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 duology and the prequel to Magical Starsign on the DS. The game was also ported to the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015, but still remained Japan-exclusive.

Magical Vacation features vibrant and unique character designs from Shinichi Kameoka, whose previous artistic 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.

Setting and characters
Magical Vacation's plot and setting exhibit fantasy traits from other games in the classic RPG genre, blending fantastical aesthetics with modernistic and industrial ones. The world of Kovomaka is made up of infinite elemental planes of existence (known as "realms" in the English fan translation), all of which overlap the same physical space in their own self-contained dimensions. Each realm is drastically different from one another, as their landscapes are reflective of the element or concept they represent. The only way to shift between realms is by slipping through a natural disturbance in reality, using realm-shifting technology, or by mastering warp magic. In the game, the realms of Material, Light, Darkness, and Death are explored. Other realms such as Water, Fire, and Wind are mentioned occasionally, though none of them can be accessed in-game.

The story follows a group of sixteen students who attend Will-o'-Wisp Academy; a royal school in the Kingdom of Kovomaka where youths are trained to master their magical talents. Over the summer, they are sent out to the Valencia Beach Seaside School with their teacher chaperone, Miss Madeleine. Players assume the role of a silent protagonist, whose gender and elemental spirit are chosen at the start of the game. Thirteen of the sixteen elements are available to begin with, while the remaining three (love, darkness, and light) are unlocked through Link Mode, the game's multiplayer feature.

Backstory
Once in the Magic Kingdom of Kovomaka, a destructive war broke out, and records of it were eventually lost to history. Countless swordsmen and wizards alike were killed, and the nation was dealt a heavy blow. Despite there having been a war, information such as who was being fought against was kept secret from the public, who were only told that thousands of soldiers had died because of accidents involving magical experiments. The battle lasted for three days and a long peace followed, but one man continued to circle the globe in preparation for future conflicts.

Many years later, the protagonist is introduced. Raised in a village on the kingdom's edge, they were born with the ability to communicate with elemental spirits hiding inside artifacts of nature. Unfortunately, others did not see their magic aptitude as a blessing and became fearful of what it could bring. The child was shunned by the townspeople and labelled a misfit.

One day, the child encountered Principal Biscotti, who was said to have brought the power of magic to the kingdom. Biscotti asked the child asked if they liked spirits, to which a multitude of them appeared behind the great sorcerer. Thrilled to meet someone who could also see spirits, the child answered yes. Biscotti then invited them to enroll in his school of magic with the promise of meeting even more spirits, and the two departed for Will-o'-Wisp Academy.

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, which improves their resistance to magic attacks and increases 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 lets both players' parties fight to earn stat-boosting ranks.

Development and promotion
Shortly after Brownie Brown Co., Ltd. was established on June 30, 2000, its staff declared their attentive development of Magical Vacation. This made it the first-ever title to be announced for the Game Boy Advance, which would soon be released in March 2001. Early interviews suggest that the game was planned to be network compatible, though the final release never utilized such a feature. It was also later revealed by Brownie Brown's CEO at the time, Shinichi Kameoka, that the game's working title was Magic Summer Vacation.

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 Nintendo Space World event in Japan.

Gameplay of Magical Vacation was first revealed for the Game Boy Advance around August 24, 2001, at Nintendo Space World in Tokyo, Japan. It 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 featured Japanese singer, model, and actress Mika Nakashima. In the commercials, Nakashima runs to the shore of a beach at sunset 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 the game's 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 900 players.

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.

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. 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.

Super Smash Bros.
Characters from Magical Vacation appear in the Super Smash Bros. series as collectibles. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Latte (as 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 collected as stat-buffing stickers.

EGGLIA series
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 (such as Gran Dragée being renamed to Biscotti).

While this English fan-translation is playable from beginning to end, it does suffer from minor technical errors. There are some pieces of dialogue that have been skewed due to mistranslation or typos, graphical glitches, instances of dialogue being left untranslated, 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.