magical starsign

RPGs are often considered epic, based on their length and storyline coverage alone. This holds true for quite a few of them, but not all. Sometimes you run across an RPG that's pretty simple, fun and cute but can still last you over 40 hours. If you're looking for one and you own a DS, Magical Starsign might be quite right for you.

Those who are familiar with the rules of J-RPGs will feel right at home with this game. You start off as a bunch of kids, all attending the same magical high school. When your teacher gets kidnapped, nobody seems to care very much so you start investigating on your own. You find a rocket, and off to space you go.

The storyline and characters you meet in Magical Starsign are all pretty much nonsensical. In that sense, the game reminded me a lot of the Mother series that saw life on the NES ages ago (known as Earthbound in the West). The humor in the game is quite important, as it will guide you through the lesser developed parts of the game. Magical Starsign goes a long way, but doesn't really succeed as much as his obvious peer does.

While the characters are decent enough, the whole setup feels a bit flimsy at times. And with games like Earthbound around, it could've been a whole lot wackier too. That said, the locations are pretty varied (although not all too original) and the game features enough cute side quests to keep you occupied.

The battle system is pretty novel, but tactics are limited. The game isn't too hard either, so once you found a good tactic it will last you through most battles. The alignment of the planets is a nice extra but not very important until very late in the game. Also, spell effects could've been a bit shorter. They last too long to keep watching them through all battles. Luckily, they can be skipped, but that leaves you with simple numbers popping up. Not very attractive either.

The game looks nice enough, although the simplicity of the style is not always used to full benefit. It could've been a bit more abstract and wacky. Also, the enemies could've looked a bit more menacing. I know it's supposed to be cute and all, but some creatures in the later sections of the game look more like friend than foe.

But the biggest problem with this game is probably the difficulty level. Not until the final planet will you have much trouble wading through all the different dungeons. I think one of my characters died just once before I reached the last planet. From there, it takes a serious boost and the game becomes pretty hard, sometimes to the point of irritation.

Enemies become pretty strong and can often kill a member with one attack. Speed becomes your most important tactic from here on. There's also a final dungeon, which took me more that 15 hours without even completing it. These bits are way too hard and what's even worse, there's little to be gained from doing this last (optional) dungeon. Most armor and weapons found there have interesting side effects, but will decrease your general stats dramatically. No fun at all.

Sadly, the end of the game kinda spoiled it for me. The first 35 hours or so were pretty pleasant, although a bit easy. From then on, tactics become more and more important, but after 35 hours of ignoring them, I didn't feel too much about figuring everything out. Still, if you ignore the optional last dungeon, finishing the game won't be too hard for most seasoned gamers.

Still, a pretty fun game, nice and colorful designs and enough humor too keep you occupied. Sadly, battles are quite slow and the difficulty level needs some serious tweaking. But a fun game to play in between all those epic, serious RPGs.