Magic Knight Rayearth is a show that has lofty thematic goals and ambitious depths to its characterization, but as much as it's interested in the self-actualization of queer youth and the horrific consequences of self-sacrifice in the name of provision for friends and family, the first season especially is equally interested in emulating the vibes of fucking around in a generic 16/32 bit JRPG, so it makes sense that this is the format that every video game adaptation of it would take.
I don't have a way to play Saturn games so my first Rayearth game was this lesser known SNES little brother, but I'm not sure that matters all that much because I believe every Rayearth game is an adaptation of the the first chunk of manga/season 1 of the anime. This too makes sense, as this is the most straightforward period of the narrative, and what's here is adapted with charm and gusto. Even the middle episodes of the season which do veer slightly more conceptual are adapted somewhat admirably in the form of fun gimmick fights that work really well for me.
The game itself is about par for what I'd expect from a budget licensed game of the era. It's fairly barebones in terms of play, with a very standard set of equipment and spells across characters (everybody uses all types of magic and Fuu has a sword instead of a bow? seems weird!) that definitely betrays what kind of game this is at its core, but for an experience that is actually probably shorter than watching the first season of the show it's hard to REALLY fault it much for these things.
Everything moves quickly; there's very little friction here. Battles are frequent but quick - you're always levelling up, always moving forward, always humming towards the next cutscene. This is good because the audiovisual presentation is where the game really shines. The spritework is beautiful in this game, even as clearly limited as a lot of it is, and they obviously put the extra effort into the most important places, like making sure that the main character sprites that you spend the most time with could be as expressive and posable as possible. All the music absolutely slaps too, which is a hugely important part of the Rayearth experience imo. Some of the best SNES drum sounds I've ever heard in this game, lowkey all timers, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjU49AiCMV8&list=PLuGdUcbPv0j8TY0qiFyFhNQRSAfcMr7t_&index=33
The biggest place the game stumbles is where you might expect it to: right at the end, where the JRPG shenanigans are pulled out from under us in favor of some harsh reveals about the nature of the world and the psychology of the key players of the cast, which are sort of glossed over in between final boss fights and a rushed ending. This is played similarly in the show, but where there are literally 30 more episodes following to unpack things there, here the game is over that's it! Nothing to follow up on.
I can't help but wonder what a Magic Knight Rayearth game might look like today, one that tried to retell this story in its entirety instead of only going as far as the obvious and easy part of the story to adapt. To take the part of the story that Rayearth is directly subverting and just like, play it completely straight is kind of an embarrassing mission statement, and one I don't know would be easy to fix today. Could you do season 2 of Rayearth, largely concerned with introspection, politics, and pacifism, as a JRPG? Could you switch a game's genre less than halfway through? How would you adapt these new scenarios to a video game environment without just converting them to a visual novel kind of deal?
I dunno! The easiest answer is probably that you don't, that some stories aren't well-suited to all mediums and it's fine to leave them alone, but I think it's an interesting exercise to consider. I'd love to see it, if Rayearth were to someday get an inexplicable second life someday.
I don't have a way to play Saturn games so my first Rayearth game was this lesser known SNES little brother, but I'm not sure that matters all that much because I believe every Rayearth game is an adaptation of the the first chunk of manga/season 1 of the anime. This too makes sense, as this is the most straightforward period of the narrative, and what's here is adapted with charm and gusto. Even the middle episodes of the season which do veer slightly more conceptual are adapted somewhat admirably in the form of fun gimmick fights that work really well for me.
The game itself is about par for what I'd expect from a budget licensed game of the era. It's fairly barebones in terms of play, with a very standard set of equipment and spells across characters (everybody uses all types of magic and Fuu has a sword instead of a bow? seems weird!) that definitely betrays what kind of game this is at its core, but for an experience that is actually probably shorter than watching the first season of the show it's hard to REALLY fault it much for these things.
Everything moves quickly; there's very little friction here. Battles are frequent but quick - you're always levelling up, always moving forward, always humming towards the next cutscene. This is good because the audiovisual presentation is where the game really shines. The spritework is beautiful in this game, even as clearly limited as a lot of it is, and they obviously put the extra effort into the most important places, like making sure that the main character sprites that you spend the most time with could be as expressive and posable as possible. All the music absolutely slaps too, which is a hugely important part of the Rayearth experience imo. Some of the best SNES drum sounds I've ever heard in this game, lowkey all timers, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjU49AiCMV8&list=PLuGdUcbPv0j8TY0qiFyFhNQRSAfcMr7t_&index=33
The biggest place the game stumbles is where you might expect it to: right at the end, where the JRPG shenanigans are pulled out from under us in favor of some harsh reveals about the nature of the world and the psychology of the key players of the cast, which are sort of glossed over in between final boss fights and a rushed ending. This is played similarly in the show, but where there are literally 30 more episodes following to unpack things there, here the game is over that's it! Nothing to follow up on.
I can't help but wonder what a Magic Knight Rayearth game might look like today, one that tried to retell this story in its entirety instead of only going as far as the obvious and easy part of the story to adapt. To take the part of the story that Rayearth is directly subverting and just like, play it completely straight is kind of an embarrassing mission statement, and one I don't know would be easy to fix today. Could you do season 2 of Rayearth, largely concerned with introspection, politics, and pacifism, as a JRPG? Could you switch a game's genre less than halfway through? How would you adapt these new scenarios to a video game environment without just converting them to a visual novel kind of deal?
I dunno! The easiest answer is probably that you don't, that some stories aren't well-suited to all mediums and it's fine to leave them alone, but I think it's an interesting exercise to consider. I'd love to see it, if Rayearth were to someday get an inexplicable second life someday.