Magical Vacation
is a 2001 role-playing video game developed by Brownie Brown and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance only in Japan on December 7, 2001, and was later re-released in the same region in 2006. Japanese singer, model, and actress Mika Nakashima was featured in the television commercials for Magical Vacation.
A sequel was produced for the Nintendo DS in 2006, titled Magical Vacation: Itsutsu no Hoshi ga Narabu Toki; It was released in North America and Europe as Magical Starsign.
Gameplay
The game is a standard RPG adventure game, where the player interacts with the overworld to progress the story while battling against enemies in a turn-based battle system. There are 16 different elements in the game, each of which is stronger than another specific element, and weaker against another. Exceptions to this rule are: the love element, the dark element, and the light element.Spirit combos
The player can increase the power of attacks by borrowing power from elemental spirits in a process called Seirei Combo. To use a spirit combo, the player must summon an elemental spirit, and use magic of the same element in the following turns to release vast amounts of damage. Attack power is doubled per spirit present, meaning 2 spirits would create 4 times as much damage, and 3 spirits would create 8 times as much. The maximum combo yields 128 times as much damage. The power of basic magic can surpass that of advanced magic if the player uses this combo. However, certain special rules apply to its use. For instance, the enemy can summon spirits of a stronger element to eliminate the combo's effectiveness, and spirits can be extracted from the field using certain spells. The combo also applies for bombs which contain the magic power of an element. The maximum number of spirits that can be summoned is 7, and spirits must be re-summoned per combo use.Amigo system
This system allows the player to interact with the Game Boy Advance's multiplayer link. The first option, Let's Amigo, allows players to exchange main characters to acquire new spells. For instance, exchanging between a wind elemental main character and a sound elemental one will allow the wind elemental character to learn a sound elemental spell, and vice versa. Magic learned in this way can be strengthened with experience like all other spells from the beginning of the game. Each player can also receive "special" spell data, which can be equipped to allied characters. However, equipped spells will not strengthen with experience. Exchanging a certain number of times will give the main character a new spell or change their element. Love magic is acquired if the player exchanges with 5 players of the same element. Exchanging 100 times will change the main character's element to the dark element and change their appearance to the dark costume. Learning all of the spells in the game and fulfilling the two prior requirements will give the main character light magic, change their element to the light element, and change them into the light costume.The second option, Let's Onsen becomes available if the player has gone to the hot spring in the Plain of Light at least once during the game. Using the other player's hot spring will increase the main character's powers. After a certain number of uses, the player may be offered a choice to upgrade their hot spring. The level of upgrade is dependent on the player's rank of gameplay.
The third option, Let's Taisen, is the multiplayer battle mode. A multiplayer battle is conducted in the same way as regular battles in the story mode, but winning a certain number of battles or maintaining a certain winning percentage awards the main character a special title that boosts their abilities. 3 elemental spirits also appear at the beginning of every multiplayer turn.
Nintendo organized two events in 2002 to gather Magical Vacation players together to make the Amigo system more accessible. The first event was held on January 26 in Osaka, and the second event was held the following day on January 27 in Tokyo. These events allowed players who only had access to one game cartridge to quickly gain power-ups for their characters.
Setting
Plot
Once upon a time, war erupted for three days in the magic kingdom Kovomaka. This war was kept a secret from ordinary citizens, but one man began to travel all around the country in preparation for the next battle, and several years later, the game's main character enters the magic school Will-O-Wisp at the invitation of the school's principal. The main character possessed the ability to see and interact with spirits since youth, and was ostracized because of this ability.The students of the Will-O-Wisp school are sent away to a summer school by the Valencia seaside despite warnings that several students from other schools had gone missing on the beach in the past. One afternoon, a strange monster called an Enigma appears on the beach, abducting some of the students. The hero must find the missing students and uncover the mysteries of the Enigma and war that occurred in the kingdom.
World map
The game map is divided into four "plains" which can be traversed using a magic bus that warps into different plains. The first plain is the player's original world, which houses the Will-O-Wisp school and Valencia seaside. The second is the Plain of Light, where puppets, angels, and dwarves live. The Palace of Light and other ruins are located at the center area, along with a hot springs. The third plain is the Plain of Darkness, where all sorts of habitats, including a forest, iceberg, desert, and volcano, are located in close proximity. The Vox and Nyamnelt species make their homes in this plain, and many Enigma monsters live in the Forest of Enigmas. The entrance to the secret dungeon is also located within this plain. The final plain is the Plane of Death, which provides a stark contrast to the other environments with its darkened sky and charred ground. Even so, several species live in this plain, and the deepest area contains the cave of resurrection. A fifth plain called the Plain of Water is also mentioned, but does not appear in the game itself.Characters
Will-O-Wisp classmates
Hero/Heroine;Kirsche Pintail
;Arancia Scorenote
;Ganache Nighthawk
;Cassis Lumberyard
;Cider Rainbow
;Blueberry Lakeside
;Lemon Airsupply
;Olive Tearclown
;Cabernet Cheaptrick
;Pistachio Maplewood
;Peche Farmer
;Sesame Ashpot
;Café au Lait Rustynail
;Chocolat Cracks
;Candy Mintblue
Other important characters from the Will-O-Wisp magic school include the main character's teacher, Miss Madeleine, who seems to be an ordinary teacher but is actually a very powerful magician. The school's principal, Gran Dragée is a legendary magician who gathered the magic school students together from all around the kingdom after the war. Balsamico is the driver of the Mabasu, which can take the player into different areas of the map. Vanilla Nighthawk is Ganache's older sister, who disappeared after merging with the Enigma in her mad search for power. She is held captive in Chiboust Castle. Chardonnay Cheaptrick is Cabernet's older brother, who was a soldier in the Kovomaka army. He died while searching for Vanilla a year before the start of the story.
Species
;Vox;Nyamnelt
;Puppet
;Love Ambassador
;Mudman
;Pots
;Java Sparrows
;Dodo
;Konnyaku-sama
;Water people
;Piranha
;Ancient Robot
;Star
;Gummi Frogs
;Gummi Worms
;Dwarves
;Pippurusu
;Treeman
;Brownie
;Pyrite
Spirits
There are 16 different types of spirits, and up to 7 of one type can be recruited. These spirits can be summoned during battle to perform combos, and some spirits must be recruited in order to proceed through certain dungeons. In order to recruit spirits, the player must speak with each spirit symbol, and fulfill their demands. The requirements for recruiting new spirits become tougher to meet as the game progresses. Some spirits have special additional requirements, making it difficult to recruit all of the spirits available in the game.One spirit of the element the player chooses for the main character at the beginning of the game will appear in the first half of the game. The requirement to recruit that spirit is one green Gummi Frog, regardless of the type of spirit. As a result, the seventh spirit of the player's original element will not appear. In the Remitz Palace, several spirits can be recruited by chasing Dodo towards the Love Ambassadors. No items are required to recruit the spirits in this scenario, but the room with the Dodo cannot be entered unless the player has at least one spirit of the kind depicted on the room's door.
;Lux
;Nirva
;Wish
;Toast
;Humming
;Air
;Slash
;Powder
;Flow
;Tesla
;Garu
;Boo
;Stick
;Buzz
;Clock
;Flint
Enigma
The Enigma are the mysterious creatures that ambushed the player at the summer school. They abduct the students of the Will-O-Wisp because they can increase their own power by merging with other creatures that have strong magical powers like the students. Enigma are resurrected unless they are killed in the Plain of Death, and all of them wield dark elemental magic. 1 in 5 graduates of the magic school are said to be afflicted by Enigma, and they plan to gradually take control of Kovomaka. Magic power itself was passed on to Gran Dragée by the Enigma, and encounters with them are inevitable for those who practice magic.;Piskapook
;Vulcaneira
;Dab Hasnel
;Rad Hasnel
;Equillikrew
;Kelrendo