The 2020 indie game Hero Hours Contract fills a sort of broad "cozy" idea about magical girls existing under late stage capitalism. Magical girls have no trouble unionizing, characters spend time between missions building up social links, the levels work as sort of basic puzzle gameplay loop. The story's not particularly in-depth, with successes coming easy and the conflict being fairly effortless. Its a perfectly fine journey, just a bit easy wish fulfillment.
Life After Magic struck me with its similarities early on. Much like Hero Hours Contract, it focuses on magical girls in their 20s figuring out their lives both socially and financially. There's vague references to generic monsters of the past. Broad genre comedy. Things like that.
Its not particularly fair to make those comparisons, given how different they are beyond that.
Life After Magic centers primarily on retired magical girls. The journey is over. They've moved their separated ways. Lost connections, struggling to make rent. Life struggles. The game generally keeps a light tone, but there's a real sense of the weight of time. How these disparate personalities do try to maintain contact, but things just don't work out. Everyone has a complicated relationship with each other and how that dynamic plays out is always fascinating to unpack.
The two most interesting of the dating routes are ARA and KJ. ARA offers more than a little resentment to how Akiko the MC lead the Sentinels. She likes to think of herself as the Cool Big Sis of the group, but at this point the cast can only remember all the bickering she instigated. She can't play Big Sis to full grown adults. So, she outs herself as a magical girl. She goes corporate idol, figuring she can market herself and donate the proceeds to charity. Being a magical girl is too important for her to really let go of, but its that same desperation to be useful that ends up driving away the other Sentinels. Her friendship ending where she becomes a mentor to young idols is probably the best fate she can get after everything.
KJ was my favorite for a lot of reasons, many of them obvious. Formerly the "shy computer geek", KJ's got a lot of issues with their old identity. They've found enormous euphoria in a punk nb lifestyle, rocking tattoos and motorcycles and the whole she-bang. But it also builds this intense dysphoria when confronted with the magical girl life. Being a "magical girl" shoves them back in the closet, shoves them back into a gendered identity they want nothing to with. That's coupled with messy family drama, bouncing aimlessly between different jobs, and the general fear that the work for their identity will never be complete. KJ and ARA butt heads so frequently because their feelings fundamentally cannot work together. ARA needs her magical girl identity to feel a purpose. KJ needs to avoid that identity to feel like themselves. ARA strutting around as an idol adds this intense fear that KJ's past could get outed, while ARA sees KJ's aggression as a sign that she's not allowed to reinvent herself either. They have perhaps the most in common out of the team, but they have no possible route of reconciliation. Its a great character dynamic.
The broader story works well as a companion to this mini stories because it fits the game's themes. A purposeless former hero lashing out and struggling to find new connects in the adult world. Relying on the corrupt modern institutions they've surrounded themselves with rather than employing their powers for positive means. The powers can't do much against the wider problems of the universe. You just have to sit and stew in what to make of your own circumstances and hope for the best.
Neat little thing.
Life After Magic struck me with its similarities early on. Much like Hero Hours Contract, it focuses on magical girls in their 20s figuring out their lives both socially and financially. There's vague references to generic monsters of the past. Broad genre comedy. Things like that.
Its not particularly fair to make those comparisons, given how different they are beyond that.
Life After Magic centers primarily on retired magical girls. The journey is over. They've moved their separated ways. Lost connections, struggling to make rent. Life struggles. The game generally keeps a light tone, but there's a real sense of the weight of time. How these disparate personalities do try to maintain contact, but things just don't work out. Everyone has a complicated relationship with each other and how that dynamic plays out is always fascinating to unpack.
The two most interesting of the dating routes are ARA and KJ. ARA offers more than a little resentment to how Akiko the MC lead the Sentinels. She likes to think of herself as the Cool Big Sis of the group, but at this point the cast can only remember all the bickering she instigated. She can't play Big Sis to full grown adults. So, she outs herself as a magical girl. She goes corporate idol, figuring she can market herself and donate the proceeds to charity. Being a magical girl is too important for her to really let go of, but its that same desperation to be useful that ends up driving away the other Sentinels. Her friendship ending where she becomes a mentor to young idols is probably the best fate she can get after everything.
KJ was my favorite for a lot of reasons, many of them obvious. Formerly the "shy computer geek", KJ's got a lot of issues with their old identity. They've found enormous euphoria in a punk nb lifestyle, rocking tattoos and motorcycles and the whole she-bang. But it also builds this intense dysphoria when confronted with the magical girl life. Being a "magical girl" shoves them back in the closet, shoves them back into a gendered identity they want nothing to with. That's coupled with messy family drama, bouncing aimlessly between different jobs, and the general fear that the work for their identity will never be complete. KJ and ARA butt heads so frequently because their feelings fundamentally cannot work together. ARA needs her magical girl identity to feel a purpose. KJ needs to avoid that identity to feel like themselves. ARA strutting around as an idol adds this intense fear that KJ's past could get outed, while ARA sees KJ's aggression as a sign that she's not allowed to reinvent herself either. They have perhaps the most in common out of the team, but they have no possible route of reconciliation. Its a great character dynamic.
The broader story works well as a companion to this mini stories because it fits the game's themes. A purposeless former hero lashing out and struggling to find new connects in the adult world. Relying on the corrupt modern institutions they've surrounded themselves with rather than employing their powers for positive means. The powers can't do much against the wider problems of the universe. You just have to sit and stew in what to make of your own circumstances and hope for the best.
Neat little thing.