Ludography
Magical Vacation cover

2001 · 1-Up Studio · Role-playing

Magical Vacation

Nintendo exclusive

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.

Released
7 December 2001
Platforms
Game Boy AdvanceWii U
Genres
Role-playing
Developers
1-Up Studio
Publishers
Nintendo
Modes
MultiplayerSingle-player
Perspective
Bird view / Isometric
Themes
Fantasy
Country
Japan
Age ratings
CERO A
Languages
Japanese

About

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. Magical Vacation was later re-released for the Nintendo Classics service in 2025.

Keywords

  • turn-based combat
  • fan translation
  • fan translation - english
  • wii u virtual console
  • nintendo switch online - expansion pack

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game is an 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. The relationships among these elements are rather complex.

The player can increase the power of attacks by borrowing power from elemental spirits in a process called Seirei Combo (精霊コンボ; spirit 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 (7 spirits) yields 128 times as much damage.

Story

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 entered the magic school Will-o'-Wisp at the invitation of the school's principal.

The students of Will-o'-Wisp Academy are sent away to a summer school called Valencia Beach. At nighttime, strange monsters called the enigma appear on the beach, abducting the students and sending them to another world. The hero must find the missing students, while also uncovering the mysteries of the enigma and the war that occurred in the kingdom.

Reception

On release, Famitsu the two reviewers found the game very user-friendly and suggested it to new comers of the series. Two reviewers found the only downside to be that the controls take time to get used to and one reviewer saying the screen looks a bit dark on the Game Boy Advance. One reviewer said that knowing you could lose a hard-earned level ranking or important item made it exciting and that completing a dungeon that had previously bested the player gives a sense of accomplishment not found in other role-playing games.

The game was the second highest rated Game Boy Advance game from 2001 from Famitsu, only being beaten by Game Boy Advance release of Torneko: The Last Hope.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Game Boy AdvanceCancelled7 December 2001Japan
Wii U19 August 2015Japan

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.