Before I say anything this review is in no way, shape or form influenced or sponsored by Aniplex, Magia Quartet or anyone involved with the game or Madoka Magica franchise. This is all me, a fan giving basically free advertisement of my own accord. With that said June of 2019 is turning out to be quite a wonderful and surprising month for gaming. First we have the US release of Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth; the last major release on the 3DS just a few weeks ago. E3 actually gave me something to smile about and not just how pathetic EA and Ubisoft are and the live Adult Swim show that is the Devolver Digital presentation I’m talking about some real good stuff.
Not only do we have a release time for Kingdom Hearts Remind but we also have the remake of Final Fantasy 8 (for the like, three people who actually like it.) But my highlights of E3 is the confirmation of both No More Heroes 3 and Banjo Kazooie for Smash!!!
But in the midst of all this is that a little mobile game that I’ve been eyeing since its release in Japan back around 2017 is getting released in the states on the 25th. Magia Record, a moble game tie in to Madoka Magica. When I heard this was finally making it stateside only one thought ran through my head.
I mean as a Madoka fan how could I not want this? It’s free (technically), introduces a new story, more characters and more chances for Urobutchi and his crew to rip your heart out and squish it like a bug, what more can ya want?! Now there is a story to go with this game so without going into major spoilers the new main is Iroha, a magical girl who’s set up shop in the city of Kamihama and is looking for her little sister Ui who is also a Magical Girl and has been missing for quite some time. Along the way she’ll meet up with some new friends, some familiar to us, others brand new. But aside from the usual witches running around and spreading despair like Johnny Appleseed after listening to Linkin Park for too long there’s these new monsters called Rumors who; just like the rumors in Persona 2 Innocent Sin are the manifestations of rumors spread by the people of the town.
Only unlike the majority of Persona 2 rumors these ones manifest as Witch like creatures who exist to perpetuate the rumors that spawned them. Usually that involves killing people in some convoluted Two Face or Riddler esc obsessive compulsive fashion. As if that wasn’t weird enough, in Kamihama; Magical Girls don’t turn into Witches, instead their witches manifest as Doppels, which are basically dollar store versions of Stands or Personas, only with more body horror, YAY! And just like Innocent Sin; tying all of these weird events together is a cult of Magical Girls called the Wings of Magus with weird powers and objectives. Also there's this weird Kyubey like creature running around which doesn't seem to be part of the collective and no this isn't Juubey from Innocent Malice it actually looks like Kyubey just more intentionally cute.
From what little I can gather on this game the combat isn’t too complicated. You can control up to 5 of your favorite MG’s as you battle it out with Witches, their familiars, Rumors, other MG’s you know the drill. While I’m not too familiar with the exact controls you can input certain commands and cards related to your team to unleash normal attacks, buffs, Final attacks and with some of the girls you can summon their Doppels for a screen nuke that will if not wipe you your enemies then at the very least give you a major advantage. You can recruit other MG’s to chose from but there comes the big catch with this game. It’s a Gatcha free to play game where depending on if you progress in the story, log in daily or buy them yourself you can acquire Gems to spin the wheel and see if you can get a brand new MG for your team.
Now I personally recommend not buying these types of currency unless there’s a special deal going on, like a discount or getting something on top of the Gems your getting like how Kingdom Hearts Unchained X does its weekly deals where you not only get jewels for 15 bucks but also access to exclusive deals and Medals for the week, basically make sure you’re getting enough bang for your buck know what I mean? Speaking of KHUX there's the girls themselves and how they level up. See there's a Star tier system. The higher the rank the girls are, the more powerful they are, simple enough. Starting with the 1 Star to the top tier 5 Stars.
Not exactly sure how they level up but it's there. Also if there's a 5 Star MG they will have a Doppel. Sometimes with updates MGs who could only go up to 4 starts will get a boost to 5 and a Doppel of their own. So make sure you save them all cause you never know. But speaking of Gems it's time to get to the brass tacks of why I mad this article in the first place.
To promote the game Aniplex or whomever decided to do a promotion campaign for potential player. If they can reach a pre determined number of per orders for this free mobile game (wtf?) we get escalating bonus'. The top one for 20,000 people pre ordering this sucker is that every player will get the 4 Star Glasses Homura and 150 Gems. Not sure how valuable those gems are but for a 4 Star Moemura I think we need to send some love their way I don't know about all of you. Here's the link to the tweet so you can share with your other friends which includes the link to the Apple Page so you can help us get a leg up in the game and get the poor purple more blob before her world turned her into Loli Schwarzenegger.
https://twitter.com/MagiaRecordEN/status/1134164835057299456
So there you have it, we not only have the original 5 of Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, Kyoko and Mami but we'll also get a plethora of new original MG's and some of the MG's from the Spin off Manga will get their long over due time in the spotlight, including Kazumi and Yuma, yay! Listen, I love the Madoka series because it has earned it from me. This is not my usual thing, either Magical Girl stuff or Gatcha free to play stuff, but there is always the exception that proves the rule as Madoka deserves. With this, a Manga and anime adaptation of this game coming out this year it's a clear sign that this franchise isn't going anywhere. Hopefully with enough support we'll finally get the conclusion we've all been waiting for.
Yes I know it sounds naive but as a certain pinkie pie once said "If someone ever tells me it's a mistake to have hope, well then I'll just tell them they're wrong and I'll keep telling them until they believe; no matter how many times it takes." Besides with that much cheddar rolling in they'd have to be crazy not to bank on that, YA YA!! Well with my community service done for now, time to get back to my sentence of reviewing Heisei Generations Forever.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record is owned by Aniplex, F4samurai and Magica Quartet.
Street Fighter (TV Series) is owned by Capcom, Graz Entertainment, InVision entertainment, USA Studios and Discotek Media
Spongebob SquarePants is owned by Nickelodeon, Stephen Dillenburg, United Plankton Pictures, and Viacom International Media Networks
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