Fans of Sailor Moon may find many parallels between Tsukino Usagi and the star of Victor's latest action-adventure, Marica. To begin, they are both high school students with Usagi playing the part of an awkward and clumsy teenager more convincingly of the two. Both are also given objects that bring them into a world of intrigue, action and adventure. Usagi's Sailormoon story started when Luna, the tiny black cat, gave her a magical brooch. Marica's story starts when a dying man gives her a floppy disc. Like Usagi, Marica eventually meets up with other powerful girls to help her in her cause. A final parallel is that both girls unleash hidden, powerful attacks when first confronted by danger that threaten their young lives.
Marica (center) is flanked by her two cohorts

Marica is an fairly unique RPG that takes place in modern day Tokyo. Movement is handled by controlling your characters on a world map. This part of the game is standard and resembles other rpgs in the market. You initiate encounters in the world map by moving your characters against enemy figures. The fighting portion of the game is reminescent of games such as Battle Heat on the PC-FX and Hokuto No Ken on the Saturn. You choose an action from a list and then watch it play out in nicely animated sequences. After you make your move, your enemy will make his move and so on and so forth.
		Enemy mummy-cops and a hirsute werewolf

		When prompted, you may choose to attack or defend. Enemy characters vary in their aggression levels so you'll have change the way you attack and defend depending on who [or what] you're up against.
Marica sets off an impressive looking projectile				Mummy-cop poses a bit before striking

		Marica's cursed gift, the disk from the dying man, gets her into a world of danger. Luckily, she has a well of hidden magical power that she calls upon to attack the enemy agents who are after the disk. As the game begins, Marica is joined by two other girls who also have powers and share her goals of finding out who is after her and toppling their subversive organization. Victor does a good job of moving the game along with it's different styles of gameplay. The rpg portion of the game makes a smooth transition to the first person view fighting segment when its time to battle. Cut scenes and animated sequences also blend in nicely as you go through key parts of the game.
Another example of Marica's fighting engine

Victor's software is usually of good quality. Marica is no exception and presents a fun, interesting interactive adventure. The similarities to Sailor Moon are a bit obvious but there must be hundreds of anime that have taken after Sailormoon's popular storyline, themes and stylings. I was, however, happy to see that Marica did not get dressed up in a blue and white Sailor girl suit. The voice acting in Marica is also fairly good, with some popular seiyu (voice actresses) represented in Marica and her two partners. Recommended for fans of anime action.
"Parallel" games to Marica: Blue Seed, Miku the Metal Fighter.		Marica and friends in lighter moments
This document is © National Console Support 1997