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Keep Watching the Skies

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 31 / 50
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Handheld system RPGs do not typically impress. They are more like the autistic cousins of their console breathren. Due to the constraints of technology, handheld RPG games are smaller and shorter, less customizable, and have less sophisicated story-lines. Magical Starsign is the first RPG I've picked up for the DS and I'm afraid I'm not really impressed. It should give the average player some twenty hours of fun, but its small attempts at originality don't impress me much.
The story of Magical Starsign is old-school (talking throwback to the SNES) in structure. Another story were middle schoolers are the only hope for the galaxy and no one thinks this is odd. A mute mage from Will-O-Wisp Magic Academy teams up with his/her five elementally based friends: a girl, a bunny, a boy with horns, a big lizard, and a robot, to rescue their missing teacher. As the story begins, the children take off in magic rockets and crash-land on each of the five planets in the solar system. Each little segment of the story features the main character rescuing a friend while they do some little quest to get their rocket repaired. Of course, there is a bad guy waiting in the wings to destroy the galaxy, but honestly, you've already heard this story a million times before. It attempts to spice things up with a bit of humor, but the jokes more often miss than hit.
Magical Starsigns one attempt at innovation is its battle system. Since all the characters are mages, magic plays a big part in combat, but so does positioning. Characters can break into two rows. The front row can preform physical attacks and magic and they guard the people in the back from enemy attacks. The back row can only attack and be attacked with magic, but their spells will hit all enemies. Another bit a strategy comes from the astrolog, a map that shows the orbit of the planets in the galaxy. Each planet has an elemental affinity and a pie-wedge on the map. As the planet enters its pie-wedge, all characters, ally and enemy, with the corresponding affinity will get a power boost until the planet rotates out of the area. Tapping a character with the stylus at just the right moment during spell-casting also gives them a power boost.
Magical Starsign is a slow game. Like most RPGs the first forty-minutes are a tedium of tutorials and narrative. Menus during battle are slow. It's full of tons of random encounters. The only real benefit over a console RPG is how the touch screen control affects out of battle movement. Instead of pressing the D-pad, you just tap the screen with the stylus and characters will move in that direction automatically.
Magical Starsign is a decent game, and that's all. With a decent play length, it will provide at least twenty hours of entertainment, but I have no intention of making this rather bland adventure ever again.

It is good to touch!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: August 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: T.R.C.

"It is good to touch" was the slogan for the Nintendo DS system and Magical Starsign proves it. This is the first true RPG to fully use the touch screen on the DS. I found it easy to use and a joy to play with the touch screen.

The Story - 7/10
This Sci-Fi Fantasy Game has a good solid story. Just when you think it is over there is a new chapter waiting for you to discover.

Five great planets make up the Baklava Solar system. These planets include Resen - Fire Planet, Gren - Wood Planet, Puffoon - Wind Planet, Cassia - Water Planet, and Erd - Earth Planet. Each Planet features it's own unique geography and civilization.

There are other planets like Kovomaka - A magic planet home of the Will-O-Wisp academy. This is where our story starts. This story has kidnapping, betrayal, pirate otters, dwarfs and talking radishes.

The Cast:
Miss Madeleine - Teacher and kidnapped victim.
Principal Biscotti - Founding member of the Will-O-Wisp academy.
Pico/ Fire - A money and fame hungry young man.
Sorbet / Water - She is an introverted thinker. She always keeps her plans to herself.
Mokka / Earth - His deadpan humor is often misunderstood by his classmates.
Chai / Wood - He is along for the ride.
Lassi / Wind - She is the first to take action and the last one to think of the consequences.
Then there is the Hero - you have two choices to make, first will you use light or dark magic. Then you can choose if you want to be male or female. "I made a Dark/Male hero."
Master Kyle - A thorn in your side!

Gameplay - 8/10
It took me 30.5 hours to complete Magical Starsign. This is a decent length for an RPG on a handheld system. There is a day and night progression as time passes in the game. The 5 planets of the Baklava Solar system move around the sun, when the planets reach a certain point around the sun the team member will get a boost of power for a short amount of time. If you are good at timing you can get 2 great bonuses the first one is an attack bonus. The second is a defense bonus; just tap your team member just before they get hit.

Graphics - 9/10
The game was colorful and a joy to look at. This game has tons of eye candy and great cut scenes spread out through the game.

Music - 10/10
Magical Starsign was full of fantasy / sci-fi tunes to be a feast for the ears.

Overall - 8/10
This game was fun to play and a treat for the senses. Magical Starsign is for everyone into a great story and beautiful graphics.

Items of note:
Modes:
Tag mode - to send and receive data with someone that has a DS and a copy of Magical Starsign.
Amigo Dungeon - compete against your friends over a wireless connection.
Amigo List - A list of all the amigos that you have contacted.

Great RPG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: June 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just finished Magical Starsign and it was really a joy to play. I logged in 36 hours and I haven't played the multiplayer yet either. The last RPG I've played to end was FF7, and while this one didn't come close to its emotional depth, I thought the play was pretty similar and the fights followed the same pattern. It took me a while to really understand the role of the elements, but that might just be me being a dummy. The only detraction I could think of is the cuteness, some guys might feel a little girly playing a game with sugarstars and gummy worms. I thought it was adorable though (but I am a girl, so that might be why). I would recommend this game to anyone and everyone, if you can get past the cute factor it's a really good RPG to get into!

An overall solid RPG for the DS

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

With the flood of RPG's for the DS, it takes quite a bit to stand out from the pack. Magical Starsign manages to accomplish this by providing some enjoyable features with tried and true RPG gameplay to provide for some solid RPG action. The first thing you'll notice is that the game's story isn't without it's share of lunacy and colorful characters, which are reason enough alone to check out Magical Starsign. The overly cuteness of it all makes it easy for the game to appeal to children and even to hardcore RPG gamers, as you use the touch screen to help you explore various planets, which works well. What really hurts Magical Starsign though comes down to the game's basic elements. The random battles can become annoying, and the game's battle system doesn't have much in terms of depth to it at all either. The quest itself is at a decent length despite the small worlds, and the multiplayer and Wi-Fi options are a nice touch as well. The overly cute look of Magical Starsign may be a turn off for some, but there is some solid RPG gameplay to be found here regardless, even though it is easy to become bored with it. That aside, Magical Starsign is an overall solid RPG for the DS that is still definitely worth checking out.

The Magic of the Starsigns (by Laura)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: June 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game, but it's a game that one can easily overlook. I've encountered this game in stores several times. Most of those times, I walked away from it; because it certainly doesn't look like anything interesting on the cover. I received this game a few of days ago. My mother and I were at a Toys R Us store, so that I could receive Darkrai for my "Pokemon Diamond" and "Pokemon Pearl" games. While we were there, a sales clerk gave us a five dollar off coupon for any other Nintendo DS game. It would only last the day we were there, so mother and I looked at the DS games. I picked out the "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Travelers of Darkness", a game I've been meaning to get my hands on (I haven't played it yet so I can't comment on it's quality). The store was out of the "Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Travelers of Time" game, however, so we feared that it may be out of the one I picked too (it wasn't the actual game, but an empty box that we picked out to take to the front desk). So, mother sent me to pick out another game in case they were out. "Magical Starsign" only popped out at me then, because it looked better than everything else on the market (which wasn't much). I was reluctant to have my mother buy it thinking it would waste her money; but when she saw it was only around fifteen bucks, she jumped at the chance to purchase it for me. After all, it's not unusual that DS games go for thirty, forty, or even fifty bucks. However, even though the price wasn't ridiculous, it made me pessimistic; normally, stores only sell games at those kind of prices as a desperate attempt to get rid of them. Well, it's no use having the game if you're not going to play it, so I took it for a spin. Here's what I found:

The Good:

1. Great characters with slight customization features. Choose to play as a boy or a girl, and select your sign light (normal difficulty with healing capabilities) or dark (hard difficulty with the ability to steal strength from your foes). Then, you become aware of the five other main characters. Who start off being Lassi, Mokka, Chai, Pico, and Sorbet; but you can change their names! I named mine Windy, Coffee, Blitz, Spyro, and Charity respectively. To avoid confusion, I'll describe them using the names given in the manual: Lassi is a rabbit with an "insatiable curiosity" who controls the wind element. Mokka is a robot that controls the earth element. Chai is the only child of a lizard family, and he controls the wood element. Pico is the "coolest hot-blooded male you'll ever meet" and he controls the fire element. Sorbet is a girl who always thinks she can do better, and controls the water element. These colorful but different personalities complement and contrast each other in the storyline.

2. The game has a good storyline. Sure, it's the old storyline of ____ goes missing and _____ has to rescue him/her; but it's the way it's performed that makes it masterful. You, Lassi, Mokka, Chai, Pico, and Sorbet are students, along with a bunch of nobodys, in a school known as Will-O-Wisp Academy. Miss Madeleine is your teacher, who is always running late. One day, Principal Biscotti asks Madeleine to perform a dangerous mission (stop a former student known as Kale from doing evil) on the planet of Puffoon. Everyone, including you, overhears this conversation, and gather around Miss Madeleine in stress; she comforts you and says it will be fine. Later, she calls you to the meditation room (I think that's what it was called) and decides to teach y'all how to defend yourselves, because "she has a feeling." This is where you learn the basics of the game. After that, she leaves the academy and disappears for three months. Then, Lassi goes missing; everyone else talks about a prank the seniors played about a rocket being in the back room. Everyone suspects that, since Madeleine is gone, Lassi went to go look for a rocket to find her. Everyone splits up and searches; Mokka decides to team up with you, in order to prevent you from doing anything "foolish." This is all I will reveal, but the story gets really good from here out.

3. Fun controls. It looks complicated at first, but Madeleine goes over the lessons thoroughly with you. In addition, there are a couple of commands you may never use (I'm referring to the repeat command). The only thing that Madeleine doesn't cover, but a radish later will, is if you tap a character at the right time when performing a spell, you get a power boost. This is a cool thing to see. Similarly, tap a character right before an attack to activate reflex guard, which reduces damage. This works especially well if you activate it during a normal guard.

4. Beautiful graphics. Somehow, among all it's cartoonish designs, the background is realistic. It sucks you in as if you are actually there.

5. Good comedy. It's basic and you have to listen carefully, but it's good. You can tell a certain designer has a dry wit. Probably the funniest, and most groan inducing, joke is the ongoing pun with Mokka. Think about it: he was built by Principal Biscotti, with parts from the Cappuccino civilization. I'm dead serious. Eek!

6. Great music. The melodies really hypnotize you, match the situations perfectly, and really enhance gameplay.

7. There is strategy involved. With each element, there's a planet and a special area it corresponds to. Get the planet in it's special zone, and allies and enemies alike, who share that element, get a big power boost. As the main character, your power relies on the time of the game's day (days rotate faster than in real life). If you choose to wield light magic, you need to fight during the day; with dark magic, you need to fight at night. Staying at various inns, for a price, can help you control the period of the day, if it's worth the money to you. Incorporating these strategies can create maximum effectiveness and simplicity, but at the same time it's not essential for winning or enjoying the game.

Conclusion:
There isn't much, if anything, that's negative in this game. Some parts players might find repetitious, but I find it an absolute delight. I don't know how it's like for multiplayer, but it's an almost perfect single player game. I recommend it and for all ages who play Nintendo DS.

Great RPG

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: May 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Very fun and addictive. Has great character development with hysterical dialogue, a great addition to any RPG fan.

magical starsign player =)

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: September 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

its a comical rpg kinda .It's somewhat little kiddish in it's story but it's still a great rpg imo.gameplay is fun aswell,if you tap on the person who's casting a spell it makes the spell stronger like snes's mario rpg.If your an old school rpg fan you will no doubt love this game as much as i did =)

Magical Starsign

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Allthought the game is kinda cartoony the game play value is continueing to grow ive played for 30hrs and still going and i havent even touch the multiplayer yet.

a nice game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

after everything that has said.

I got a lot of enjoyment and fun out of Magical Starsign and while the character design might not be for some. I didnt really find myself focusing on that. I was actually getting it to the characters and all that they were going through even though one of my pet peeves about leads in video games seems to be repeated here...no voice at all. He(she) the head guy in this thing you should hear more from them and about them...like what they are going through and what not as the adventure progresses.

But again it's not enough to keep me from enjoying the game. Where you basically start off as a student at this magical school and are waiting for class. When your teacher says that she needs to tell/show you a few things about magic casting and what not. As she promptly has to go on this very long trip and may not come back from it. This happens the students go on and the teacher doesnt come back from the trip. So they decide to "borrow" these rockets that are all over the school...i have no idea why. But we'll leave it at that.

They all go their seperate ways as the lead character and one of the female characters are able to activate this gate and get access to one of the hidden rockets and take off in search of their teacher. The other students unaware at the time do the same and end up different planets throughout the planetary system. You run across and recruit them back into your party while running down the story of what happened to your teacher and more actually interesting back stories on why she left in the first place eventually come to light.

The battle system is easy to use with the stylus and the menu can be accessed this way also. Magic is big in the game of course. You learn new spells both offensive and defensive throughout the game the come in very handy. You are also able to format your party in different lines..so your more powerful (higher hit point) characters will be in the front able to fight and use magic on a single enemy. While people in the middle can't fight but can use magic to affect enemies all at once and the same for the back row. Which i used for the characters with the least amount of hit points to not take too much damage (still happens sometimes).

The game has a very satisfying ending and i won't tell it or anything. But it's a nice send off to a game that for less than 20 dollars will occupy a good deal of your time as you from planet to planet (7 or 8) i believe.

Its a great game and can be played by people of all ages and is easily accessible and fun to boot.

If you like Final Fantasy or other magic games this is the game for you!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 35
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is great. The game battles are the same as final fantasy. I love this game but I don't want to spoil that much so all I can say is you use magic and THE RABBIT IS BEST FOR THE BOOK OF THE COSMOS ONLY. You Must get this game! Lastly Train if you lose train and You get exp. depending on moster level and your level. Level up at 100exp.Upps forgot tell friends to get so you cand do Amigo mode, tag mode and get monster eggs here only. Oh get healers of health and magic points always.And give sugar stars to blue hats to make warps.

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