Primary ~Magical Trouble Scramble~ Review

Company: SkyFish
Game site: Primary～Magical★Trouble★Scramble～
Release date: June 26, 2009
Links: Getchu, walkthrough, seiyuu listing

SkyFish’s 6th release, Primary ~Magical Trouble Scramble~, is a love comedy ADV set in a magic school. Kohaku Rikuou transfers into Vanchester Magic School with one goal in mind: to find a way for his sister Hinana to see normally again. Along the way, he makes friends and discovers his past and the many mysteries of this magical world.

There is a patch (ver 1.03) for the game that fixes some minor errors.

Opening Theme

Well, I listened to the song a lot of times, so it’s stuck in my head. Rita sings this song. There’s a lot going on in the animation and the transitions felt a little weird at some points. However, it’s a decent OP, even if it is a bit unspectacular.

Scenario

全てはここから始まる。
まるで、小さな小石が水面に落ち、波紋が水面を拡がるように。
ゆっくりと大きく……

Kohaku Rikuou arrives in Vanchester, one of the four ancient relics of the world and the birthplace of magic. His goal is to train his magic abilities to become strong enough to defeat the spirit that took his sister Hinana’s ability to see. Hinana also comes with him to Vanchester and wishes that they can live a happy life together.

Upon arriving, Kohaku defeats a runaway spirit (shredding Prim’s clothes in the process) and soon the whole school knows that the new transfer student from Japan is very strong. This makes him very popular among his classmates. Since it’s near the end of the school year and maturita (a final examination for 2nd years) is approaching, Kohaku will have to complete various types of requests with other students. For someone who has always studied by himself, this may be a tougher task that he imagined.

A new beginning. A new life. With this comes new friendships and love. How will Kohaku overcome the numerous trials that lie before him?

Primary is composed of 6 main routes and one joint route (Chime/Hina) which is technically a bad end, but I consider it a good one. Hina is the reason Kohaku came to Vanchester, so her route should be played last. It will also explain a bit more about the magic, the meaning of ‘Primary’ and there’s also a nice epilogue. The common route is decently long, lasting until about halfway through the game. However, you will have to choose who to partner with to do the requests before you are locked into a route, so in a way you can start a heroine’s route early on. It’s just that you won’t get to the serious parts until the latter half of the story. There was reasonable plot development in all routes except for Maria’s, which was quite short and felt like it had more H scenes than story.

This game is all about mahou shoujo fighting evil. That means… transformation scenes, team attacks and tentacles! Zen thinks it’s quite cheesy, and I do agree that a lot of the themes are cliched to the point where I think I’m watching Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew or Ojamajo Doremi. However, I really really liked it! Sure there is a serious side, but there is a very lighthearted feel to the game, making you believe that no matter what love and friendship will ultimately prevail! Happy end! Themes in the game include the power of love, the bonds of friendship, believing in each other, and overcoming obstacles together to realize dreams. I think I just did a combo attack KO on Zen.

The elements of the overall story are split among the routes. This is both a good and bad thing, since it makes you want to play all the routes, but sometimes there are repeated scenes. You can skip them, but it takes some time. Many of the common events such as the fukkatsusai party, paltita tournament and the last boss are the same, however the dialogue and character interactions are different. So seeing the same last boss isn’t so bad since a different theme is emphasized in each route. Since the game is in a magic context, there are numerous times when a magic item is used to further the plot.

Personally, I loved the party scene a lot and found the drunk girls’ chitchat hilarious. The magic battles were fun for a mahou shoujo fan like me. I felt the plot development was not that well done for some routes, such as Maria and Mintia’s. The story never really took shape even though you could see the theme they were trying to utilize. It was awkward seeing H scenes before their character relationship really advanced. However, for other routes, these points were done well.

Oh, and I thought I saw Marisa, but maybe it’s just a normal witch.

Chime, Prim and Hina’s routes were the best. Not only did they teach a valuable lesson, but they also switched the perspective to show the heroine’s feelings too. Chime and Hina’s routes are quite intertwined and it would be a bit odd seeing a Hina HCG in Chime’s route to some, even though I didn’t mind it myself. I felt Chime’s route was the most well-structured, although it may considered extremely cliched. On the flip side, Maria’s was too short, Mintia’s was too linear and Lime’s had too many disjointed elements in it. I liked Lime’s ending, but a lot of the events in between were quite puzzling.

After completing the game, you may decide to play the ‘Another Scenario’ for Prim. You can download it from the official site. I’ve written a little bit about it here.

Micchi’s recommended route order:
Mariafia, Prim, Lime, Mintia, Chime, Hinana

Micchi’s route rankings:
Chime, Prim, Hinana, Lime, Mintia, Mariafia

Characters

Kohaku Rikuou

Kohaku is a magic warrior (ritter) who hails from Japan and wields a powerful sword named ‘Kurosaya’. He came to Vanchester to learn more magic to cure Hinana’s vision. Having been strictly trained in magic since he was small, he is very adept at using magic. Also because of this, he does not have good people skills and finds it difficult to make friends. However, he has a kind heart and always thinks of others before himself.

As Hina remarks, he is KY (‘kuuki ga yomenai’ – cannot read the air). However, he is somehow still very popular among the girls, probably because of his strength and kindness. Even though he is donkan, strangely it doesn’t really bother me that much as I find it comedic more than annoying.

Prim Rina Oaklane

Puripuri Prim is a white magic user (anges) who is Kohaku’s classmate and Lime’s twin sister. Her dream is to become a Seabird Knight, who protects people from harm. She comes from a well-off family on the outskirts of the city and does very well in school. Because of the incident upon Kohaku’s transfer into school, she often argues with Kohaku, but maybe it’s because she harbors some feelings for him?

Aw, what an adorable tsundere! Her tsun is more bickering (like lovers) than anything else. Most importantly, Lolim (loli Prim) is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! This is definitely lolicon material… I just wanna hop over there and take her home!!! Hau~ omochikaeri~!

Also since Prim won the chara poll, there is also a supplement story for her! Hooray!

Lime Luna Oaklane

Lime is Prim’s twin sister and is a very powerful black magic user (sorcerer)… except she doesn’t use it since she doesn’t like hurting others. She was saved by Kohaku and fell in love with him at first sight. Very scary if angered.

Hmm.. she’s very dere to Kohaku and ends up saying a lot of overboard things because of her imaginations. I think her other side is really interesting, but the plot didn’t really bring it out that well.

Mariafia Chiffonese

Maria is the daughter of the president of the popular Frost Giant Ice Cream company and can be considered an idol since she appears in their marketing campaigns. She is a spirit user (fairytaler) and her familiar is the penguin frost giant Montblanc. Always aware of current news and rumors in Vanchester.

I think Maria is a very nice person to have around, but I felt that there was something lacking in her route. It was a bit too plain (or maybe that’s because her route was too short). I like when she teases Prim and Lime.

Mintia Mimitte Midimu

Contrary to what her size suggests, Mintia (Mimi) is the strongest magic user in the school and a high level magic warrior (chevalier). In last year’s maturita, she soloed a dragon, earning her the title ‘dragon slayer’. She can use magic without casting. A bit hot-blooded at times, she is always up for a battle. Coming from a noble family and always watched over by her butler Alfred, she can be very childish and doesn’t know that much about the real world.

Aww Mintia-senpai is so cute! And her ears move!!!!! Even though she’s childish sometimes (especially when drunk), she often gives very good advice as a senpai. Her chest (and ass) are her weak points. Heh.

Chime Milhawks

Chime is Kohaku’s kouhai and Hina’s best friend. She is the ‘poster girl’ waitress for the restaurant Holy Bell, which her older sister Serafina owns. Her dream is to become a mahou shoujo, but her magic is very weak. She tries her best and works hard at everything. Simple and pure. She looks up to Kohaku as an onii-chan.

It’s a shame that Chime doesn’t show up much in most of the routes because I really love her perserverance and innocence. I want an imouto/kouhai like Chime!!!

Hinana Rikuou

Hina is Kohaku’s little sister. When she was small, her ability to see was taken away by an unknown spirit. Her mother gave her a familiar, Piyomaru (who looks like a fat chick although it’s actually a phoenix), to help her see. She is also a spirit user like her mother. A total bracon, but often acts like an older sister or mother.

I love how Hina wants to keep her oniichan all to herself. I really like the relationship between Kohaku and Hina, where he wants to do anything to help her while she is very thankful for all the effort. Don’t worry, Hina! Siblings can get married in Vanchester!

Subcharacters

There are a lot of subcharacters in the game, including Chime’s older sister Serafina, their maturita teacher Ricardo, Mintia’s butler Alfred, royal princess Feticia, plus a bunch of classmates and teachers, all with their own ‘charms’. Some characters show up more than others and are vital to the plot, while others are merely for comedy. Serafina is awesome. I wouldn’t have minded if she was a heroine. Her antics with Chime are always fun to watch. Trankappe-sensei was hilarious every time he talked.

Since this is a magic-based game, there’s a lot of monsters and familiars. They’re all very cutely drawn in line with the artistic style. Cerberus is just like normal hellhounds, but with three ahoge instead of one! Also, all hail the king.

Overall, all the characters were likeable. My favorites were definitely Chime, Lolim Prim and Hina. I’m quite surprised a tsundere ranked so high.

Micchi’s character rankings:
Chime, Prim, Hinana, Mintia, Lime, Mariafia

Graphics

All of Primary‘s artwork is drawn in pastel colors. The wide-set eyes are a defining trait in SkyFish games; it took some time for me to get used to it. I really liked the CGs and think that the colors were well done. Some of Lime and Maria’s CGs looked really weird (I know they have big breasts, but not that big). The backgrounds used are very well drawn, especially the pool in the relics. There are at least 3 different versions of tachi-e for each heroine, in addition to their transformed state. Minor subcharacters only have one tachi-e and no facial variations, which was a bit of a let down. There was plenty of movement and zooming and panning were frequently used.

Since it’s a magic game, of course the magic battles have to be impressive! There are animations for transformations and spellcasting, as well as other special effects. They did a good job of bringing the player in; it truly feels like I’m witnessing a battle.

Some SD characters are sparsely used. They’re pretty cute. All the CGs, BGs, tachi-e and SDs are available in the Extra Mode.

System

I’m in love with this interface. Not only can you use the mouse, but also the keyboard arrows and shortcut keys to navigate. There’s even a help button! There are 225 save slots, 25 auto save slots (saves upon subscene changes) and 3 quick save slots. When saving, it will attach a date stamp, the name of the scene, subscene and sub-subscene. You can rename this if you want to. The only downside is there’s no preview, but that didn’t bother me since the scene titles were quite self-explanatory.

The textbox is very pink and dangerous to some players. When an offscreen character talks (or it’s a minor subcharacter), they will appear in a box on the screen. I wish that there a function to skip ahead to the beginning of the next scene.

The system config menu is split into text, sound and other options. I didn’t really change anything. There’s also a hidden function in the game. If you press V while in the game, you can change the sound clips used when saving (ID#11), loading (ID#12) and returning to title screen (ID#13).  All six heroines have their own sound clips. I put all of mine to Hina’s.

If you press the ‘log’ button, it will bring you to a nicely formatted backlog. You can also view the backlog line by line by using pgup/pgdown or the mouse scroll.

The date change cutscenes show who the next scene is about. There are also individual cutscenes for each character.

During maturita, you will have to choose a partner to undertake requests from people who post on the board (or you can choose yourself if you wish to solo). Piyomaru and Montblanc will explain how it works in game. Obviously, this will affect whose route you end up on.

After completing any route, the Extra Mode will be available to you. This includes the CG Mode, Music Mode and H scene replay.

In the CG Mode, you will able to view all the images used in the game. The ‘bust up’ mode allows you to view the tachi-e. You can cycle through all variations and zoom in for some CGs and tachi-e. It’s very good, but I wish it was possible to change the background in the tachi-e mode like in Hoshizora no Memoria.

Sound

There are 19 tracks in the Music Mode, including the OP and ED. I like MANYO’s music and wish there were more tracks. Both the OP and ED were nice and catchy. I felt the seiyuus did a good job. Hina’s took some getting used to, while Serafina’s was a bit nasally. Aoba Ringo did a great job voicing tsundere Prim.

H Scenes

Each of 6 heroines has between 3 and 6 H scenes, with 1-3 positions per scene. Length is around normal and there were plenty of variations. Slow thrusting motion and squishy sounds are used. I found the sound effects a bit laughable. The timing of Lime, Maria and Mintia’s H scenes were quite bad. I don’t understand how you can have an H scene before they go on a date. On the other hand, Prim and Chime’s were very nicely done. As a true imouto, Hina has 3 H scenes, but none with actual penetration.

It seems like certain characters had H scene themes. Almost all of Maria’s H scenes had to do with her oversized melons, while Mintia’s involved the other hole. Chime’s was focused on her outfits: waitress outfit, sukumizu, PE uniform with bloomers and of course, the mahou shoujo style. I personally thought the best one was Chime’s last scene.

Overall

All of Micchi’s reviews will be rated by assigning scores out of 10 to each of the following categories: Scenario, characters, graphics, system, sound, and H scenes. Half marks may be given. The scoring is as follows:

• 10 – Absolutely satisfied
• 9 – Among the best, only minor improvements
• 8 – Good overall
• 7 – Average, a mix of good and bad
• 6 – Below average, slightly disappointing
• <5 – Very disappointed

The overall score is a weighted sum (3x Scenario + 2x Characters + 2x Graphics + 1x System + 1x Sound + 1x H scenes) for a total out of 100.

• Scenario: 7
• Characters: 9.5
• Graphics: 8
• System: 9.5
• Sound: 8.5
• H Scenes: 7
• Overall: 81

If you’re looking for an enjoyable comedic mahou shoujo game, Primary won’t fail to deliver. Some routes were well-done, while some missed the mark. All the characters have their own charms and there is a wonderful magical feel to the game. Remember… love conquers all~☆

俺達の試練も冒険も終わらない。これからも、ずっとずっと続いていく。
仲間達と共に。そして、愛しい人と共に。
ここから、そう．．．また新たな試練と冒険へと．．．

	Hey you there!
	It’s a lie that you like them small, right?
	Really? I always thought that guys liked them big… (Maybe I have a chance after all…)
	So long as onii-chan likes them small, Hina’s fine.
	Ara ara~ It seems like we’ll have to see what everyone thinks.
	That’s right! Go vote now!