天下制覇

I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.

This is a game I briefly mentioned in my past writeup that I finally got around to finishing, so may as well write something on it, especially since it makes a good leaping point for a number of things. Studio Ryokucha isn’t really well know for making VNs with gameplay… except for a brief period from about 2005 to 2008 when they liked to put out fandisks at basically the doujin level of development. They’re not exactly what you’d call the prettiest or the best tested. I think that this is the only this one graduated to a full game independant of everything else, although really isn’t any prettier on the gameplay front than doujin stuff, even 2008 stuff when it was released.

Magic A Ride, being part of the same Noun A Verb titualar nomenclature as Date A Live, or perhaps it’s Verb A Noun, is the story of renowned magician Rabbiton (née Rock), thrown by circumstances out of a world of magic and in the process trapped in the body of a sort of rabbit-pig creature bereft of most of his abilities. He lands face first on Haya, a generally stand-offish girl who doesn’t care about people or relationships. Together, they fight crime become a magical girl and her pet, fighting magical crime thingies and learning all kinds of saccharine lessons about relationships and family.

The whole thing is very light hearted for the most part and presented as a magical girl show, complete with title cards at the start of episodes/chapters and a (textless) recap of the previous ‘episode,’ and basically monsters/rivals of the ‘week.’ Like most of Ryokucha’s games, the engine’s nicer than most and I’m a sucker for nice presentation. Voiced protagonist is also a plus, unfortunately rare as it is in VNs, as it really helps to sell the back and forth between him and Haya. Floating text boxes instead of the static one at the bottom, putting character sprites in foreground, background, whereever as needed, conversations going on in the background and foreground at the same time, etc. There’s even the occasional ridiculous pseudo-animation of such, such as spinning a character to show that she’s ‘kicking’ something, although that’s quite a bit lower on the scale.

It is, however, completely linear. On one hand, removing any kind of choice system removes the issue that many VNs have with protagonist characterization. Since the choices are always between Gallant and Goofus (or more often, Door Mat and Jackass) while primary events must continue forward in the same way regardless of which is picked, you ironically end up with someone who has no character of their own because they have to equivocate to both ends of the spectrum at once. Not being forced into that gives the writers a lot more room to develop the characters in a single focused way.

…At least that’s the theory because the overall story, especially toward the end, loses its legs quite a bit. Given the setting, characters, and presentation, it should have been so much bigger than it ended up. Don’t get me wrong here, Rock and Haya are both excellent leads and they’re where the game shines. Haya does fall into the "we’re going to say she has no friends and gets along with nobody, but eeeeeeh not really" archetype that’s usually occupied by your traditional light novel protagonist prior to joining a club, but she has that great mix of confidence, intelligence, humor, and growth that makes her solid through the whole game. Even during the obligatory sex scenes she remains Haya instead of doing what most other VN heroines do and devolving into a screaming pig being slowly bled out with a very rusty spoon. Few of the other characters are wasted too. The maid and don’t really have much of a purpose, but Arisa, the wannabe rival and antagonist through the first part, deserves special mention just for how amusing she is. The antagonist comedy trio also has a number of quite amusing moments.

Rock does for the most part too, but this is where Japan being Japan rears its ugly head a little bit and he’s under obligation to sleep around for the sake of sleeping around. Not much, as the overall focus of the game is on his relationship with Haya and her learning to open up to other people plus the traditional protagonist missing family business, but it’s still in jammed in there as awkwardly as humanly possible for no other reason than to have more sex and even with them trying to use it to show him taking his relationship with Haya more seriously/feeling badly about it, it really kind of distracts from their relationship, which is the star of the story, and all the family stuff that plays a close second fiddle. It’s just a very unpleasant speedbump as it gears up to the finale.

And speaking of that, the finale’s another major issue. Ryokucha did a great job building up and developing their relationship, but the overall plot is less ambitious, especially at the end. You know me, I love subtlety and understatement when it comes to character development, and they do a great job with that for the most part… right up until the big climax when it suddenly dumps out a whole lot of things about the last boss and tries to viciously crowbar in a lot of things that should have either been introduced a lot earlier as something for them to actually deal with or not been a part of it at all. Perhaps it was meant to have more routes (and Kanade’s stuff at the end practically screams for that), perhaps it did just grow out of a fandisk-like game that got too big to just be called that. I really don’t know. It’s a pretty short game too, so I wouldn’t have minded routes with either of Kanade or Arisa. They did a great job with their relationship, but that should have been the impetus for overcoming some world shattering thing and instead, it’s not much more than almost any other chapter.

So on to the gameplay. It’s a straight up Klonoa clone, but instead of being a "run right for justice" platformer, it’s a pseudo-3d puzzle platformer. The goal is always to get to the exit(s), aside from the bosses where it’s "hit them with things." Haya can put enemies to sleep and… uh… pick them up. Throwing them or double jumping with them is it. There are also a few gems that can create a water torrent for pushing things downhill or through small passages, let you jump higher, or put everything to sleep. That’s it. Simple, quick to learn, easy to understand. A lot of the challenge often comes from just figuring out where everything is, although most stages are far from challenging at all. It’s not bad though and serves its general purpose. There are some signs that it’s not particularly well tested though, like the ceilings being slightly lower than you expect when trying to pick things up (but not walking under them while carrying things), getting stuck half on walls when you’re carrying things, and one boss’s laser launching you upward when you get hit, letting you avoid most of the platforming you’re supposed to be doing to get around it.

So it gets my overall seal of approval and you can add it to my short list of games I’d love to see translated. It’s well written, handles parody and wit well, and barring some hiccups, the characters are well-rounded, likeable, and play off each other well… It’s just a shame that the story wasn’t a bit longer and more ambitious. Definitely worth playing (not that it would take very long) for Haya and her story if nothing else, just be aware that it stumbles pretty badly at the very end and if it wasn’t so short, I’d think it was rushed out the door with two or three more chapters planned.