Little Magician's Magic Adventure: Like Animal Crossing, but better.

Alright I don't know if any of you have heard about this game but it's been out in Japan for a tiny bit now and it'll hit the US on the 10th of February I think.

It's pretty similar to AC in that you live in a little occupied area (only this time it's a school and not a village) and you have animal friends as your neighbours. It has fishing, bug-catching and all those other things found in Animal Crossing.

Here's some differences:
The social networking has improved. You can now form relationships (either friendly or romantic) with your peers. If you treat somebody badly for long enough they will be your enemy and play pranks/cast spells on you. People will also gossip depending on their personality; quiet types will keep to themselves but you'll find people around that will spread rumours like wildfire. Little speech bubbles will also appear above people now, so you are able to converse with people without actually having to open a conversation. This little feature can be interesting for eavesdropping on a gossip session with the help of an invincibility spell.

If you catch a big fish, nearby people will congratulate you. If you cast a spell on somebody else, nearby people will scold you (or even praise you if deep down they have desired to do the same).

There's quests, such as going underground to meet a dragon and solving puzzles. These quests yield rewards such as your very own broomstick to ride around on.

You can learn songs (which are, from what I've heard, much better than songs found in AC) by simply listening to them or by buying a CD. Having learnt a song, you can whistle the tune while walking around or even bust out an instrument (which can potentially inspire onlookers to form an impromptu jam session with you). You can see this in action here.

You can visit other people's schools. The game was built from the ground up around the idea of multiplayer so no features will be dropped out while playing with a friend. I think there's even quests that require several people to be around, don't quote me on that though. Speaking of having several people around though, it's possible to request an NPC to follow you around (can be used for quests, dates, stuff like that). There's also the option to send your peers to a friend's town for a little while. When they come back they'll tell you about what they got up to while there ~

Also a story from a guy who can speak Japanese playing the game:

I made one odd mistake of casting a flower spell near one of the guys, he freaked out, said I shouldn't be "floating that way", then ran of. Next day rumors about me being GAY go around...Holy shit clean up on that was PAINFUL.

I hear from another guy that, in keeping with their virtual personalities, students are a lot more sensitive about their personal space and it is possible to make them uncomfortable by invading it.



Keep an eye out ! It looks neat-o.

Oh, and here's a list of known characters. Yes, it is possible to date the walking cellphone.

I hate Animal Crossing. It's overrated and boring. This, however, looks good. Too bad I don't have a DS.