- Magic Knight Rayearth (video game)
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Magic Knight Rayearth 
Developer(s) Sega Publisher(s) Sega, Working Designs Designer(s) Rieko Kodama Composer(s) Yayoi Wachi
Seiro OkamotoPlatform(s) Sega Saturn Release date(s) - JP August 25, 1995
Genre(s) Action RPG Mode(s) Single-player Rating(s) SSJ: All Ages
ESRB: TMagic Knight Rayearth is an action/adventure video game that was made and published by Sega for the Sega Saturn. It is based on the anime series of the same name (Magic Knight Rayearth). The game was released in North America by the now defunct Working Designs; it is notable because it was the last Saturn game released in the US region. Because of its late release in the US, it was not localized in Europe. Working Designs was based in Redding, California, and all the voice actors they used were local, as was their standard. Key voice actors such as Paul Howell and T. Owen Smith voiced the evil characters of the game.
Contents
Gameplay
Throughout the game, the player controls a party 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 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, 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 fencing sword and Fuu a bow and arrow. This probably was to increase game play variety.
Development
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, they decided to change the opening to incorporate the new logo.[2]
As written in the translation notes in the instruction manual of the North American version, some of the source code 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 were unable to acquire the original Japanese opening theme, "Yuzurenai Negai" by Naomi Tamura, 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.
Other Video Games Based on Magic Knight Rayearth
At least five other video games based on the anime series have been released: two for the Game Boy(the second one with the title "Mahou Kishi Rayearth 2nd: The Missing Colors"), one for the Super Famicom, and two for the Game Gear (the second game subtitled "Making of Magic Knight"). Aside from the USA release of the Saturn game, all six games were released between December 1994 and October 1995, a period of less than a year. Note that all six are completely different games, not ports of the same two or three games to different systems.
The game released for the Saturn is the only one of the six games that is not a turn-based RPG, as well as the only one to be released outside Japan. However, a fan translation exists for the Super Famicom game, as well as a partial translation for the first of the Game Boy games. Also, the two Game Boy games are considered very accessible to non-Japanese gamers due to their extremely basic gameplay mechanics.
Reception
The Sega Saturn game received a 5.1 mediocre review from Andrew Vestal of Gamespot.com. Though he found no problems with the game itself, he considered the localization of a 3-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."[3]
External links
References
- ^ "Magic Knight Rayearth main page". RPGamer. http://www.rpgamer.com/games/other/sega/mkr/mkr.html. Retrieved 2009-11-29.
- ^ "Translation Notes", Magic Knight Rayearth instruction manual.
- ^ Gamespot review
Magic Knight Rayearth by Clamp 
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