Madou Monogatari for Sega Saturn MINI FAQ By Guts (sol@viser.net) 12/01/2003 Version 1.0 -------------- Madou Monogatari (or Madoh Monogatari like it says on the case) is probably the best import traditional RPG I've ever picked up. It's insanely easy to play for someone who doesn't speak Japanese, and it's loads of fun even if you can't understand the story. It's so easy to understand that there are only a couple of spots in the entire game that you will get stuck at, and that's what this faq is intended to help you through. A HUGE thanks to these guys at www.gametz.com; Sentoukaishi, Puscifer, and Jappon. Without these 3 guys I NEVER would have figured out the 6 switch puzzle! -------------- CHARACTERS Arle Nadja- Main character, you'll have her throughout the entire game. Carbuncle- Arle's little yellow pet, he helps out randomly in battles. His attack is very strong so it's always a bonus when he decides to step in. Rulue- She uses kicks and punches, and along with Arle will be the only character you have throughout the entire game. Supposedly she is Arle's rival or something along those lines. Schezo Wegey- Dark swordsman that will join you off and on throughout the entire game. He's usefull sometimes because his attribute is dark (for example he can kill a star in a single strike), but that also becomes a liability when fighting other evil creatures because he doesn't do much damage. For some reason he's always getting the crap kicked out of him. This is the character that will spend the most time as the 3rd in your party. Minotaur- Bug hulking minotaur you'll have early in the game. Cheesy name though, maybe they should also have a big buff human named HUMAN. Suketodara- Awesome fish guy with buff arms and legs, seriously one of the most insane character designs ever. I liked him just because he's so freakin weird looking. Unfortunately you only get to have him for a short while, oh well. Harpy- Pretty useless, you only get her for a short while also. I was glad to see her leave my party. Witch- Another filler character, not much worth. She doesn't stay with you for long, thankfully. Draco- Her name is actually longer, but I couldn't find a complete translation of it. She's the girl with green hair, horns, and wings. She was actually pretty entertaining to have in the party, but again she's only with you for a short while. MoMoMo- The yellow little blob guy with a backpack. When you have him in your party, his special move (A button) lets you purchase items from him. Be sure to stock up on the good stuff. Lagnus- I'm pretty sure that Lagnus is the correct name. This is the guy you start out playing during the intro, and you'll get him again as a kid towards the end of the game. Also, his spirit keeps possessing Wegey, it's that little ball of blue light you see periodically throughout the game. Please feel free to correct me if I got any of the character names wrong! -------------- CONTROLS A button is your special move button (for example, Arle shoots a small flame out when you hit A, use this to destroy spider webs). B button cancels and/or goes back a screen C button is confirm X button brings up your main menu Y button does nothing Z button does nothing Left Trigger does nothing Right Trigger shows your enemies hit points during battle (hold it down, does not work on a boss) Start button does nothing -------------- MAIN MENU The main menu (hit X) has the following commands- MAGIC ITEMS EQUIP STATUS OPIONS MAGIC- You can only use healing magic outside of battle. All adverse status effects are negated when you win a battle, so healing is the only thing you'll ever need. Arle has a healing spell that heals nearly ALL of one characters HP, a VERY useful spell. ITEMS- There are 2 choices, the first is all your healing, stat boosting, defensive, offensive, etc items. The second choice is items that either are automatically used when you need them, or story items. Another words, you'll never have to worry about the second column of items. The last or second to last item in the main column will always be an EXIT DUNGEON item, be sure to stock up on these. Directly above the EXIT DUNGEON item will always be permanent STATUS BOOSTING items, you get these from treasure chests generally. Use these whenever you get them on either Arle or Rulue, don't waste them on any other characters. EQUIP- Each character can equip a weapon, defensive item, and 2 accessories. I have absolutely NO idea what most of the accessories do, but some of them will boost your stat numbers, so I always used those since I could see a difference. Be sure to note that some weapons/defensive items also have bonus effects, like increasing your HP, MP, or boosting how fast your SPECIAL METER fills. STATUS- Check your base stats (no weapons or accessories) and your modified stats, along with your exp points. OPTIONS- Okay I have no idea what most of the options do. Here's what I've figured out. Text Speed- Slow/Medium/Fast Sound - Mono/Stereo ????? ????? ????? Controls - Custom/Default Press C while highlighting Custom and you can assign functions the buttons however you like. The bottom 2 options are for the way the game does diagonal movement. I recommend you leave it how it is, the other option makes it confusing to move. Hit START to go back from this screen. Please email me if you know what the ????? options do, I can't figure those out. -------------- BATTLE MENU There are five columns in the battle menu for each character. They are- PHYSICAL OR MAGICAL ATTACKS HEALING/SUPPORT MAGIC USE ITEM DEFEND RUN There will be either 1 or 3 little icons by attack and support magic names, this means the attack/spell will hit either a single enemy/ally or all enemies/allies. Also, when your SUPER BAR starts flashing, you can use the final attack in each characters attack column. Or if you use any other attacks they will be more powerful that usual. -------------- HINTS Talk to EVERYONE in each town. This game is very linear, so you never have to backtrack farther than one town. You amost never have to revisit a dungeon, except later in the game when you have to revisit the Mansion, Ice Dungeon and the Tower. If you talk to someone and hear a little song play for a couple seconds that means you've triggered a new dungeon or town to appear. Try to remember if something was left undone in a dungeon, for example in the Tower there is a door right inside the entrance that you can't get through. This means later in the game you'll have to come back to that door. ALWAYS walk around towns when you first enter and hit the C button, there are items hidden everywhere, and always out of sight. Behind buildings, trees, etc, it's totally worth it to spend a few minutes searching behind stuff for the good items you'll find. When you get MoMoMo in your party, go back to every town and search for the weird looking merchants. MoMoMo will talk with them and if you select the second option, they will give you some really good items that boost your stats. Every time you get a new character in your party, go back to Arle's house and enter the basement. Each door can only be opened by a specific character's A button move, inside the treasure chests are some good items. -------------- WALKTHROUGH FOR THE LAST PART OF THE GAME Up until you get to the Tower, everything is pretty easy to figure out and you shouldn't require any help. It's all about talking to the right person, and remembering if there was something left undone in a particular dungeon. Any glowing dot on the map is a dungeon you will not have to visit more than once, in fact there are only a few places you need to visit multiple times, and 90% of them are in the last part of the game. The walkthrough will start with the hardest part of the game, the 6 switch puzzle at the top of the tower. The 6 switch puzzle. This is the correct order- 1 Moon 2 Sun 3 Star 4 Lightning 5 Cloud 6 Heart After the 6 switch puzzle, go back to the ice dungeon. Go through the doors and down to the bottom where Lagnus is imprisoned in the crystal. After Arle and Rulue get through talking, go back to the town where MoMoMo is. Talk to him, then try to leave, he'll then join you. Now go to the well at the entrance of the town and throw in 1gp (the first option). This will open up a new dungeon. At the end of this dungeon Wegey will join you and you'll fight the Eye boss again. Now head back to the ice palace and you will free Lagnus from the crystal. Go back to town, talk to everyone. AT THIS POINT IN THE GAME BE SURE YOU ARE STOCKED UP WITH AS MANY MP+130 AND HP+300/HP+600 AS YOU CAN CARRY! YOU WILL NEED THEM FOR THE LAST DUNGEON! ALSO, HOPEFULLY YOU'VE SAVED ALL YOUR FULL SPECIAL METER ITEMS UNTIL THE LAST BOSS, YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID. Now go back to the Tower and the door on the first floor will be open. Go through the door, and eventually you'll come to a locked door where the guy with horns and green hair will taunt you. Hit the switch on the pillar and pick the first option. A chest will appear, open it, then after the conversation hit the switch on the pillar again. Now pick the second option, this will warp you back to town. Go to the bar where Lagnus is waiting as a kid and talk to him. There is a well right in front of the bar, walk up to it and hit C, choose the first option and you'll go down the well to a new dungeon. At the end of this dungeon you'll be back in the Tower at the same place you were earlier. Go through the door and beat the new dungeon. From here on it's obvious what to do. You'll fight all the eye bosses again, they're super easy though, just be sure to use Lagnus's A button move in between battles to recharge your super bar. The last boss is huge and has 2 parts, one right after the other. Be sure you don't waste all your full special meter items on the first form, you'll need a couple for the second form. Don't worry though, the battles are long but pretty easy as long as you keep healing with Lagnus's healing spell. Enjoy the ending, and be sure to save your game after everything! -------------- HANAFADU Well I don't know if the card game in Madou would be called Hanafadu, but it seems very similar so I'll call it that. In one house in the third village you visit you can play against different opponents depending on where you are in the story. All you have to do is encounter the character in the storyline, then head to the hut and beat the person right before them, then you'll be able to battle them. You get more points the higher up in rank the character is. When you talk to the lady at the counter, the first option is to play Hanafadu, the second option is to redeem your points for items. The way the game is played is that you want to line up 4 cards of the same type on top of each other. You'll have 5 random cards in your deck, and you'll see the main deck will (usually) have 1 card face up. The card face up on the main stack will always go to the board if you stack 4 of the same color, if you don't stack 4 of the same color then the card will go into your deck. You have to play at least one card, hit A to put the card into play, and C to finalize your move. You can play up to all 5 cards at once if you want. An example of the correct way to play. The board has 2 yellows, 1 red, 3 green and 3 purples. You have 2 yellows, 2 reds, and 1 purple in your deck. The card face up on the main deck is a purple. Your move should be to play the 2 yellows, this will eliminate the yellows and cause the card face up on the main deck to go into play on the board. The card was a purple, so it will eliminate the purple stack (since it was 3 high already) and earn you mad bonus points. If you're REALLY lucky the next card will be a green and it will elinate the green stack, earning you even more points. It's ALWAYS better to combo like this as you earn WAY more points. There's also a special meter on the right that will fill up if you do a few combos in a row. Once it's full it can either destroy all cards on the board and stack new ones of every color 3 high, refill your HP, or Carbunkle will fall asleep and it won't do anything (very annoying). The last few opponents are VERY hard, good luck. It's worth it though to beat them since you get tons of bonus points you can redeem for some good stuff. -------------- STUFF I HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT How do you get the last 4 chests in Arle's basement? What is the story to the game? I can't read any Japanese but I'd love to know what the basic story is. How do you get the bag off the shelf in one of the Mansions? In the town where MoMoMo is, there is a house you can't enter, how do you get inside? In the same town, behind the bar, there is a girl hiding. What is her purpose? Is there any point to reloading the game after you beat it other than the harder difficulty level? What does the most expensive item you can buy at the Hanafadu counter do? I haven't been able to earn enough points to buy it. -------------- THE END! If you have any additions, corrections, or questions, email them to me and I'll update. I'd love to be able to update this faq with more info, so if you have anything to contribute I'll be happy to give you full credit. Please feel free to use this guide on any site that may want to use it.