Magical Vacation

Magical Vacation is a self-proclaimed "communication role-playing game" developed by Brownie Brown (presently 1-UP Studio) as their first original game. It was released for the Game Boy Advance on December 7, 2001 in Japan, and has never been released outside of the country. It is the first title in the Magical Vacation series and the prequel to Magical Starsign on the DS. The game was later re-released as a part of the Value Selection series in 2006, and then ported to the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, but both still remained Japan-exclusive.

Magical Vacation features vibrant artwork from Shinichi Kameoka and Kōji Tsuda, whose previous works include various titles in the Mana series and SaGa Frontier. The game's soundtrack was written by early Megami Tensei series composer Tsukasa Masuko.

Plot
The story follows a group of sixteen students who attend Will-o'-Wisp Academy, a school in the Kingdom of Kovomaka where youths are invited to learn magic. Over the summer, they are sent out to the Valencia Beach Seaside School with their teacher, Miss Madeleine. However, things take a bad turn at nightfall, when creatures called enigmas abduct the students and scatter them throughout multiple planes of existence. Finding themselves amidst a covert war between light and darkness, the fate of the Kingdom lies in the students' hands.

Battle system
The combat of Magical Vacation is turn-based and relies heavily on its spirit combo system, wherein the damage output of magic attacks is amplified by spirits that have been called to the field. Characters can add stickers to their equipment as well, improving their resistance to magic attacks and increasing the growth of their own magic.

Link Mode
Link Mode allows two players to connect their own copies of the game and engage in three different activities. Let's Amigo registers linked players to each other's Amigo lists, Let's Hot Spring offers upgrades to the protagonist's stats, and Let's Battle puts both players' parties against each other to earn stat-boosting ranks.

Development and promotion
Shortly before Brownie Brown Co., Ltd. was established on June 30, 2000, its tentative staff announced Magical Vacation on June 7. This made it the first game to be announced for the Game Boy Advance with a title, which would soon be released in March 2001. Early interviews suggest that the game was planned to be compatible with the Mobile Game Boy Adapter accessory, though the final release never utilized such a feature.

On the Brownie Brown website in 2006, it was revealed that the game's working title was Magic Summer Vacation, or as it was originally translated, the magical vacation. This prototype plot followed four groups of students, who ventured through alternate planes of existence to find their missing teacher. The groups were the main party, lead by a protagonist named Tackle; Greybow and his subordinate Irvine; Erikson, seeker of Moria's Ankh; and Aranciak, bearer of Ushu's Ankh. Furthermore, the students possessed scooters and cell phones, suggesting the game would have mixed high fantasy with modern technology.

In early August 2001, Brownie Brown staff made a post on their own message board in response to positive fan reception, thanking onlookers for their support during Magical Vacation's development. The post stated that an official trailer for Magical Vacation, plus a live demo of the game, would be featured at the upcoming Tokyo Nintendo Space World event. During Nintendo Space World, gameplay of Magical Vacation was presented in a thirty-second-long trailer with the planned release date being December 7. Journalists were quick to praise its detailed environments and visual homages to 16-bit console RPGs, as well as its evident Mana series heritage. Hopeful for an overseas release, they assumed the game would not leave Japan until 2002, but their anticipation was in vain.

The first commercials to advertise Magical Vacation aired in late November 2001, featuring Japanese celebrity Mika Nakashima. In the commercials, Nakashima runs to the shore of a beach and cries out a promise to save her friends, in reference to the game's events, followed by the slogan, "最も強い武器は友情だ" (The most powerful weapon is friendship).

Let's Amigo Events
Two events were held shortly after Magical Vacation's release in Japan. They would act as large get-togethers for owners of the game, who could meet up and use its communication features to unlock special content in their own save files. Casual fans, superfans, cosplayers, and Brownie Brown staff alike appeared for both venues. The first venue was held in Osaka on January 26, 2002, with around 300 participating players. The second one took place in Tokyo on January 27, with a much higher turnout of around 950.

Reception
Magical Vacation became an instant cult classic among Japanese RPG fans following its release. In the June 2006 issue of Nintendo Dream, the game was reported to have sold over 270, 000 units exclusively within the country's borders. Famitsu magazine gave Magical Vacation a platinum score of 35 on release, commending it for its unique battle system, varied and interesting characters, and excellent graphics. However, their feelings were mixed on the complex layouts of dungeons, lack of multiple save slots, and the game's dark storyline.

Wii U Virtual Console version
The Wii U Virtual Console port of Magical Vacation retains almost everything present in the original release, except for multiplayer connectivity. To remedy this, selecting Communication/Link Mode on the title screen grants the protagonist magic levels for all elements except light, each at magic level 1, and instantly gives the protagonist dark magic. Amigo mojo and upgrades to Ricebird Springs are absent from the Wii U version as a result.

As of March 27, 2023, this version can no longer be purchased due to the Nintendo eShop's discontinuation on Wii U and 3DS systems. On the date of its closure, the game was shown to have ranked 9th on the Wii U's best-seller's list in Japan.

Sword of Mana
Sword of Mana is a 2003 action RPG codeveloped by Square Enix and Brownie Brown for the Game Boy Advance, and is the fifth release in the Seiken Densetsu series. Shinichi Kameoka was involved with this game as its character designer and scenario arranger. In the heroine's route, she visits a boy in the town of Topple and offers to help him find his missing book. By retrieving the book and returning it to the boy, he will reveal that it is titled Magical Vacation, describing it as a story where students fight with various magic elements. Like Magical Vacation, Sword of Mana has both a communication feature and an Amigo list, the latter of which unlocks additional content in either players' copies of the game. Curiously enough, in the Japanese version, the boy refers to the book as Magic Summer Vacation, a nod to Magical Vacation's working title.

Furthermore, gummy frogs (localized as GummiFrog) are a purchasable item in the game, and Brown makes a cameo appearance, offering to give the player a brownie ring accessory.

Super Smash Bros.
Characters from Magical Vacation appear in the Super Smash Bros. series series as collectibles. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mokka, a Traveling Putty, and a pyrite appear as trophies. Additionally, the male and female heroes, Kirsche (spelled as Kirsh), an HP pot, a sparrow, and a Traveling Putty can be obtained in the form of stickers. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reintroduces the protagonists, Mokka, and a Traveling Putty as collectible spirits.

EGGLIA
EGGLIA: Legend of the Redcap is a role-playing simulation game developed by Brownies for iOS and Android devices. It was released in Japan on April 30, 2017, but its servers were shut down on August 30, 2018, with the game subsequently being retitled to EGGLIA: Offline. In February of 2022, Brownies released an enhanced port of the game for the Nintendo Switch, naming it EGGLIA Rebirth. Many elements of EGGLIA can be considered direct callbacks to Magical Vacation, and even Shinichi Kameoka's history with game production as a whole. Some notable examples of these callbacks include, but are not limited to: a new type of pooka enigma, a wolks with pants for a hat, and recruitable elemental spirits.

English fan-translation
On June 7, 2016, romhacking.net user "magicalpatcher" released an English patch that could be applied to emulated versions of Magical Vacation. For the first time ever, English audiences were able to play the game in their language, whether they were newcomers or fans of Magical Starsign. The patch makes several changes to the names of characters, spells, and locations, some which are consistent with the English localization of Magical Starsign (i.e., Gran Dragée being renamed to Biscotti). While this English fan-translation is playable from beginning to end, it does suffer from minor technical errors. Some examples include mistranslated and untranslated dialogue, typos, graphical glitches, dialogue-induced softlocking, and the absence of translated credits/post-credits scenes. The most recent update for the English patch was released on September 23, 2019, meaning it is unlikely that these errors will ever be revised.