Genre: Visual Novel, Otome
Platform: PSP (Reviewed), PS2, PS Vita
Release Date: May 10th, 2010
Disclaimer: This is a very old review rewritten and summarized to make it legible (since my writing was on crack back then), hence the change in formatting compared to other reviews. Also, keep in mind my thoughts are based on the PSP version.
Since I haven’t played any Japanese VNs lately I decided to edit and post one of my Wand of Fortune reviews to make everyone suffer. Worth noting: Wand of Fortune is still my favorite otoge series up to this day so I’m posting this because I wish it got localized.
Lulu’s a beautiful, cheerful and positive girl who loves sweets and always carries some with her. She especially likes macarons and to give you an idea, she spends about 10% of the common route eating or referencing them. She’s strong and sweet and to this day she remains my favorite otoge protagonist.
As a child, Lulu’s grandma used magic to make her happy, so Lulu grew to admire magicians and she thought magic was something beautiful to bring smiles to people’s faces. Her granny gifted her a magic wand, telling her she could become a magician too! Thus, Lulu enters Mills Clea Academy, the best magic academy of all.
Important side-characters:
Amy: Lulu’s roommate and best friend.
Elbert, Ivan, and Vania: Lulu’s teachers.
Fata Morgana: Founder of Mills Clea Academy.
There are 6 magic elements but everyone has a special affinity with one of them. When Vania and Ivan analyze Lulu’s magic or they find out she’s a rare kind of talentless person they haven’t seen in decades ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but it’s all good because she can obtain a talent by studying with someone who specializes in a magic element of her choice. And so begins Lulu’s quest to get a magic affinity because otherwise she’s gonna get kicked out of the school lmao.
Anyways before I start you must know that THIS IS A STAT-RAISING GAME FROM HELL WITH TRANSITIONS THAT TAKE FOREVER AND RNG IN EVERYTHING YOU FUCKING DO SO YOU BETTER QUICK SAVE EVERY OTHER LINE CUS THERE’S LIKE A 50/50 DICE THAT DECIDES THE OUTCOME OF EVERYTHING (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸
The reason you need to know this is that the entire game is basically a long common route with some events/dates thrown in depending on the guy you spend your time with, so there’s no specific date for when shit goes down. There are very few scripted events. Each route takes place over the span of 4 months and that’s all the information we’re given concerning dates.
Now that that’s outta my system LET’S SUFFER.
[spoiler]
TRASHVARO GARAY
Also known as YOUR WOST NIGHTMARE™. He has light magic affinity. He’s a flirt who loves sneaking out at night for mysterious reasons but he’s especially attached to Lulu’s beautiful, naive ass because she “keeps him entertained”. You’re probably gonna love him like I did but don’t let his gorgeous ass fool you EVERYTHING COMING OUT OF HIS MOUTH IS A LIE (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸.
Lulu first meets him when she’s spacing out and Alvaro decides it’s time to tease the new girl. Lulu being Lulu is clueless and just offers him one of her macarons ♡( ◡‿◡ ). Needless to say, this perfect young lady sparks Alvaro’s interest. She’s everything anyone could want.
Later on, Lulu runs into Alvaro as he’s sneaking out at night. Alvaro tells her he will stay if she can keep her cool while watching him do magic. Lulu tries her best to hold back her reactions but she fails, then as she tries to come up with an excuse, she realizes the Alvaro she was seeing was an illusion created with light. The real Alvaro had already left because he knew she would fail 😂.
On week 10, Lulu runs into a gargoyle and Alvaro saves her by attacking the back of its neck. This is a weak spot they’re not taught in class so Lulu asks him how he knew about it, yet Liar101 says he read it in a book.
Lulu and Alvaro go out on a date and a girl selling couple rings offers them an engagement ring after mistaking them for a couple. Lulu’s just speechless so Alvaro takes over by FUCKING PLAYING ALONG 😂 he says they’ve only started dating recently so it’s too soon for the ring and promises to come and buy it later. Bruh rofl.
Next up in Alvaro’s a little shit™, Lulu and Alvaro are happily dating until Alvaro asks Lulu if she’s already had her first kiss. Needless to say, she turns into a blushing mess but LIES BY ANSWERING SHE HAS 😂. Alvaro being Alvaro takes advantage of her obvious lie to play along and invade her personal space because he says it’s fine to kiss her if it’s not her first LOL. Lulu refuses because she says Alvaro always plays around and doesn’t mean anything he says.
On week 20, Vania gives Lulu “Mind Candy”, a special candy for her to give to someone she’s thankful for. She obviously gives it to Alvaro. The candy is supposed to change its shape depending on its giver’s feelings so IT CHANGES INTO A HEART WHEN SHE HANDS IT TO ALVARO ❤. He’s actually surprised for once and it just makes Lulu even more embarrassed than she already was so she’s like YOU DON’T LIKE SWEETS ANYWAYS I’M TAKING IT BACK BYE.
Finally, on week 24, Alvaro offers to be Lulu’s partner in her final exam. He’s seemingly very caring and helpful but for some reason (GEE I WONDER WHY) Vania and Noel warn her about Alvaro’s true intentions. TURNS OUT THEY WERE RIGHT because Alvaro manipulates her to get a medal that controls the school’s security system and then reveals he’s an assassin and everything he’s said has been a lie rofl rekt 😂😂😂. I was in denial but it’s not the usual “it wasn’t actually a lie I did mean it ily” plot. HE SERIOUSLY DIDN’T MEAN ANYTHING HE DID WHEN HE WAS WITH LULU LOL (ノ°益°)ノ.
Lulu’s mortified but she gets a letter from him the day after telling her to meet him. Lulu goes to town to look for his ass but she doesn’t have to wander for long before Alvaro pulls her into a dark alley and offers her some beverage to test her naivety. Lulu refuses to drink it and IT’S THE RIGHT CHOICE BECAUSE IT WAS REAL FUCKING POISON (╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻. If at this point you accept the drink you get a bad ending with Lulu dying and Trashvaro laughing at her naivety.
Anyway, Alvaro lives for entertainment so he tells Lulu he’ll let her keep the medal if she can steal it from him within the next three days. Lulu agrees and he seals the deal by casting a spell that ties their lives together for the duration of the bet. This is to protect himself from getting killed by the teachers because since Lulu’s life is tied to his they will both die if he’s attacked.
On the last day of their “bet” Elbert helps Lulu learn a super powerful spell that will kill both Alvaro and herself immediately. As she confronts Alvaro and begins chanting the spell he attempts to stop her to save himself. Lulu’s GOD so she reverses the attributes of the spell or some shit and instead of dying together their lives are bound together forever.
The “good” ending is Alvaro always sticking close to Lulu like a leech cus now his life is bound to her and shit. In the end he admits he’s actually staying with her due to his perpetual boredom. He warns her that he can kill her at any given time if he grows bored of her because he doesn’t care about dying anymore ( ’ __>’). Lulu kisses him and tells him he’s not gonna get tired of her because she will make him fall in love with her WOOOOOOOOP QUEEN.
I really liked Alvaro as I was playing but honestly, the revelation undid every good moment in his route since it was all a lie. I think to some point he did truly start liking Lulu but NOT ENOUGH TO NOT FUCKING TRY TO KILL HER. More than anything he saw her as a source of amusement so (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸 bye bitch.
EST RINAUDO
COLD SHY TRAGIC BOI. Dark magic affinity. He’s also that-one-char-younger-than-protag™ pls let me protecc.
Est is a loner who hates being around others and spends most of his time studying or reading. Most of Lulu’s time with Est consists of Lulu joining him on his study sessions. Est hates fulfilling his daily nutritional needs because he thinks he only needs enough food to survive rofl. Lulu being a food lover gets triggered to no end by his tiny portions of salad 😂.
On week 10, Lulu receives some cookies from her mom and she’s super happy because she missed her family. She decides to save some of the cookies for Est—and he’s “unlucky” enough to show up right at that moment. After he refuses to accept the cookies, she spends TEN MINUTES gushing about her family and her mother’s baking. Following her endless tale, Est looks done with his life and ready to set himself on fire 😂 EW HUMAN INTERACTION.
He reveals that he was separated from his family since he was very young so he doesn’t mind having no parents because he’s used to it and never knew what actually having them felt like. This awakens Lulu’s protective instincts and she starts petting Est’s head while praising all his accomplishments.
In Miss Clea there’s a magic mirror that shows you the person you’re thinking about most—Lulu asks the mirror who tf is in her thoughts and the mirror shows Est. Of course, Est shows up right then and sees the mirror LMFAOOO Lulu gets super embarrassed and blushes which makes Est blush too and tell her to not look like that because he won’t know how to react \(^ヮ^)/❤. He then asks her on a date and when she agrees he gets all shy and bashful saying she can’t say yes if guys ask her on dates (implying it’s dangerous) and it’s only fine because it’s him.
For each guy you can get ten memory shards that show their thoughts after in-game events, and Est had a REALLY FUCKING CUTE ONE so I’m gonna FUCKING PUT IT HERE BECAUSE IT’S PRECIOUS FML. Basically, he was strolling through the garden and saw some really pretty and bright blooming flowers, which made him think to himself that they reminded him of Lulu ( ๑ಥ__ಥ)ﻭ END ME NOW.
Another memory shard reveals that Est worries over getting attached to Lulu because he believes Lulu’s cheerful and pure heart is the opposite of his so he mustn’t touch it. Due to this he apologizes to Lulu for not being able to return her feelings when she gives him Mind Candy on week 20.
Est agrees to be Lulu’s partner in the final exam—there’s a mysterious fog that moves around absorbing everything in its way, and the two of them have to figure out how to fix the problem. Est decides the best solution is to absorb the fog into himself by using some weird forbidden spell. He ends up getting pulled into an alternate world inside the fog, leaving Lulu behind.
Lulu manages to follow him with the help of Professor Ivan but Est seems to be really comfortable in the other world and doesn’t mind being trapped. Regardless, he still looks for a way to open a portal to the original world just to send Lulu back to the academy. While Lulu’s looking for clues she has a vision of a shirtless Est with a bunch of tattoos on display, which are apparently a result of experiments performed on his body trying to turn him into a hybrid between human and Ancient (a species with complete control over magic) by a bunch of crazy elder fanatics that were drawn to him due to his magical prowess.
Est keeps away from people because of everything that’s happened in his life and the possibility of the fanatics finding him again. He also reveals that his true Ancient magic is sealed in the book he always carries around.
After this talk, Est opens the portal to send Lulu back to the real world but he’s not planning to go with her because ~tragic backstory~ but Lulu’s having none of that shit so she clings to him and they’re sucked into the portal together.
Lulu passes her exam and seems to be dating Est. The ending shows her forcing him to say “I like you” since she does it all the time but he’s never said it himself. After the initial embarrassment, he gives in but then adds that words are unnecessary to express how he feels.
After finishing each character’s route you get an extra scenario of them waking up—the reason I’m explaining this is that Est’s scenario KILLS ME REEEEEEE. He wakes up, sees Lulu, and since he’s still half-asleep he starts talking about how much he likes her. Then he comes to his senses and realizes what he just said, blushing and telling Lulu to forget everything that just came out of his mouth LOL.
LAGI EL NAGIL
AKA BLUSHY TSUNDERE MF WHO’S BAD WITH GIRLS. Fire magic affinity but unable to use any other kind of magic. He’s a half-dragon who suffers from a strange condition that makes him turn into a tiny version of his dragon form whenever a girl makes too much physical contact with him. Because of this he’s popular among girls cus they like bothering him to make him turn into a cute dragon lmao. He entered Mills Clea to find a cure to his condition, but unlike the other guys, he really misses his home in the mountains with his grandparents. He’s a foodie just like Lulu so they get along really well.
Not gonna lie the beginning of the route was BORING but it got really cute like halfway through.
Lulu first encounters Lagi when he’s in his small form. Since he’s starving, she offers him her macarons. He ends up eating all of them after turning back to his human form and Lulu leaves with her friend Ami because they think their presence might bother him. Later on, he gives Lulu a bag of sweets to apologize for eating all of her macarons.
One day, Lulu runs into Lagi which makes him turn into a dragon. She says she’ll take responsibility by carrying him to the dorm since he gets really hungry and weak after every dragon transformation. Along the way, Lagi tries to protest until for some reason he’s too flustered to say anything. When they get to the academy’s entrance Trashvaro’s like ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) hmm you’re getting comfy there aren’t you Lagi?
Turns out Lulu was pressing Lagi against her boobs the entire way LOL. Needless to say Lagi’s done with his life and runs away.
Sometime later Lulu and Lagi make their way to the lake for a date and he gets all jealous tsundere because Lulu looks really happy. He asks if she would be this happy walking with any other guy. Lulu’s like “??? I’m only this happy because it’s Lagi I’m with ;D” and Lagi totally didn’t expect that answer but it’s obvious he’s super happy about it. They sleep next to each other on the grass in front of the lake and when Lulu wakes up Lagi says he’s usually really cautious around ppl so he was only able to sleep calmly next to Lulu because it was her SDGASDTASFD (ノ´ヮ`)ノ*: ・゚.
On week 20, Lulu has to explain to Lagi the meaning of Mind Candy before giving it to him. As usual, the candy turns into a heart to represent her feelings for whom she’s giving it to. Lagi’s like T-THIS IS THE SHAPE OF YOUR FEELINGS FOR ME? and gets embarrassed which prompts Lulu to confess. Lagi suffers from raging tsundere syndrome so his response to the confession is “I don’t dislike you either” rofl.
The main conflict in this route lies in the fact that at the age of 16, a half-dragon has to pick between being human or being a dragon, which is why at the present time Lagi can’t control his dragon transformation. Although he really loves humans, his instinct prevents him from just turning his back on his dragon side or some weird shit like that. It’s a pretty bs plot point but eh.
Lagi decides to leave the school to become a real dragon and apologizes to Lulu for not being her partner in her final exam. In spite of this she still waits for him to show up to her exam the day after. Right as she’s about to lose all hope, Lagi’s best bro Bilal shows up carrying him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes 😂. Bilal DUMPS HIM in front of Lulu and leaves. At this point Lagi’s reaction is just “you know what, this might as well happen.”
The salamander they’re supposed to subdue for the exam attacks Lulu which prompts Lagi to have a dramatic anime moment where he transforms into a giant dragon to protect his beloved.
In the ending, Lagi can finally control his baby dragon transformation in front of anyone who isn’t Lulu and he promises to wait until she graduates to take her to the mountains with him. (I guess the PAWAH OF LOVE is stronger than the whole picking-between-human-and-dragon plot point).
JULIUS FORTNER
ABSENTMINDED MAGIC NERD. Wind magic affinity. He’s an extremely talented wizard because he’s very passionate about studying magic and gets boners over magic. In the first half of the game magic is all he talks about, but it gets progressively set aside thanks to Lulu’s charms. Due to his love for magic, he’s always studying and rarely ever sleeps. He also tends to walk around muttering things to himself without paying attention to his surroundings.
His first meeting with Lulu consists of her fucking up her spells in a horrendous way which makes Julius feel interested in her “unique” magic.
One day, Lulu’s heading to class with Ami when she hears the breathing of someone sleeping nearby. She goes to check out the source of the sound and finds Julius, who’s asleep on a table in the self-study room. Lulu tries to wake him to no avail and ends up having one of the top 10 anime battles with his bed hair. She pats his hair down again and again trying to fix it, and after winning against his bed head she nearly uses water magic to wake Julius up. Fortunately for him, he wakes up thanks to his sixth sense. The two of them come to the conclusion that they both love magic very much and thus they develop a beautiful relationship that involves Lulu constantly helping Julius with his experiments.
On week 10, Lulu runs into Julius, who is staring at the Fata Morgana statue. Lulu notes that he REALLY seems to like magic and he says he enjoys talking about magic but lately he also likes talking to Lulu.
Although Julius usually spaces out while thinking about magic, he starts spacing out while thinking about Lulu. He also loses his cool whenever he spots her. This new behavior causes him to feel confused every time since he can’t tell it’s a big fat crush.
On week 15, Julius is pale and dizzy because he’s been staying up studying magic too often. He refuses to rest since he doesn’t want to miss his magic lessons. Lulu forcibly drags him to the lake and makes him lie down on her lap as she insists he needs to rest. Julius begins protesting and blushing and Lulu notes that he’s like a child throwing a tantrum LOL. Julius pouts while Lulu strokes his head until he falls asleep.
Another event involves Julius inviting Lulu to a picnic and giving her some deathly-looking chocolate. He heard she liked sweets so he crafted some chocolate for her at the FUCKING MAGIC LAB OMG. Poisonous chocolate aside, they begin talking about magic as usual but Julius soon says he doesn’t want to talk about magic because HE WANTS TO TALK ABOUT LULU BASDGASGD (ノ´ヮ`)ノ*: ・゚
Lulu’s final exam this time is against a cockatrice that turns anyone who looks at it into stone. She nearly gets petrified but she and Julius defeat it right on time to save her.
Lulu passes her exam and Julius asks her to meet him in front of the lake. As soon as she arrives he rambles about how his chest was tearing itself apart when she got hurt and he felt like shit. He continuously reaffirms his love for her while Lulu’s like O_O WUT. She gets flustered from his passionate approach and tells him all her bad points but he says he doesn’t care because he’s in luv. Lulu says she likes him too and they live happily ever after.
NOEL VALMORE
The dorky and insecure version of your standard ORE-SAMA character. Earth magic affinity. Noel’s dream is to become the WORLD’S GREATEST WIZARD and he often boasts about his superior magic abilities. He also loves dramatically looking at the sky while putting his hand up and shouting his catchphrase, “I’ve obtained everything!”. All of these behaviors are actually a cover-up for his insecurities.
He holds a one-sided rivalry with Julius because he’s jealous of his natural talent for magic. On the other hand, Julius seems to like Noel and just loves messing with him lmfao. Noel has a really strong boner for sweets but he tries his hardest to hide it because he thinks it’s uncool. He’s also very gullible and often buys fake mythical/legendary magic items, mistaking them for the real deal 😂.
Noel buys a magic item that he believes will unleash great power, but it requires two people to work so he takes Lulu on a date to use it. They arrive at the grand hall for advanced magic and Noel pulls out a pair of magical girl wands 😂😂😂. After the spell in the instructions unveils nothing grand Lulu reads the label on her wand: “For children aged 6 and older: use under a parent’s supervision” ROFL. Noel is devastated as is common every time he fails, so Lulu cheers him up by commenting on how in-sync they were.
Unlike the other guys, Noel is super excited about the shooting stars in week 12. Like Lulu, he believes catching them will bring good luck \(^ヮ^)/ they happily wait for the star to fall and get that good luck together.
In one event Noel takes Lulu to watch a play in the town square. The play is about a princess who’s in love with a dude but has to marry someone else, thus she ends up jumping to her death out of sorrow. Many of the viewers bawl their eyes out, Lulu included, so Noel hugs her to comfort her. Later, Noel thinks about the play but when he starts reminiscing on the plot, he switches the two lovers’s names for Lulu’s and his 😂.
Noel and Lulu have to stop the school statues that are possessed by something and running amok for Lulu’s final exam. The two of them confront the statue that is leading the others. As they don’t want to destroy it, Noel hugs it and casts a spell to remove a medal that was making it act strangely. He and Lulu hug each other to celebrate but get interrupted by the sculpture.
Now, this is an important plot point that comes up in later games… The statue changes its face shape to match Noel’s LMAO. The appearance of the statues reflects those they admire; therefore the statue wants to look like his savior, Noel, forever. Noel just fucking FAINTS upon seeing this and Lulu’s like OMG NOEL NOOO 😂.
After Lulu passes the exam Noel finally grows a pair and formally asks Lulu to be his girlfriend. After she agrees he’s ecstatic and shouts out his catchphrase.
BILAL BVFDTVFSFGA
Ok, his last names are actually ASAD ITHNAN FARANBALD according to Google but EVEN THE SHIT I WROTE IS SIMPLER THAN THAT FFS guess Bilal wins the wtfuckery last names contest.
(A/N: It took me 4 games to memorize his names don’t judge me).
Bilal’s that one “brown-skinned exotic prince” trope you’ve definitely seen before in otoge. I still don’t know why this is a thing. He has water magic affinity. Before I start describing him I wanna talk about how Otomate is completely clueless as to how to represent the accents of foreign people. Since they didn’t know how to replicate a foreigner’s accent they made Bilal’s voice actor speak REALLY SLOWLY and take long pauses between words. It sounds incredibly unnatural and robotic and made it hard to listen to him for extended amounts of time.
With that out of the way—Bilal is like that one perfect and kind prince and to be honest he was too perfect and boring for me not gonna lie. His country is called Faranbald and it’s basically the equivalent of a Middle Eastern country. Bilal’s goal is to develop his water magic to find a solution for the water shortage of his country. He spends about 60% of his route feeding Lulu sob stories about the tragedies surrounding his country, and while Lulu seems to enjoy listening to him, I on the other hand am an uncultured swine who wanted to skip through everything or fall asleep. His voice acting plus the long uninteresting stories… Help me.
On the tenth week of school, Lulu finds a baby bird that fell from its nest—she tries to climb the pillar where his nest is but fails. Bilal shows up and lifts her while calling her cute and light like a baby bird 😂. After this they chat and as usual, his conversations end up being about FARANBALD so he tells Lulu that women in his homeland are modest and cover their whole body and stay at home. Lulu says she admires those kinds of women as she’s not much of a caregiver herself yet Bilal says he likes her better because she’s energetic and cheerful. Yeah, I’m not even gonna comment on this.
One day Bilal receives a letter from his older bro telling him he needs to get his ass back to his country because water is quickly running out and shit is hitting the fan. He feels conflicted so Lulu asks him what he wants to do as Bilal and not as the prince of Faranbald. He hugs Lulu and thanks her for her concern, then calls her “Azari Imura” which is a term that will come up later.
After being told the instructions for the final exam, Bilal and Lulu run into Cynthia, who is the humorous and nice Wand of Fortune version of Regina George. She’s looking for her sidekicks Adele and Martha. Lulu and Bilal join her search and find Adele and Martha unconscious next to the school lake, which is filled with blood. Adele has a mysterious white flower in their hand that is revealed to be a Prayer Flower, a type of flower that grants you a wish. Adele and Martha tried to get it for Cynthia to cheer her up after she got into a fight with some other girls over her crush on Julius. Unfortunately, the flower has a curse that sucks out your blood as soon as you come into contact with the water surrounding it.
As is common in every route Lulu is supposed to fix the shit that’s going down in the school as part of her exam, in spite of it being highly dangerous. This ordeal sets off an IMMINENT DANGER warning inside of Bilal and it makes him ask Lulu to give up on the exam because it’s too dangerous, and he promises to fix it all for her by calling a shaman from his homeland.
Lulu asks him if he’s doing all this shit and underestimating her because she’s a girl and the answer is YES because well as he has evidenced throughout the entire route with his stories about his shitty country, his land’s culture is basically the Wand of Fortune equivalent of Muslims which means men are warriors while women stay at home caring for the kids or some bullshit. Bilal the number of shits I give is ZERO get your head outta your ass before I skip the shit out of what’s left of the route pls.
Anyway, Bilal leaves and the day after Lulu tries to convey to him that SHE’S NOT GONNA QUIT THE EXAM BITCH lol. She puts it in better terms because SHE IS THE SAVIOR OF OTOGE HEROINES so she tells Bilal she knows he’s a man of Faranbald but she’s not a woman of his country.

Following Lulu’s rant Bilal’s like, “Okay fair,” and he says he’ll stop underestimating her but still wants to protect her, not because she’s a girl but because of what she means to him.
Lulu and Bilal move past this and summon the water spirit that cursed Adele and Cynthia. The water spirit explains that she needed to curse people and absorb their blood to keep existing because most of her powers were drained. Lulu and Bilal head back to the academy to try and come up with a method to stop the spirit that won’t make it disappear.
The next day Bilal explains to Lulu that he had previously called her “Azari Imura” because that’s the name the soulmate of a man from the Faranbald family receives. There’s only one Azari Imura in the entire world for each descendant of the family and sometimes they don’t even meet her, but Bilal is 100% sure Lulu is his soulmate. He asks her to marry him because he loves her and says completing the mating ritual with his Azari Imura will grant him great power to help the water spirit and save the girls affected by its curse. Lulu agrees and he chants random words while the two of them dramatically look up at the moon. On the next morning, they wake up and Lulu implies that they fricked… Keep in mind this is a 15-year-old girl and a 21-year-old man. Get me out.
FAST FORWARD to Bilal performing a ritual to bind the water princess to him as his spirit guardian. By becoming his guardian, she will be able to keep on living without having to curse people. Lulu and Bilal combine their magic to overpower hers and after she’s bound to Bilal and Lulu she asks to be baptized under a new name. Lulu names her Lien and everyone lives happily ever after.
TRUE END
Lulu’s super studious and smart, but she says she can’t choose anyone to be her partner because everyone has supported her, not just a single person. She thinks everyone is equally important to her. The teachers ultimately accept her choice and tell her they will adjust the final exam accordingly.
Lulu feels nervous so she goes to talk to the Fata Morgana statue. It gives her 6 medals, each representing one of the elements, and instructs her to show them to Paru, the librarian bird. In the library, a path is opened to her and she comes to face the real Fata Morgana, whose spirit lives on in the academy. Lulu tells him she wants magic that can make everyone smile, and she wants to grow while being supported by the people precious to her. Fata Morgana accepts her will and gives her affinity with all of the 6 elements, disappearing after telling her he hopes she can help others with it.
Lulu shows the teachers the amulet that Fata Morgana gave her, and thus she passes the final exam because it demonstrates she now has mastery over all attributes \(^ヮ^)/.
The ending scene shows Lulu following her usual routine and running into everyone she knows in the way. She says Fata Morgana’s statue stopped talking after giving her its power, but she knows he’s still watching over everyone in the academy. Lulu’s on good terms with all of the characters and the game ends with her stating she wants to continue the road her grandma’s wand has paved for her.
Plot twist, the title of the game isn’t just random gibberish thrown together!
[/spoiler]
FINAL IMPRESSIONS
MY FUCKING GOD I’M FINALLY DONE. YES I SKIPPED THE USELESS AMI/ELBERT ROUTES BECAUSE WTF I AIN’T SKIPPING MY WAY THROUGH THE ENTIRE THING FOR AN EIGTH AND NINTH TIME. The game’s not even that long and each route would take about three hours or so IF IT WEREN’T FOR THE ANNOYING 24 FUCKING WEEKS OF STAT-RAISING YOU GOTTA GO THROUGH. To be honest, after the first six weeks of each route you start getting into it since the plot actually starts going places but COME ON WHY DO I HAVE TO SIT THROUGH THE SAME ANIMATIONS, TRANSITIONS AND DIALOGUE I’VE ALREADY SEEN FOR 24 DAMNED WEEKS (╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻.
Listen, personally, I believe the worst part wasn’t even the stat-raising IT WAS THE FUCKING ANNOYING CARD MINI-GAME YOU HAD TO WIN 15 TIMES FOR EACH GUY TO UNLOCK A SPECIAL CG FOR EACH OF THEM. WHICH MEANS IN TOTAL YOU HAD TO WIN IT 90 TIMES TO UNLOCK THE CGS FOR ALL OF THE GUYS. AND THE GAME IS 80% RANDOM SO YOU GOTTA RELOAD AND REPLAY IT IF YOU LOSE, WHICH ALSO MEANS IN TOTAL YOU WILL PROBABLY PLAY THAT FUCKING MINI-GAME AT LEAST 120 TIMES OMFGGGG (凸ಠ益ಠ)凸 I WANTED TO SET MYSELF ON FIRE.
Honestly I beat it about 40 times and then I realized the win count doesn’t carry over so you have to obtain all 15 wins for one guy in one route, which means the 10 wins I got for Lagi didn’t carry over and I was supposed to redo all 15 times. Needless to say, I LOST MY SHIT, TOLD THEM TO SHOVE THEIR STUPID CARDS UP MY ASSHOLE and NEVER PLAYED AGAIN. I didn’t even give a shit all the guys would be stuck at like 97% gallery completion because FUCK THAT.
Moving on, other than the horrid system from hell all the guys were lovely and hating any of them is impossible. Even Alvaro with all his lies got a pass from me because of how amusing he was before the final reveal and as a side-character in other routes. I only gave zero fucks about Bilal’s route but he was great as a side-character lmao how to forget the moment he got tired of Lagi’s bullshit and brought him to Lulu 😂.
The music was very repetitive and when doing the stat-raising segments I just muted the game and played different music in the background. I guess the silver lining is that I liked the track for battle sequences, but it usually only showed up during the final exam of each route.
The ranking of my favorite routes would probably be Est > Julius > Lagi = Trashvaro > Noel > Falanbard. Alvaro’s route was the most fun to play but uh it was all a lie so ( ‘ __>’) fuck me.
Needless to say, the art was GORGEOUS because it’s by Usuba Kagerou and it made the entire thing more bearable. Although I liked the game, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless I wanted to see them suffer. I know a lot of people like it but in my opinion, it wasn’t worth it. The characters are lovely and the story is cute but sitting through 24 weeks of stat-raising every replay is annoying as hell. I ALSO KNOW THE FIRST WAND OF FORTUNE IS LIKE THE WORST WAND OF FORTUNE GAME OR SOME SHIT so I’m not saying the series as a whole isn’t worth it. I’ll be playing the remaining three games and hopefully they’ll be a more rewarding experience.
Present time note: The Vita port of Wand of Fortune 1 improved the horrid systems and grind so I definitely think it’s worth playing. Especially so because of new scenes and CGs! Even better if you can commit to buying the fandisc, since it wraps everything up quite nicely.
Wand of Fortune is an amazing series but my favorite take on Lulu and the gang is Wand of Fortune 2, surprisingly.
The Review
Wand of Fortune
The Wand of Fortune series excels in the character department. The entirety of its cast is what carries these lovely games forward even though the story is simple—it has a distinct slice of life feeling to it. I love the Wand of Fortune series so I definitely recommend the entirety of it, especially now that the Vita editions improve on its flaws. My enjoyment would be higher without the horrid system, but unfortunately, I've only played the original PSP editions.