Magical Starsign (Nintendo DS, 2006)

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: T.R.C.

"It is good to touch" was the slogan for the Nintendo DS system and Magical Starsign proves it. This is the first true RPG to fully use the touch screen on the DS. I found it easy to use and a joy to play with the touch screen.

The Story - 7/10
This Sci-Fi Fantasy Game has a good solid story. Just when you think it is over there is a new chapter waiting for you to discover.

Five great planets make up the Baklava Solar system. These planets include Resen - Fire Planet, Gren - Wood Planet, Puffoon - Wind Planet, Cassia - Water Planet, and Erd - Earth Planet. Each Planet features it's own unique geography and civilization.

There are other planets like Kovomaka - A magic planet home of the Will-O-Wisp academy. This is where our story starts. This story has kidnapping, betrayal, pirate otters, dwarfs and talking radishes.

The Cast:
Miss Madeleine - Teacher and kidnapped victim.
Principal Biscotti - Founding member of the Will-O-Wisp academy.
Pico/ Fire - A money and fame hungry young man.
Sorbet / Water - She is an introverted thinker. She always keeps her plans to herself.
Mokka / Earth - His deadpan humor is often misunderstood by his classmates.
Chai / Wood - He is along for the ride.
Lassi / Wind - She is the first to take action and the last one to think of the consequences.
Then there is the Hero - you have two choices to make, first will you use light or dark magic. Then you can choose if you want to be male or female. "I made a Dark/Male hero."
Master Kyle - A thorn in your side!

Gameplay - 8/10
It took me 30.5 hours to complete Magical Starsign. This is a decent length for an RPG on a handheld system. There is a day and night progression as time passes in the game. The 5 planets of the Baklava Solar system move around the sun, when the planets reach a certain point around the sun the team member will get a boost of power for a short amount of time. If you are good at timing you can get 2 great bonuses the first one is an attack bonus. The second is a defense bonus; just tap your team member just before they get hit.

Graphics - 9/10
The game was colorful and a joy to look at. This game has tons of eye candy and great cut scenes spread out through the game.

Music - 10/10
Magical Starsign was full of fantasy / sci-fi tunes to be a feast for the ears.

Overall - 8/10
This game was fun to play and a treat for the senses. Magical Starsign is for everyone into a great story and beautiful graphics.

Items of note:
Modes:
Tag mode - to send and receive data with someone that has a DS and a copy of Magical Starsign.
Amigo Dungeon - compete against your friends over a wireless connection.
Amigo List - A list of all the amigos that you have contacted.

This is quite a fun game ^.^ You start by choosing a male or female character and thier starsign (light or dark). You find yourself at the Will 'o Wisp Magic Acadamy. Your teacher, Miss Madeline, has been gone for three months, and Lassi, the scatter brained bunny girl with that uses wind magic, finds rockets in the school and takes off! You take off on a rocket to follow her and land on a planet, then starts the mission to rescue your teacher, and, well, to save the solar system. You later meet up with the other classmates: Mokka, a robot with that casts earth magic, Chai, a Salamander that taps into the power of wood, Pico, the hot-headed fire magic-user, and Sorbet the intellegent (not to mention bratty) water magic-user.

Earch characters magical element is their star sign, the magic powers originating from the plants. There is Erd, the Earth Planet; Puffon, the wind planet; Cassia, the water planet; Gren, teh wood planet; and Razen, the fire planet. The auroas of the elements are spread across the solar system, so when the planet orbits to the area of the same auro, the character who uses that magic power increases (ex. When the Earth planet Erd oribits to the area where the Earth aura lies, Mokka's earth magic increases). As for the light/dark magic, light magic is strongest by day and dark magic is strongest at night.

The story line is pretty solid and gets more complex along the way as you travel back and forth between planets. There are really no side quests to take you off track, so the game ends up being pretty short. I beat it in 36 hours and 46 minutes.

The battle system is similar to that of Final Fantasy III, where the characters face there enemies and remain stationary of the screen. The main difference is that, unlike FFIII, the characters take turns. The one with the greatest agility goes first (which can be you or the enemy). When one of your characters is up, you have different options to choose, to attack, cast a spell, use an item, guard, flee, repeat a previous move, or to move your character. Once you perform an action, the character with the next greatest agility goes, then the character with the next highest agility goes, and so on, with enemies attacking in between. With a team of six characters total, you can design your teams to have certain characters in the front row and certain characters in the back row. Front row characters can either physically attack or cast a spell on one character at a time, while back row characters can't use physical attacks, they can cast their magic to attack whole groups of enemies at once (same goes for the enemies attacking you!).

The characters learn the usual magic: magic that does damage, restores HP, causes status problems to enimies, gets rid of status problems on allies, increases stats of characters, and magic that creates protective walls for allies. Physical attacks are simple: kick, tail swipe, tackle, slap, and each character will only have one of these through the whole game. There are different forms of armor to choose from (but no weapons, since the characters are more emphasized for the use of magic in this game). While armor can increase some stats while decreasing others (ex. while an item may increase agility it will decrease power).

Well, I think I about said enough. Hope this is helpful *_*

This game is a lot of fun to play. The stylus controls everything in the game making it fast to pick up and play. Your characters get power bonuses if there elemental planet is in line with a cretin area of the sky, so you can employ some strategy in taking on bosses. Also time of day effects how power-ups work. The story is basically a rescue mission many times over as you recollect you classmates to help you win the day, but it is still fun and quite silly. There is also a function to team up with other players to gain some experience in a dungeon and share messages. I haven't been able to find anyone else that owns this game to test it, so I can't give my option on it. Either way; it is a fun game and I am glad I bought it.

If you like traditional turn based RPG's then this game is for you. Set in a Science Fiction "Space World" is a nice alternate to the mid-evil RPG's on the market. Has very like able people you play. Not a lot of customization but the game play and story more then make up for that. Controls are easy to learn and with your stylus it makes casting spells a little easier. Level design is nice …but not over the top, as well as it does have normal Japanese RPG overtone. I am a old school RPG person (I’m 42 and owned RPG’s before we knew they where old school) and it was a pleasant game that reminded me of some of my older games (I have over 750 games) Really don’t know why all the RPG company’s have got away from the old style games. If this is your thing, as it is mine. Then this is the game for you…if you’re into button mashing Action RPG’s then look at something else have to offer for the DS. But of course this is just my option.

I have not mastered the game yet, have tryed it and it looks like a lot of fun and I will get into it when I find the time. I bought it so I could have a new game and not the old games I have looks like a fun game to me, when I find the time to play it. It is cute.