Secret of the Magic Crystals - Initial Thoughts

About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)

In this game you manage a horse-breeding farm set in a fantasy surrounding. The game enables you to breed legendary horses such as Pegasus, Unicorn, Fire-steed, Ice-steed and Demon-steed. You can buy over 700 objects during the game. Make all kinds of horseshoes as well as lots of magical potions for your horses. If they are exhausted or ill, you are able to cure and look after them. Your horses and colts need lots of care and that’s the way they recover their strengths. You can train your horses on four different fields in five levels of difficulty. You can even breed them in order to have more talented horses. Different horse races help you to gather 25 kinds of cups and you can send your horses to complete 30 exciting missions. 

Previous Play Time

0 hours

Prior Experience

None, this game was bought for me by a friend (thanks Jared), when he heard I was offering to play any game. The description from the Steam Store page is the extent of my knowledge. I decided, after my underwhelming reaction to Ride to Hell (belated "thanks," Travis) that I was going to try going into these challenge games unspoiled, so as to get a more natural reaction to the material. Naturally, one can't avoid a certain amount of pop-culture osmosis, but Secret of the Magic Crystals appears to be low profile enough that I don't have to worry.

Expectations

Honestly, I'm optimistic. I suspect that this game was chosen due to the apparent absurdity of a grown man playing a game about ponies. Plus, the (presumably) main horse-breeding mechanic sounds less than action packed. Yet it would be a mistake to underestimate my appetite for whimsy or my tolerance for tedium. As long as the underlying mechanics are solid and any necessary repetition is rewarded with measurable, if incremental progress, I could see myself falling in love with this game.

Then again, Jared my be a more savvy sadist than I'd imagined, and this could all blow up in my face. My optimism is not unalloyed with suspicion.