GC 2008: Enchanted Folk Hands-On

At its 2008 Leipzig Games Convention press conference, Konami kicked things off with a video for a brand-new game, Enchanted Folk and the School of Wizardry. Although the game wasn't discussed in much detail, the video revealed a Nintendo DS game that takes place in a school of magic. We decided to head down to the show floor at Leipzig Games Convention 2008 to see if we could find out more on this real-time adventure game, which looks as if it also has a mix of role-playing, Animal Cross, and Harry Potter thrown into it.

Unfortunately, the demo that we played featured a combination of German and Japanese text, but we did our best to interpret some of the story. It seems that you take the role of Charli, a character at a wizard school. We had a quick venture around the school and its surroundings and bumped into a few interesting characters along the way, including Director Sol (presumably the school's principal), a jolly man with a face that was actually a sun. In his office were also two talking books with whom we briefly chatted (in German, naturlich).

We then headed out to the school grounds, which featured some manicured gardens, a few characters including one called TV-20C who had a TV set as a head, and a few smaller buildings. The world scrolls around you like a cylinder, similar to Animal Crossing. We found a shop in which you can trade or buy items, and later on we discovered a few caves and some weisse (white) flowers that you can pick. Charli can gain other items, too, including a pair of jeans, shoes, and a shirt, as well as a broom, a guitar, and a diamond. We also encountered a graveyard, a brook, and what looked like a haunted house to explore.

According to literature that we received from Konami, you'll be able to interact with and make friends (and even boyfriends and girlfriends) with the other 100 school students, as well as solve mysteries, all the while trying to earn your magician's licence and the title of "master wizard." You'll also be able to send your character to other DSs as part of a "school exchange."

Enchanted Folk and The School of Wizardry is due out in 2009. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more details as they emerge.