Madou Monogatari (i-Mode)

Madou Monogatari
	; Title screen of Madou Monogatari
Developer	Aiky
Publisher	G-MODE
Platforms	Mobile Mobile December 14, 2005
Players	1 player

Madou Monogatari (魔導物語) is a first-person dungeon-crawler developed by Compile's short-lived successor company Aiky that released on December 14, 2005 for DoCoMo's i-mode branded mobile phones and was distributed through G-mode's R.P.G-mode service, which required a monthly fee of 315 yen to access various RPG games. The game was only available to download for six months before being delisted on June 30, 2006, and as of November 30, 2021, the game can no longer be launched due to G-mode's service through i-mode being discontinued.

This was the first Madou Monogatari game to be developed after the development rights to the Puyo Puyo series and the use of its characters had fully transferred over to Sega.

Story

Arle, feeling distraught about her weight, sets out for a newly discovered dungeon with the goal of dieting in mind. When inside, she encounters Schezo, who explained that he was searching for the secret of immortality that was rumored to be hidden inside the dungeon. Upon learning Arle's reasoning for being there, Schezo became furious, exclaiming that dungeons should be for exploring and uncovering secrets, only for Arle to defeat him shortly after engaging in a battle with her.

At the end of the dungeon, Arle discovers Satan inside, who reveals to her that he had also been using the dungeon for health purposes, and explains that it was how he was able to maintain his body and stay in shape for over 100,000 years. He then challenges Arle to burn more calories while fighting him.^[1]

Gameplay

Unlike Madou Monogatari (Saturn) which featured an overhead point of view and isometric movement, Madou Monogatari returns to the first-person dungeon crawling style gameplay used in other previous entries in the series. As seen in Madou Monogatari: Chaotic Final Exam, staffs and rings can be equipped and are displayed on the UI at all times. A new spell, Stone, is introduced in this game that Arle can use during battles to attack enemies with falling stones.

After clearing the game, the player is presented with a report card that ranks Arle's health depending on her level, the number of steps taken, the amount of damage dealt to enemies, the number of times ran from a battle, and the number of times curry was eaten.

Characters

Playable

Arle Nadja

Enemies and Bosses

Merchants

Pakista

Development

According to Keiji Uemizo, the game's scenario writer who had previously worked on games such as Madou Monogatari: ARS and Puyo Puyo Tsu, Development on the game had begun in 2003 and finished in May 2004.^[2] It took a year and a half for Aiky to obtain the license to use the Puyo Puyo characters, supposedly due to Sega disliking Masamitsu Niitani, and as a result the game didn't see a release until December 2005.^[3]

The characters in the game were drawn by longtime Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo series illustrator Ichi,^[4] and the scenario for the game was actually written after the dungeon and puzzles had already been designed.^[5]

Graber, a character from Pochi and Nyaa, was included in the game in order to help further establish the link between Puyo Puyo and Pochi and Nyaa.^[6]

Trivia

Many of the game's UI elements are based on how they appear in Madou Monogatari: Chaotic Final Exam.
Due to the limitations of mobile phone hardware at the time, this is the only Madou Monogatari game to not use any character voice sampling, a feature that was a major selling point of the series since its debut.
While likely coincidental, the Puyos in this game look similar to the Metallic Puyo skin introduced in Puyo Puyo Fever.