Magical Diary: Wolf Hall (Early development thread)

[hanako]

I'm really looking forward to this game!! I loved Horse Hall

My question has to do with potential future games. Would there ever be a hall for non-binary characters and would we ever see a game around such a character?

That's complicated to answer because spoilers. The best I can say right now is that Wolf Hall will answer a couple of questions about Iris Academy's gender policies (while raising entirely new ones!).

My question is: Does Mary Sue exist? Or would this be like an alternative reality in which Mary Sue is NOT there?

Alternate reality. Her absence from the story will cause various knock-on effects.

[pod95]

Baby Blue Hanako said in the other thread that existed on this topic that in this timeline Mary Sue doesn't exist. I suppose this is to deal with issues such as the Grabiner and Damien paths, presumably it would be difficult to input EVERY possible outcome of Magical Diary Horse Hall and still have a coherent story for Wolf Hall, there would be too much going on outside of the main story for it to be cohesive. Much like how in Horse Hall, there are plenty of background characters we didn't get to see much of I assume Hanako is focusing more on new characters / background characters we know less about rather than repeating previous story lines with previous characters

Although I don't know, things might have changed since that was brought up in the previous post. Hope this helps

[babyblue]

Thank you Hanako and Pod95 for answering my questions! It has helped and it is truly appreciated! <3

[Hoosha]

can i just say

hamina hamina hamina

also, the only reason I'm interested in playing Wolf Hall is because of the BxB options! There's just something wonderful about BL that I've never been able shake off ever since I discovered yaoi when I was 13..

Have the male romance options changed since you last talked about them or are they still Damien and William?

[MillaMaxwell]

You said that this game is freshman year, right? So, basically, the same year that our dear Mary Sue went through her entire adventure. xD
My question is: Does Mary Sue exist? Or would this be like an alternative reality in which Mary Sue is NOT there?

If you think about it, every playthrough of Horse Hall was an alternate reality, so it makes a lot of sense that Wolf Hall would also be an alternate reality... There's no canon story for what happened freshman year, since several of the major routes directly contradict each other. For example, you can't finish romancing Damien or Ellen or Virginia if you've accidentally married Grabiner even though these are all major paths in the story of Horse Hall. Mary Sue's appearance and personality don't even have a canon beyond very basic stuff (liking sports, for example) and they can vary wildly from game to game. If she was in Wolf Hall as an NPC, would she be a character who skips all of her classes to play sports and nap, or a studious bookworm? I've certainly played her as both of those in different playthroughs, haha... So I guess having a new PC replace her in Wolf Hall is just like another path in Magical Diary's existing framework of alternate realities.

[hanako]

One thing we're doing differently in Wolf Hall is little scenelets for each spell you learn, where the professor demonstrates and explains how the spell works, giving you a few hints for how you might actually use it in a dungeon scenario. (In-character language, of course, so no one's going to say "It does 5 HP damage'.) Hopefully these will be fun flavor text to read.

It also means you'll have to attend specific classes to unlock combination spells, and you can only unlock one spell per class, so that the little scene can play correctly. So even if you cheat and max all your skills at once (I know someone will!), it's still going to take you a while to actually learn all the spells.

[FantasyFan]

Ooh, I love that idea!

[MegaZeroX]

I'm really excited for this! The original Magical Diary was a lot of fun, and with better art and more experience under your belt, I'm confident that Wolf Hall is going to be awesome. Also, I'm totally fine with the option restriction for the PC. Does this mean that the PC is going to have a more defined personality than Mary Sue, or is it mostly just a backstory thing?

Another question: if Wolf Hall is set the same year as the original Magical Diary, will there be a student that replaces Mary Sue as a roommate to Ellen an Virginia?

[hanako]

No, Ellen and Virginia do not have a third roommate, it's just them now.

Can't explain further about the other thing yet.

[crystalsilverwood]

sounds great!

[hanako]

Getting close to the first exam, writing-wise.

Yes, that seems like very little progress, but a TON of stuff happens in the first month, with all the character introductions, class introductions, initiation, low-level spells, clubs, etc. Besides after being stalled for so long, I have to celebrate even small progress!

[FantasyFan]

WOOT!

[Oki]

As if summoned by the magic of my obsessions, just replayed Horse Hall and wanted to check in on things. It's good to see progress and don't sell yourself short, I once recorded an entire reading of the first 4 months of Horse Hall and the first month was longer than the others by a longshot.

Super excited there is progress! I am filled with excitement. I don't really like to play as boys very much but thanks to Dream Daddy (don't judge me) the option is growing on me. I'll always prefer G/G and G/B, but beggars can't be choosers! I would probably play Horse Hall anyway, though, just because I'm very fond of the lore. The Angela thing is a great option for Initiation, by the way, because she sucks and we all unanimously dislike her. I replayed Grabiner's route and went 'wow it's not just Damien's route that's right, she is just awful!

It's really nice of you to involve older characters in a more introspective way. I am actually the most interested in Grabiner's content because of the sheer...nature of it all? I really just need to go make a new thread about this because years of reflection on Grabiner has made me appreciate the nuances you put into him more.

Even without Grabiner, though, I am excited. I genuinely forgot 60% of the game and only remembered two exams, so replaying it like it was a new game had me excited to play an actual new game. And the world! I'm so enthralled by the world to this day. It is a little unexpected to hear Mary Sue just doesn't exist (if only because I always assumed the Wolf Hall protagonist was the other potential victim mentioned in Horse Hall.) - but I'm excited to see how her lack of existence changes things. Like will Virginia and Ellen be able to handle their differences in messes? Will Ellen be calmed down when she fails for non magical reasons? Will Ellen find Virginia when she is sick? Will Damien beeline to the wolf hall protagonist or choose a character we already know as his Freshmen? Will Minnie and Kyo resolve as if you were never there, or will there be changes? WILL THERE BE A SPORTS CLUB?

All the same, thanks for rewarding our patience by staying involved in this project. You know I'm basically sold for life, so count me in on this one.

[phoenixgirl]

Yup, just even reading the progress that's being made is a great. I totally loved Magical Diary: Horse Hall and am so excited for Wolf Hall. The wait will be worth it.

[NelinaC]

I hope that the pc can stonewall the meanest senior. It would be funny if in the game the pc can say I don't take orders from that person, only to have another order him to walk 1 round around the school at night/after curfew in his underwear and then Grabby sees him and asks him to his office in the morning to yell/ask him why. I know that there is no romance between the two in this sequel, but maybe there can be some interaction? I really want to play this game when it comes out.