Magical Diary: Horse Hall

Ellen, Damien, Virginia and Donald

Magical Diary: Horse Hall is an Otome Game released by Hanako Games in 2011.

Part Life Sim, part Dating Sim, part Adventure Game - it follows the Wild Seed born Player Character through her first year of the Wizarding School - Iris Academy.

Tropes used in Magical Diary: Horse Hall include:

• Accidental Marriage: More like accidental engagement, but due to the power of a promise the people involved have to go through with it.
• Animal Motifs: Deliberately invoked by the faculty of Iris Academy. All students are assigned a house when they enroll;
  • "Adventurous" Horses, "charming" Butterflies or "mysterious" Snakes for the girls
  • "Daring" wolves, "elegant" falcons or "eldritch" toads for the boys.
• Anything That Moves: Pastel.
• Audio Erotica: Professor Grabiner, according to the PC.
  • Possibly also Damien, depending on how you choose to phrase the love letter and whether or not you're just making things up. "Voice like melty butter," indeed.
• Big Eater: Virginia. She sure can pack it in.
• Boarding School
• Bunny Ears Lawyer / Eccentric Mentor: Professor Potsdam. Despite being the powerful headmistress at a prestigious Wizarding School she comes across more of a mature Granola Girl. Most of the time, anyway.
• Captain Ersatz: Professor Grabiner is very obviously fanon Snape.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Big Steve.
  • Suki.
  • Snake/Toad Hall students in general.
• Cool Big Bro: William to Virginia. And she adores him for it.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Kyo towards Minnie.
• Depraved Bisexual: Damien. If you don't romance him, he'll go after a freshman boy instead.
• Mr. Fanservice:
  • Damien. Alienated from his muggle parents? Check! Bullied at school due to his mysterious, demon parentage? Check! Believed to be a vicious Casanova - while really just Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places and getting his trust betrayed constantly for his trouble? Check! Too bad it's an act he puts on, specifically designed to invoke this trope.
  • Donald.
  • Professor Grabiner.
• Everyone Is Bi: Gender appears to be completely irrelevant when it comes to romance here; not only can characters be romanced either way but no one comments on this to indicate that it's at all unusual, and other NPCs date both genders as well. Most obvious with William, Damien, or Ellen if you pursue her.
• Gay Option: No Hanako Games title would be complete without this. In this case both Ellen and Virginia fulfill the role officially.
• Jerkass Has a Point: For all of Damien's flaws and problems, it's safer to listen to his warnings. Your first encounter with him in the gym, where he tells you to attend at least the first lecture of every class and not trust the professors? You need a minimum of one point in every colour to avoid getting detention after the first two weeks, and a minimum of ten to avoid being kept behind for summer school. And Potsdam definitely isn't telling you everything. He also gives the first hint you'll get about Initiation. His suggestion to study blue magic during Initiation week? Successfully using blue magic (which requires a total of thirty or more points in it) will get a whopping ten merits in the first exam - more than you can get from any other option. His warning not to use Spirit Sight during the Dark Dance? Doing so will turn you blind and cause Grabiner to give you detention and take ten demerits from you - twenty, if you'd mentioned the Dance to Grabiner prior to attending it. It doesn't excuse his later actions, of course.
• Magically-Binding Contract: The sworn promise of a witch or wizard is completely binding, with dire consequences if broken.
• Manipulative Bastard: Damien!
• Masquerade
• Middle Child Syndrome: Donald's problem.
• Obfuscating Stupidity : Professor Potsdam is a lot more devious than she first appears.
• Odd Couple: You have two roommates. Virginia is a Book Dumb junk-food-addict slob. Ellen is a quiet, studious neat freak who loves vegetables.
  • This isn't quite Tomboy and Girly Girl since as Horses they're both somewhat tomboyish. Ellen is more girly, but not drastically. However, Pastel is extremely girly, and she and Virginia are apparently friends.
• Parody Sue: The default character name is Mary Sue. The creator was having a bit of fun there.
• Pastiche: Of Harry Potter Fanfic. For example, Professor Grabiner is Severus Snape through fangirly eyes, while Damien is a Malfoy (in leather pants) Expy. And, of course, the PC's default name is Mary Sue.
• Save Scumming: Given the multiple dialogue options, multiple game paths, and random nature of magic skill gains, this is pretty much required. Given that you can literally save everywhere, to 80 slots, this is also practically a game feature.
• Secret Character: As of the latest patch, Big Steve now has a partial romance path. Reaching it is much more difficult than any of the other characters.
• Shout-Out: The school play is The Small Place of Purchase of Frightening Things.
• Spirit World: The Other World.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: When asked if you are dating Donald:

Mary Sue: I am not currently dating your brother.
Virginia: That's suspiciously speci-, spuspi- spefic- That's a very specific denial!

• The Talk: Something of a Running Gag. Professor Potsdam will sometimes open a class sounding like she's about to lead into The Talk, only for it to turn out to be something unrelated. She does eventually get round to it, kinda.
• Troubled but Cute: Damien. Donald to a lesser extent.
• Two-Teacher School: The only instructors we ever see are Professor Grabiner and Professor Potsdam.
• Two-Timer Date: Possible if you were on Virginia's path and then accepted a date with Damien.
• Urban Fantasy
• Wizarding School
• What the Hell, Hero?: Happens very late into Damien's path if you try to appeal to Potsdam to let him back in for the May Ball. She not only refuses but very gently chews you out for even asking, pointing out that what he did might have been technically legal, but he still nearly killed you and he'd be expelled for that alone even if his deed isn't on the books as being expulsion-worthy (and if it isn't, she'll add it). On top of that, you realize - too late - that you just got told off in front of the entire school, and Virginia and Ellen very quickly find out. They are not happy to hear that you're even talking with Damien again after what he did to you, and refuse to listen to any justifications. They even kick you out of the room for good, only letting you back at night so you can sleep and their very justified fury carries all the way into the final exam - which they will deliberately throw unless you promise to break up with him right then and there. And breaking that promise deprives you of your magic - refusing to make it at all means that your entire Hall is so disgusted with you that the only option for you is to be moved to Snake Hall. "Perhaps the girls there will be more understanding of your choices."
  • You can get this from Minnie too, if you successfully campaigned for treasurer and try to use empathy on her when she comes to you with a problem. Turns out that doing that kind of thing is considered a bit rude in magical culture.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Many of the characters have unusual hair colors. You can give your character one, too.
• Your Soul Is Mine: What Damien's trying to accomplish.