Well here it is. I promised this review in my review of Gargoyle's Quest, I got through the game and I want to go a little deep about this. I've actually been wanting to play this game since like 2016 and despite a fan translation being made I think in 2021? I haven't gotten to it till now, why is that? Well I'll tell you later in the review. Here's my thoughts on the game as a whole.

Actually before we begin, I'd like to discuss the background behind this game. You see this game was actually the final Mega Drive game in Japan. It's also the only game to release in 1996 for the console there. Oddly this also happened with the Mega CD with the only 1996 game being a Compile game called Shadowrun, kind of wish it got a fan translation tbh. Now what's really weird is I believe in 1994 maybe it was in 93, this game was shown off in Japan via a video you could watch at the location, while it didn't look 1 to 1 the same as the final build, it looked and played very similarly. Now I'm just personally theorycrafting here but I like to think the game somehow got put on the backburner and it just happened to take so long for them to finally release it. I can't really say any proof though sadly so I could just be very wrong. Anyway onto the actual game.

So like the Game Gear and PC Engine versions of Madou 1, this is a different take on the MSX/PC-98 of Madou Monogatari which originally had 3 different stories in one package. This version takes the sharpest turn of them all in terms of being different. The goal however is still the same...sort of, you gotta get out of the tower and pass kindergarten. Man for a 6 year old she really had to do some harsh challenge just to pass freaking kindergarten. Despite that though some things have changed like Camus actually being a person, I remember in the GG version he was like some illusion made up by the Teacher or maybe I'm misremembering. This game also introduced Lala who was so cool and awesome, she only was brought back in some obscure Madou Monogatari game for PC around the time Compile was almost done for good. There's also characters that would show up in later games too for some reason, it's rather weird.

The gameplay is what you would expect of the series. You play as Arle in first person in a dungeon crawler. You go in 4 cardinal directions as you travel through the tower until you reach the end. The battles however have been drastically altered. They not only look different compared to every other version of the game but you no longer select magic through just picking it in a menu. You basically have to do magic in the same way you would do something like a level select cheat. Say you want to do fire, you have to up left down right. You probably should write them down or take pictures of each spell you learn. You also can hold back to defend to take less damage and you can even jump but its almost useless to use for a dodge.

Now I'm kind of on and off with this battle system. It is easier then other games in my opinion only because it gives you more options to deal with things it feels like. I do think using inputs for moves is frustrating because sometimes you can just misinput and it throws off your whole game. Some spells like Jugem are just too hard to remember and don't even work a lot so it's not even worth remembering some of them. It's also a lot easier to level up in this game, I was at like level 57 by the end of the game. There's also a big issue when it comes to dodging as it seems the team didn't expect these exploits.

The first one is actually risky to do and doesn't always work but when you try to run away, you can trip to signify the running failed. But for some reason during this trip you are completely invincible which can actually help you completely avoid some moves. It can be hard to time sometimes and again it's easy to just run away if you get too comfortable using it and forget it's not too hard to just run away. This game also has an item called a capsule to capture enemies and have you fight for them. But there is one huge problem with it. You're completely invincible during the animation. So you can just use this to avoid many attacks. Even the final boss is pretty easy because of it. They do give you a spell for dodging stuff late in the game but this does the work for it at times. The only real issue it has is that the animation is a little too long for it to be good for everything.

Despite it's problems though, Madou Monogatari I is fun and I like that some of the charming dialogue is here too. Though I'd say it's not as good as it should be, I still enjoy it. Exploring the tower is fun, combat can be fun though the encounter rate is too high imo. The game even keeps many of the interesting conventions of the series like never showing your health or magic outside of text and Arle's expression. There's not really much wrong with the game as it's a fun enjoyable experience...except for one thing. One very huge thing. The very thing that gave me anxiety. The points system...

Oh boy where to begin. So I mentioned before that you just have to get out of the tower but there was one thing I left out. The principle will tell you that you need to get a certain amount of points before the game ends to graduate Kindergarten. There's 100 points in total. 40 are ones you do by solving problems like putting in a specific item or casting a spell. Another 40 are treasure chests you open that contains items. The last 20 are a secret but you'll get them by just playing through the game though be warned the game will never tell you that you earn these 20 points. So with a 100 points in the game surely it's not too bad right? How many do you need? 90. You need 90 points. That means you can't miss over 10 of the treasures or problems together. This is easily the worst part of the game. The whole time you're going to be stressed just hoping you don't miss too much. Worst of all the game loves to make you backtrack due to this system. Hope you love using warp because you're going to be using it a lot.

If it's not for the backtracking that hurts it, it's the way it makes you think about using items. Let me ask you this, why even use items when there's the risk of maybe being forced to bring one for a problem. It's all just fearful. It makes me want to never use items leading to my inventory being full most of the game. The worst part though is the fact the game never tells you what your current score is until the very end. You'll have to write down each problem and chest you do. While problems are numbered, the chests aren't so good luck trying to find other chests if you happened to miss one. I get why they did this because a lot of stuff is usually hidden to the player already like what your level is but it just feels not the right way to do it. If you're wondering what I got by the end of the game. I got 92 which isn't the best ending but you know damn well I was so happy when I actually succeeded at this.

I think the worst about it all is it's probably going to discourage others from wanting to even beat the game or just saying screw it and just face defeat and get the bad ending. I know this sounds mean and I apologize if it offends anyone but I honestly can't see many people on this site wanting to do what I did. I only did it because I love Arle as a character so I wanted to see her succeed. I will admit it does feel so good to actually get a good ending. The best ending doesn't seem to be much different though idk what changes in the bad ending. In the end it just hurts the game badly. It's not enough to make me say it's not good but damnit it could be an 8/10 possibly if it weren't for this awful system.

Enough of that though. Let me tell you that the game looks great for the console. The color use is good and while the environments aren't the most interesting, there's some good areas like floor 6. The sprites for everyone is all pretty good and they all got those designs I kind of miss sometimes. The only real issue I ever notice from the graphics is for some reason Schezo's sprite lacks shading on his skin, I just find that weird. The music is all pretty much taken from previous games and it sounds pretty nice. It does have that feel that makes you go "yep that sure is the mega drive sound" but I think it's got appeal. There's also a lot of voice samples and while they could sound better, there is far worse for the console.

I could have probably talked more about the game but I'll stop there. I apologize if some of this was too negative. I like the game but a part of me wishes they could have fixed some stuff to make the experience less stressful. It's going to be a game you either enjoy or are going to hate. I do not blame anyone for trying it and not even bothering to finish it. It's good, I'd argue its a good send off for the console and the series would continue on the Saturn after this albeit it would actually kill the company...that's tragic. It has a fan translation so it doesn't hurt to try it. See you again whenever I play the PC Engine version!

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OH MY GOD ARLE WHAT DID YOU DO, DID YOU JUST KILLED GOD?