"The last and one of the best Saturn games."

Ok, I played the SNES version of Magic Knight Rayearth and I liked it alot. I figured the Saturn version wouldn't be too much different from the SNES version but was I wrong. The Saturn version of MKR is like 20 times better. I know this game is impossible to find now. However, the hefty price that you would pay for this game on EBAY is worth every cent. Get this game as fast as you can. It's amazing.

Story - 10.0
The story isn't very original but it is still awesome. Based on the anime series by CLAMP (which you should definetly buy an episode of the series.), the game remains true to the anime for the most part. Three schoolgirls named Hikaru, Umi and Fuu from Tokyo get sucked into a world called Cephiro, must become magic knights, and save Princess Emerald from the bad guy. The plot isn't complicated or anything but a twist in the end dropped my lower jaw to the floor. So why are you giving the story a ten you ask? Well, the characters and character development. The characters are awesome and I consider Fuu my hero. :)Anyway, the characters develop nicely and you can even read their diaries to find out how they feel about their adventures. The translation by Working Designs is great and there is some great humor. You can have each girl ''talk'' to an item and they will each make a different comment. For example, if you talk to a chest inside a bedroom, Fuu might comment that the finishing is nice and Umi might say, ''Why are we looking at other people's chests, I have another trouble growing my own!'' or in a hospital Fuu and Hikaru will comment about the tons of medical supplies in the cabinets and Umi will comment about the tons of condoms in the medical supply cabinet. While some may complain that the characters really aren't very true to the anime series because of the excessive humor, (Umi isn't that much of a bimbo in the series.), I think it keeps the game nice and light.

Sound - 7.0
The opening song is wonderful. Since Working Designs couldn't use the original Japanese song, they invented new lyrics that sound just as good, if not better than the Japanese opening theme. Everytime I watch the anime MKR videos with the English lyrics that remain true to the Japanese lyrics, I want to barf. Quality opening music. Then the voices are.......eh. They are mediocre at best. I wish they left the original Japanese voices in or something. I mean the 15 girls sound 25 and the bad guys don't sound right. Especially Ascot. He sounds like Chucky. The music is nice but I prefer the SNES music more. I like the sound effects and during the battles the girls will cast their spells in Japanese instead of English. Pick one language or the other! If the opening song wasn't so awesome I would have given this cateregory a 5.0.

Graphics - 8.0
The sprites are gorgeous and slowdown is very little. I have only seen slowdown in one town and during battles where you are throwing tons of spells at each other. (though the slowdown doesn't really distract you too much because it's minimal)The backrounds are nice and clean and the spells are good too. The cinemas on the other hand are grainy (is it decompression or just the Saturn?) and about half screen in size. It makes me wish this game was on playstation. The cinemas fit in well with the action though and the anime is taken right out of the TV show. Load times are rather long but not REALLY long. Rent A MKR video to see the opening and the anime in its full glory.

Gameplay - 8.0
The gameplay is very much like Zelda with many, many more moves. However, I find myself using Fuu like 95% of the time. You see you roam around in three and you can change who you want to fight by using the shoulder buttons. I only used Hikaru and Umi during boss battles and when they ran out of magic attacks I switched back to Fuu. You see Fuu has an awesome attack in which she uses arrows that lock on to your target and never fail to hit. All you do is stand back and shoot. Most people think this game is easy but it really isn't that easy. The monsters in the dungeons are easy but some of the bosses can get nasty. The dungeons are short but have some tough puzzles but not that tough puzzles in which you must use each characters powers to accomplish your goals. A nice sense of teamwork. The characters needed to be more balanced though.

This game is awesome though. The battles go quick and therefore the game is only like 10 hours long. A worthy investment though and collecting a whole bunch of shell things with open a music test mode. Awesome game. Awesome rpg. Awesome characters. Awesome story. A collecter's item. Get this game and you won't regret that you purchased your Saturn.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/14/01, Updated 01/14/01