Madou Monogatari: ARS
| Madou Monogatari A•R•S | |
|---|---|
 Boxart of Madou Monogatari A•R•S | |
| Developer | Compile |
| Publishers | Compile |
| Platforms | PC98 |
| Players | 1 player |
| Release date | PC-98
|
Madou Monogatari A•R•S is a prequel to Madou Monogatari 123 that explains how Arle Nadja obtained her powers, how Schezo Wegey became a dark wizard, and how Rulue fell in love with Satan. The game retains its first-person dungeon crawler gameplay, featuring one character's story per disk.
Story
Arle's Story
Four-year old Arle Nadja goes into a forest near her grandmother's house, but becomes lost after getting distracted by Carbuncle. Along the way, she is granted powers from magic forest fairies, who teach her multiple spells. In the original version, Owlbear is the final boss who you run into constantly.
Main article: Madou Monogatari A: Doki Doki Vacation
This was the only part of the game to be remade and ported onto the Sega Game Gear.
Rulue's Story
Sixteen-year old Rulue wakes up and finds herself in an unfamiliar castle. According to the butler of the castle, she was kidnapped by Count. After knocking the butler out, Rulue makes her way through the castle with her fighting skills, and finds herself able to use a strange power that changes her into a child, allowing her to enter certain areas.
Finally she meets Satan, who says that Carbuncle was taken away by Count, the vampire lord. Once Rulue finds Count and defeats him, Satan reunites with Carbuncle and thanks Rulue greatly. Being smitten with Satan, Rulue hopes to meet Satan again… while Count is stepped on constantly.
Schezo's Story
Fourteen-year old Schezo Wegey is on a school trip, but gets distracted when he thinks he hears someone calling for him. After staring into a mirror, he gets pulled in and learns to use dark magic. On his way, he finds and defeats the Sword of Darkness, who allows Schezo to wield him upon defeat.
Near the end, Schezo encounters Runelord, a suspicious man who is highly impressed by Schezo's powers and wants to see them in battle. Once the battle is over, Runelord vanishes and Schezo is transported back outside the mirror, where he sees his future in becoming a dark wizard before being scolded and dragged away by his teacher.
Gameplay
Madou Monogatari: ARS follows the same first-person dungeon-crawler format as most other Madou Monogatari games.
Characters
Playable
Enemies
Arle's Story
Rulue's Story
Schezo's Story
Bosses
Arle's Story
- Owlbear (three times)
Rulue's Story
Schezo's Story
NPCs
Rulue's Story
Schezo's Story
Development
Prior to the game's release, a special inlay was released with the magazine Technopolis in September 1993.[1] According to this article, the game was in very early development and Arle was planned to be 5 years old, Rulue was planned to be 12 years old, and Schezo was planned to be 15 years old. At the time of release, Rulue's combat style hadn't yet been decided and Minotauros was even planned to appear in the final product, but he was cut from the final product for unknown reasons.[2][3]
Gallery
-
Artwork of Arle -
Artwork of Arle and Owlbear -
Concept artwork of Arle, Rulue, and Schezo -
Notes
- ↑ Article photos by Twitter user yoruuuu_mh, retrieved November 26th, 2023
- ↑ "An inlay that came with the September issue of Technopolis in 1993.
It was a celebratory surprise fanbook for Madou Monogatari ARS that they were giving out in advance!!
This booklet has some background info on ARS that you can't find anywhere else. The ages for the characters given are different from what they were set to in release: Arle was sad to be 5, Rulue was said to be 12 (!?) and Schezo is introduced as being 15 in his story. There are also some interviews with the dev staff at Compile included. They also talk about stuff like the next Madou game (4-5-6) and such."
—Tweet translation by Nenilein - ↑ "Seems she fights using martial arts moves. The exact system hasn't been decided yet, but maybe she'll consume health instead of magic to attack? The series is called "Sorcery Saga", but in a way having a character who can't use magic at all as a protagonist in a game like this is pretty Compile-ish in the end."
—Article snippet translation by Nenilein