Like Animal Crossing and Harry Potter? You'll love Magician's Quest!

[Angie Gallant]

Seriously. I got this about a week ago and I've been loving it. It's like Animal Crossing without a predatory lending asshole of a raccoon, but set in a town with a wizard school that you attend. It's got a wider array of things to do than Animal Crossing. In addition to treasure hunting, gardening, fishing, catching insects, playing the market, sending letters, and collecting furniture, you also attend school to learn spells, solve mysteries, kill ghosts, jam in a band, go on dates, and build relationships. The last part is a little weird since you are the only human in town. That leaves you dating furries, demons, or animated objects.

It does have a couple of drawbacks. The rumor generator is kinda borked and I occasionally get a classmate breathlessly asking me if I heard that "Pamela and ... were ... in the ...!" It thinks that turtles are insects. Mystery Time is kind of unintuitive, since the Mystery takes place the day AFTER Mystery Time has been started.

But holy crap I have been having fun with it. I got a little demon with a top hat who makes hearts when he sees me go by, and a bird lady asked me to be her best friend, and I learned how to fart on ghosts to kill them.

[Rock8man]

What platform? PC? Wii?

[Angie Gallant]

DS. Sorry, forgot that part. I also forgot to mention that spells are done by selecting words from a huge list, so it's possible to experiment with word combinations to discover spells you haven't been taught.

[Lynxara]

There's not nearly as many spells as I wish there were, though...

[Jon Rowe]

I will have to pick this up!!

[tylertoo]

I got this two months ago for my daughter, for her 9th birthday. She's been playing it ever since. I'll have to make sure she knows about farting on ghosts to kill them, so thanks for the tip Angie.

And maybe I'll borrow it....

[BobJustBob]

Oh yeah, I remember IGN's coverage of this a while back. It was all about the farting. Glad to hear it turned out well.

[Angie Gallant]

The specific spell to kill ghosts is magic - toilet - performance. You can also use it near your classmates to tick them off.

[tylertoo]

The specific spell to kill ghosts is magic - toilet - performance. You can also use it near your classmates to tick them off.

Yes, thanks. I showed the spell to my daughter when I got home from work. It worked well. The exact name of the spell is "Flatulence."

My daughter then chose to describe all this at dinner to my wife, who did not seem amused.

[The Bitter Cynic]

Got a link?

I know some would like a link.

I'm looking it up, need a new DS game, and Fossil Fighters is high on the list and if this is AC crossed with HP, it will bump FF.

[Angie Gallant]

Linkification! (http://www.amazon.com/Magicians-Quest-Mysterious-Times-Nintendo-DS/dp/B001HUHB54/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1250126926&sr=8-1)

[The Bitter Cynic]

Yeah, this is a buy.

I really enjoy AC and this is AC with Wizard's Hat and Robes.

Fossil Fighters is after this one.

[Shadarr]

I'm really surprised they didn't get the Harry Potter license, it's a perfect fit and they would've sold 10x as much.

[Mirriam]

is this based on real time like AC? I tend to go through phases with these kind of games and then might not touch them for a long time, and I've always hated how in AC my town becomes a big mess with weeds. Our daughter is the same and doesn't dare to go back to her town in case everyone has moved out, so for us this game would only be a good idea if it isn't based on real time.
It sounds very cool though, especially the added magic stuff.

[Marged]

Awesome, I've been looking for a DS game to get into. Sounds perfect.

[VegasRobb]

Neat. Might have to check it out. :)

[zengonzo]

'Playing the market'? That seems out of place, but I'm a moron for commodities games ..

One of the things that sads me out on Animal Crossing is the repetition, so economic sim just might be the cure for that. To GameFly!

[zengonzo]

Also, didn't Harry get, like, a handjob in a hot tub from some underage ghost? Seems like dating a magic mirror is pretty on-target for that crowd.

[Angie Gallant]

Mirriam, it is based on real time. I will say that Magician's Quest is a lot less involved in making your feel bad for not playing. There will be weeds when you come back, but your neighbors are less inclined to give you a guilt trip. They also only move out at a rate of one a month, so unless you go years between touching it, some of your friends will still be around.

zengonzo, yes, in Magician's Quest there are 5 different types of berries you can choose to grow. Every 3rd day, Cat Sith sets up shop in the Haunted House and will offer between $20 and $2000 for each type of berry. You can pay Charlie at the noodle stand for his predictions on how the berry market is going to go so you can try to plant more of the best type of berry for the time.

[Griddle]

Yes, thanks. I showed the spell to my daughter when I got home from work. It worked well. The exact name of the spell is "Flatulence."

My daughter then chose to describe all this at dinner to my wife, who did not seem amused.

This, and this alone automatically makes this game a must-have for me, my 7 year old will love it. Whenever I fire up Fable 2, my 7 year old watches me, and picks out NPC's for my character to fart on.

[The Bitter Cynic]

There's no extortionist shopkeeper in it, and that's enough for me.

You are a big crook;
You force me to buy a house;
Tom Nook, your a louse.

[Shadarr]

How can you hate Tom Nook? I dare you to walk into a bank and ask for a mortgage with no interest, no payment schedule and no penalties for paying it all off early.

Blame your own learing balloon-headed child avatar for always wanting a bigger house.

[russellmz00]

How can you hate Tom Nook?

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Animal%20Crossing/Update%201/index.html

[vizionblind]

http://ds.ign.com/articles/984/984658p1.html

[Mirriam]

Mirriam, it is based on real time. I will say that Magician's Quest is a lot less involved in making your feel bad for not playing. There will be weeds when you come back, but your neighbors are less inclined to give you a guilt trip. They also only move out at a rate of one a month, so unless you go years between touching it, some of your friends will still be around.



Thanks Angie, that sounds like it's more up our alley then Animal Crossing. That game gives me more of a guilt trip when I return then my granma if I don't call her regularly. :D

We'll have to see about picking it up.

[Bahimiron]

http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Animal%20Crossing/Update%201/index.html

This thing is riveting. Someone should turn it into a TV show. Make it a sequel to The Prisoner or something.

Michel Gondry and David Lynch present...
An HBO Original Series...
Animal Crossing.

(Admission: I've never played a single Animal Crossing game, so I was actually surprised when Tom Nook fucked the guy over after he'd paid off his house.)

[CLWheeljack]

That Animal Crossing AAR thing is really great for a while, but it really veers off into weird story-telling territory after a while, and it gets worse for it.

[Drastic]

(Admission: I've never played a single Animal Crossing game, so I was actually surprised when Tom Nook fucked the guy over after he'd paid off his house.)
If anything, it softens the horror, because Tom Nook fucks you over something like three times for home expansion. My only disappointment is that the AAR didn't find a way to build to the horror of the gold statue of yourself once you've fully paid everything. Penny could have turned out to be a gorgon or something, I don't know.

[russellmz00]

i liked the ending.

[Xemu]

That Animal Crossing horror/fanfic was pretty awesome, though I agree once it veered too far off the actual mechanics of the game it lost the plot somewhat, but I thought it was a pretty good story regardless.

[jpinard]

I'm having a little trouble getting into this game. I think I"m just overwhelmed with what to do in the beginning. Any tips?

[Marged]

Hm, well. I basically spent a lot of time catching bugs and fish, and exchanging them for things to sell or keep. It's pretty easy to make money, but I also spend it quickly.

I liked spending time planting tons of flowers and decorating the solarium (top floor of the dorms).

Go to class - there are new classes each week. Take advantage of mystery time for crazy bug hunting and fishing. Talk to your classmates. They'll give you hints about the mystery you have to solve. Explore everywhere, and you'll come across the mysteries.

It's pretty Animal Crossing-esque. I like to collect clothes and furniture. I don't know if that's helpful - I play these games in the most mind-numbingly boring way.

[jpinard]

If I only play this in the middle of the night am I screwed? The shops always say "closed", so I'm thinking I may have to manually alter the time on my DS so I can go to the stores.

Do you get a bigger backpack after a while?

Do you plant flowers from seed, or from digging up plants?

[Robert Sharp]

Can't you change the clock on your DS to make it daytime?

[jpinard]

Can't you change the clock on your DS to make it daytime?

Yes, but if it keeps track of date/time like in Animal Crossing you can really mess up the game.

[notatiger]

If I only play this in the middle of the night am I screwed? The shops always say "closed", so I'm thinking I may have to manually alter the time on my DS so I can go to the stores.

Do you get a bigger backpack after a while?

Do you plant flowers from seed, or from digging up plants?

Yes no and from seeds/pieces of fruit.

[Staff Sergeant]

Yes, but if it keeps track of date/time like in Animal Crossing you can really mess up the game.

I've never heard of it messing up the game, that would be bad. What if you move to another TZ or something, all your saves get nuked?

[jpinard]

I've never heard of it messing up the game, that would be bad. What if you move to another TZ or something, all your saves get nuked?

It's the going back in time that messes it up ie. manually changing the time constantly to fit the clock you want. Which means at times you set it back to normal. But just changing my time zone is a brilliant idea - I'll do that.

[Staff Sergeant]

I remember in Pokemon if you changed the game clock you couldn't do anything time related for 24 hours to discourage being min/maxy or gamey with the events. Another compromise for you would be to set the time so that the time you are able to play is evenly split between day and night and then just leave it alone.

[Marged]

I change my clock forward all the time and haven't come across anything in the game mechanics that discourages it. If you tend to play a lot during the real life night, you might just invert the time on your DS. If it's 9pm, change it to 9am the following day. That wouldn't mess up anything. I don't think there's anything like what EFG describes.

So, otherwise, here's what I'd do during the night: use Mystery Time to get more profitable fishing and bug catching, and stash the bugs and fish (or rewards) in your room. You can use four rooms in the dorm, just FYI (I didn't realize this at first - you have access to the rooms with the colored doors). You only have one chest, though and no matter which room you're in, you can access it. Store berries in your chest, and nowhere else or they'll spoil.

If you get any flowers, plant them and water them. You can get a reward if you have 200 flowers planted.

Oh! And you can use the treasure quest every day. There is treasure buried in a certain number of places - I think it's like five buried treasures in the plains, one on the island, three in the cave - and one of them is 10,000 ritches. Presumably you can work on mysteries during the night, but I'm not sure.