since I’ve actually wrote an in-depth review, and you can blame my field of study for that. Now that finals are coming up and the end of school will be soon upon me, I hope that I’ll have more of my hours back to invest in this little blog. But here, I present to you a new review of a project I decided to buy after looking on recent releases on Steam. I’ve played many a VN’s in the past and only few left me with conflicted feelings once it was all over. This is one of them.
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“Magi Trials” (formerly know as “Coterie: A Study of Magic” and “Highschool Romance: Magi Trials”) is a visual novel developed and published by Dharker Studios, released on November 17th, 2016, and was part of a Kickstarter campaign that funded four other VNs of the same studio. In “Magi Trials”, you follow the protagonist, Shaun, as he attempts to enroll into a prestigious magic academy. As he is without any kind of formal magic training, he breaks into a library full of spells and attempts at one with hopes that it will give in an advantage in his entrance exam. The spell backfires and he awakes the next morning, rushing to get to his entrance exam. As he enters the restroom and looks in the mirror, he realizes that the spell not only gave him a pounding headache but also a pretty sizable bosom. Despite turning into a lady, he/she soldiers on and fails his entrance exam, only to be taken up by apprentice by a school magi who sees potential in him/her. With this, another chance at the entrance exam is in sight as long as Shaun manages to survive his training and avoid trouble along the way.
I’ll be honest, the only reason why I bothered to check this title out was because of its original tie-in to another VN by Dharker Studios called “Highschool Romance”, which came out about year ago and, in my opinion, thought it was very flawed overall and not worth anyone’s time. I took the time to read this new title in hopes that there was at least some improvement, and you know what? I actually enjoyed my time reading “Magi Trials” as compared to “Highschool Romance”, maybe because of the better setting, better characters, or a plot that actually has progression. Now since they’ve dropped the “Highschool Romance” prefix altogether at the time of this review, I can stop comparing it to their previous works and break it down to what this VN really is: a work with a story and characters that has the potential to be really great and amazing, but instead plays safe and ends up becoming something quite lackluster and superficial.
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Let’s start with what I think the weakest part of this VN to be: the music. The soundtrack lists 12 tracks and none of them are very memorable. It’s all either orchestral with a rock beat or peppy synth tones with a rock beat, with sometimes slow string swells and a moving line to give a feeling of tension all tied together with a rock beat in the mix. The music itself is basic yet serviceable, but when put together all in the context of this VN, it falls flat. It’s the same one piece of music to denote all slice-of-life encounters, and the same one piece of music to denote any kind of tension. To make matters worse, often times the music does not accurately depict moods or emotions in the context of a scene. There is one scene where one of the character teaches the protagonist how to use magic to put on makeup, and the music to accompany this scene has these slow string swells and a slow-moving flute/recorder melody that gives the impression of mourning or sadness instead of highlighting the awkwardness yet feeling of comfort and intimacy these two classmates are sharing. I think the music itself is not to problem, but rather how the music is used. “Magi Trials” does not use its music very well and sometimes fails to accompany scenes properly. In the medium of a VN which combines all sorts of media from artwork to music, not being able to use the music one has to a serviceable level is highly unfortunate.
Moving onto a more meatier topic, let’s look into the writing. As a whole, I think “Magi Trials” has a pretty decent story. There is enough action, character development, and intriguing scenes and moments that keeps everything moving from beginning to end. I feel that it is as well-paced as it can be, and the plot twist near the end of the “good ending” branching path was definitely as effective as it could be. I say this because on a superficial level the writing and the story is pretty good, but once you break it down to the micro-elements, such as character motivations, world-building, and themes. During the completion of all the story paths, the motivation of both the protagonist and the other character is clear and unveiled, but not of the main antagonist. Throughout the whole story there are glimpses of the hierarchy of mages and how run-down the city slums full of non-magic users are as compared to areas with magic users, but all this takes a backseat to what happens in the academy. There was a scene with the protagonist and another mage that explains the uniqueness of an individual’s magical aura, but such a concept was never touched on again. I feel like the story was a line of spring-loaded platforms just waiting to take a reader deeper and farther into new unknown territory, but the springs never activated and instead the reader just walks from platform to platform all the way to the end. “Magi Trials” plays it safe and does not allow itself to go all the way when introducing new concepts or explanations, and this ends up being what I think to be the most unfortunate part of this whole VN.
It is such a shame, as I really did love all the characters in this small cast of six. Each of the characters had a very different personality, and how they interact with each other was well-written. From the way that just the protagonist interacted with the apprentice friend to the mentor to even the succubus was all varied, interesting, fun, and always consistent to their personalities. As with my previous comments, I wished that these characters were more fleshed out and we know more about them. Yes, there is character development with both the protagonist and the other apprentice character, but like the story it only goes so far before it has to end to make way for the plot. Even the action scenes with the magic battles are really cool and exciting to read, but it all feels so short and ends up being so uneventful.
Lastly, I’ll be talking about the art, which I think to be the strongest part of this VN. The UI is functional, but really does look like something out of a mobile game with its big buttons and bright colors. However, everything is clean and smooth and not intrusive, so that is a plus. The backgrounds are really well-drawn and painted. I especially like the lighting in all of the locations, even if it is all of about 8 locations. I wish there was more locations for different scenes that the writing describes, but given how VN development is that is not always an option. Despite this, all the backgrounds are very consistent with each other and are very well-done. Another aspect that is very well done are the sprites and character design. The design of each of the six characters is really well done and does well on easily differentiating each character visually. The sprite work is very clean and smooth, with each character constantly conveying the artist’s style. I think it would be a bit fair to compare this part to “Highschool Romance” as it is the same artist, and I would like to add that the art has definitely improved over last year in that VN. Comparing the two, I think the proportions of the characters have improved and the style is a lot more refined. I also appreciated the extra work in seeing the sprites wear different outfits in certain scenes, which is something not very common in most English VNs. To close it off, the CGs in this VN are fantastic. The more lewd ones and fanservice-y bits are fine and still pretty well-done, but the ones that stand out to me are the action and ending CGs. The way the artist conveys magic in action in a still image is amazing, using elements such as blurring, trails, lighting. I really do like the glow and lighting effects the artist uses, and the little touches done to affect how it reacts to a character and the environment.
Overall, I wouldn’t call “Magi Trials” the greatest English VN of all time nor the worst of all time. I would not even call it mediocre, as there is clearly some good talent all in this team. It would say that most of the talent is underutilized, and this VN had the potential to be a really interesting and cool, but falls short in most every aspect. There was a lot I liked about this VN, from how the characters were written to the artwork, but the writing never goes all the way and never allows itself to take chances and risks. With this kind of medium, VNs relies on music, artwork, and writing to convey a meaningful experience and story. When one falters, it makes it harder for the other aspects to be as effective as they could be. I really wish this VN could live up to its full potential, but right now it does not and I don’t think it ever will. With an asking price of $9.99, I would say it is not worth it at that price. This whole VN is about 2 to 3 hours long to read and complete all the routes, and it is a hard sell, in my opinion, for $10. If you really are attracted to the art or feel like reading a work that will never live up to its full potential, then go for it. If you’re not but still want to give this a go, wait for a good sale. I wanted to recommend this VN to others, but I can’t with this steep price point. Don’t get me wrong, I did have fun reading this VN, but ultimately it just left me dissatisfied in the end and saddened by the fact that this would probably be as good as it is going to get.
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I give “Magi Trials” a 5/10. Check it out on Steam here, and also on Nutaku here. Also consider giving the artist, Enrique Bolate, a look too: his Tumblr, Twitter, and Patreon.
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And as always, thanks for reading! I know I haven’t written much over the past few months, but it means a lot if you’ve made it this far. Feel free to leave a comment and to follow me on my Twitter!