i think this might have the worst tutorial i have ever experienced in a video game. literally driver 1 psx tier.

game afterwards? seems neat, but honestly i really prefer how srb2kart plays over this. i feel like maybe with some tweaks and adjustments along the way, this could become the better game, but for now i just really vibe with srb2kart more.

however, the accessibility options are really good, and i think that deserves a lot of praise for having options to reduce visual effects, screenshake, and enable auto accelerate and auto assign items with the roulette. it's really good. and a lot better than srb2kart in that regard, would love to see auto-accelerate brought back over as someone who has had ongoing joint issues and misses srb2kart.

"He was a boy who accepted everything, but had nothing"

"She was a girl who threw it all away, but never lost a thing"

Me: 😭

Mahoutsukai no Yoru also known as A Magician's Night or Mahoyo for short and officially translated as "Witch on the Holy Night" is a visual novel by Type Moon written by Kinoko Nasu and set in his "Nasuverse" alongside other creations such as Fate, Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai. Originally released on April 12th (Coincidentally my birthday) in 2012 now over 10 years later remastered in HD with full voice acting and a remixed score, this particular re-release of Mahoyo is a landmark title for Type Moon and Nasu being the very first of Nasu's VNs to ever receive an official localization and translation in the west (Here's hoping Tsukihime and Fate will follow one day)

Mahoyo is at its heart a conflict between mages set in an urban environment, a battle for land, status and power and all the mind-games that come with it. However that is merely a fraction of this tale because it is also a story of duty vs purpose of fate vs destiny, of the insatiable human thirst for knowledge of the unknown and most importantly it is an introspective coming-of-age story of reflection and self-discovery.

Far from the grandiose stakes of Fate, this is a much more grounded and personal narrative that has no grand contests or life changing prizes, no, Mahoyo primarily focuses on the day to day lives of the main trio of characters the firey mage's apprentice and student council president Aoko Aozaki who has to learn how to balance her double life alongside her calm, stoic and mysterious mentor Alice Kuonji and Soujyuro Sizuki a kind and naive boy who grew up in the mountains far away from the wonders of modern society who finds the concept of electricity just as magical as seeing someone shoot a laser beam from their fingertips. These three are polar opposites with vastly different backgrounds, personalities, moral values and motivations and through Mahoyo's 13 chapters we get to see how they develop and change based on their interactions with one another (and an eclectic cast of side characters) and all the drama that comes with it. It was a thoroughly enchanting tale that kept my full attention for its entire 30 hour run time.

Aside from the the narrative and characters being top notch, Mahoyo also feature truly incredible world-building because Misaki Town itself almost feels like another character in this story as it both plays an important role in the main plot, but also we just learn so much about its history and the places in the town and see all the main characters interact with the town itself so much and that just adds so much more to the immersive feeling the story gives. Also that's not even mentioning how much Mahoyo goes in-depth into the rules and systems of the universe between the differences of magecraft and true magic itself or the concept of The Root or Mystic Eyes, so many fundamental building blocks of the Nasuverse get explained in great depth here and it's just a treasure trove of knowledge for nerds who dig fascinating fantasy lore and world-building (It's me, I'm that nerd)

Another thing that's worth mentioning is the sheer quality of the production values. Between the stunning artwork, backgrounds and character designs plus the more cinematic third-person approach to the visuals and the sheer amount of detail in every panel including subtle facial expression changes and the attacks almost feeling animated, Mahoyo might very well be the most visually stunning VN I've ever read.

The incredible OST which varies from mystical symphonic pieces with Latin choirs to jazzy lounge music and even a bit of industrial rock perfectly compliments the story and adds so much more impactful emotion and immersive atmosphere to every individual scene whether it be an epic fight or just a character walking home from work and the fantastic voice acting performances make all the characters feel so vibrant and alive.

Honestly the only minor flaw I can even find in Mahoyo is the localization itself having many spacing errors, typos and just coming off as kind of weirdly direct at times. However considering this is the first VN of Nasu's to get an official English translation and according to the credits it was done entirely by one guy (Shout out to Norimitsu Kaiho, he's a real one) I can cut them a bit of slack in that regard, I'm honestly just happy I was even able to experience such a masterwork in general.

All in all Mahoyo is one of the best stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing in quite some time and I can certainly see why it gets the praise it does. Between its fascinating characters, immersive world, breathtaking artwork and visuals and masterfully composed OST if you're looking for an enchantingly beautiful tale full of magic and mysticism then look no further than Witch on the Holy Night.

as a game, i feel like this is kinda flawed and a huge step down from PSO in a bunch of different ways, and i really could not vibe with the story at all as a kid (waiting for the lobby emote animations to play out annoyed the hell out of me). but as a social experience? this game rules. i put so much time into making my player shop perfect, hanging out with friends and just vibing in the world. i probably have a thousand hours in this game just because of the social experience alone.

so yeah, this game simultaneously sucks and rules.

aoti makes things quite a bit better on the gameplay front (which im not reviewing here). the portable games (and zero) eventually kinda perfect the gameplay even more and make it quite good!

so yeah im rather mixed on this game. could it be better in so many ways? totally. is it a formative game that introduced me to friends that i still speak to today? yes, and that's amazing to me.

okay gonna be honest this game just rules. its honestly my favorite vn of all time now, overtaking fata morgana. which i did not expect going in after only picking this game up simply because a friend was hyped.

the only faults are: typos and grammar issues in the translation, especially in the second half. otherwise this is literally perfect.

also this made me cry numerous times. i even had to stop playing in the final chapter as my switch was blurry.

im very tempted to try and write a review better than this at some point but i definitely have to let myself process this game for a little while longer.