Magical Starsign is a 2006 DS game, sequel to the japanese exclusive gba game Magical Vacation (didn’t play it but it looks like it has an english fan patch for those interested).
I originally wanted to play this game last year when I was playing a space game but time run short and my 3DS had problems that prevented me from finishing it in time. Some months later I’m coming back to it.
While space and different elementally themed planets are the base of the setting, this game isn’t science fiction. It is a fantasy game, with your character being student from a magical school and taking their power from a form of Astrology with the position of the planet in the sky. A rather unique take on the premise.
A gorgeous and charming game
The first thing that you notice is that the game is gorgeous. The game is beautifully illustrated, and the dev used the dual screen of the DS to let the environment continue in the upper screen, creating a sense of grandiose. To help that they choose a minimalist approach to the information given in the hud, which I will discuss later. Some bosses take the two screens, which show how gigantic they are. The illustrative work is awesome.
Then a charming world. Each world shelters different civilizations of anthropomorphic animals that may have or not contact with others, it makes the whole feel more compelling. In the wood planet, the felines have put signs in the forest so that people don’t lose themselves, and it is funny but makes the planet feel alive. The police of this game also is incompetent and there is a whole segment denouncing their bureaucratic ineffective mess. As you can see it teaches children very valuable lessons.
Your character each knows a magic that may be used to resolve some small “puzzle”. There was one particular moment where you needed to combine 4 magic symbols to save a forest and it was very satisfying. That said usually it is only one magic that is needed and it is painfully obvious which one it is.
In French, most characters' names are wordplay on dishes. I assume they did something similar in the english translation. It's a bit hard to keep in mind who is who but participate in the childlike whimsicality.
A simple story that was maybe a tad too basic ? While I was pleased by the whimsical nature of the settings, the main party is 6 characters sharing the spotlight. They do have some banter and character arc, and if you like the short storytelling of the SNES era you will probably feel at home, but I feel like it could be developed a bit more at times. I especially feel like Sorbet and Mokka are more developed than others; with Chai being noticeably less developed.
It wouldn’t be an issue if the story hook was more interesting. You begin the story trying to find your teacher and your classmate that crashed on the different planet of the system, then once they are together you have to find 5 mac guffing by returning to those planets. As with a dragon quest game, you’ll resolve the local issue of the inhabitant with more or less success but the main narrative remains a pretty simple one.
I was invested however by the occasional darker tone, it is appreciable that they have enough faith in their young public to handle heavier topics like death, authority incompetency or abusing their power and the whole jelly plotpoint and robot prophesied apocalypse.
The combat system can be a bit too simplistic at time.
The combat system has a timing mechanic, by touching the character at the end of your magic you can boost it, and by touching it during an enemies attack you can diminish the damage. Each character has a rather small pool of 5 magic spells. Not a lot of buff and debuff at the beginning. For the first 10 hours the combat system is a rather basic attack and heals when needed. So while the party is rather large, you feel a little restricted with it. It opens with each new character and especially at the end when you unlock the most powerful spell, but it takes its time to do so.
Each turn you restore some mp. The healing spell you have access uses all your mp, and restores your hp depending on the mp consumed, there is therefore an interesting trade off mechanic going on, do you heal now and don’t have mp for attack? Do you wait another turn to have more mp and heal more ? The other way to heal is to use items. Characters in the second row won’t be able to make physical attacks, but their magic becomes AOE or multitarget, which means you can choose to have a support at the back so he can buff all your party at once. Or you may want to use this specific character as a DPS and therefore put it in front so his single attack is stronger.
At one point you’ll learn a spell that lets you move the planet in the sky, and it becomes your main source of buff for your party. By placing the planet in the correct position, you’ll boost the element for you and the enemies. But creating an optimal set up by aligning the planet requires you to go into battle and take several turns and use all your mp to move them before the boss fight even begins, it quickly becomes annoying.
There is an information problem, aka name that tells you nothing about the effect. By keeping the ui minimal, they have forgotten easy access to information. And as the name and status effect have an interesting but non standard effect, remembering which item cures what or does what is an annoying chore. Maybe it was marked in the manual or something but I don’t have it and it is annoying nonetheless.
All that combines to make the combat system feel slow. Combat is slow. Not Final Fantasy IX slow, but slow nonetheless. And combat can be dull as the brunt of your strategy will be to prepare before a boss and to be mindful of your mp economy as you regain only a fraction of them each turn while consuming a lot for your most powerful spell.
Despite all the good things I can say about this game, and how much I want to encourage you to at least try it, I'll have to say it: there were big stretches of the game where I wasn't having fun. There were times I didn’t want to go back and finish the game. The combat wasn’t always fun. The donjons weren't always fun. And at the same time there are more endearing sections that motivated me, it is unique and charming enough that I could understand it being someone's favorite. And as the credit role I’m thinking it was worth playing it. It is a good but flawed game, and I kinda regret not having another rpg made by this team.