Written By Craig
In 1995 Gamearts released a spin-off of the Lunar Series on GameGear entitled Magic School Lunar. Magic School was a solid rpg and was one of the better titles released for Sega’s handheld system. In 1997 Gamearts in conjunction with ESP released a Saturn remake of Lunar Magic School with better graphics, redbook music and anime, what could have gone wrong? Just about everything. The storyline of Magic School is nothing major or serious and it has that ”spin-off” feel, if you are expecting a deep and moving story like Eternal Blue then you will be disappointed. It’s a fun little story but that’s about it.
The graphics in Magic School are for the most part, horrendous. Its nothing compared to the detailed and colorful environments/sprites of SSSC and Eternal Blue. The battle graphics take the cake as some of the ugliest 2D that I have ever seen, the sprites are horribly detailed and have little animation and the magic effects look like they were drawn with a crayon, its THAT bad. The anime cutscenes are nothing to write home about either and they suffer from bad compression. The gameplay in Magic School is designed in the same Lunar fashion but unlike the other Lunar games the battles are sluggish, the AI is stupid and the encounter rate is as bad as Albert Odyessy for Saturn. The soundtrack for Magic School is very good but the problem with the soundtrack is that there are only about 15 music tracks in the game and most of them range from as little as 30 seconds to as long as 90 seconds.
SCORE:
Gameplay – 5
Graphics – 2.5
Sound – 6.5
Entertainment – 5
Overall: 4
Overall, the remake of Lunar Magic School is a disappointing spin-off that should never have been made. Thank god Gamearts one and only mistake stayed tucked away in Japan because this game is a disgrace to the Lunar series. I know this was a short review but there is really nothing more to say about this piece of $#!t.
