The Wand of Fortune fandisc
Can’t say I enjoyed it though. It’s too strict in terms of the choices you’re allowed to make. You’re locked into or out of certain routes depending on the first three choices you make at the beginning. You can do everything right after that and still end up getting the teachers’ ending.
The fandisc is divided into three sections: an original scenario called “Edgar’s Mysterious Loupe” featuring a new character, a long boring story about Cynthia (the blonde-haired Julius freak) and a section where you see what happened between Lulu and her chosen guy after the end of the first game. That’s the only part worth playing IMO. Edgar’s loupe deals with Lulu’s crisis of confidence after getting the “All” element in the first game, and a mopey depressed Lulu isn’t Lulu at all.
Still, I played “Edgar’s Mysterious Loupe” a couple of times. Got Edgar’s, Est’s, Lagi’s and Noel’s endings naturally, then used a FAQ to get Elbart (now known as “Elbert”, what gives) and the “True” Ending. In the process I discovered that I don’t really like Lagi as much as I thought I did, that Noel and Est are awesome and that Mr. E is still my number one. Elbie4Lyfe.
Getting those endings unlocked the post-original scenarios for Est, Lagi, Noel and Elbe/art, allowing me to see how they’re getting on with Lulu. Err, sort of. Apart from Elbert’s route, I fast-forwarded through the others because they were dragging on.
Elbert and Lulu: they aren’t getting on too well because Elbert is embarrassed to admit their relationship in public. As well he should be, the ephebophile. If you’re going to date a student, you should at least take a leaf from Himurocchi’s book and choose a day-school so you can date them outside school on weekends. At least they were both clever enough to pick a school where the principals are okay with it.
In the end Lulu gets tired of him pushing her away and plants a kiss on him, the end. Heh heh, I love it when they get all embarrassed like that. Unfortunately I don’t see much of a future for E&L as long as Elbert continues to be so ball-less. Sorry darling, but it’s the truth.
When we get married, I’m burning this outfit first
Lagi and Lulu: they’re having issues because he can’t hug her and is nice to every other girl but her. Lagi’s a twit for making my Lulu sad, and I’ve had it up to here with his cranky, childish attitude. They did share a nice kiss towards the end, but I have no idea how they got there because I was fast-forwarding my way through.
Noel and Lulu: more awkwardness, more unhappy Lulu. She wants him to be more affectionate and he’s too nervous to do so. Unlike Elbert he doesn’t even have his position as an excuse. I like Noel, he’s a funny guy, but this is unacceptable.
Est and Lulu: have a surprisingly sweet relationship, but I don’t remember much else of what happened in there. Something about him hiding secrets from her, blah blah, I want to share your pain, blah blah, and your colds and fevers too, blah blah blah. Fast forward for the win.
The older I grow, the shorter my attention span gets, so this outcome was perhaps inevitable. Moreover, while I liked the previous game, I’m still a little burned out from how long and tedious it was, so my opinion doesn’t count for much. Fans of Wand of Fortune won’t go wrong with this fandisc though. It’s nice to find out exactly what happened once they started dating, because a confession doesn’t automatically mean everything’s hunky-dory. The disc also has several new CGs as well as “dream sequences” with all the characters, and each route in each section is fairly short, especially compared to the original. It’s worth at least one playthrough.
While I was initially pretty interested in Wand of Fortune, since the premise sounds quite interesting, but I decided that it’s not my cup of tea after reading a few reviews. Too little gameplay for my taste.
So I just read a detailed review for each route and was satisfied with that. ;> I did the same for the fandisk and I’ve gotta admit, I found all of the stories quite lame and most of the time the guys were pretty much dicks to Lulu (which I do not understand, she’s so cute!).. I mostly enjoyed Alvaro x Lulu, because seriously, those two are such an odd couple… XD and he’s hot. *coughs*
Bilal’s route was pretty sexy as well and Est’s route was just awfully cute. <3
Lulu is adorable x100. But each playthrough of WoF takes far too long, so after finishing Lagi’s route I read detailed reviews of all the other guys like you did. The ones I liked least were Alvaro and Bilal’s routes. Alvaro because he’s the biggest dick to Lulu, and Bilal because he ups and gets married to Lulu and *ack* consummates the marriage without my permission. The beast. Overall I thought all the routes were a little lacking, and the developers probably agreed, which is why they produced the fandisk and the sequel to flesh things out. YMMV on how successful that was.
Oh, btw, I meant Alvaro and Bilal’s routes on the fandisc, not too sure which I liked best from the normal game.. and yes, even if you only read reviews, all of the routes of the original game seem lacking. :/ This happens in lots of otome games, imo. What also annoys me a lot is that there’s often a main dude to pursue, who’s half of the time not as interesting as the other characters, but gets the only really fleshed out route so that all other routes feel really lacking. :/
I experienced that in Will O’ Wisp, and to a far lesser extent in the TMGS games. But WoF is fairly even-handed as far as backstories are concerned.