is a Japanese video game developed and published by Sega for the
Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...
in 1995. It is an
action role-playing video game
An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre.
Definition
The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...
based on the
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
series of the same title (''
Magic Knight Rayearth
is a Japanese manga series created by Clamp. Appearing as a serial in the manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from the November 1993 issue to the February 1995 issue, the chapters of ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' were collected into three bound volum ...
''). Though one of the first games for the Saturn, it became the last Saturn game released in North America, chiefly due to its prolonged
internationalization and localization
In computing, internationalization and localization (American) or internationalisation and localisation (British English), often abbreviated i18n and L10n, are means of adapting computer software to different languages, regional peculiarities and ...
. The game was released in North America by
Working Designs
Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, i ...
in 1998.
The game focuses on three characters who travel the world of Cephiro to rescue an abducted princess named Emerald.
At least five other video games based on the anime series have been released: two for the
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...
(the second one with the title ''Mahou Kishi Rayearth 2nd: The Missing Colors''), one for the
Super Famicom
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Euro ...
, and two for the
Sega Game Gear
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990, in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and during 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily competed with Nintendo's Game Boy, ...
(the second game subtitled "Making of Magic Knight"). All six are completely different games, not ports.
Plot
Though there are a number of events which are exclusive to the video game,
the overall plot is very similar to the first story arc in the
manga and anime, with eighth-grade girls
Hikaru Shidou
The list of characters from the ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' anime and manga series by CLAMP. (Note: many characters' names are either taken from or related to cars).
Main characters
Hikaru Shidou
is an eighth-grader with bright red eyes and sc ...
,
Umi Ryuuzaki and
Fuu Hououji
The list of characters from the ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' anime and manga series by CLAMP. (Note: many characters' names are either taken from or related to cars).
Main characters
Hikaru Shidou
is an eighth-grader with bright red eyes and sc ...
finding themselves drawn from their respective field trips to the
Tokyo Tower
is a communications and observation tower in the Shiba-koen district of Minato, Tokyo, Japan, built in 1958. At , it is the second- tallest structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and i ...
into the world of Cephiro. There, Master Mage Clef inform them that, in order to return to Tokyo, the three girls must become the Magic Knights and rescue Cephiro's current Pillar, Princess Emeraude (named as Princess Emerald in the English version), from her abductor, the high priest and antagonist Zagato (named as Zagat in the English version).
All of the characters from the first arc of the manga are present in the game, as well as anime-exclusive character Inouva. However, the game presents several new locations and characters, thus considerably expanding the overall plot. The player can also read each of the girls' journals, which receive new entries after key events in the game, providing their individual insights on the events.
Unlike in the manga and anime, all of Zagato's minions die throughout the game, including Ascot, Caldina and Rafarga.
Gameplay
Throughout the game, the player controls a
party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
of three characters. However, only one character can battle at a time; though the other two characters will follow behind the active character, they cannot attack and are unaffected by all enemy attacks and even environmental hazards. The player can instantly change the active character at any time. In essence, the three characters confront the enemies, puzzles, and assorted threats of the game in a
tag team
Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establish ...
fashion.
Unlike most RPGs,
character upgrades and magic spells are mostly acquired upon progressing to certain points in the game, rather than by independent accomplishments. (The exceptions are
maximum HP and
maximum MP, which are increased by finding special items.) This is much like the Saturn's first RPG, ''
Virtual Hydlide
is an action role-playing game for the Sega Saturn console, developed by T&E Soft, published by Sega in Europe and Japan, and Atlus Software in North America. It is a remake of the original ''Hydlide'', the first game in the series, but incor ...
'', with the important difference that weapons and armor in ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' are upgraded as part of general level ups and do not exist as distinct gameplay elements.
While the anime and manga both have the Magic Knights using color-coordinated swords, in the game only Hikaru uses a sword, while Umi uses a
foil
Foil may refer to:
Materials
* Foil (metal), a quite thin sheet of metal, usually manufactured with a rolling mill machine
* Metal leaf, a very thin sheet of decorative metal
* Aluminium foil, a type of wrapping for food
* Tin foil, metal foil ...
and Fuu a bow and arrow. Each of the three weapons has its own advantages and disadvantages. For instance, the bow works long range but requires precise aim, whereas the sword slices with broad strokes that make it easy to hit enemies but is short range only. The need to aim the bow is mostly removed once it is upgraded, since Fuu can then charge the weapon to make it "lock on" to the nearest target. However, unlike the sword and foil, the bow's attack power does not increase when it is charged up.
Development
''Magic Knight Rayearth'' is based on the anime by
Clamp of the
same name.
[ The game was one of 12 Sega Saturn games announced when the system was first unveiled at the June 1994 Tokyo Toy Show.
]
Localization
The localization of the game was handled by Working Designs
Working Designs was an American video game publisher that specialized in the localization of Japanese role-playing video games, strategy video games and top-down shooters for various platforms. Though the company had published many cult hits, i ...
. In an interview published in June 1996, the company said that the game was one of the biggest localization projects the company had ever undertaken. They pointed to the audio and dubbing alone taking up to several months alone to complete, and the game being heavily in text as reasons for why the project was so big. At the time, they said they were aiming for a late summer 1996 release date.
The North American release was originally slated for July 1996, but was delayed more than two years.
Working Designs made a number of changes to the game in the localization process. As they regarded the Japanese version to be excessively easy, they enhanced the enemies' artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
and made them faster.[ As noted in the instruction booklet, Working Designs' opening animation would have mimicked the Japanese version of the game (gems morphing into the logo) but once Working Designs "were made aware of a logo created for the English Rayearth" by ]Media Blasters
Media Blasters, sometimes abbreviated as MB, is an American entertainment corporation that was founded by John Sirabella in 1997 and is based in New York City. It is in the business of licensing, translating, and releasing to the North American ...
, they decided to change the opening to incorporate the new logo. They also left out the voice acting for inconsequential town dialogue which appeared in the Japanese version, instead adding voice acting to the player characters' diary entries, as well as rendering the diary text to appear handwritten.[
As written in the translation notes in the instruction manual of the North American version, some of the ]source code
In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...
to the original Japanese version had been lost due to a hard drive crash. The missing code was completely rebuilt for the US version.
Three versions of the opening song were recorded, two of which are accessible on the game disk. Working Designs was unable to acquire the original Japanese opening theme, "Yuzurenai Negai" by Naomi Tamura
is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter who made her solo debut in 1994 with the song ''Jiyuu no Hashi''. She is best known for singing theme songs for popular Anime series such as ''Yuzurenai Negai'' for ''Magic Knight Rayearth'' and ''Yuragu ...
, for the English release, and instead used the melody of the Japanese version with different lyrics. The original version was only released on Working Design's website, and had an entirely different singer and instrumentals than the two versions of the song that were released on the game. This version was a lot closer to the original anime's theme, but with Working Designs' English lyrics.
The game, as with most of Working Designs' translated titles, was packaged with different artwork on the CDs to increase their value among collectors. The CDs came with three different designs, one for each of the game's heroines.
Reception
The game currently holds a 70.03% average on ''GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
''.
On release in Japan, in 1995, ''Famitsu
formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...
'' magazine scored the game a 26 out of 40.[''New Games Cross Review - 魔法騎士レイアース. Weekly Famitsu. No.352. Pg.29. 15 September 1995.] The localized version received mild to positive scores upon its release in North America in 1998. The game received a 5.1 mediocre review from Andrew Vestal of GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
. Though he found no problems with the game itself, he considered the localization of a three-year-old game to be a wasted effort due to the aging of the graphics, concluding that "''Magic Knight Rayearth'' is too little, too late". ''Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'' scored the game 7 out of 10, and called it rather dated. '' EGM'' scored the game 7.12 out of 10.
''Retro Gamer
''Retro Gamer'' is a British magazine, published worldwide, covering retro video games. It was the first commercial magazine to be devoted entirely to the subject. Launched in January 2004 as a quarterly publication, ''Retro Gamer'' soon became ...
'' included it on their list of ten essential Saturn imports as "easily the best playable import RPG, thanks to a highly entertaining localisation by Working Designs, its fun combat system (you effectively control one character at a time, switching between them tag-team style) and some delightful 2D visuals".
Notes
References
External links
''Magic Knight Rayearth''
at GameFAQs
GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...
''Magic Knight Rayearth''
at Giant Bomb
''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by ''Time'' mag ...
''Magic Knight Rayearth''
at MobyGames
MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Knight Rayearth (video game)
1995 video games
Action role-playing video games
Magic Knight Rayearth
Video games about magic
Video games about mecha
Science fantasy video games
Sega Saturn games
Sega Saturn-only games
Magical girl video games
Video games developed in Japan
Working Designs