Title: ファンタスティックフォーチュン2
English Title: Fantastic Fortune 2
Genre(s): Otome, Sim
Platform(s): PC/PS2
Release Date: June 26, 2003 (PS2); March 3, 2005 (PS2 Triple Star Ed.); December 22, 2005 (PC)
Rating: 7/10

Story:

The sequel to the AVG game, Fantastic Fortune, features many diverse characters and an engaging, if somewhat predictable, storyline.

The player will take the role of one of the 3 main female characters in a country ruled by a single child "Fortune Teller"/"Star Watcher" whose bloodline was said to be able to hear the voice of the goddess and thus predict the future. The 3 characters the player can choose from are all candidates for the reincarnation of the goddess that the last Fortune Teller said would appear on that land and save humans from doom, and whether they succeed or not all depends on the player's choices in the few months before the final decision was revealed.

Game Features:

• Multiple playable characters.
• A vast number of possible story developments and endings based on the player's actions and choices.
• Extra mini-stories after the completion of each ending (Triple Star Only)

 

Main Characters:

Female Main

• Marine Stuart (マリン＝スチュワート): One of the candidates. 15-year-old orphan whose wish is to be able to meet with the boy who saved her by the sea when she was little. Good with housework and has a bright personality.
• Aqua (アクア): One of the candidates. Approximately 13 years old. She was found by the beach without any memory. Sharp-tongued and very mature for her
• Hinohira Aoi (日野平 葵): One of the candidates. An approximately 16 years old shrine maiden summoned from the Heian Era Japan. Has a strong sense of justice.

Male

• Pluto Altus Arolandia (プルート＝アルタス＝アロランディア):  The "Star Watcher" in charge of being the head of the government. Works very hard for the sake of the country, but does sneak out of the palace sometimes.
• Soloi Brahe (ソロイ＝ブラーエ): Pluto's servant. Has the highest power in the government after Pluto. Very straight-laced. More like Pluto's guardian than a servant.
• Sirius Warren Darice (シリウス＝ウォーレン＝ダリス): Darice Kingdom's prince. 25-years-old. A strange beauty who keep using ventriloquism to talk through his "friend" Bobby, the doll.
• Johan Herschel (ヨハン＝ハーシェル): Incharge of the Magic Academy, 27 years old.
• Unisys Herschel (ユニシス＝ハーシェル): A 14-year-old from a asexual race that can decide their own gender after puberty.
• Ark=Harrington (アーク＝ハリントン): A talented youth from the Knight Academy. 17 years old.
• Lute Wilson (リュート＝ウィルソン): A considerate boy from the Knight Academy. 17 years old.
• Benimaru (紅丸): Aoi's magical "servant." Normally takes the form of a knife. Whereabouts became unknown when Aoi was summoned to this world.
• Blue (ブルー): A mysterious boy who would appear during stormy nights. Hates Humans.

Review:

• Gameplay: 6
• Graphics:8
• Sound: 3
• Length: 8
• Replayability: 8
• Overall: 7

Gameplay: It's one of those typical point-n-click AVG games where you take control of the girl's schedule and the things she say. But the storyline more than makes up for that. The story was very well thought out. Depending on your choice of the female lead character to control and which character you aim to "get" by the end, you get different pieces of the whole story. The dialogs in general are very humorous and can provide some light entertainment as a break from more concentration demanding games, although there are some dark moments with certain character combinations. The extra mini-stories you can access after finishing certain character's storylines add well to the overall value of the game experience.

Graphics: Most of the time, the characters are not bad to look at. Although the game is completely done in 2D, there are over three hundred CG's total to be unlocked. While not all of them are eye-candies, it was not a bad effort. The characters are well drawn, each with their own unique style and features that fit their personalities well.

Sound: The music, although not bad, do get repetitive after hours of playing. The SFX and voice in the menu and normal daily schedule run-through get annoying after you've listened to it for a few hundred times. And yet one would hesitate turning it off since SFX and voice share one volume slider (and the SFX by default is much louder than the voices) and if you want to hear voice during conversations, turning it on and off all the time would just not seem practical.

Length: Although it does not take more than a few hours to get through the game once, the number of combinations result in a total game play that would last you days of continuous gaming.

Replayability: This along with the story are the two main selling points of the game. It is impossible to get more than a portion of the story in one play through. Only after you've gone through every character's story with each of the 3 controllable characters, do you get the complete picture. So, it would keep making you play it over and over again.

Overall: A nice game if you don't mind the point and click control with a lot of repeated dialog through the dozens of times you have to work through this game to fully enjoy the story and extras. If you prefer action, then this is the wrong game to look at. So, try this game if you like storybook AVG games aimed at girls. After finishing the whole game and the extras, it left a bittersweet taste, in a good way. The way it finishes is very unique in this genre of games. After spending so much time on this game. After viewing all the characters from different angles, some great some hateful, I actually feel a bit sad to part with this game - the first time I've ever felt this way about a game.