Magical Starsign

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Magical Starsign マジカルバケーション　５つの星がならぶとき Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align
USEUJP United States box art of Magical Starsign European box art of Magical Starsign Japanese box art of Magical Starsign
Developer(s)	Brownie Brown
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Release Date	JP June 22, 2006 US October 23, 2006 EU February 9, 2007
Rating
Music
Magical Starsign on StrategyWiki

Magical Starsign, originally released in Japan as Magical Vacation: Itsutsu no Hoshi ga Narabu Toki (マジカルバケーション　５つの星がならぶとき, lit.literally Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align) is a 2006 role-playing video game for the Nintendo DS and the sequel to Magical Vacation. It is the second and final entry in the Magical Vacation series, developed by Brownie Brown (now known as 1-Up Studio) and published by Nintendo, and released in Japan on June 22, 2006. The game was later released in the United States on October 23, 2006, and in Europe on February 9, 2007.

Magical Starsign was released alongside a tie-in manga titled Kimi to Amigo, a short comic demonstrating the multiplayer features of the game. It would later be followed up by Uchū no Kishi, an unfinished manga based on the original plot of Magical Starsign that takes place in an alternate continuity after Magical Vacation.

Blurb

EnglishJapanese

TAP INTO THE MAGIC OF THE STARS! ★Blast off on a quest to rescue both your fellow students and teacher―and just maybe the whole solar system while you're at it! ★Put your magical studies to the test against hundreds of foes―tap your party members at the right time to boost the power of their spells! ★Your magic grows more powerful as your planet moves into alignment―but the same goes for enemies, too!

タッチペンで魔法を操り ５つの星を大冒険 仕組まれたを人類滅亡へのシナリオと、５つの星に散りばめられた謎… 行方不明になった先生を探しに、宇宙へ旅立た魔法学校の生徒たちの冒険が始まる、タッチペンだけで楽しめる、簡単操作ＲＰＧ。

Tatchipen de mahō o ayatsuri Itsutsu no hoshi o dai bōken Shikumareta o jinrui metsubō he no shinario to, itsutsu no hoshi ni chiribame rareta nazo… Yukue fumei ni natta sensei o sagashi ni, uchū he tabidata Mahō Gakkō no seito-tachi no bōken ga hajimaru, tatchipen dake de tanoshimeru, kantan sōsa RPG.

Control magic with a stylus A grand adventure across the five stars A scenario of humanity's doom and mysteries scattered across the five stars… The adventures of the Magic School's students begin as they depart for space in search of their teacher, all in an easy-to-control RPG that can be enjoyed with just a stylus.

Synopsis

Main article: Plot summary of Magical Starsign

On the fringes of the Baklava solar system lies the planet Kovomaka, home to the magic school Will-o'-Wisp Academy. One day, Principal Biscotti receives foreboding news that Kale, a graduate of the academy, is committing evil deeds across the galaxy with a band of astro pirates. He sends Kale's former homeroom teacher Miss Madeleine into space so that she may stop Kale, but to her students' concern, she is not heard from for three months. After hijacking the academy's secret stash of rockets, the students blast off on an adventure far beyond the scope of a rescue mission as they get scattered across the planets of Baklava. They encounter many strange civilizations on their journey to find one other and Miss Madeleine, putting themselves at odds with the astro pirates and the Space Police along the way.

Gameplay

Magical Starsign utilizes a lot of functions of the Nintendo DS hardware, especially the touch screen. Players use the touch screen to navigate the world and interact with the environment, while the top screen is used to display information like the map, time, and planetary orbit.

The game plays like a traditional RPG in most other ways. When starting a new save file, the player can choose their protagonist's gender (male or female), and their preferred element (light or dark) as well as change their name and the names of other party members. The main character and their party navigate through several locations from a top-down perspective, battle randomly encountered enemies, earn experience, and complete quests in a similar fashion to most RPG titles.

Battle system

Main article: Combat in Magical Starsign

The planets of the Baklava solar system on the astrolog

Magical Starsign features seven elemental affinities, also known as starsigns: fire, wood, wind, earth, water, light, and dark. Each of these attributes is represented by a planet of the Baklava solar system, whose orbits can be viewed on the astrolog, a map split into five colored fields. The speed at which the planets move is determined by the circumference of their orbit.

While a planet passes through its colored field, all characters and enemies who wield that planet's starsign enter an aura state, temporarily boosting the power of their magic. As for light and dark magic, users of those affinities gain aura during the daytime and nighttime respectively. Planets move in real time and can be viewed in or out of battle, but by casting celestial swap, the player or enemies can spend MP to guide planets clockwise along their orbit. Aligning all five planets with the sun will trigger orbit's end, a powerful non-elemental spell.

Formation also plays a significant role in the game's combat. While the maximum number of character that can comprise the party is six, up to four characters can occupy the front or back row at a time. While standing in the vanguard, a character is able to attack an enemy's front lines using physical skills, and the range of their spells will be purely single-target. From the back row, physical skills cannot be used, but spells will be evenly or randomly spread across the enemies' field.

During battle, the player may use the Nintendo DS stylus in various ways. By tapping a party member as they prepare to cast a spell, they execute a spellstrike, doubling the attack's damage or healing potency. During an enemy's turn, damage can be reduced by tapping a character the moment they are hit by an attack to perform a reflex guard.

Amigo Mode

Main article: Amigo Mode

A player's message in their Amigo list

Tag Mode

Using the Nintendo DS's wireless communication, players can interact with each other through Tag Mode, be it in-person or simply passing by. The data received through passerby communication is accompanied by a custom message and stored in the Amigo list, which can hold a maximum of 100 Amigos. Exclusive items are also obtainable through Tag Mode, and vary depending on the players' protagonits' gender, starsign, and in-game progress. Repeatedly tagging with Amigos rewards the player with egg characters, special party members that will only hatch and level up by meeting new Amigos.

Amigo Dungeon

Main article: Amigo Dungeon

Up to six players can compete in Amigo Dungeon, in which they must find treasure and defeat exclusive enemies to earn points. When time is up, the player with the most points wins. Experience points and treasure collected in this mode is transferred over to the main game, and many items found here are unobtainable otherwise.

Development

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Gameplay

Following the release of Magical Vacation, Brownie Brown began work on a sequel. The team wanted to create a battle system that was less complex than that of the first game, in order to allow the game to appeal to as many players as possible. This made the game significantly easier than its predecessor, but the team intended for the abundance of optional dungeons to maintain the interest of more devoted players. In developing specifically for the Nintendo DS hardware, the use of the top screen to display game information while reserving the bottom touch screen for player control was chosen, as the team believed this configuration to be intuitive and useful to the player. As a result of this design choice, the team noticed in playtesting sessions during development that the player would spend too much time looking at the bottom screen, which led them to integrate more animations on the top screen to better balance the player's attention. The game's single-player mode was intended to be completed in roughly 20-30 hours.

Plot

The original story of Magical Starsign was drafted by Nobuyuki Inoue, who sought to create a story that was only lightly connected to the events of Magical Vacation. During development, the story was amended by members of the development team to diversify the encounters of the party.

Design

Whereas the first game's artwork was created by Shinichi Kameoka, Magical Starsign's art design was instead headed by Koji Tsuda. As the technical specifications of the Nintendo DS were greater than those of the Game Boy Advance, the team was able to use a broader color palette than they could when developing Magical Vacation and Sword of Mana, though much of the design philosophy for those games carried over, as they also used 2D sprite artwork. The team never intended to use 3D models during development, with Kameoka believing that sprites better captured the details of the original artistry; 3D animated cutscenes would be used sparsely throughout the final game.

Music

Magical Vacation composer Tsukasa Masuko returned to compose for the sequel. When writing the game's music, he found that it was very easy to work with the Nintendo DS given its lighter limitations in comparison to the Game Boy Advance, though he also found it more time-consuming as a result.

Localization

Magical Starsign featured in Volume 207 of Nintendo Power

When localizing the game for the North American audience, the team found that there were few significant changes to be made. Still, some character and location names were changed between regions, such as Lassi, who is named Jasmine in Japan, and Cassia, which is called Rigu Maha. Voice samples containing spoken words in Japanese were mostly removed from international versions of the game.

Prior to the international title of Magical Starsign being chosen, the game was referred to in English by the name of its predecessor, Magical Vacation. When discussing the game's localized title, Inoue stated his belief that it represents destiny as symbolized in the stars, referring to the concept of astrology.

Reception

Magical Starsign received positive to mixed reviews from critics. The game scored an average of 69% on MetaCritic based on 26 reviews. Conversely, the user score is generally favorable, scoring 8.1 based on 20 ratings. IGN gave the game a 7.5/10, giving praise for its nostalgic feel and classic RPG style. Eurogamer gave the game an 8/10, calling it a "fortuitous alignment of DS and RPG." Magical Starsign would go on to sell around 40, 000 units in Japan, 140, 000 in North America, and 20, 000 in Europe, for an approximate total of 210, 000 units.

Legacy

Super Smash Bros.

Characters from Magical Starsign appear in the Super Smash Bros. series. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mokka, a Traveling Putty, and a Pyrite appear as trophies. Additionally, the male protagonist, Mokka, a Traveling Putty, an HP Pot, and a Sparrow appear as stickers. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Mokka returns as a spirit.

Nintendo Museum

Magical Starsign appears in the Nintendo DS section of the Nintendo Museum in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Counting from top-to-bottom, left-to-right, it is the 42nd game displayed.

Trivia

• Some press scans of the game's United States box art contained the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection label.

Nomenclature

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	マジカルバケーション　５つの星がならぶとき Majikarubakēshon Itsutsu no Hoshi ga Narabu Toki	Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align
English	Magical Starsign
French	Magical Starsign
German	Magical Starsign
Italian	Magical Starsign
Spanish	Magical Starsign

Videos

E3 2006 Trailer

Gameplay Trailer (Japanese)

Commercial (Japanese)

External links

• Magical Starsign on Wikipedia
• Magical Starsign on NintendoWiki
• Magical Starsign on MetaCritic