Magi Nation (video game)

Magi Nation (Game Boy Color game)
Developer(s)	Interactive Imagination
Publisher(s)	Epoch
Platform(s)	GameBoy Color
Release	December 12, 2002 March 15, 2001
Genre(s)	RPG
Mode(s)	Normal & Cleared

Overview

Magi Nation was released in the twilight of the Pokémon craze, when the effects of the fad were just starting to dwindle away. Despite some of the game's innovations (i.e., the ability for the character to walk diagonally), it was largely ignored and gathered only a small cult following (Due to monsters, unique gameplay and excellent writing). The game itself was a marketing advancement in order to give attention to Interactive Imagination's flagship card game, Magi-Nation Duel.

The game was originally released in the U.S. and included a promo card of the game's main character, Tony Jones, who became a hero in the CCG's canonical mythology.

It was later released in Japan, with some major details changed - the main character was instead named, "Dan," and was given spiky black hair, as opposed to Tony's messy blond hair. This was done to give the hero a more Asian-friendly appearance, as Tony Jones represented stereotypical Western teenagers.

Plot Synopsis

Magi Nation follows Tony Jones, an unlikely Human boy who happens into the Moonlands and is thought to be destined for greatness. The storyline is rather long and is considered by the fanbase to be extremely original and enthralling. It is a big departure from its predecessor, PokéMon, which had a basic storyline, in order to appeal to a younger audience.

The Beginning

Tony Jones, an average boy who has just recently moved to the town of Tavel Gorge, meets some young boys outside of a cave. He introduces himself, but they quickly turn to taunting him, giving him the nickname, "Phony Bones."

To get his name back and be accepted by them, they dare him to go into the cave and retrieve a crystal. He does so effortlessly, but when he picks up the glittering stone, the cave suddenly collapses and he falls into blackness. When he awakes, he's on a riverbed and is suddenly attacked by two green skinned humanoids. They summon a bird-like creature from a ring, and Tony ends up dropping his crystal on the ground, which creates a large, blue furred bear with antlers. His beast drives off the attackers and retreats to its crystal.

Then, another man appears before Tony and gives him a bracelet that allows them to communicate. He introduces himself as Eidon, the Keeper of Naroom. Together, they travel to the capital of Vash Naroom, to find out from Eidon's friend and the town elder, Orwin, just what exactly has happened to Tony.

Tony is left to roam the town while Eidon speaks to Orwin. From the Ringsmith, Pruitt, he finds out that his crystal is actually called "animite," and that it can be forged into rings which summon beasts known as Dream Creatures. The one Tony had summoned was a Furok, but with one alteration: Furoks have brown fur, not blue. (More information will be made in a separate article)

After finding this information, he walks in on Eidon and Orwin, the latter of which is enraged. Orwin spouts off about how, "every year, you[Eidon] think someone is the Great Magus Kyros!" Eidon tries to explain, but Orwin will have none of it. He orders that Tony be kept in Vash Naroom until he can secure a way home to Tavel Gorge, which even Orwin admits to not knowing, despite his claims of how well travelled he is.

While Tony stays in Vash Naroom, a giant spire of darkness arises from the nearby Glade in the forests. Orwin rushes out of the village in an attempt to investigate and is quickly pursued by the townspeople. Eidon takes Tony with him, and along the way introduces him to Yaki, who trains him on how to combat with his Dream Creatures.

When the group finds Orwin, he has fallen terribly ill and weak, due to trying to enter the mysterious, "Shadow Geyser," and being blocked by the dark energies coursing within it. Tony is then attacked by the two Humanoids he had met when he first arrived in Magi Nation - now known to be Korg and Zet. Korg proves to be the leader, albeit more stupid of the two, and loses the battle by trying to out-strength Tony, despite Zet's wise advice. After their defeat, they once again run off.

Orwin is taken back to Vash Naroom and Eidon convinces Tony that he must go find Gia, in a nearby area known as The Weave. She trained Eidon himself, and is supposed to have a vast knowledge of the world. Tony heeds Eidon and travels to the Weave, but is harassed by an old woman who mocks him at every turn. Eventually, though, he passes through a few puzzles and reaches Gia's House, only to find that the old woman was actually Gia herself. She refers to him as the "Magus Kyros," and tells him of the prophecy concerning the world's destruction.

She also shows to him an artifact known as "The Core Glyph," which can allow access to the Shadow Geysers. The problem, she says, is that nobody can hold it without feeling immense pain. Tony, on the other hand, picks it up while she's not looking, and with relative ease. She turns and is amazed, but then quickly deduces that him, being the prophesied hero, "Kyros," should be immune to the Glyph's effects.

With the Glyph in hand, Tony returns to Naroom and to the glade in which the Shadow Geyser appeared. After braving its depths and fighting the twisted, nightmare-ish Dream Creatures, he faces off against Togoth, the "Shadow Magi," who is in charge of the geyser's functions. He is quickly defeated, and an object is revealed behind him on a pedestal. Tony is able to fit it into the Glyph and dubs it a "Core Stone."

The Darkening Shadows

After taking the Core Stone, the Geyser subsequently crashed. Tony escaped, knowing all too well what cave ins were like. However, as the glade began to return to normal, he saw a mysterious, floating figure cloaked in red near the edge of a cave. Pursuing him, however, only led him to a dead end, with the shrouded man disappeared. However, there was a chest with some valuable looking crystals inside.

Tony returned to Naroom, triumphant. However, Orwin's condition was growing worse, and his only hope was to find the Seer, who lived in a lakehouse nearby. Fetching the wizened, if colorful, man from his home, the young hero found that he could only cure the Elder with a rare plant known as the Cloud Frond. Not knowing any locations of the herb, they sent him on his way to continue investigating the happenings of Magi Nation.

The Magus then returned to Gia's house, along the way saving a Naroomi magi named Wence. Upon returning to the Weave, where Eidon was training, the elder man fashioned the crystals into a pair of gloves and made some keen digging blades, like the ones "the miners use in the Underneath." This, in turn, led Tony to his next destination: The city of Ombor in the dark caverns below the world.

After clearing through old, forgotten passageways, Tony was able to make it to the realm known as the Underneath. After acquainting himself with the town's inhabitants, he ventures out to Gruk's Mushroom Farm at the behest of her sister, Ulk. However, Gruk is captured upon Tony's investigation of strange noises in her basement by Korg and Zet, who then demand outrageous ransoms for her return.

Tony and the town's celebrated hero, Gogor, raid the tower where the devious duo are hiding out, storming it and saving Gruk with little difficulty. However, when they returned to town, they felt an earthquake with the epicenter emanating from her Mushroom Farm. Tony's investigation led to the discovery of another Shadow Geyser.

Upon entering it and besting it's defenses, he met a woman named Ogar. After a fierce battle with her Jiles(cat-like nightmare creatures), he was victorious. Taking another Core Stone as his prize, he returned to town, but found to his dismay, it had been demolished. A fight was still going on, however, in it's center; but it was more like a slaughter. The same mysterious figure that had been seen outside of Naroom's Shadow Geyser was now attacking Ombor with an army of Shadow Magi!

He turned Ogor, Gruk, and Ulk into stone, and teleported them to his world. Then, he turned Mogosh, the Elder of the town, into a worm. Tony brashly entered the fray and was identified by the figure as "Magus Kyros." The cloaked man introduced himself as Morag, and the two battled, with Morag the victor (No matter what, if you do cleared version with max stats, it will take a long time to die). But, before he could deal the killing blow, an arrow pierced him, causing him to fade away to his dark realm to recover and leaving the arrow behind(revealing that it wasn't fatal).

Wence rushed up to Tony and helped him to his feet, then escorted him back to his house in the forests of Naroom to recover from the battles he had undertaken.

The Great Fire

Tony was then taken to the cald nation, the fire nation, where a new geyser had sprung. When he got there, however, the Core attacks and Tony beat them off. As they leave, the citizens notice the new geyser.

In order to get to this geyser, however, he had to speak with the bridge-builder of the Cald, Valkan, because the geyser's earthquake had broken the bridge. Tony has to catch a "lava arboll" for Valkan, because the monster can (apparently) easily build bridges. The arbol builds the bridge, but it sucks, so they have to get a relic from the cald (super boots!) so he can jump the distance where the bridge failed.

A ferry man takes Tony to an island (for a big fee!) in the orothe kingdom (water nation) where the relics are held. Blu, the relic guardsman, does stuff blah blah blah Tony gets boots and goes to the geyser.

The person in charge of this geyser is the sands of d'resh (sand kingdom, future release + a plot twist in the continuing story) because they lack a Cald Magi. This Magi's name is Korremar. He's really cool, but kinda easy, so you kill him good.

The Cald nation then throws a party for Tony, but Morag comes and petrifies them. Morag then captures Tony, and he goes all up in the jail. The core jail. It's a cool part of the story because you never see much of the core kingdom in game.

Shadow Hold

If you take some extra time here, you can find the Cloud Frond, which will save Orwin.