Magi Nation

"Underrated... Over enjoyed."

W-O-W. I've owned this game for a few years, and I still haven't written a review. That's odd. But still... Magi Nation is a highly underrated video game for the GBC. It's very cheap now, only about 5 USD. But don't let the price fool you. The game is better than it seems.

Story 10/10: Tony Jones. That's the name of you, the protagonist. Recently moved, you meet some bullies fooling around a cave. One dares you to enter, and says if you do, you can chill with the group. You enter. You follow the path a while, and see a crystal. Naturally, you investigate it. An earthquake suddenly occurs, and you run, but not fast enough. You fall into another world... Magi Nation.

Gameplay 10/10: In this game, you fight dream creatures. By defeating them with spells or your own dream creature, a Furok, you earn two kinds of animite: Infused, and normal. Animite isn't just the currency of this new world, it's used to create rings to summon more dream creatures. You can have up to ten, one for each finger. It's not like Pokemon as fights are optional in most cases, and you don't simply catch a dream creature. You need to fight multiple in order to get the animite needed for the ring. Then you need to level up your dream creatures, although with both kinds of animite, you can level up your dream creatures simply by paying ringsmiths. When levelling up, your dream creatures may learn one of their four attacks, some of which are: Maul, Impale, Thrust, etc.

You can level up, too. You gain energy, which is your stamina; Not quite HP or MP, as it's actually both. With energy, you summon your dream creatures and cast spells like Thunderquake. Other people can be quite humorous. Their personalities range from self-centered to mysterious to vile, creating a bowl of fruit, if you will. The game is hard. I have yet to beat it once... But it's one of my favorite games.

Music 10/10: Must... Listen... Probably the most addicting music ever. You'll end up humming along with it and wishing you could play it yourself. It's catchy and reflects the mood at the time. In the world map, it's adventurous. In a Shadow Geyser/Core Gate, it's mysterious and dark.

Graphics 10/10: These graphics are beautiful for a GBC. The dream creatures have many animations, and the primary and secondary characters have unique looks. Magi Nation is huge, plus the water and sky that you can't see on the overworld map. The dungeons are huge, and the enemies have graphics that make them seem mysterious. Tiny cracks hidden in the walls are realistic in the fact that they're hard to notice. You may walk by one a million times and still not know it's there.

Replay 10/10: Believe it or not, this 20-30+ hours game it replayable. With so many dream creatures and humorous text, it's hard for it to not be so enjoyable. Plus, it has a second start and five endings.

Overall 10/10: Highly underrated and thought of to be a copy off of Pokemon. But it's not. There are so many differences... I would buy if you're into RPGs, or rent if you just want to try it. It is easily over enjoyed. I played it for around 5 hours when I first played. If you like RPGs, it's not too late to buy it!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/12/07

Game Release: Magi Nation (US, March 2001)