Madou Monogatari is a series of first-person dungeon crawl

Dungeon crawl

A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...

er RPG

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

s by Compile

Compile (software company)

Compile Co., Ltd. was a Japanese video game company established on April 7, 1982, under the name Programmers-3. Founded by Masamitsu Niitani , they were famed for developing shooters and puzzle games such as Aleste and Puyo Puyo.Compile filed for bankruptcy and disbanded in 2003, but the franchise...

. The first game was released in 1989 for MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 and NEC PC-9801. The characters of this series would later be used in the puzzle game Puyo Puyo

Puyo Puyo

is the inaugural game in the Puyo Puyo series originally released in 1991 by Compile for the MSX2. Since its creation, it uses characters from . It was created by Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, the founder of Compile, who was inspired by certain elements from the Tetris and Dr...

.

Gameplay

Gameplay is traditional RPG with some unique twists. For example, there are no numeric stats; instead, everything is represented by character facial expressions and sprites. Another is the complete lack of physical attacks. Everything utilizes a magical element: Fire, Ice Storm, Thunder, and Bayoen. Some enemies are weaker against one particular magic attack than another.

Games in the series

• Madou Monogatari: Episode II Carbuncle – MSX (1989); in Disc Station: Special Christmas Edition, prototype of episode II
• Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 – MSX (1990), PC-9801 (1991); includes three episodes (I, II, III)
  • Madō Monogatari I – Game Gear (1993), Mega Drive (1996), PC-Engine (1996)
    • Madō Monogatari: Hanamaru Daiyōchienji (2D) – Super Famicom (1996); another episode of Madou Monogatari I
  • Madou Monogatari II – Game Gear (1994)
  • Madou Monogatari III – Game Gear (1994)
• Madou Monogatari A-R-S – PC-9801 (1993); includes three episodes (Arle, Rulue, Schezo)
  • Madou Monogatari A – Game Gear (1995)
• Madou Monogatari: Michikusa Ibun – PC-9801 (1994); in Disc Station Vol. 3
• Madou Monogatari: Hacha-Mecha Kimatsu Shiken – Windows (1996); in Disc Station Vol. 12
• Madou Monogatari: Madoushi no Tou – Windows (1997); in Disc Station Vol. 16
• Mado Jeongi: Elysion e Bimil – Windows (1997); in Disc Station Vol. 5 (Korean version)
• Madou Monogatari (2D) – Saturn (1998)
• Madou Monogatari Mobile – i-mode (2005)