Magical Starsign's charm and simplicity make it quite the enjoyable adventure with a great cast of characters and humor.

User Rating: 8 | Magical Vacation: 5-tsu no Hoshi ga Narabu toki DS
~Basics~
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Brownie Brown
System: Nintendo DS
Genre: I consider Magical Starsign entirely as an RPG
Release Date: October 23, 2006

~Gameplay 7.5/10~
The DS has very few RPG titles out there. Of course there's more than there was before, and they're quickly growing, but still, it's easy for a selected few RPG to stand out with such little competition. One of these games is Magical Starsign. As the sequel of Magical Vacation (only in Japan on the GBA), the Magical Starsign style is brand new to everyone outside Japan. This game does feel like it's similar though, but more on that a bit later. While it's simple and can sometimes be predictable, the story of Magical Starsign is always enjoyable, and it starts with 6 students of magic (reminds me of Harry Potter). You are one of these 6, but you get two choices of character customization. First, you may be a boy or a girl (I know it's not much, but it's important to some people).

After you choose your gender, you then have the choice between two kinds of magic: light magic or dark magic. While it may seem like a good vs. bad side, it doesn't really matter much for whichever you choose. The other will just have a different spell type, some dialogue differences, and maybe one or two path changes but still lead to the same result. So, as disappointing as it is to not be "evil", you have a very slight character customization control. Still, it's better than nothing, right?

As you may have guessed, we have another silent protagonist on our hands (which is common for RPGs). It's just like all other RPGs where this occurs, you receive a set of commands on what to say at different times. This is pretty much only for dialogue changes. There's never going to be a time where you can make a huge twist in the game (although, there will be times where it seems that way). So, yes, the main character is a little bland. Even when you get to say something, it will typically be something like "Yes" or "No", so there's not much to the main character. However, everyone else is bursting with creativity. Each of the 5 characters who accompany you is very unique, and has their own original personality. Also, each if of their own species (except I think two may be of the same type) so you're not going to see 6 humans who are all the same. The dialogue between these characters is always lively, and I really haven't seen such an appealing bunch in a long time.

The story is nothing too big or hard to handle. It's a basic RPG story about saving the world (or this case, the universe), but still happens to stay interesting because of the character design/dialogue. You start off your journey as a student in the Will-o-Wisp academy, a magic school, so it's a bit like Harry Potter. But then, your teacher, Miss Madeline, mysteriously needs to go the wind planet, Puffoon. You don't know why, but as you hear her and your principal talking, you and your classmates know some trouble is going on in the world. So, as nosy as you are, you look around the school trying to figure out as much as you can along with your 5 best classmates. Eventually, you find some space rockets, and after some talk, each character gets in one, and heads for Puffoon. But, as inexperienced as you all are, nothing goes according to plan, and you (the main character) end up crashing on the Earth Planet, Erd, and that's basically where the story starts off. Honestly, I don't know where the Will-o-Wisp Academy resides. I know it's not on a planet, so it must be in the middle of nowhere. I really don't know, regardless, that's not important since you won't be going back there. Overall, the story is simple and basic, but can get quite epic at the end, and has its share of surprises and memorable moments as well.

Just like all RPGs, the battle system is very important. Magical Starsign's is a bit simple and repetitive, but it is still acceptable enough to keep you progressing through the game. Usually there are two types of ways to get into battles. One is random encounters, where you are thrown into the battle screen without suspecting it. The other is when you can see the enemies on the screen, and run into them to start the battle. Usually it's one or the other, but not with Magical Starsign. It's both, and this is probably one of the first times I have seen something like this. However, it's debatable that it only has random encounters, but in my eyes, it's both. Some areas have enemies you can see, and others you cannot. It's a very nice balance, and makes it a whole lot better than just all random encounters, which usually frustrate people.

For the actual battle system itself, it's turn-based. Whoever has the most speed goes first, and then the second highest, and so on. Whenever one of your characters gets to do a command, they regenerate a certain amount of MP, every single turn. This is actually a stat that you can increase with equipment and such (for example, one piece of armor may increase MP regeneration by 5%). It's the basic, good guy side and bad-guy side for the battlefield. Within each side, there are two rows with a maximum of 4 characters allowed in each row. These affect what you can and cannot do, and are vital to strategize with to succeed during some boss fights. In the front row, you are allowed to do a physical attack or a magic attack to one enemy. The physical attack is never as powerful, but can definitely become useful if you are saving up, or do not have enough MP. When in the back row you are restricted from doing a physical attack. Therefore, you can only do magic (aside from the basic, defend, item, run, etc.). However, this magic hits all the enemies on the field, so this can become very useful. The more enemies you hit, the less damage is given. With a nice balance of these two styles, battles can become a breeze.

Like most games, everything has a weakness, and Magical Starsign is no exception. Each element is strong against one, and weak against another. While these do some more/less powerful attacks, depending on the enemy magic type, there's a way to become even stronger. There's a somewhat real-time system that occurs during the whole game. Each planet has a different orbit around one star, and the whole universe is divided into 5 sections, one for each element (excluding light and dark). Whenever a planet is in its own section of its orbit, that element is significantly powered up. Not only are the spells extremely powerful, but the character has high offense and defense as well. For light and dark magic, it depends on the day. In the morning, light magic is powered up, and at night, dark magic is powered up. None of this has to do with time in reality. It's all a system inside the game that repeats itself whether you are doing anything or not. This can be extremely important before doing a boss fight.

As you may have guessed already, Magical Starsign revolves all around magic. Outside of battles, you use field magic to overcome obstacles. Each of the 5 planets has a specific magical element, as does each character in your party. During practically the whole game, you'll find yourself doing magic. Is this a bad thing? No, of course not, especially since you have a MP regeneration rate. But this does cause some problems still. Because magic is the basic form of offense, it's difficult for battles to stay interesting.

There are 7 types of magic, and each character has a specific type, except for one (light or dark, depending on what you chose at the beginning). These are the typical Earth, Fire, Water, Wood, Wind, Light, and Dark. For each one of these, there are 5 spells, which is pretty disappointing since magic is so heavily focused on. Not only that, but there's very little distinction between the types of magic. The spells are basically the same thing for each type; they just have significant strengths and weaknesses. So, it's safe to say there are only 5-10 spells in the game. This results in repetition, and there's no doubt about it, you'll end up using the same strategy over and over again for each battle. However, it's not as terrible as it seems. You can skip the spell sequences and everything else with the touch of button, so it's easy for battles to be less than 1 min. long. Also, for those that don't feel like skipping them, but still want a little more incentive to take the long way, Magical Starsign does something like Paper Mario. When you do a spell, that character starts to charge it up for a couple of seconds. If you tap on that specific character at the last second, the attack will do more damage, or have a greater effect. The same is when you are attacked. If you tap on the targeted character right before he/she takes damage, they will raise their defense and take less damage than usual. This should sound familiar to fans of Mario RPGs ;)

The major problem with Magical Starsign is that it doesn't do anything to that revolutionary level. Maybe you never have played an RPG revolving all around magic, and maybe you have never played an RPG using the touch screen, but besides these two things, everything seems too familiar. It stays at that normal level for RPGs, and never seems to go over the edge, which is fine; it just guarantees that there will not be a huge "Wow" factor. It's a simple and typical RPG, but still provides a pleasant experience.

It's true that Magical Starsign is a bit on the easy side. Most battles you can just speed right through if you utilize weaknesses. And there's only a handful of tough boss fights within the game. That being said, Magical Starsign is not a game that requires level grinding, which is a relief to most RPG fans. Basically, everything is for the experience, since you will not have trouble going through the game. There are some parts where it can be hard to know what exactly to do, but you will shortly get past those and keep moving forward.

Possibly the most impressive component of Magical Starsign is the atmosphere. Not only does it have charming set of characters and dialogue, but the presentation is remarkable. The way that everything comes together just makes it all have this friendly feel to it. It's hard to describe this amiable feel and how it occurs, but the whole game should be enjoyable for most players because of it. The whole game is just stuffed with creativity. There are plenty of things that you probably have not seen in some games (a town of…pots?) and there's definitely the incentive to see what crazy thing you'll see next.

I found Magical Starsign to be extremely addicting. That may just be how I feel, but the flow of the story is impressive. You never seem to be in the same place for too long, and there's never really a time where the story slows down. Sure, some of it is predictable, like when you know you have to go to each of the 5 planets. But what you don't know, is what you will be doing there, that way it stays interesting. The whole game is very linear, and since it doesn't have a high difficulty, you will probably find yourself constantly progressing through the game until the very end, because nothing is a hassle.

Finally, there's the control scheme. While it may be strange for an RPG, Magical Starsign is controlled entirely with the touch screen. At first, it seems awkward to move your character via the stylus, but you get used to it eventually. There are no problems with the controls, and if you think you're tapping on your character at the right time to get that extra offense/defense, then you probably just have the wrong timing, or your touch screen has some problems.

~Graphics 8.5/10~
While the graphics of Magical Starsign are not the best we have seen on the DS, they are still impressive. The character designs are excellent, and there are a lot of creative looks regarding enemies, towns, etc. In battle, the spell effects look stunning, and the motions are rendered perfectly. You're not going to get some extreme eye candy, but all the visuals in Magical Starsign have a unique charm to them.

I'm sure some of you think this game looks familiar, as it does. The visual style is just like the Mana series (at least, the recent installments), because the developers are the same. In fact, there were times where I actually thought I was playing a Mana game. If you like the Mana style, then you'll love how Magical Starsign looks.

~Music and Sound 8.5/10~
What helps make a charming atmosphere? The music definitely makes an impact, and Magical Starsign does a great job in this category. Most of the tracks are catchy and fit the mood. I can't really recall a time where I disliked the music put into it. The quality is definitely good and perhaps some of the best for the DS. I just really wish each character had their own theme, since they definitely deserve it.

Sounds are pretty much average, and the same as everything else. The continuations of text sounds are actually pretty good though, and I think they fit the game perfectly. However, there is no voice acting at all, besides battle grunts. This is disappointing, since there definitely could be, but with its absence, you just have to deal with it. If there was, it would help the game a lot, as long as each voice fit the character and it contributed to the humor packed into this game. Regardless, the loss of voice acting isn't terrible, as some of the greatest RPGs have none, so it should not be a turn off.

~Value 7.25/10~
Magical Starsign has a good 25 hours under its belt. While most people would call this game short, I would say it has a decent length. 25 hours is not bad for a handheld RPG, and actually, it could easily take over 30 hours to complete (it did for me, all depends on how you play). There is a problem though. It's extremely linear throughout the whole game. You are allowed to go to different areas all the time, but there's really nothing to do other than buy more things and train your party. There are some secrets to find, and funny dialogue to see, but other than that, the main game is what most players will be doing. After you beat the game, there really isn't anything left to it, unless you want to play it again. So, it has a decent length, but not much things to do besides the main quest.

There is a multiplayer mode, but I cannot do this, so this score does not include that feature. From what I hear, it's pretty cool, and isn't just a typical trading items kind of thing to expect from an RPG. You actually can get characters to use during the real game, only by utilizing that multiplayer mode (so unfortunately, I never got those characters).

-Wi-Fi Controversy
When I was looking at some pictures, I noticed that they had the Wi-Fi blue spot on the cover. This is either false, or a different version, because mine does not (I am 100% positive, just checked). There are actually a lot of places that show that, but every review I read, Wi-Fi is not mentioned. It's amazing and sad how fake info can spread like that. Just informing you so you know, no Wi-Fi, but wireless multi-pack multiplayer ;)

~Fun Factor 9.25/10~
What makes Magical Starsign so much fun? It's just how everything comes together. With a friendly presentation and a flowing story, it's hard to not have fun with this game. If you can look past the simple/classic style and repetition, you have got yourself a very nice and enjoyable RPG. The humor, however, is one of the best parts. While this game looks like it will have all childlike humor, it actually doesn't. It has a nice balance of adult and childish humor that is very good in quality. There's a problem with this though, since it's hard to notice it. While most games include humor with actions or voice acting, Magical Starsign does not. There is no voice acting or pausing in the dialogue, so if you skim through everything, you will definitely not notice it and miss out on a laugh or a smirk. There are funny actions in the game, but for the most part, all the humor is in the dialogue, even if it has to be assumed. I can definitely see someone going through this whole game, and not thinking it was funny at all though, which is a shame.

~The Good, The Bad, and Buy It?~
The Good: nice compelling story, great cast of characters, easy to notice the large amount of creativity and effort put into this, great visual style, simple but fun gameplay, catchy music, good boss fights, decent length, flows nicely and remains addicting throughout, very humorous

The Bad: no revolutionary concept to RPGs, no voice acting or pauses so the humor is easy to miss, sound effects are just okay, nothing really to do after it's over, pretty much completely linear, repetitive combat

Buy It?: Because of the small amount of RPGs on the DS, if you're looking for one, then you should definitely at least consider Magical Starsign. The friendly atmosphere really makes the whole game enjoyable. If all you want is a nice relaxing game, then I would recommend Magical Starsign, even if you don't like RPGs. Just know that's all you're going to get, nothing revolutionary or mind-blowing. Send me a message if you have any questions or are still unsure.

~Overall 8.2/10~
Maybe Magical Starsign was just the perfect game for me, but I cannot deny the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. The only thing that really puts it down is not being groundbreaking for the genre. It's pretty tough to not admire each character, as it's easy to love them all. In my opinion, I think Magical Starsign's biggest problem is that it's taken for what it's not. It's true you will be getting a typical RPG, but Magical Starsign is so much more, if you can realize it, and just get immersed into this creative world.
Gameplay-7.5
Graphics-8.5
Music and Sound-8.5
Value-7.25
Fun Factor-9.25
Overall- 8.2 Charming and Addictive

If you have any questions feel free to send me a message.
Thank you for reading,
~Vari