now that love of magic is finally completed, I can say this game is absolutely fantastic.
pros:
the character work is actually amazing. each character feels real and there's a lot of truly memorable ones.
the overall story is really interesting and full of twists and events that keep you intrigued. there's also a lot of good humor and lovely lighthearted moments. emotionally it's very gripping, some tears may be shed.
the music is grand, a lot of fitting and appropriately epic pieces.
the poker gameplay is quite fun and getting a build together can be interesting. if it doesn't click with you (or you get tired of it), it's incredibly easy to just skip as well.
graphically it mostly looks quite good
cons:
while i like the general designs, i'm not a huge fan of a couple of the faces (but that's probably personal preference).
i kind of wish there was some sort vn mode, that just played all events chronologically. for future replays (which are definitely on the menu) having to do all the sandbox stuff is not super ideal.
akane doesn't get enough love
overall this is one of the top tier games on the site. it's so good that i almost wish it wasn't a porn game so i could make all my friends play it too. i'm looking forward to the dev's future projects.
-It's hard to only give 3 stars to Love of Magic because there's lot of good about it but there are some serious cons that really break it for me.
The Pros :
the writing is quite good, the characters dialogues are mostly believable
the story and arthurian inspired lore are interesting
the characters have their own personnality
The Cons :
-Choices , there's no choice that matter or actually do something, the story is completely linear in every ways meaning the MC can't choose to pursue or reject any of the women that are thrown at him, all his relationships and actions are forced on him without you choosing anything, there's no love interest path to choose or not everything is forced into harem regardless of what makes sense to you.
So be warned , despite the illusion of having sometime a choice (that has no impact actually), Love of Magic is a kinetic novel, not a sandbox or a choice driven VN
-anal fetish , related to the previous cons : while nearly all AVN have something like that, the authors usually know that it's not a fetish every readers have and so smartly make it optional through dialogues or story (thanks as it's really a fetish i don't have). Love of Magic forces the MC into anal fetish for no reason (especially after the scene with Akane shows that the *spoiler* does not requires it at all).
-MC is just too fake, i mean if you read his dialogues and thoughts about Emily, she's supposed then to be the absolute love of his life, yet the MC will go have sex with every women on his path, then "i love you , you're the only one for me" wooden dialogues again everytime he's around his wife. It feels so fake that it really brings down the whole thing to me.
Overall Love of Magic is good but could have been great
I'll keep this short. Might edit in a longer review later, but at the moment I'm annoyed.
If an AVN is going to have gameplay, have gameplay. The poker seemed like an interesting concept up until the point I realized that you can't lose. Immediately lost all interest in this game when I dropped to 1hp and nothing happened. Clearly the author didn't code in any variations in the story, and building up gems and trying to improve your poker-inspired magic is pointless.
If there's no gameplay, what am I doing here? The girls? I've been playing for 4 hours and gotten a tame handjob with about 5 renders, so that reason is out the window. The story? Story is okay so far, but if all I'm getting is a story I'd rather not have to go through the ridiculous number of mouse clicks, and according to other reviews here, even that's going to fall apart eventually with the MC forced to be unfaithful.
*sigh* Might pick this up again in the future but skipping ahead in the story would take hours of clicking. It's just not worth it.
Edit 1: I was too kind. I don't like games that lie to me. If you're a sandbox game, great. Be a sandbox game. If you have gameplay, great. Have gameplay. If you're a kinetic novel, great. I'll enjoy the story without having any real choices.
What I don't appreciate is a game that pretends to be a sandbox with gameplay when in truth you can spam the "sleep" button and nothing changes. Literally nothing. The story plays out exactly the same even if you never train, never buy gems, never do anything.
In truth this is a kinetic novel pretending to be a sandbox with gameplay. While I previously gave the story decent marks, that goes out the window now that I find that I'm forced to be a cheating scumbag with an obnoxious character. No choice to avoid it, or play it in such a way that you're not a scumbag. I have no interest in such a story, especially as it makes no sense as your character seems like a decent sort early on, then suddenly he's like, "Oh, let me romance the princess and profess my undying love, but also lie to her and bang this super annoying girl on the side who has no positive personality traits."
I really wanted to love this game, and i tried hard to but i just cant get past pussy-whiped MCs with 0 backbone or brains.....which is why i only played BOOK 1 and most of BOOK 2, before it got to be to much and ruined the game.
Also wondering why game has no cheating tag, everyone tells MC it would be a really bad idea to fuck katie since shes not chosen and is a normal girl like hes wife, and yet your forced to fuck katie no options to say no and your wife sure in hell dident give permission, so again cheating tag?
It really just is beyound stupid and so poorly written that it became unplayable, and worst part is they dident even have to put this NTR shitty feeling in the game, they could just let Molly get her pleasure from MC doing it with magic like the first time or atleast give the player the option to either be a cheater or to use magic insted.
And if he was taken over by something so he couldent controle him self, wouldent that just be the perfect reason to never ever see Molly again and do anything to break the bond between them.....
It dosent make it any better when the princess goes from hateing the whore to accepting Molly fucking MC and becomes her best friend, its just makes no sense and destorys her as a chars as well in my eyes, its simply just not something the princess would want in any way and yet she accepts it, changing her into just another brainless whore of the bunch.
The grapics are pretty good, gameplay and the sandbox isent bad either it will become boring doing the game, the girls arent really unique and like alot of games the faces just look like the same one reused just with diffrent hair/eyes to try to hide that fact.
The animations if you can call it that are very poor, they look ok graphic wise but they are very short and does close to nothing for the game.
The first virgin scene you get to see is so bad, like the writer has no clue how that works, a girl whos never played with her self or done anything, and there is 0 pain 0 blod and she slides it all the way in with 0 issues no hymen apprently also she has an orgasm which is extremly rare for a first time, and its a very poor animation where you also see 0 pussy 0 dick, its the worst virgin scene ive seen to date, and hole game centers around virgins in such a huge way and this is what you get.... such a huge disapointment, you can barely call this an AVN.
Second virgin scene is same crap this time there is 0 animations, not sure why this game has the animated tag since barely anything is animated, even the 4-some is purely pictures, this game really shouldent have animated tag.
Choices in game means nothing, alot of the time the options is "go look" or "go look" just with diffrent text, like with Molly the bitch you are giving the option to just look at molly without doing anything, untill game removes that option forcing you to pick as a brainless MC would pick, or before going down to see Molly its either go look to see if someone is in danger or go look to see how they are doing, same with tentacle scene clicking ignore just removes it to give you one choice to just go save her, why they put in options i dont really understand.
Also you will be forced to tell the chosens you love them, through most of book one you had a choice to say you like or are fond of them insted of love, but at the end you can only pick love them...MC always had one love and now he loves everyone......eveything is forced by a kenitic story line.
Story 2/5:
Its a kinetic storeline with choices that does nothing and force actions to go one way only, gives me to much NTR feeling from cheating none stop.
Graphics in game: 4/5
Game looks good.
Girls 2/5:
Just not unique when faces are the same on most girls.
Animations 1/5:
Short barely an animation, just not good enough for a AVN, feel more like a small .gif then anything else, and alot of sex scenes has 0 animations, you can barely call this an animated game.
Music 3/5:
Not bad music, but nothing great either.
MC/Choices 1/5:
As a player you put yourself in MCs shoes so to speak and doing that in this game is painfull, having 0 braincells and no backbone is just not for me.
Wish it was diffrent since the pure size and work that has gone into this game would have been really nice to play and even support, but story and MC personality is just not something i can accept.
Not sure how it got so good reviews since this is a site for AVNs and you really cant call it that, sex scenes are far apart and the few animated ones are short and barely shows anything.
If you decide to play it then play it as a normal VN and forget about the adult aspect or you will be very disappointed, if you play it as just a normal game you might enjoy it alot more, but i am not after a normal game when i visit this site which is also why i cant give more then 2 stars it simply just falls way to short to be an AVN, the girlfriend of MC is a constant blueballs as well, which is a clear sign that they dident really want to make it an adult game, i lost count on how many times she blueball the MC or gets interrupted over and over.
Suffers from the same problem as many porn games, in that they're very shit video games in general and tend to over focus on gameplay that they cannot provide.
The game dangles sex in front of you like a carrot but the gameplay is way, way too long, padded and stretched out to be worth playing it all the way through. Fuuuuuck that.
On the plus side, some of the girls are interesting, and the overall writing is decent. The sex scenes are above average, I'd say, but nothing spectacular. I'm not a big fan of this game, but I think it deserves more than 1 star.
There are some modest problems; I don't like Katie's side-shaved hair, I don't enjoy the poker inspired combat (I'd rather just play poker), and there doesn't appear to be a way to skip the slow-ass animations after the cards are played. It makes the combat drag on, rather than be fast paced enough to be interesting. The whole "ceremonial magic" stuff seems like a thematically weak way of achieving sexual stuff, rather than a valuable addition to the story. I don't like all the clicking on various things with my mouse, especially as many of the icons are ambiguous.
I played through act 1 about a year ago, but stopped in act 2 for reasons I promptly forgot. I started playing through act 2 again, and I remembered the main problem with this game; the blonde girl, I forget her name, is completely intolerable, and the MC's response is just shit. Having a bitchy character wouldn't be so bad if there was an option to treat her fairly, by which I mean not doing anything she asks because she's the biggest bitch on the fucking planet. Instead, the MC just goes along with her wishes because she's hot. In her earlier interactions I can tolerate the MC's tolerance of her. But then she realizes she needs his power, and starts being nice to him, proving just what a narcissistic bitch she is. But instead of telling her to fuck off, the MC keeps going along with her weird and increasingly sexual requests, at the same time as he is claiming to be in love with his girlfriend. And the place where I stopped both times is when, for reasons I can't understand, you have no choice but to let her give you a blowjob. I didn't sign up for mandatory infidelity, especially with the queen bitch. And I just can't keep playing if the MC is going to be that awful. I get that some people are suckers for blondes, and I don't mind a game having paths that are immoral, but I don't think it's too much to ask to have a path where the MC doesn't have to be a colossal asshole. And where the player doesn't have to cheat with the biggest fucking bitch I can recall ever seeing in fiction.
And even if she has some tragic backstory that somewhat explains her bitchiness, that doesn't excuse the MC's decisions. He still proves himself to just be a fucking pig.
This is a good game with an interesting plot. I liked the story a lot, which builds as you progress.
Without giving too much away, you'll witness the rebirth of a kingdom while meeting various characters, forming relationships, and fighting your way to victory. The fights are entertaining, and I especially enjoyed the card battles.
There isn't much in the way of adult content, and what there is isn't particularly good. The scenes are poor, and the animations are, to be honest, quite bad. At least, in comparison to other games.
I gave it 5 stars because I'm a sucker for good stories, but this game also has good gameplay.
How i wish i could stop myself from playing this. You may ask why ? Well i wish i could play this when it´s finished because the waiting is killing me. I downloaded the book 1 without reading anything about the game, my expectation were nonexistent ( i was preparing for another skip fest), oh boy how wrong i was, from the first moments i was hooked and i couldn´t get enough. As the creator states - "Came for the sex scene ,stayed for the story". Discord seems to be active and community is blooming. Hope for more projects like this.
BEST. GAME. EVER.
This game could be a giant book, an hollywood's film.
It's great!
The best fucking story ever.
not too much sex scene, not unrealistic situation where the mc bang a dozen of angels because he is the mc, it's a masterpiece, everything go smoth, every piece fit the next and made a superb puzzle.
I, honestly, do not love the poker light-motive of the battle, but it's well made and enjoyable even if i don't like poker at all.
last but not least, you have a debug/cheat page inside the game, so you can easily cheat the poker setting and go on with the story without lose interest in the game itself (if you hate poker).
another time,
BEST. GAME. EVER. period.
there's like a 30/40h of gameplay, if you are a fast reader and chat a lot (to be really fast in the poker battles)
(sorry for the engrish, i'm clearly not a native ...)
Review state Book 3 at 0.3.21c
The game has an interesting story told to you over the course of>200 ingame days split across the 3 books. In which you get to know the different characters and learn more about them while also training yourself for the things to come. The writing is done very well and the characters not only feel destinct they also don't behave strange/unexpected across the different books. The length of 40-50 hours is accurate across a single playthrough. There isn't really abranching story however I am currently enjoying a replay right afterplaying the game through over last 6 days.
The animations and characters all look good.
The UI however has some small bugs. Like elements not disappearing, e.g. a quest update poping up but not leaving. Saving and restarting the game fixes this. Also in book 1 the engine is slightly different so in full screen on an ultrawide screen the top and bottom of the characters and screnes are cut off. The UI is unaffected by this. Windowed Mode fixes this for book 1 and in book 2 & 3 this does not happen.
Aside frome these rather minior inconvenience I have nothig to complain about and think the story and art for me atleast justify the full 5 Stars.
This is one of the games that stands above the rest. The writing is one of the best I have seen. The fact that it is an AVN makes it more fun. Droid makes regular updates here and even more frequent updates on Steam. The discord community is big and there's a reason. The game draws from Arthurian legend, Nordic, and other pantheons all woven together. MC learns his role in this world and is aided by a bunch of friends and gorgeous women. Thankfully MC's journey isn't a short story. It is filled with MC becoming a significant figure backed up by his Chosen and a harem. There is a card-based combat system, and if you choose you can skip it. I enjoy how it ties into everything. The game has a large wiki with spoilers and help. THE GIRLS! Everyone can find a favorite. Mine is Katie and I hope you find out why. I want to say so much more, and not spoil it. The sex scenes are great and they aren't an afterthought. If you have read this much of the review I would recommend just giving it a shot. Download it and play a few days. Then join the rest of the fans of LoM.
Was playing this game a year ago and got lost in all the free range events, so i set it aside. Picked it up again this year, and now am on my third playthrough (with suggestions from the wiki).
This is not your typical shallow fap game, it is deep and moving. The story is excellent, so much so that you cannot skip through dialogue. All the dialogue is worth the read. It is very easy to become embroiled in the plot and feel the emotions of the characters, all of whom come to life in the story with their own idiosyncrasies.
Music in the game is some of the best I have heard, and enhances the scenes. Graphics are also excellent, and more real than most of the tripe games on this site.
This story will move the reader to extreme emotions of joy and great sorrow, and bring you back to multiple playthroughs. Few games can come close to the standards set by Love of Magic!
One of the best if not arguably the best game out there.
Good story line that is unique and well written. Some of the hottest girls, there are other Devs who could learn how to make great models from this.
The poker combat is fun, graphics are top notch. The only downside is some of the early sex scenes are lacking a bit but even that get's better as you go.
Often in a V/N I'll find a girl who I try to avoid or ignore but this an exception. Droid set a high bar for others. All the characters are interesting or fun. I'd love to see Snowdrop and Belle from LLtP get together.
It's going to be bitter sweet to see this one end.
Love of Magic is an engaging and fun game, with a unique play style that I greatly enjoy. Well written, with beautiful renders and excellent character devlopment, it is definetly not a casual game that you play without thinking about it. Sex is incorperated into the game logically, but the focus is on the game and story itself, as well as the rather fun card-game combat.
This game is a nice break from the usual shallow and badly written sudo-VN's that abound, or the constant re-hash's of the same general premise with slightly different visuals.
TL;DR: I absolutely LOVE Love of Magic. Is it perfect? I won't say that, but it did a lot of things right and it's an engaging read that I wouldn't hesitate recommending it to anyone looking for a game with great story.
Disclaimer: This review only takes into consideration up to ACT XIV and the game's still in development. I highly doubt the next few acts would disappoint, but just putting it out there that I can only review what's been released.
What is Love of Magic?
Basically, it's an Arthurian legend game mixed with other mythological creatures and characters set in modern era, with mystery and lore written in a quality that I haven't seen in any game (or media) for a long time.
What it isn't:
Not a quick fap game. None of the girls are remotely unattractive, sure, except for one (Day 108, if you know, you know) but the sex scenes are few enough in absolute numbers and far apart enough that if you're wanting some release, I'd suggest to just minimize the game and open a porn site or something before going back to it. This is in no way a negative, in my opinion. All the sex scenes are very in-line with the personality of the characters involved and none are added frivolously just for the sake of having it.
Gameplay:
This is an open sandbox game where you can interact with the characters throughout the world either by going to their usual locations or happening upon them while they're also walking around the area. Time management (especially in B2) can be tight, but it's forgiving enough that you can do it without following a walkthrough religiously and won't heavily punish you for it but rewarding enough when you do it right.
There are also the Elsewhere and Magic battles. It's a variation of poker combined with deck building. Like all else in this game, it's a simple concept with more depth the more you learn about it. Then again, I get that not all people are into it (I wasn't, at first, but got hooked along the way) and the dev added several ways to simply skip it altogether. Heck, if you want, you can just turn the enemy's health to 0. Though I'd still suggest to others to give it a try. Like in my experience, you may grow to like it more than you'd expect. If it still ain't for you, then those skips would still be available for you to use.
Characters:
Models: As I've mentioned above, all the girls except one were attractive. I'm also ever so thankful that none have boobs and asses that are each bigger than their torso. The guys are relatively good-looking too. No ugly bastards (so far) and every character is also expressive enough to convey emotions from angry to smug, intimidating, or even scared shitless.
Personality: I am so glad to find a game where nobody is two-dimensional. A lot of the characters start and you can fit into an archetype, but as you play along, you can see various depths for each one of them. Heck, even your GF's dad has more layers to him than you'd initially think. Overall, I respect the author's way of giving characters depth without also disrespecting any of them in the process and it's done so well in this game.
Story:
You're an American guy raised by a single mom who traveled to Edinburgh to learn magic after being attacked by a corpse dog saying they'd want to prevent a so-called prophecy. Not every (un)friendly face is what they seem and the characters have their own goals and principles for achieving them.
The tone of the game strikes a balance though it is relatively light. There are moments of sadness, the implication of torture, (mass) murder, etc. but you feel that the game takes place in a world where it's light enough that you can buy that people (even powerful mages) would agree to live in it under those conditions and has enough shadow that it doesn't make you think you're playing a sanitized world. It's a believable world.
The game asks a lot of philosophical questions without it feeling it's been forced into the dialog and each of the characters has their distinct opinions about most of it. Each of them is relevant to the story or what the character is going through.
Music: The game uses royalty-free music. Each of them fit the given location they play especially in the lens of the MC (e.g., the Elsewhere theme would have an otherworldly ring to it, the Edinburgh is strange but upbeat, Camelot's is so obviously closely related to Emily's, etc.) The various character themes also fit each one of them.
If I've got a very dumb and minor nitpick, it'll be Berserker and Bella's theme (The Foreign Tale) have such a long windup that wanting to time it with the moment things go down can be pretty hard even on my subsequent playthroughs. But again, it's me being dumb and nitpicky with my own way of playing, wanting to sync them and stuff. They are still music that suits the scene and will make your adrenaline pumping regardless.
Dialogs:
Each of the character have their own voices and how they speak contributes to the character's, well, character. Some might feel that some of the characters' lines felt weirdly worded, you'll find that perhaps it's because they're not saying what you think they do and it's only weird because you're presupposing what they meant. Overall, I always find it delightful when I see each of these under a new light on subsequent playthroughs.
Another thing I'd like to add though perhaps should be a minor point, is that the dialog is written by a person who can actually write proper English. No "would of" or "irregardless" or any weird words and phrases people type online that seem to bleed through other people thinking it's correct or some crap.
I've only finished Book 1 so that is what this review is based on. I may update the review after playing Book 2 and 3.
Visuals
Backgrounds - Good to excellent
Character models - Excellent
Renders - Average to above average (will explain later)
Videos - Good to excellent
Animations - Poor to excellent (will explain later)
Story & Writing
Story - Excellent
Writing - Excellent
Depth of characters - Average (aside from the MC and Emily which are excellent)
Character development - Good
Gameplay & UI
Gameplay - Excellent
RPG Elements - Excellent
Sandbox Elements - Good
UI - Good
Overall Impressions
Love of Magic is a fun and unique game. It is one of the few visual novels that combines sandbox and RPG elements near perfectly. It is one of my favorite games on this site.
The writing and story are clever and engaging. The story and writing are, by far, the highlights of the game. I enjoyed the poker combat despite all the criticism about it. I thought it was well done and is something that is unique to this game.
The game works very well as a whole and is one of the best and most unique games of it's kind on this site.
Cons
The character models are excellent but are sometimes damaged by poor renders. Their skin and body details are sometimes good and at other times poor with lots of graininess and skin blotches. I'm guessing there are three reasons for this. #1 - Low resolution renders #2 - Low number of passes when producing the renders #3 - Poor lighting. It feels like the author favored rendering speed over quality far too frequently.
My second largest complaint is the animations. The author does two animations really well in Book 1 and the rest are rather poor. Again, a problem with favoring production speed over quality. There is no consistency with the animations in the game (they are all over the place in terms of quality, most being below average)
My third largest complaint is the lack of sex scenes. The game is extremely story based with some sex scenes thrown in. There should have been at least two more sex scenes with each of the LIs in the game. It feels lacking in terms of lewd/H content. For example, you can only have sex with Molly once at her dance studio (all other visits result in nothing). This happens with all the LIs in the game. Emily has the most lewd scenes but even she cock blocks the player a lot throughout the game. The majority of the sex scenes in the game are not animated.
There are a few bugs in the game such as missing events on the calendar (mostly in the month of December), options that always do nothing after they are used once for a new scene, being able to click on a card in Elsewhere with only one action left and then being told you have to return home after the card was revealed (it takes one action to click on the card, revealing it, and one action to do the event on the card).
Summary
An awesome game that is hindered by the author favoring production speed over quality (poor renders, only a few good animations, most sex scenes aren't animated, lack of sex scenes).
The game would be a masterpiece if quality was the primary focus throughout Book 1 and the quality was consistent throughout the game. Still, the game is awesome and deserves a 5 star rating!
The writing and story are some of the best I've seen!
I had an awesome time with the game and am very happy that I gave it a try!
This is a very good game indeed, with some huge strengths and very few weaknesses. I have just finished playing through Book 2 and have started on Book 3. Although I discovered this game on F95 I have purchased it on Steam and am following Book 3 through the beta branch option.
Strengths:
- A really engaging story, with some very original elements. I am not aware of anything similar.
- The integration of the supernatural with aspects of modern Britain and the UK military is particularly well done.
- A literate writing style which shows the writer is well-read themselves.
- Very individual character models, coupled with individual personalities for the main characters. These strongly contribute to the narrative and I will admit to having cried at the end of Book 2.
Weaknesses
- Some of the earlier elements in the story (like the bookshop and cafe) do not seem to be all that important later on, but perhaps that is due to choices I made.
- Not a criticism of the final product, of course, but for the game in progress it is a bit frustrating to be going round in circles while no new real content appears. Maybe there could be some more indication of what actual progress is being made.
- The poker aspects do not interest me, but even if they did I'm not sure they would add anything to the experience. But too late to disentangle them from the game.
I've played a lot of games on this site, and have enjoyed quite a few of them. This is the first that made me put my dick away and just enjoy the characters and story. That's not to say the erotic parts are lesser, they're great! It's just that the writing is that damn good.
If you held a gun to my head and forced me to criticize something, I'd say that once you realize that the idle animation for characters is just a 2d image warping and not a 3d animation it hits hard on the uncanny valley spectrum. But the writing is seriously so good that I don't notice it 95% of the time.
Just made it through Book 1 and immediately started along with Book 2. I'm almost overwhelmed with how much high quality content this game is packing. The story threads are finely interwoven and leave you longing for more.
