Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 (InstanceTopic, 18)
From Compile Worlds
Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 is - not just one - but three Madou Monogatari games. The very first ones, to be precise! They are responsible for establishing what would become the cast of the Puyo series, as well as the Puyo themselves that would become the playing pieces for the spin off. By themselves, the games are a trilogy of boring first person dungeon crawlers in the style of DOOM. They were released for the PC 98, MSX and SEGA Game Gear, with many differences between versions. Gameplay is the same between all games, and most of them have a common set of graphics and music too, but each story is different, told in succession.
Madou Monogatari 1
In this game, five year old Arle Nadja is on her way to graduate from Magical Kindergarten and become a sorceress. In order to do this though, she must pass her final exam, which involves scaling a rather large tower all the way to the top, fighting a dangerous creature, and then returning to the supervising Teacher waiting below. To aid her, Arle is sent Camus in the Game Gear version, who slowly becomes more than a mere illusion as he becomes smitten with her and interferes more and more. At the top, Fudoshi, a monster made of rotting flesh, awaits her. He tricks her into thinking she's one by showing her an illusion of her teacher and classmates, only to show them dissolving into rotting zombies out to kill her. This proves to be a fatal mistake, however, as Arle's fear compels her to gather the strength to kill Fudoshi, thus passing her exam. She grows up and never sees Camus or any of her classmates again.
Madou Monogatari 2
In the next game, dubbed "Episode Carbuncle" by Compile, a 16 year old Arle is lured into the clutches of Schezo Wegey by his evil pet kitty Lynx, who uses his cute mascot charm to entrance Arle. Schezo traps Arle in his dungeon, and she only manages to escape by using her extremely high sex appeal and awesome magic to trick the guard. Afterwords, she is pursued by Lynx throughout the dungeon, though she just ends up murdering him despite his best efforts to recapture her. Finally, Arle and Schezo have a confrontation as she is about to escape. She wins the duel, beheading Schezo in the versions that aren't the Game Gear versions. However, his decapitated head comes back from the dead and continues to fight Arle, refusing to lose to the beautiful woman he just seduced into his cell.
Afterwards, though, she stumbles into a different dungeon by accident. This dungeon happens to belong to Satan and his horrifying dragon Carbuncle. At the end, Arle finds Satan, who has retracted his horns and wings and makes his own efforts to seduce Arle. When his Silly Plans fail though, he reveals his true form and attacks Arle in an angry rage. He too is defeated at Arle's hand though, and he retreats. Arle proceeds, scared of the monstrous Carbuncle rumored to be beyond. However, it turns out that Carbuncle is just a tiny little critter that was equally scared of Arle, somewhat neglected by Satan despite an apparent obsession with him. Carbuncle befriends Arle, and the pair leaves for new adventures together as an inseparable duo.
Madou Monogatari 3
The third and final game picks up with a jealous and disgruntled Rulue sending her bumbling servant Minotauros to capture Arle on the premise that she must ensure that Arle no longer exists for Satan to swoon over. Arle is chased by Minotauros into a nearby forest. Try all she might though, she cannot escape, and is imprisoned in Rulue's Mansion. However, much like Schezo's dungeon, Arle is able to escape with relative ease, defeating Minotauros and any other monsters Rulue sends out in the process. At last she finds the self-proclaimed fighting queen herself, and the two have an epic bitch-fight. Rulue loses, and being the big fucking tsundere she is, reluctantly admits Arle is better than her and lets her go. Once again Arle and Carbuncle frolic into the sunset and all is great grass fields and posies in the spring time again. Happy end!
