Miguel 🦑 Sternbergさんのイラストまとめ

Having played both the Game Gear and PC-Engine "HD remix" of Madou Monogatari 1 which do I recommend? Honestly both! They each have enough unique content and ideas, even with those shared maps.

It's interesting how the cuteness = kiddy game perception is so genre dependent. Madou Monogatari and Puyo Puyo share the same cast and general art style. But you don't see folks assuming Puyo Puyo is just "Tetris for kids"

A disappointing thing I've come across while researching is folks in retro games being dismissive of the Madou Monogatari games as just being baby dungeon crawlers for young children. Which no. Not unless you want to give them nightmares.

This visual transition occurs very slowly and subtly over hours of play. But honestly the theme of "always talk to monsters" is REALLY telegraphed in multiple places so only a deliberately mean player is likely to mess this up.

Of course in true Madou Monogatari fashion it isn't completely hidden. The first of the three gems you must collect will slowly glow brighter as you fill the friendship meter. Here it is when I first picked it up vs at the end of the game with a full meter.

One final mystery is this one unfilled block on one of the last floors. I've poked at it a few different ways but haven't found a way to enter it. With no FAQ I may never know if this is intentional, or the hint of some sort of secret ending.

Unfortunately it also involves the shape of the Buddhist Manji (a reverse swastika) which would have been a really tricky localization problem to solve if it had had an official English release back in the day.

Finished Madou Monogatari 1 for PC-Engine! Really enjoying this series. Just solid fun, goofy dungeon crawlers.

I think I'm just a single evening session away from finishing up PC-Engine Madou Monogatari. These late game bosses have such great old school anime expressions! Love it!

If you're wondering did they make big sparkly anime eye's for every enemy effected by Bayoen? Yes yes they did.