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NDS
Magical Vacation
5-tsu
no Hoshi ga Narabu
- New Import |
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NCS
Game Synopsis
«©NCSX»
Somewhere in the cosmos is a 5-planet solar system
known as Taro Taro. Orbiting within that system is a
planet called Kovomaka, home of the Will 'O Wisp
Magic School where gifted students learn to harness
their abilities. One day, a brunette teacher
goes missing and students from the school get into
their space ships to look for her. When those
students turn up missing as well, it's up to a hero
or heroine to lead a party to rescue the
whole group. At the outset of the game, an impetuous
student named Jasmine throttles off in a rocket
followed by the protagonist in the game. When they
crash land on a neighboring planet and are captured
by the robotic denizens, only magic and guile will
guide them through...
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NCS
Game Notes & Spoilers
The five planets in the Taro Taro system represent
five elements as follows:
Fire
Wind
Water
Earth
Tree (Wood)
The heroes in Magical Vacation are also
aligned with an element. When venturing on a planet
with the same element, their powers are boosted.
»
To move, tap the stylus on a target area of your
merry band of travelers walks to the tap point.
Battles are shown in animated motion with attacks
and magic blowing out with special effects galore.
All of the commands may be issued with the stylus by
pointing on the touch screen to activate functions
and move as well as battle.
»
At the outset of the game, players select a male or
female character. Both have orange-colored hair and
wear big turban-like productions on their heads. NCS
chose the male magician and gave him an English name
of "RaJee". Input may be in Japanese or English
with the latter toggled by tapping on the third
button from the left on the bottom of the screen.
RaJee
starts the game with 140HP and 20MP along with
a number of attributes for strength, intelligence,
vitality, etc. After clicking on okay, six character portraits
are shown with our hero located in the upper left.
The other characters are as follows:
Pomodoro: A magician who's attuned to the
Fire Element. He looks like a punk kid version of
Wolverine and has two horn-like appendages
protruding from his forehead.
Sugar: A headband wearing hippy girl who
wields Water magic.
Jasmine: A doleful looking animal with bunny
ears. Jasmine has red puppy-dog eyes and shaggy hair
which she tousles with her Wind magic.
Cafe Latte: A robot who bears a likeness to
Cafe au Lait from the original Magical Vacation.
Maybe they were carved from the same kettle. Cafe
Latte uses Earth Magic.
Chai: A green reptile with red hair and
yellow squiggly lines on his forehead. Naturally, he
uses Tree magic since he sort of looks like a tree
frog.
»
After clicking okay, the intro starts which shows
the purple and aqua colored Will O' Wisp magic
school on both screens. The camera shifts inside and
shows a classroom with desks and students milling
about. The buzz of a crowd may be heard in the
background as Pomodoro address RaJee and the
students chat amongst themselves. Jasmine alerts the
class that teacher's on her way and everyone settles
down at their desks.
» Before the proper game begins, teacher holds a lengthy training
sequence where the battle controls are laid out.
Icons are used to trigger attacks, item use,
defense, magic, and escape. When magic is used, the
effects can span both screens. In the early
training, Chai uses a bit of Tree magic which arcs
to the top NDS screen before raining damage on the
munchkin enemies below. After two battles, teacher
bestows the knowledge of elemental magic and the
effect of planetary alignments.
»
During battles, attacks and their effects are shown
on the screen in animated motion. For example,
command Sugar to blast out an ice attack and
elemental sigils encircle her as she bends forward
with arms pointed to form an ice sphere. The ice
then rises up to the top NDS screen before
shattering little ice metorites downwards on enemy
attackers. Command Jasmine to attack and she'll
hop-step right up to a foe and perform a little kick
attack while yelping out "YAH!" After a successful
battle, the amount of experience earned is shown on
top of each hero followed by any increases in
attributes.
»
Although the stylus can be used for all movement and
control input in the game, the D-pad or the face
buttons may also be used for movement. If using the
face buttons, X is for up, A is for right, B is for
down, and Y is for left. When moving via stylus, tap
on a portion of the screen and the hero will move
towards it. To accelerate the rate of movement,
point the stylus further away on the screen.
»
During movement phases, the local area is shown on
the lower screen while the top screen shows an
overview map of the entire area. To toggle the
display on the top screen, tap on the STAR on the
upper-right corner of the bottom DS screen and the
view will shift to a map of the planets with their
orbits depicted in circular lines around the sun.
Tap the star icon again and the top DS screen shows
the portraits and stats of the party.
»
The progress in the game may be saved at any time. A
total of three save slots are available on the game
card.
»
Once control is handed over to the player, RaJee,
Cafe Latte, and Sugar discover a room with a weird
door which depicts an unflattering racial stereotype
which Nintendo will probably have to change if the
game is ever officially released in Europe or the
United States.
» The
three investigate further after some trepidation and
the face awakens and addresses RaJee. While standing in front of the
face-door, perform a magical incantation by tapping
on the satchel icon on the lower left corner of the
screen and then tap on the silvery magic sigil.
After a light show and shrill sound effects, the
door opens to grant passage within. The three
students walk inside and find a dreary hall with a
ladder on the wall. After climbing to the top, six
space ships may be seen on a platform on top of the
screen with their engines humming.
» Pomodoro and Chai
join the gang and as soon as RaJee steps on the
stairs leading to the vessels, an alarm sounds. The
camera changes to a view of a classroom and the
alarm alerts the students inside as the room
rumbles. Below, the whole school is rumbling and the clock
tower which serves dual purposes as a launching pad
for the space ships opens up to allow the vessels to
see the daylight.
» The view changes to Jasmine inside one of the
ships. She takes command and launches upwards amidst
a swirl of clouds. In the next scene, the five
remaining students are knocked out in the launching chamber.
RaJee wakes up and after checking on the other students, walks into one of the
ships. Tap on the red lever to start the launch
sequence. After a while, RaJee also launches into
outer space as the students and professor inside the
school scramble.
» The next scene shows RaJee flying
though space on a spinning ship following Jasmine. As the vessels dodge asteroids,
a front shot is
shown of Jasmine who appears to be exceptionally scared.
After a short flight sequence, both rockets crash
onto a rocky planet.
» In the next scene, a sandstorm
is in progress as one of the ships lies wrecked in the
background and the pilot lies ejected face down in
the middle of the screen. Tap on the survivor and
he'll get up. Move to the SE to find Jasmine who has
also been ejected from her rocket. Walk to the north
and have Jasmine cast a wind spell to quell the
gales and stop the sandstorm.
» Soon after the storm
stops, a sand creature emerges with its big claws
and hungry mouth. Despite the creature's large size,
the battle that ensues isn't particularly difficult.
The creature will attack by swiping its tail from
the Top NDS screen across the bottom screen and send
its target flying. Its second attack is a sand blast
where billowing clouds of sand shoot from its maw to
attack both RaJee and Jasmine. It's gone after 5
magic attacks which earns each hero 40 EXP.
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This document and photos are ©NCSX 2006. All rights reserved. No
reproduction in whole or in part of this document
may be made without express written consent of
National Console Support, Inc.
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