Wand of Fortune: game review

I just finished playing the Nintendo Switch version! I will try to avoid major spoilers in this review. There will be some minor spoilers and two CGs (the famous controversial CGs).

I bought the digital version of this game on release day (May 18th 2023) and started playing that very day. So it took me almost three months to finish and almost 100 hours.

I played almost every day, at least a few minutes a day (on days when the game was monotonous and repetitive) or long hours (on days when I was almost done with a route or things were exciting).

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

I decided to buy this game because I thought the art was beautiful and because I love fantasy otome games. I also watched the review video from the Youtube of Lin Lin Lavender and the video convinced me to play. I was warned that the game was long, that the system was difficult and repetitive. Still, I decided to play.

That day began my hell on Earth. Nah, just kidding (or maybe I’m not kidding). Undoubtedly, it was quite an experience. A unique game, for both good and bad things. Let’s elaborate.

COMMON ROUTE

That was long!!

I remember the day I bought the game, I played for about five hours straight, waiting for all the LIs to appear. I had a lot of fun and screamed a lot every time an LI appeared for the first time! I loved them all and fell in love with the game!

Before starting to play, I had already decided that Alvaro would be my first route, because I thought he was the most pretty. At that time I didn’t know that he was the most popular LI. When I played the common route, I confirmed that I wanted Alvaro, as I loved his personality.

Alvaro is usually recommended as the last route as it has more spoilers. I didn’t know it at the time, but even if I did I probably wouldn’t have minded.

Anyway, the common route was long but fun. Everything was new to me, so things didn’t feel repetitive yet. I would make a lot of mistakes regarding the game’s system, because I wasn’t very used to it.

ALVARO’S ROUTE

My favorite route and my favorite LI!! I understand why he is the most popular. After the macaron scene, which appears very early in the game, I confirmed that he was my favorite.

I remember I finished his route on a Friday night and went 24 hours without sleep to get his ending. He was my first route, so looking back, it was surprising that I got his love ending on the first try. I was using a guide, but I didn’t pay attention to the required attribute points rule. So I got lucky.

The end of his route is very dramatic and powerful. I cried with that ending and was so impressed that as soon as I finished his route I pre-ordered the volume 2 of the game. Btw, the volume 2 has already arrived in my country. I’ll probably still have to wait another week or two for it to be delivered.

Alvaro is an amazing LI! He loves to tease Lulu and the other LIs. He gets bored easily. I laughed a lot on his route. He makes good jokes and pranks.

EST’S ROUTE

Est was my second route! He almost became my favorite at the start of the common route. I loved his rudeness. He’s also kind of depressed. And very smart!

He is the youngest LI in the game, he is 14 years old. I don’t know what they do about it in the next game, as it seems like there are hotter scenes there.

Unfortunately I got his bad ending on my first try. I was very sad. I had to play the route from the beginning to get the love ending.

The end of his route is also very tense and dramatic. It’s excellent!

LAGI’S ROUTE

He was my third route! He’s the tsundere! Lagi is lovely!!

I got his love ending on my first try! Yay!!

Wand of Fortune has a difficult game system, so I felt the tension of never knowing what ending I would get at the end of the route. In a way, it was exciting.

Lagi has the same voice as Witch of Ruin (Even if Tempest), so it was a lot of fun!

BILAL’S ROUTE

He was my fourth route, but now he’s my second favorite. I screamed a lot when he first appeared on the common route. Because he’s hot as fuck!!

I really like Bilal’s story. And I loved his CGs!!

I got his bad ending on the first try. I remember that I really wanted his love ending. I finally realized that dream later when I played his route again.

I really like Bilal’s easygoing personality. And he is so manly! ;)

NOEL’S ROUTE

Omg Noel is so funny!! I love his screams and scandals!

I’m usually not a big fan of LIs with blonde hair. Maybe if his hair was a different color he would be one of my favorites lol. Because I LOVE his personality, seriously.

I also got his love ending on the first try and I was blown away. His after story is great! I love it when he gets shy! :3

JULIUS’ ROUTE

He’s the poster boy! Although he was my last route and is at the bottom of my list of favorites, I like him a lot.

I didn’t like him very much at the beginning of the game. But I loved his triumphal appearance! To the sound of my favorite music.

He has Ruki’s voice (Diabolik Lovers)!

The more I got to know him, the more I liked him. At first I thought he was kind of boring and lacking in personality. But once I understood him better, I found his personality very interesting.

When Julius falls in love… my God! I loved seeing Julius in love. He has a huge obsession with magic and that seems to be his only interest. It’s amazing to see him with a new obsession.

So, my ranking goes like this:

1- Alvaro

2- Bilal

3- Est

4- Lagi

5- Noel

6- Julius

There are two secret routes. But like many people, I found them unnecessary. The game was already too long and repetitive without them.

LULU

Lulu is the MC and she’s super cute! She’s pretty and fun! She likes sweets and is one of my favs MCs in otome games.

STORY WITH YOU

After you finish the main story, you unlock short routes without choices, but with lots of CGs and hot scenes.

Honestly, in some cases I liked these routes even more than the main story. Some of the best CGs in the game are here.

MELANCHOLY OF CYNTHIA

I was pleasantly surprised by this short story. I liked it a lot.

It has the participation of some side characters and I was very happy with the unfolding of events.

MAGIC LUPE OF EDGAR

I liked Edgar and I liked his music even more. This will unlock at the end of the game.

Honestly, by this point in the game I was tired. I couldn’t take any more extra content. The routes here are not long, but all LIs participate + secret routes + extra routes.

And the routes aren’t even that interesting. I ran through them as fast as I could, only to end the game as soon as possible.

MINIGAME

The minigame is cool! I got a little pissed off when I lost because I’m a bad loser, but I had fun.

You play them along the routes to unlock cards with CGs called “liar cards”. It shows the LI in unusual situations. In short, it’s a lie. So you see a shy character behaving boldly, etc. Just to laugh a bit.

I actually laughed at many cards and screamed in surprise. The idea was really good!

But I didn’t laugh at all the cards. And here begins one of the controversies of the game: the nazi CGs.

LIAR CARDS

WARNING: SPOILER CG BELOW!!!

I understand men in military uniforms are sexy. I think so too. But there were several other military uniform options to choose from. Why put nazi uniforms on the LIs we love?

I understood that the idea was to make the LIs look like bad boys. The intention was not to praise nazism, but to make them pose as bad guys.

I get the idea. And the game is already relatively old. The first version is from 2009. But seriously, it’s 2023. It’s been 78 years since World War II ended. For a long time now, making any reference to nazism has been frowned upon in most contexts.

Nobody mentioned this problem in the 2009 version? How did these two CGs slip into the Switch version released less than three months ago?

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this when I opened Alvaro’s second to last liar card, which was my first route in the game.

In the first few seconds I thought: “Wow, that’s hot!”, but when I realized what it was, I got scared and thought: “Holy shit!”

I was like: “Wait, is this real? What the actual fuck?!”

I recognized the uniform right away because of the hat with the eagle and the skull. But just in case you don’t recognize it, Alvaro uses the word “Fräulein”. The scene had a very heavy and dark atmosphere (lasted around 1 minute).

It was clear that the intention was to sensualize the LI with the uniform. And I don’t think making us think nazis are sexy is a good idea.

I’m explaining my point in case anyone thinks these CGs are “no big deal” or “just for fun” or “it’s just fiction, so whatever”. I don’t think anyone would be happy with otome games with racist content or stuff like that.

By the way, there is a side character in Wand of Fortune that is a doll, described as “with skin the color of chocolate”. I found that in some contexts she appeared there were scenes that struck me as racist.

But returning to the subject of nazism, I thought it was already bad enough to have one CG with that reference, but there are two. To my surprise, a liar card of Noel also shows him in nazi uniform.

Honestly, I don’t know which one is worse, because in this Noel references to “the Führer”. And the scene also has a dark atmosphere.

I love Wand of Fortune, but at that point I was already finding the whole situation sick and hoping for a third similar CG not to appear. Fortunately there isn’t a third CG. At least not in this game, or I haven’t found it. I hope there’s not something like this in the next game, otherwise I’m going to be pissed off.

I heard of people thinking about not playing Wand of Fortune when they heard about the nazi CGs. I personally intend to continue playing despite this, but I understand the position of those who don’t want to play for this reason.

There are also people who don’t care about these CGs. I read some reviews before playing WoF and I didn’t see the CGs mentioned.

Well, I don’t know who is right or wrong in this controversy or what would be the best attitude towards it. That’s my position at the moment, unless someone convinces me otherwise.

And since I’m talking about the game controversies, I’ll mention two others:

Those are Martha, Cynthia and Adele. They are side characters. Martha is the girl on the left. She is always pictured with a bag of sweets in her hand. She’s a kind girl, but she only talks about food all the time.

I understood that the idea was to be a cartoonish and funny character. But she is slightly chubby and only cares about sweets. I don’t really like that the only overweight character in the game is portrayed this way.

I would like to see more overweight characters in otome games: side characters, LIs and MCs. But I would like to see them portrayed as interesting, good-looking characters (potential partners, not just funny side characters) with other interests.

There are times when Wand of Fortune’s humor is very good. Other times I find it doubtful.

And now, for the last controversy: the secret LI. He’s 24 and he dates and kisses the MC, who is 15. I have no problem with dates 9 years apart or more, as long as both are of legal age.

Btw, I like shota characters, but I generally prefer them to be of legal age and just have a childlike appearance. I know age is just a number and this is fiction. But exactly because it’s fiction, I think it wouldn’t be too difficult to make LIs in otome games have a few more years in age.

My intention here is not to sound moralistic. We are all here to have fun with otome games. Games aren’t perfect, because nothing is perfect. And people have different ideas about what is appropriate. And that’s ok. We are here to exchange ideas. I don’t think I’m better than you or anyone else because I think this or that.

FINAL THOUGHTS

When I started writing this review, I had no intention of talking at length about topics that I found controversial in the game. Some may have found it moralistic or unnecessary. But those were things that bothered me about the game, so I thought it necessary to speak up.

Also, for those who want Wand of Fortune to be localized one day, I think it’s important that we address the controversial topics, because those two CGs could be the reason for blocking a future localization.

But the things that bothered me the most about the game were: the game system, the repetitions and the lenght.

The game system involves the minigame, the attribute points, the characters that appear on the map and other things. These aren’t easy things to get used to the first time you play. It might take a while.

The repetitions of the game bored me a lot and tested my patience. The long duration of the game too.

Those were the bad sides of the game, in my opinion. Now let’s talk about the good sides.

I found that the good sides outweighed the bad, for several reasons. The game’s story is simple but good. The LIs are really interesting, pretty and have unique personality.

I really liked the universe of the game: the fantasy world, the magic, the powers. The art and the music are also really good.

If you have the patience to play until the end, I think it’s worth it. I wouldn’t recommend this game to everyone, because of the three reasons that bothered me. But for those who are already used to long and old otome games, with gameplay and strange systems, it is a great option.

I would rate this game as 8/10. And that demonstrates how much I enjoyed the game and the characters, despite all my criticisms.

Those three months were not easy for me. I got mad at the game and thought about throwing it at the wall at several points. But I’m glad I finally finished it. I don’t consider myself a very patient person. So if I did it, you can too! ;)