Magical Drop II
When flowers bloom, the power of fairies works...
Developer: Placeholder
Platforms: SNES
Release Date: JP: Oct. 27, 1995 NA: Aug. 11, 1996 EU: Nov. 28, 1996
Magical Drop II might be the game that got me really started on my puzzle games kick.
It's a very fast-paced game- Setting up big combos is definitely possible, but there’s more focus on making matches quickly. Making a lot of quick two chains in a row can be as effective as one big chain. You have to hurry to manage your drops picking them up and putting them down to get what you need, while making sure none of them are too close to getting over the edge. It's very frantic and fun has a very different feel than other puzzle games.
I listed this game as my favorite instead of Magical Drop III, which I'm not sure if I'll actually stand by forever- two is the game that I'm much more familiar with, but three is basically “Magical Drop II, but more of it”. Two might win out for me purely because it’s what I played first. They're both definitely worth your time though.
A lot of Magical Drop’s strength comes from its characters, who are all based on one of the Major Arcana from tarot. The first Magical Drop has a very cute style in its own right, but the sequel goes for a new style. The sprites are colorful and have some particularly zany slapstick anime qualities that I love. There’s only a few new characters, but they’re a good bunch. I always forget that cool sword girl Justice debuts in this game and not the first, since she gets promoted to the lead character in Magical Drop F. The characters are pretty faithfully based on well-known depictions of the arcana, for the most part.
There are some significant versions differences with this game. First, between the arcade and SNES versions, the clowns are replaced with adorable little versions of the characters you play. A reasonable trade-off.
Anyway, the actual plot of this game is that your character must defeat the evil Empress in her castle, and then you get to make a wish with the Magical Drops. You fight the rest of the cast on your way there. You beat the game after a tough battle against Empress, but using no continues reveals that an inexplicable evil little clown called Black Pierrot was manipulating Empress! He resembles the little clowns you move around during gameplay (in the arcade version, at least), but I love how out of place he is with every other arcana card character. Whether you fight Black Pierrot or not, Empress is restored to her tarot-accurate good self, which will definitely stick. You also get your character’s unique ending. There’s a lot of goofy fun in these, from High Priestess going to space, to blah blah, to Empress just seeming very confused about what in the world her problem is.
I haven't mentioned the Fool yet. I need a paragraph about the Fool.
I think I've made up a lot of stuff about Magical Drop in my mind. I'm an honest woman: the main reason I like this game so much is because there's a sexy dominatrix character who’s also a bit funny and pathetic. She's very silly. Is she really that funny in the original Japanese text? I don't know, but I hope she is. A lot of her slapstick moments come from the next game, where all the characters torment her in the board game mode after she does some petty comic mischief to them. Isn't that wonderful? In my head there's an entire rivalry and dynamic between World and Empress that probably does not actually exist, but they do love putting them together in intros and key art. I’ll make a comic about this one day. Maybe.
Connie’s Codes: You can unlock extra characters in each version with a similar set of inputs.
What else is there to say about Magical Drop 2 it's got a very fun soundtrack by blah blah the sprites are super well animated, very charming character designs, and very sexy woman characters! It's all good stuff.
