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Wizards Complex


Clephas

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Hmm... I could say a lot about this VN... NOT.

To be honest, this VN is a perfect example of how a VN can have a decent concept, a decent staff, good art, good music, and an interesting (if derivative, at this point) setting... and fall flat on the details.

Wizard's Complex is a fantasy VN, based in a future where magic and magic technology have become an accepted part of life (this is a setting type first done effectively in Suzunone Seven by Clochette).  In this world, all magic users are women... except the protagonist (basically an excuse to send him to an all-girls school where there will be no rivals, lol). 

Now, perhaps one of the biggest down points of this VN is the protagonist.  It isn't his personality, its his role.  To be perfectly honest, his personality isn't interesting either, but his role in the VN is so often passive or reactive that it completely ruins the entire setup.  While cipher protagonists are common to charage in general, this was one of those cases where it probably wasn't a good idea, as the heroines in this VN are all a bit... meh. 

First, Honoka... she is the classic 'kind-hearted airhead prodigy' archetype that some VNs have thrown up in the past.  She's the type that will honestly and wholeheartedly endorse wishes for world peace and still believes in the idea of a knight in shining armor as the ideal love interest.  I'm going to be blunt, for first and later impressions, she was the most irritating heroine in the VN.  While she will occasionally break character by acting in a manner that seems out of sync with her archetype, that is only to reinforce that the core of her personality, as presented, is exactly what I just defined it as.

Iris... I picked her first.  Why? I always pick foreigner heroines first.  I always pick heroines who are out of place above all other things, and in most cases, it is the foreigner heroine who is most obviously out of place.  Iris is... frail, fragile, and weak-willed... until she isn't.  Her base personality is exactly how I just described her, but in her path, she does manage to break the mold a few times...  unfortunately, the pacing in her path is godawful (this applies to all the paths to one extent or another), and I was honestly left behind as the romance and events progressed in her path. 

Kazuha... I'll be honest.  I liked Kazuha at first, but she falls into the classic pitfall of giving the 'martial artist heroine' too many weaknesses... not to mention that she is one of those classic ones who is constantly talking about how her hobbies don't fit her outward persona.  This drove me crazy both in and outside her path, and it wasn't helped by the fact that the protagonist is so... passive.

Mei... a gamer heroine is a rare type, even now.  Moreover, one that is aiming to become a pro gamer is a first in a VN I've played.  I'm sorry, but I hate one-sided rival heroines (the ones who feel a rivalry for another character who doesn't even recognize their existence).  This is made even worse because Melissa, one of the sub-heroines, has an almost identical role in her 'rivalry' toward Kazuha.  As a result, her half-idiot personality looks even more uninteresting than it would otherwise.  This is a presentation issue, more than anything else.

Last of all, I need to talk about the common route.  This thing is too short.  I hate to say it, but charage with short common routes just don't work, if they don't have an above-average set of heroine routes in terms of length and non-ichaicha detail.  I'm pretty sure the writer thought s/he was making you like the characters, but the branch-off point basically serves to truncate the protagonist's own evolution, weakening an already weak and undefined main character.

Overall, this is one of those utterly mediocre VNs that occasionally get produced by great companies... I'm tempted to cynically lump this VN in with all the other VNs that amputated their own potential over the last few years, and I probably should... but beginners to VNs who have a taste for moe will probably get at least some enjoyment out of this.  For me, this was a VN with at least some potential that deliberately shot itself in the leg, but - like many mediocre VNs - it will probably get eaten up like ice cream at a birthday party by the moe-addicts, though not with the kind of relish you'd see in the case of one of Favorite's games.

Edit: Understand, I did like some parts and others made me smile... but having played much better VNs that used a similar setting (with better characters) made it virtually impossible to enjoy this VN without serious reservations.  I honestly like some of the conflicts, but the way it was presented made it impossible to get emotionally invested. 

Edit2: This protagonist is a cipher in the truest sense, as he literally doesn't have any interest or goals outside of the heroines.  Generally speaking, this is not a good idea in any protagonist, as it leaves them with nothing to draw the heroines except their 'personality', which is pathetically underdeveloped, in most cases.

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