Miss Duckworthy’s School for Magic-Infested Young People by Felicity Banks
This is a wild ride. Wild enough that major story elements keep falling out; but you might be too busy looking at the sights to notice. Let’s start at the beginning. In classic Choice of Games style, you get to create your protagonist, complete with gender and sexual orientation. But – and I particularly enjoyed this – you can also choose between four national identities. Of course I chose to be Dutch, and was then pleasantly surprised by a series of well-chosen cultural details, even including having large windows looking out on the street. (If I can make one suggestion: Mondrian would always be called ‘Mondriaan’ in a Dutch art class.) By the time I had adopted a kitten and was being hauled away to Miss Duckworthy’s School for Magic-Infested Young People, I was wondering whether the Equilibrium-style pro-conformist society was about to send me to Hogwarts, to a Battle Royale style death camp, or to a Nazi style death camp. It all seemed equally possible.
Then came the punches. The scene where they are about to inject a small girl in her eye. And the murder by Nushi. Man, that cold-blooded murder scene landed like a gut punch. Clearly, I had arrived in totalitarian hell, where disobedience to the leader was punished by violence and death. I buckled in for some grim stuff.
And then… things changed? With no explanation? Here’s a quote not very much later in the game:
Whut? I had literally seen Nushi murder someone. Why on Earth is my character now acting as if she hasn’t? Why are they thinking that she is the best possible leader of the school? Why are we about to help out the fascists? Somehow, we’re corralled into choosing between two people who both want to rule, and since one of them has me locked in a box because I don’t feel right, and the other maybe does something nice for the younger kids, I’m ready to throw my weight behind the latter in some kind of fight. The fight itself seems to be extremely deadly – involving fire, acid, knives, who knows what – but also ends with nobody dead, I think, and the leader of my team suggesting that punishments for the rebels might be like, a week or so of detention. The storytelling whiplash I’m getting here is extreme. One scene Nushi is Rudolf Höss, and then with no character development in between she’s a strict but sensible middle school principal offering me a job.
In the meantime, I’m also developing a romance, learning magic, trying to decide my own future, helping other people unlock their magical potential, and changing society’s view of magic. The number of plot lines is high, and to be honest, all of them feel underdeveloped. This game has the room to develop maybe one or two of the plot lines, with one or two major characters, but it throws everything at us – and nothing, I’m afraid, really sticks.
That sounds harsh, so let me hasten to add: I enjoyed it. I really did! The writing is crisp, and although most passages were long, I never resented this, which is fairly rare. The choices are clear and interesting. There’s an amazing amount of energy and creativity. But, whoah, does it feel like I’m getting only about a quarter of the information while three quarters remains in the author’s head!