Magical Starsign is an RPG where you play the main character. At the start of the game you have to choose your name, sex and the kind of magic you’ll be using (being able to choose from light or dark). The choice of your name and sex don’t really matter, but the magic is crucial since the game has some sort of magic power-up system. With light and dark magic things work like this: your powers as a wizard of light are much and much stronger during the day, while they are less powerful during the night. In this case it would be wise to fight your battles while the sun’s above the horizon. The effects for the dark side are of course the opposite of the light. Logically, these effects come with a day and night cycle.

Next to dark and light, there are also other forms of spells. For example, you’ll find fire, earth, water, wind and other kinds of magic. These forms have their own power-up systems. Since the game is based on travelling through space, you’ll find a bunch of planets out there with each planet being linked to a specific kind of magic. There’s an earth planet linked to earth magic, fire planet linked to fire, … The galaxy in which these planets are floating is divided in zones, each also being linked to a kind of magic (fire, earth, water, …). When one planet flies into the zone marked by its form of magic, that form becomes stronger for as long as the planet remains within this zone. Now, I know this all sounds very complicated, but when you start playing you’ll rapidly understand the entire system.

Next to power-ups there are other strategic aspects which come into play. First of all there’s a certain way in which every kind of magic has an influence on another type. It’s a bit like Pokémon, where a fire pokémon can easily be defeated by a water pokémon, but is very strong against a plant species. In Magical Starsign it all works about the same. Fire is strong against plant, but weak against water. The only two forms which are excluded from this circle of influence are light and dark magic. These are strong against each other, but not that much stronger against other types of magic.

Another tactical point you’ll have to take in account is the position in which you place your party members. When in battle, you and your companions are placed over two rows. The first row can directly attack a chosen target and will cause a grand amount of damage to that target. The guys in the back however can’t chose one target. They can only attack larger amounts of enemies. This will result in the total amount of damage (normally dealt when on the first row) divided over all opponents in the field on that moment.

All these small gameplay elements make this game a true pleasure to play and give it a fairly big addiction-factor. These things on the other hand wouldn’t be much without a decent control-system. The entire RPG can be controlled using nothing more then the stylus and the touch-screen. Running, fighting, inventory control, … It can all be done with the little pen. If you don’t want to use the stylus to move around, you can always use the d-pad, but if you chose to do so, you’ll move slower then when you’d use the stylus. In other words, use the stylus.

This game can’t be called a ‘top of the bill’ example of graphics and sound, but it’s not the worst either. You’ll be watching the action from a top-down angle causing you to have a good view of the battlefield, surroundings and lurking enemies. Don’t expect any 3D-graphics though, it’s all old-school 2D here.