Magical Starsign
2006
Nintendo DS
Developed by Brownie Brown
Published by Nintendo
Magical Starsign is a RPG for DS made by Brownie Brown, a small studio that ended up being absorbed by Nintendo studios. The game brings a colorful magical world, combining a very conservative turn-based RPG, a humorous plot, and some quirky characters in a way that it does nothing wrong, but nothing that makes the game very remarkable. If you are up to a fun adventure, climb aboard the magical rocket and travel through the charming universe of Magical Starsign.
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The art style is colorful and
very remarkable |
Magical Starsign, as mentioned before, is a very simple and linear RPG, where you visit places, talk to people, learn the next steps in your journey and go fight enemies and bosses in order to obtain ways of progressing in your journey. The game starts with teenagers in the academy of magic going after their teacher, who had disappeared a few months ago when going to stop the leader of the space pirates, who intended to destroy the universe. The hero and his future companions end up scattered around the star system, that features planets for different elements (fire, water, earth, wind and wood. The whole plot revolves around this group of people trying to regroup and find the whereabouts of their teacher, stopping bad guys that cross their way meanwhile.
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The planet alignment is crucial for your
strategy. |
The game revolves around magic, naturally, with 99% of the time forcing you to rely on magical attacks. Except for a few enemies, it is a waste to spend your turn using physical attacks. Another important feature is the elemental aspect, adding light and darkness to the elements of each planet. The interesting thing is that the position of the planets in their orbits, night and day affect the abilities of the characters. Each character is aligned to a different element and they have their magic skills boosted while the planet of their element is placed on its corresponding elemental region in the orbit. Light and dark characters have their magic skills powered up according to the time of the day. Enemies are also aligned to one of the elements, and have their stats boosted the same way as the playable characters. It doesn't seem very important at the beginning of the game, looking like the traditional elemental aspect of most RPGs. Later in the game, though, the characters can learn the skill that allows them to change the planets' places in their orbits and balancing which characters should have their magic boosted and which ones should not. Some enemies can do the same thing in order to enhance their abilities or weaken their foes and will often try to ruin the player strategy. This quirky mechanism adds some strategy to the otherwise pretty straightforward combat. It is a pity that in a game so focused in magic, there aren't more spells for each character.
The game is rather easy, though. There is not much to explore, the dungeons are pretty straightforward for the most part, the maps are short and the regular battles are mostly a matter of unleashing the low-cost magical attacks. Some boss battles are interesting even if you are somewhat overleveled, and a real challenge if you are very underleveled because there are some enemies that may screw up your main strategy by taking out exactly the character of the element that would hit the boss harder. Even so, the main storyline should be easy to overcome.
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| Humor is an integral part of the game.
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Other remarkable aspect of Magical Starsign is that the humor is an important aspect of the game. Characters often are weirdos, and there are lots of nonsense and absurd in Magical Starsign world. Although the humor is not exactly prize-winning, it gives a refreshing feel to an otherwise average and very predictable storyline.That, combined with the simple gameplay, makes the game an easy ride through the 30 - 40 hours the main storyline provides, leaving a good feeling at the end of the experience.
Apart from the main storyline, the game provides a pre-post-ending challenge, the Glissini Caves, where the player can fight optional bosses that are much stronger than the final bosses of the main storyline. It is a treat for those who didn't find the rest of the game challenging enough (and it isn't). The tradeoff of beating the Glissini Caves challenge before tackling the final boss is that it will make the final boss even easier because of the levels and unique items that can be found in that part of the game. The game also provides a multiplayer mode called Amigo Mode, where players can collect friends and items, and participate in a timed-challenge against other players where they have to score points through battles, providing more value to those who want a bit more than the regular storyline from this RPG.
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In the end, Magical Starsign does well what it intended to do. The game doesn't push the boundaries of the RPG genre, doesn't add new things to the mix, doesn't shine on visuals, music or other aesthetic elements. At the same time, it doesn't make anything wrong that could make it annoying, boring, broken or frustrating, so it is an adequate RPG for DS, and recommended for fans of the genre who just want a fun game to play.
