1996 · Port · Adventure · Role-playing

Madō Monogatari I

Port

The story of a powerful magical witch!

Released: 22 March 1996
Platforms: Sega Genesis TurboGrafx-16
Genres: Adventure Role-playing
Developers: —
Publishers: —
Series: Madō Monogatari
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Fantasy
Country: Japan
Languages: Japanese
Composers: Masanobu Tsukamoto

About

Madō Monogatari I is a 1996 role-playing video game developed and published by Compile for the Mega Drive. It is the last official Mega Drive game released in Japan. The game is part of the long-running Madō Monogatari series.

It is a later revision to the Game Gear version, Madō Monogatari I: Mittsu no Madō-kyū, which is based on the original MSX and PC98 versions, and borrows heavily from the PC Engine version, Madō Monogatari I: Honō no Sotsuenji.

›Story

Six-year old Arle Nadja must complete a test by scaling a large tower, collecting three magic spheres, and destroying Cockatrice (who is not present in the PC-9801 version) and Fudoushi (Mamono in the MSX version) so she can graduate from kindergarten. In the Game Gear version, Camus will appear and either help Arle (such as teaching Arle "Bayoen") or slow Arle down (by taking one of the magic spheres if the game has been played for over three hours).

Just before the final boss, Fudoushi/Mamono tricks Arle into seeing a mirage of the exit of the tower and her classmates turning into hideous creatures with their faces melting and eyes leaking out terrifying her. Arle defeats him and exits afraid that her friends would be terrible creatures, but they appear normal.

In the Game Gear version, there is more than one ending in the game if Camus is healed. He appears in the fight with Fudoushi, handing Arle a pair of Dragon Horns to heal her stamina and magic. Camus attempt to take down Fudoushi, but is smacked away into a wall by his old magic. Once he is defeated, Arle checks to see where Camus went, as he vanished. Falling from the tower's top floor and landing, she figures out that Camus was simply an illusion created by Teacher.

The chapter ends with her graduating and showing her, over the years, growing up.

There are major differences between the two versions, with the biggest difference being the final boss; Mamono in the MSX version, and Fudoushi in the PC98 release. The PC98 version also has significantly darker graphics and different enemies, and more realistic enemy designs.

Keywords

female protagonist
skeleton
dungeon crawler
fan translation - english

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The game takes place in a 3D maze with obstacles, enemies, and characters to confront. Attacking monsters is similar to Paladin's Quest and the Phantasy Star series. A few examples of crazy items are Japanese curry, champagne, mini-elephant, and strange little crystals that may summon Santa. There is also a capsule item that allows players to capture enemies in a similar way to the Pokémon video games.

Once captured, these enemies will serve as allies to the main player. Both brains and brawn must be used as the battles and puzzles are equally difficult in the lower levels of the game.

Story

Five-year-old Arle Nadja (later the protagonist in the Puyo Puyo series) is a member of the magic school. For her final exam, she must go through the Dark Prince's tower. Her knowledge and skills will be greatly tested with the puzzles and illusions of fiends that are inside. Not all are illusions though, there may be rivals and friends in this tower and Arle has to be on the lookout if she wants to pass this test.