"More magical than you may imagine."

The prequel to this game, "Magical Vacation", released for the GBA, was probably one of the best, yet unknown, games. With this title's announced release in the USA, there's probably still a chance of the previous game being launched outside Japan. Whether it happens or not, this single game can surely prove itself to be quite amazing, and that's what you'll find out if you actually get to play it.

The story starts in a really simple way, with 6 students waiting for their teacher in their magical school. This leads to a sequence where the teacher tells you more about the interesting battle system available in the game, with an easy to follow tutorial that you'll probably enjoy. Without spoiling it too much, eventually your teacher is sent in a mission and disappears for 3 months, time by which their students (which will be your main characters in the game) start getting worried for her. Eventually, they found a part of the school where 6 spaceships were stored and (oddly) they seem to take them. Such action separates your members from each other, allowing you to play with a single character for while. Many others join your quest later on, and there are obviously many, many surprises waiting for the player.

The battle system, as specified above, is indeed easy to master and incentives you at largely using magical attacks above the physical ones, as they not only deal more damage but, if effectively managed, also enable you hit all the enemies at the same time. The battle system also includes the usual options in this type of game (two rows to put your characters in, items, a defensive option, ability to run away and so on), but the most interesting features come up by simply looking at a planetary chart available in the game. Depending on the position of the planet you're currently in, the position of the other planets and whether it is night or day, some elementary magic will be stronger, not only for your party but also for the enemies. You can't beat a particular boss? Fear not, play for a couple minutes and his magic will power down.

Then, there's the field play. In there, you can either touch the lower screen with your stylus (which makes the characters run in that direction until they find any obstacles) or simply use the normal directional controls. Giving such option to the players is quite good, but this turns out being one of the few flaws seen in this game: apart from not allowing you to use the usual directional controls to do anything at all in the menus, when using them to move your characters on the field, they'll simply walk, making it too hard to go wherever you want. People who don't like using the stylus all the time, such as myself, may largely dislike such detail.

When on the field, you can usually select what you're seeing on the upper screen, by pressing a star sign shown in the lower one. It allows you to see your current party, the current planetary chart of simply a map of the area you're in (either if it is the world map or simply a smaller area map), sometimes smaller than it should be desirable, as what happens in the case of the world map.

Another interesting function turns out being that after a certain part of the game, you can usually select what to do next and where to go next. This enables you to take easier bosses and quests before heading to the harder ones. OK, there are some key items that you may be required to have before doing something, but to a certain extent, it's all up to you. This not only slightly increases the play time of the game (which is already fairly high), but may also give you a small replay value, something that this type of game usually misses.

Concerning the graphics, I can state that they are indeed quite good. Bearing in mind the type of game that you'll find here, while not being 3D you'll be able to see the characters clearly and without a single pixel out of its proper place. The magical attacks were nicely created and while some of the enemies may use the same spells as your party, you can even find a lot more than 24 different looks for them. Some of the enemies are simple palette swaps of ones you may have previously seen, but that's not a very important detail.

Another interesting thing about the game is that it seems to contain some 3d video scenes, quite detailed if consider the handheld gaming system which this game was created for.

The sound is good, but not perfect. Mostly, it enjoyable, but not the kind of sound that you will be remembering later on, and wanting to hear. A new song is heard every time you change to a new area, making them surely an enjoyable experience.

This turns out being one of those games that probably every DS owner would like to play. Come on, what are you waiting for?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/06, Updated 07/31/06