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 was released on December 14, 2005 for DoCoMo's i-mode mobile phones. The game was distributed through G-mode's R.P.G-mode service, a game distribution site for i-mode phones which required a monthly fee of 315 yen to download and play various RPG games. Madou Monogatari was only available to download for six months before it was removed 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 transferred over to Sega.

Story

Arle Nadja, feeling distraught about her weight, sets out for a new dungeon with the sole purpose of dieting in mind. While inside, she eventually encounters Schezo, who explained to her that he was there searching for the secret of immortality that was rumored to be hidden inside the dungeon. Upon learning that Arle was only there to lose weight, Schezo became furious with her for not taking the exploration of the dungeon seriously, and then proceeded to attack her.

At the final section 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 in a battle with 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 or use as a weight to fill the buckets that open the shutter doors inside the dungeon.

After clearing the game, the player is presented with a letter grade 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 scenario for the game was created after the dungeon and puzzles had already been designed^[4], and the characters in the game were drawn by longtime Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo series illustrator Ichi.^[5]

Graber, a character from Pochi and Nyaa, was also included in the game as a boss character 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.