"The sign points to mediocrity"

First off I would like to say that I really wanted to like this game, truly I did. However that turns out to not be the case. Let me first start with the good. The controls are fantastic, everything was completely intuitive, I didn't have to refer to the manual for anything, and the game makes great use of the stylus. In fact the entire game can be played solely with the stylus. If you want to talk to a NPC just press on him and your cute little sprites will walk on over and initiate a conversation. Text can be advanced with either the stylus or a trigger button. The first half hour of the game was simply a joy just using the stylus. However things went quickly downhill after that.

There is a storyline to this game, but there may as well not be. A bunch of magic kids go off to one elemental planet after another to save their teacher while fighting Space Pirates. Rather ho-hum but the game makes up for it with amusing dialog. Not laugh out loud amusing, but a slight chuckle here and there, just enough to make you want to talk to every NPC you can find. Graphics and sound do their jobs, nothing fancy, but nothing great either. The character art is a bit jarring at first, but at least it's not the same spikey-haired angst filled 16 year boy and his green-haired anime girlfriend that we've played as a thousand times over.

Now for the battles. Battles are your typical turn based style, nothing inherently wrong with that though. All commands are issued with the stylus, you cannot use the buttons, it would have been nice to have the option to do either or. As the game is called Magical Starsign your characters use mostly magic, you can physically attack but there is rarely a reason to as you recover a decent amount of MP each turn. The nicest thing about the battles is they have a repeat last move option which you will be using because you will be casting the same spells over and over again. Tapping the characters at the right time increases the attack's power which is a nice touch. Unfortunately battles are way too easy and way too repetitive, since this game employs random encounters, which there is no excuse for nowadays. The encounter rate is high too, since the areas you explore are quite small. The game has a nice elemental cycle in the rock-paper-scissor way as opposed to fire and water being weak against each other. However all your characters are basically the same, just a different elemental, and all your enemies are basically the same, just a different elemental. You don't even have to pay attention to anything at all, just select magic and a target, and you pretty much win the battle. Unfortunately with long spell animations, it takes quite awhile to win said battle, and sadly it was a pointless battle, just like the previous ten battles that you fought. Boss battles aren't too bad, but are still way too easy.

Magical Starsign is the sequel to the GBA Magical Vacation and is one of the few Brownie Brown games that has come over to the States. And if this game is anything like their other games, they can keep them in Japan. With so many great DS games out and coming out, there is no reason to stoop to such levels of mediocrity. I can only recommend this game to those who have never played an RPG before and need to be walked through step by step. Other then that, go spend your hard earned money and valuable free time elsewhere.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/06