Madou Monogatari: Hanamaru Daiyouchi Enji

"Pure eye-candy without substance."

Madou Monogatari is a more-or-less rpg based on the popular Puyo Puyo franchise, a franchise of puzzle games in the vein of Tetris Attack. In short, what we have here is one of the cutest and by far the most childish rpg attempt in the Snes (I can`t say the cutest ever because there are sequels of this game for the PlayStation, probably as cute or even more than this one). To give you an idea, imagine an rpg starring Yoshi and his bunch from the above mentioned Tetris Attack (though I am sure that, unlike this one, the result would be as childish and cute as fun, original and well made, like Super Mario PRG).

Story 3/10:
Madou Monogatari is very slim on plot or anything similar to it, the story is nothing but a mere excuse, in the end everything is the same as always, and without any worth noticing or imaginative moments or situations during your ``quest`` aside from a few silly yet amusing comments by Arle during some battles.

Graphics 7,5/10:
The problem is that most of the time the scenarios are very repetitive and have dull and repetitive designs, something that makes them uninteresting very quickly. To sum up the non-battle graphics, while still big and cute lack fancy details and variety in my opinion.

Now the battle graphics are a completely different story, while so cute that are almost nauseating, the characters designs and their animations are wonderful, and there are some really nice battle arenas.

Music 7/10:
Overall quite good, and it has a couple of themes that are fantastic, like the first song you hear when you start playing, damn that is a great one, it is so catchy that I can`t stop humming it, or the battle theme. The boss theme is odd because it starts good but quickly becomes one of the most monotonous themes ever, yet, even with that, I think it rules.

There are a lot of silly voices as expected, and as expected also they are so funny that it is impossible not to smile.

Gameplay 4/10:
Sadly, this is not an entirely typical rpg, in fact it feels like one of those rpg or action rpg wannabes that I hate so much (Brain Lord, Neugier, etc etc etc). Now, maybe it only feels like one, but its limitations make it as mediocre as any of those games.

Let`s see, for example, from those rpg wannabes Madou Monogatari has the monotonous and predictable development. The game is divided in a couple of areas far from what it`s usual in an rpg; there are only two or three simplistic towns where there is nothing to do; we have no party members; there is very little character development (if any); there is no need to buy items or weapons as there is so little to buy and the equipment so useless. The way we obtain spells is also boring, at the beginning we are given all the standard spells and later every time we reach a new area there are places to improve them rpg/action rpg wannabe style.

The low difficulty also increases the monotony, and I know that it is crazy to expect challenge in a game like this one, but here is different. Every time we reach a new area we only have to level up two levels, maybe three, and that is all first of all because there is no need to level up more, and secondly because you can`t level up more, after two levels the enemies leave almost no experience and you have no choice but to continue.

The combats system is ok at the beginning, but it gets tiring and slow very quickly. They are always one on one and we can only attack with magic spells, being traditional spells such as fire, ice and thunder the only offensive attacks available. There is also supporting magic and a health recovery spell, but as expected that supporting magic is nearly useless. In addition, the areas only have two (sometimes three) enemies to fight with, and fighting one time and another against the same enemies all the time is boring.

Not to mention tiring, because every single time Arle does something she starts dancing and posing, and she looks cute at the beginning, but also horribly exasperating after a while since there is no way to hurry her.

There are no health or magic bars, to see whether if Arle is low on health or not we have to take a look at her movements and comments during the battles or at her portrait when we are not battling. This was ok at first, and it could have been interesting, but only with a more dynamic and traditional battle system, exactly what the game lacks.

The encounter rate is on the high side, but for a Japanese rpg I guess it is reasonably low, anyway, as we have to wait a lot for Arle to stop dancing and whatever, the result is a very sluggish game.

As a result:
The problem with this game is that it is so freaking cute and charming that only a fitly and heartless bastard would hate it. But the truth is that aside from cutesy, Madou Monogatari is badly done and has little to offer.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/04