Magical StarSign

I actually found about it in one of the Game Informers I got from Gamestop. When I found it in the Game Informer and read about it I was thinking about trying it out. I was wanting a new DS game to play and I think I had found the perfect one which was Magical StarSign. I was happy when GameStop actually had the game. As soon as I got home I started to play the game. It was real fun going through the game, but after you beat the game it tends to get boring like some other games. Don't stop here keep reading to see if you really want to try this game out.

Story:

There are five great planets which make up the Baklava solar system. These planets are: Razen, the fire planet, Gren, the wood planet, Puffoon, the wind planet, and Erd, the earth planet. Then there is another planet that is in a far, quaint end of the system, and the planet is called Kovomaka, which is known as the magic planet. Will-o'-Wisp Academy is located on Kovomaka and magic is the center of the civilization. One day Biscotti who is the head of Will-o'-Wisp Academy had received some unsettling news. The news was about a former student of the Academy who calls himself Master Kale who wanted to bring about destruction of the entire solar system. Biscotti sent Miss Madeleine, who was actually Kale's teacher when he was at the Academy to assess the situation with great trepidation. The character you play is either a boy or girl who is one of the students of Miss Madeleine. You and your classmates decide to go save Miss Madeleine when they discover that she hasn't came back. You and your classmates end up finding rockets at the top of the Academy while searching for one of your classmates who actually took a rocket to go save Miss Madeleine. You end up taking a rocket to go after your classmate and end up crashing on the planet Erd, and it so happens your classmate crashed here too and thats how the actual adventure starts.

Gameplay:

First I will tell you the main characters in Magical StarSign.

Miss Madeleine - She is one of the teacher at Will-o'-Wisp Academy and she is known to be a little bit absentminded.

Principal Biscotti - He is the founder of Will-o'-Wisp Academy and he was also its first ever principal. Some people think he has learned magic which grants him immortality.

Pico - He thinks himself as "the coolest hot-blooded male you'll ever meet". He actually learned magic by teaching himself along with having to support his family because his dad is unemployed and all he cares about is pursuing crazy get-rich-quick schemes.

Sorbet - She is never really happy with who she is and always tries to be better. She is a hard worker and very attentive to details. She likes to keep her thoughts to herself.

Mokka - He is a robot who was found by Principal Biscotti in a small curiosity shop. Biscotti bought a lot of parts and units so he could rebuild Mokka. Mokka is a special custom model.

Chai - He was born near the Academy, and he is the only child of a Salamander family. He was born with magical powers while his parents were normal salamanders.

Lassi - She was born in an immigrant community just outside the downtown area and she is a bunny girl. She is a little scatter brained and like to do things at her own pace.


The field screen is where many things happen such as many different actions you can do while in the field screen. This is where you will spend most of your time. On the field screen you will be able to visit towns, meet other characters and fight through many different areas. The top screen usually shows the map when in the field screen unless you change what is on the top screen. On the map it will show your location in the world. In the bottom right corner of the top screen you will see a Hourglass which shows how much time left you hive in the day or night. The touch screen will show your characters in the actual area and in the bottom left corner is a Backpack icon. If you touch this icon it will open your backpack up. Then your wild magic icons and menu icon will appear . If you want to close it again tap the backpack icon again tap the backpack icon again. If you tap one of the wild magic icons one of your party members will cast the wild magic of their magical affinity. I will talk about magical affinities later. Unlike regular magic wild magic doesn't take Mp to use. On the top right of the touch screen there is a star icon, tap this if you want to switch what displays on the top screen. There are three different screens you can display on the top screen and they are: Astrology Screen, Status Screen, and Map Screen. There are two different maps and they are Detailed Map and Planet Map. The detailed map will show up when you enter a town while the planet map disappears. When you are on the field you can tap a spot on the field and your characters will move there. To make your character walk you have to tap close to the character and if you tap farther away it will make your character run. In order to make the character stop you must tap the character.

There are shops where you can buy helpful items and sell goods in most of the towns you visit. There are also inns where you ca sleep and recover all your HP and MP, but you have to pay a little bit of money to stay at the inn, which there is one at every town. Before you can go to sleep you have to choose if you want to rest until morning or sleep until its evening.

If you find a green hat on the ground tap it and Pizza will appear. If you give Pizza a Sugarstar you he will provide you with a warp point. You also will run into HP pots and MP pots. Now HP pots will restore all your HP and MP pots will restore all your MP. All you have to do is tap it and it will ask if you want a sip. If you cause the wind to blow near a HP pot sugarstars will appear close to it. In order to restore your MP at a MP pot you must give it a green gummy frog. Radishes will give you hints if you talk to them sometimes you will find a radish still rooted in the ground. All you have to do then is tap it to pull it out.

You will find other things out in the world too, not just item sellers and helpful characters. Here are some interesting things you will find out in the world: Gummy Frogs, Gummy Worms, and treasure chests. Gummy Frogs can be found hopping around in just about every area. To catch one all you do is tap it and you can use them to recover some of your HP. There are different color frogs, the different color frogs will recover a different amount of HP. Then you got gummy worms which you can find slinking around, but you have to be quick to catch a gummy worm because if you don't tap them quickly they will go into their worm holes. If you tap a worm hole a monster will pop out. Gummy worms will recover some of your MP if you capture one. Just like the Gummy Frogs there are different color gummy worms and the different color worms will recover a different amount of MP.Then there are treasure chest found in the different planets. Some of these only appear under certain circumstances.

The Magical Rocket is what you use to travel to all the different planets. There is a robot in the top left corner inside the rocket. When you speak to the robot it will list 5 different options and these options are:Restore HP/MP, Scavenge, Remove ally, Ask a Question and Nothing. The orb in the center of the rocket is used to tell the rocket which planet you want to go to. When you tap the orb it will list all the planets you can go to, just tap the planet you want to go to and the rocket will fly off to that planet. Last thing to talk about in the rocket is the Incubation room where all the eggs are that you receive in Tag Mode which I will talk about later. The Incubation Room is on the lower deck of the rocket. The only way to hatch these eggs are by making contact in Tag Mode.


Now I will talk about the Magical Navigator. When you tap the backpack to open it the Magical Navigator icon shows up as a DS. When you tap it the Magical Navigator menu will pop up along with six different options. When you open the Magical Navigator you will see how much bira you have which is money in the top left corner and in the top right corner is your time played so far. It also displays each of your characters in one of the six squares in the middle. Then at the bottom are six different options including: items, map, team, log, row, and save.

Now when you tap a character on the menu screen their status screen will show up. The status screen shows all the stats of the character, the equipment they are using and the magic they know. The stats of the character are located on the left side of the status screen. Here are each of the stats with a short description:

Level = Its just the current level your character is at.

HP = Its your characters ability to absorb damage. When you take damage from a enemy your HP will decrease.

MP = Your characters MP determines how much magic you character can cast. Whenever one of you character uses magic their MP will decrease.

MP% = Your characters MP% determines the percentage of their max MP they get back after each turn. The symbol for this stat is a star.

Power = Power is your characters ability to do physical damage and the higher the number the more damage your character will do. The symbol for this stat is a arm.

Intelligence = Intelligence is your characters ability to use magic and the higher the number is the better your characters magic is. The symbol for this stat is a light bulb.

Defense = Defense is the ability of your characters to deflect physical damage done to them by enemies. Your characters will take less damage the higher the number is. The symbol for this stat is a helmet.

Spirit = Spirit is the ability of your characters to deflect magical damage done to them by enemies. Just like defense your characters will take less damage the higher the number is. The symbol for this stat is a heart.

Speed = The higher the number is the faster your characters will be, which means they will be able to act in battle sooner. Speed has the symbol of a leg.

EXP = This just tells you how much Exp your characters need before they can level up.

Unaffiliated Spell = This is where it indicates a spell that you have that does not have an affinity. You will find these kind of spells throughout your quest but there are only a few.

Now I will talk about each of the options on the menu bar at the bottom of the Magical Navigator. I have already listed all of the options on the menu bar so I will start telling you about each of them.

First is the items options which is where all the items are kept. These items will prove very important on your quest. Your items are sorted into categories and to the right of that is the list of items in the category that was picked.Next is the map option which lets you check maps of planets and this is where you can choose a warp point to warp to a certain point. Then there is the team option which views all the characters that have joined your party. You can also view egg characters if you have any. A star will show up next to the characters in your party. Then there is the Log option that displays many different things. You got the Bestiary which is a list of all the monsters you have encountered, the Encyclopedia is used to give you helpful hints. The Diary is where all the characters write about there quest and you will be able to read them at anytime. The last thing in the log is the Amigo List which is just a list of all the friends you have connected with in Tag Mode. The last options are Row and Save. All row does is let you change the position of your characters .You move the characters with the stylus. Last is Save which of course lets you save.

Now I will talk about the Battle Screen. The Battle Screen will only show up when you are in a battle. The top screen shows the character who is ready to act on the left side. Under that is a bar with all the affinities, when a certain affinity is powered by their planet it will glow. On the right side of the touch screen it shows the status of the whole party. The touch screen is where it shows your party and the enemies. In the bottom left of the touch screen are icons used to toggle the top screen display. In the top right of the touch screen shows all the commands the character who is ready to act can do.

Finally I will talk about the battling. The order of the fight is determined by whoever is the fastest of your characters and enemies. At the beginning of each characters turn, they will recover a small amount of MP. First thing you have to do when its your characters turn is to choose the command for your characters. The next step is when your characters perform their actions. The last step is the Results Screen which shows how much Bira, Exp and items you earn. And at the end of a battle any party members have fallen they will revive automatically with only 1 HP.

In a battle there are seven types of commands to use and these include: skills, which are only punches or kicks, Guard, which will reduce physical damage done, Repeat, which makes them do the same move they did last time, Move, which lets the character change their position, Flee, which lets you run, and last is items, which lets you use items. Oh yeah there is actually one more and that is Magic which lets you use MP to cast spells.

Okay now I will talk about the affinities. There are actually seven different affinities and they include: Light, Dark, Fire, Wood. Wind, Earth, and Water. Not only do your characters have affinities your enemies have them too. Each of the different affinities have a weakness and are strong against other affinities.

The last thing i will talk about under gameplay is Tag Mode. Tag Mode uses DS wireless communications to contact friends. Friends in Tag Mode are called Amigos. I never tried Tag Mode because I can't find anybody else with Magical StarSign. You can receive eggs in Tag Mode which turn into egg characters when they hatch. The only way you can hatch and level up egg characters by repeated successful contacts in Tag Mode.

Controls:

You can do basically every action in the game with the touch screen and the stylus. The L button will also let you run, speak and examine and R button does the same actions. the control pad will also move your characters. The X button will also move your characters up, while the B button will also move your characters down. The A button will also move your characters move to the right, while the Y button will also mover your characters to the left.

Graphics:

The graphics on the game are decent but not all that great. The characters are okay and the scenery is a little better than I thought. I'm not to thrilled with the graphics. The planets have a bit of detail but not that much though. The characters are a little detailed but still don't look that good.

Sound:

The music when on the rocket traveling to another planet is pretty good. Just like all DS games there are not voice overs. The rest of the music is okay but not all that great, but I kind of like the music in the jungle and in the one cat village.

Overall the game is fun but only until you beat the game. Its another on of those games that seem to get a little boring after you beat it and I think its because there is no replay value at all. I recommend this game to just about anyone who has a DS and like RPG and adventure games.