Magical Vacation

Magical Vacation (マジカルバケーション, Majikarubakēshon) is a connection role-playing game developed by Brownie Brown (now 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 game in the Magical Vacation duology, and the prequel to Magical Starsign on the DS. The game was also ported to the Wii U's Virtual Console in 2015, but still remained Japan-exclusive.

The story follows a group of 16 students who attend Will-o'-Wisp Academy; a school where youths are trained to master their magical talents. Over the summer, they are sent out to Valencia Beach Seaside School with their teacher chaperone, Miss Madeleine. Players take on the role of a silent protagonist, whose gender and element are chosen at the start of the game. 13 of the 16 elements are available while the remaining 3 are unlocked through multiplayer functionality.

Magical Vacation features extremely detailed environments and unique character designs from Shinichi Kameoka, whose previous works include various titles in the Mana/Seiken Densetsu series and SaGa Frontier. The game's soundtrack was written by early Megami Tensei series composer Tsukasa Masuko.

Setting
Magical Vacation's plot and setting exhibits fantasy traits from other games in the classic RPG genre. The world of Kovomaka is made up of infinite elemental planes known as Realms, all of which occupy the same space in different 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. Will-o'-Wisp Academy is in the Material Realm.

Backstory
Long ago, a destructive war broke out in the Kingdom of Kovomaka. Countless swordsmen and wizards were killed, and Kovomaka was dealt a heavy blow. To cover up the events of the war, a lie was spread amongst the townspeople, and they were told that thousands of soldiers had died as a result of an experiment gone awry. The battle lasted for 3 days and a long peace followed, but a man named Biscotti chose to keep a watchful eye.

A few years after the war, 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 power as a blessing and became fearful of what it could bring. The townspeople called the child a misfit and had them exiled from the village.

Shortly after their exultation, the child encountered Principal Biscotti and was asked if they liked spirits, to which a multitude of them appeared behind the great wizard. Thrilled to see 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.

Prologue: Camp
See also: The Day Before the Seaside School

One summer afternoon in present time, the protagonist and their classmate Pistachio Maplewood are alone in the school's Zen Room. Pistachio worryingly kicks at a Magic Doll named Calamari, but he is interrupted when Kirsche Pintail and Sesame Ashpot run inside. The boys tell their friends that Balsamico's Magic Bus has arrived on campus and will be departing for the campgrounds soon. Pistachio is not as enthusiastic, whimpering about the likeliness of him getting held back a grade if he attends the Seaside School. Kirsche tries motivating the young canin, then a group of girls enters the room; Blueberry Lakeside, Lemon Airsupply, and Candy Mintblue. Lemon wonders why Pistachio is training with Calamari, the school's makeup class doll.

Candy steps in to lift Pistachio's hopes up, saying he should train non-stop at camp until he can defeat Ganache in a duel. Each student in the Zen Room makes their own resolutions for the Seaside School, and Candy reveals that her goal is to confess ask out a mystery boy, causing Kirsche's heartbeat to spike. The Wind mage misunderstands the boy's excitement and assumes he wants to ask Arancia Scorenote out. Overwhelmed with frustration, Kirsche leaves for the bus in a huff and Sesame follows.

The protagonist walks out into the academy's entrance hall, seeing Peche Farmer run back and forth in a panic as she tries to find all the students. As Peche tells her classmate of the Magic Bus' brilliance, Latte Rustynail bursts out of the Music Room upstairs. He runs down to the kids and whirls around like a propeller. When the Envoy of Love asks what happened, Latte says the students upstairs were telling scary stories, then he runs outside. Mildly irritated, Peche instructs the protagonist to go to the Music Room while she rounds everyone up in the Zen Room.

In the right wing, the protagonist sees Principal Biscotti talking to Miss Madeleine. The topic of their conversation is not very clear, but Madeleine appears to be worrisome about her ability to take care of the 16 students. Biscotti assures the young teacher that she is capable, but their discussion is cut short when the protagonist enters the room. Madeleine tells her student to get on the bus, and Biscotti prays that the kids' summer is filled with everlasting joy.

The protagonist then walks into a study hall in the left wing where Cabernet Cheaptrick sits alone. He reflects on the words of his deceased brother Chardonnay, who tragically died in a war 1 year ago. Cabernet recalls a warning which was told to him by Chardonnay, who said Valencia Beach has a dark secret.

Battle system
Main Article: Combat (Magical Vacation)

Commercials


Gameplay of Magical Vacation was first revealed for the Game Boy Advance on August 23rd, 2001 at a Nintendo Space World event. It was presented in a 30-second-long trailer with the planned release date being December 7th. Journalists were quick to praise its detailed environments and visual homages to 16-bit console RPGs, as well as its 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, followed by the slogan, "The mightiest weapon of all... is Friendship".

Public Events
Main Article: 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 Let's Amigo feature to unlock special content in their own copies of Magical Vacation. Casual fans, superfans, cosplayers and Brownie Brown staff alike appeared for both venues.

The first venue was held in Osaka on January 26th, 2002, with around 300 participating players. The second one took place in Tokyo on January 27th, 2002, with a much higher turnout of around 900 players.

Reception
Famitsu magazine gave Magical Vacation a score of 35/40 on release.

Sword of Mana


Sword of Mana is a 2003 action RPG developed 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 book. By retrieving the lost book and returning it to the boy, he will reveal that it is titled Magical Vacation.

"Wow! Thanks a lot! Sweet! My book! It's a weird story called "Magical Vacation." Kids at a magic school do all sorts of stuff! They beat up enemies with fire, lightning, poison and stuff! Bam! Pow! BOOM! Giant acorns!"

Super Smash Bros.
Characters from Magical Vacation appear in the Super Smash Bros. series as collectibles. Those with descriptions summarize their roles in Magical Starsign.

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 30th, 2017, but its servers were shut down on August 30th, 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, dubbing it Egglia Rebirth.

Many elements of Egglia can be considered as direct callbacks to Magical Vacation, and Shinichi Kameoka's history with game production as a whole. Some notable examples of these callbacks include, but are not limited to; a baby Pooka Enigma, a wolks with pants for a hat, and recruitable elemental spirits.