Magical Diary (PC) (2011)

Overview: Magical Diary is a visual novel and dating simulator whose story is largely based on the world of Harry Potter.

20141222:
Today I tried Magical Diary, though I really wasn't so sure what to expect.

At first, upon learning that the basic story was essentially Harry Potter, I found the game a bit awkward.

Unfortunately, the awkwardness continued as there was no gameplay, just a bunch of story telling and occasionally a couple of choices to make.

Eventually, however, a character Damien reached out his hand and the player character was given the choice to either stand up on her own or grab his hand. At this point, a friend of mine told me this game was definitely a dating simulator.

This was particularly surprising because another friend of mine previously walked across and asked if the game was a dating simulator. Since there weren't any dating elements at the time, I just said no.

In any case, having never played a visual novel or dating simulator before, Magical Diary is my first for both.

20141227:
Having only played the game for about half an hour, I decided to play a little more of it today.

In one part, the character mentions lawn darts. That's funny, because I first learned about them in conversation less than a week ago!

After playing for about one and a half hours, I found the game began to shift away from the Harry Potter based story and started to develop its own independent themes. While some themes have similarities to those found in Harry Potter, I find they are different enough to make Magical Diary interesting.

Having given this game more time, I find that there is some fun to be had, but overall it's not really my type of game. In particular, I dislike its pacing.

I could imagine, however, that some people would enjoy this game.