Magic Knight Rayearth

About Magic Knight Rayearth

Magic Knight Rayearth (1995) is Sega's Saturn action RPG based on the anime, in which three schoolgirls pulled into Cephiro tag-team to rescue Princess Emeraude, and the last Saturn game released in North America.

Magic Knight Rayearth in Depth

Eighth-grade girls Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki and Fuu Hououji are drawn from their school trips to Tokyo Tower into the world of Cephiro, where the Master Mage Clef tells them they must become the Magic Knights and rescue Cephiro's Pillar, Princess Emeraude, Princess Emerald in English, from the high priest Zagato to return home. The plot closely follows the first arc of the manga and anime, with every character from that arc plus the anime-only Inouva, but adds new locations and characters that considerably expand it, and, unlike the source, all of Zagato's minions die, including Ascot, Caldina and Rafarga. Each girl keeps a journal that gains entries after key events.

The player controls all three, but only one fights at a time; the other two follow, unable to attack and immune to enemies and hazards, and the active character can be switched instantly, so the girls tackle enemies and puzzles tag-team style. Unlike most RPGs, upgrades and spells mostly arrive at set points in the story rather than through independent achievements, except maximum HP and MP, raised by finding special items, and weapons and armour improve with general level-ups. Unlike in the anime, only Hikaru uses a sword.

Making Magic Knight Rayearth

Sega developed and published it for the Saturn in Japan in 1995. Its prolonged localisation by Working Designs meant it did not reach North America until 1998, becoming the last Saturn game released there, where it received mild to positive reviews; it holds a 70.03 per cent average on GameRankings.