And yet another game done, I actually wasn't planning to go to another one this quickly, the thing is that the PC98 versions of the original trilogy require a certain comment in order to save and it has been bothering me for a long time now that I didn't know any way to save, but now that I found one I was just so estatic that I quickly went and played through Madou 1, that's what the feeling of triumph can do to you, I tell ya.
Story
It is a big day for 6 year old Arle as she has to pass one final exam, that involves climbing a tower filled with monsters and death traps, find three orbs and make it out alive in order to graduate from Madou Kindergarten. After she finds the orbs she is confronted by the rotting guru Fudoushi, who creates an illusion of her classmates melting in order to scare her off, despite this Arle engages in battle, wins and escapes the tower, passing her exam. The credits are also interesting, since they show Arle growing to an older child, a teenager and eventaully an adult, it obviously wasn't made with the other games in mind, since Carbuncle is never with her, but there is still something nice about it, at least in my opinion.
Graphics
The PC98 versions of MM 1,2 and 3 are known for trying to be more realistic with their art, which does make them a anomaly within the franchise, but I do really like the added detail that comes with it and the visual quality in general is top notch, thought some of the enemy redesigns could come off as very jarring for some, take Skeleton T and Suketoudara for example :
Personally I actually find them quite amusing, but I can see why others might be bothered by them.
These versions of the games are also known for their added grotesque and sometimes gory imagery, althought this game is much tamer then 2&3 in that regard, the only real examples here are a Zombie enemy that can sometimes turn into disgusting looking larves that are sitting in blood and Fudoushi (who replaces Mamono from the MSX2 version) and even then I don't find the latter to be all that intimidating, especially compared to his actually freaky CD Engine incernation:
PC98
CD Engine
Sound
As always music is completely subjectiv, but I personally enjoyed the soundtrack quite a lot, with this being my favorite song:
Gameplay
At this point it's clear that not a whole lot changes fundamentally between games, it's more about how each game handles the formula and this one has some interesting things to note.
There are fewer floors in comparison to the other games, but they are more elaborate, since you actually need to collect the orbs along the way, thankfully they are designed in a way that's easily comprahensable, so I never felt lost at any point, the one downside to it is that there aren't a whole lot of puzzles, althought I did like the larger scale of tall the floors enough to the point where it wasn't an issue, however there was one in particular that incolved combining items from my inventory and the language barrier made it pretty much impossible without a video walkthrough, I don't blame the game itself for it, but still...
As for the combat I liked how a number of spells weren't learned by leveling up, but rather by fighting optional enemys and getting scrolls from them, since it gives you more options in battle at a far earlier point then usual, if you bother to look out for them. The battle system itself isn't all that different from ARS, it works just as well and can be almost just as fast paced, with that said there are two issues that I have with the battling, which are also my only real problems with the game as a whole.
For one thing enemys give fewer EXP in comparison to the other games in the series, which means more grinding if you don't want to get whooped by the newest enemy types, I even played a bit of PC98 MM2 for comparisons sake and indeed, what might take me 2 or 3 battles for a level up in that game, takes 5-7 battles here. The other issue is that Arle has pitiful amount of magic power, which means you have to use refill items
A LOT, which is never really an issue since money and shops are plentyfull, but in is an added inconvenience, especially since inventory space is limited and key items aren't seperatly stored.
With that said, outside of these two issues I honestly don't have anything bad to say, the grinding could get tiring at points, but the battle system is as solid as ever and the exploration aspect is great. I was expecting a lot of old school RPG issues that to my suprise never came (outside of the grinding issue) and combined with the good visuals, music and usual charm of the series, it made for an overall pleasent experience.
I'll probably go and get started on the other two games sometime next week (since I have other things planned for now), now that I can actually save and properly play them, it's also going to be a bit of a detour, since I wasn't planning to get into alternate versions until I played all of the ten individual installments first, but I may as well play PC98 Madou 2 alongside 1 and 3, especially since I never made an Madou 2 impressions post and only ever alluded to it.
Also, fun fact, this version added a character that debuted in MM2 as one of Arle's classmates:
I think they call him the Dork Wizard or somethin'.
