Magical Vacation: Brownie Brown's First RPG, Finally in English
Before Magical Starsign on the DS, there was Magical Vacation, a Game Boy Advance role-playing game from Brownie Brown, published by Nintendo and released only in Japan on 7 December 2001. A fan translation by the patcher known as magicalpatcher, released on 7 June 2016, is what makes it readable in English.
At a glance
- Based on: Magical Vacation (Brownie Brown / Nintendo, Game Boy Advance, 2001)
- Created by: Brownie Brown (original); English patch by magicalpatcher
- Released: December 2001 in Japan; English fan patch in June 2016
- Genre: turn-based role-playing game
- What sets it apart: a sixteen-element magic system and link-cable features aimed at trading and battling
A school trip gone wrong
You enter the magic school Will-o'-Wisp. Students sent to Valencia Beach are abducted by monsters called the enigma and carried to another world, and the hero's search uncovers both the creatures and a secret three-day war in the kingdom of Kovomaka. The adventure crosses four planes: Material, Light, Darkness and Death.
Spirits, elements and friends
Battles are built on 16 elements with a web of relationships. A system called Seirei Combo lets you summon spirits to boost magic of the same element, doubling attack power per spirit up to a maximum of seven. The Amigo system uses the GBA link cable for swapping characters and spells, a hot-spring power-up mode and multiplayer duels.
Reception and legacy
Famitsu rated it 9, 9, 8 and 9 out of 10, making it the magazine's second-highest-rated GBA game of 2001. The DS sequel arrived in the West as Magical Starsign in 2006, and the original was added to Nintendo Classics in Japan in 2025. A newer project at Kovopedia aims to fix technical errors in the 2016 patch and match names to Magical Starsign.