MADOU MONOGATARI
ENGLISH TRANSLATION V1.01
Copyright 2004 Aeon Genesis
http://agtp.romhack.net

ToC

1.About Madou Monogatari
2.Patch History
3.Patch Credits and Contributors
4.Known Issues
5.Application Instructions
6.How to Play

------------------------
1.About Madou Monogatari
------------------------
There is a common misconception that Madou Monogatari is
an RPG based on Puyo Puyo characters. This is, of course,
incorrect. The fact of the matter is that Puyo Puyo is a
puzzle game based on Madou Monogatari characters, not the
other way around!

This particular Madou Monogatari is the very, very beginning
of the story (although it is not the first nor the only Madou
Monogatari title.) It stars young Arle Nadja as she attempts
to earn an entrance certificate to her kindergarten final
exam. She has to go all around the region looking for eight
Secret Stones, which if brought to the peak of Sage's
Mountain will grant her a wish. Naturally, she wants to wish
for her entrance certificate!

Madou Monogatari is hideously, sickeningly, absolutely totally
disgustingly cute. Arle dances around in battles, snarfs curry,
uses cookies to purchase items, and constantly mispronounces
the word "certificate." But that's what makes it so charming!
The game is fairly short -- 15 or 20 hours tops, and although I
still haven't found Magic Staff Lofu or Magic Ring Rele as
of this writing, I have found basically everything else. It's
not particularly difficult, either, until you get to the final
boss anyway!

Do note that combat in Madou Monogatari is slightly different
than in most similarly turn-based RPGs. First is the complete
exclusion of physical attacks -- rather, you get four free
magic spells which serve similarly (Fire, Ice Storm, Thunder,
and Bayoen.) Some enemies are weaker against one elemental
spell than the others (which is typical.) Also of note is
that neither you nor the enemies have visible health gauges --
you have to judge relative health levels based on textual
messages that the game gives (and by how Arle dances, heh.)

---------------
2.Patch History
---------------
I've wanted to work on this ever since I first heard about it.
After Necrosaro began to hack the game, I constantly nagged him
about it, until eventually after a year or two of little or no
progress, he just shoved everything at me and told me to do it
myself. I was more than happy to do so!

This was back in... either the fall of '01 or the spring of '02,
I don't exactly remember. I managed to get the first file inserted,
but not all of the script was translated, the font hacking wasn't
100% perfect, and there were tons of other issues (such as compressed
graphics) that would need to be taken care of. A few years later,
we're here!

August 4, 2004 - Version 1.01 Release
Fixes:
--Various typos
--Graphic garble when using Magical Staff Papo in battle
--Graphic garble when combining items into Maoliga's Medicine
--Graphic garble when viewing Wanderlust item description
Thanks to everyone who pointed out problems.

July 19, 2004 - Initial version 1.00 Release

---------------
3.Patch Credits
---------------
THE MADOU MONOGATARI TEAM
Main Team:
Gideon Zhi - Project leader, Romhacker
Necrosaro - Initial romhacking work & ASM work
Bansama - Translation
Shivalva - Translation
Ian Kelley - Translation.

Special Thanks:
BMF54123 - The superb "Curry Hut" and title screen graphics
Matt Kendora - Help identifying a decompression JSL
Shihtzu - Spot translations of small tidbits

--------------
4.Known Issues
--------------
--Brief garble when asked a yes-or-no question in battle (only
  happens with two enemies)
--Brief garble when first picking a song at the Dark Concert
--Sukiyapodes' house is sometimes garbled on a copier, maybe.
  Can be fixed by opening and closing the subscreen.

Otherwise, there are no known issues. If you find any, please post
about them on The Pantheon (http://donut.parodius.com/agtp)

--------------------------
5.Application Instructions
--------------------------
Quick ROM Info:
2.00MB (16mbit LoROM), No Header (2,097,152 bytes).

Verbose:
If using ZSNES, make sure that the patch has the same name as your ROM.
In other words, if your ROM is called "madou.smc" make sure the patch
is "madou.ips" okay? If you're using a Mac, a Mac IPS patcher is
available. Check the AGTP Links page. If you're using a copier, you
probably already know how to patch the ROM :) Be sure to apply the
patch to a clean copy of the ROM, and make sure your ROM DOES NOT HAVE
A HEADER!. If you right-click the ROM and select Properties, it
should read "Size: 2.00 MB (2,097,152 bytes)". SNESTool can remove
your headers for you easily, and you can find it at
http://rpgd.emulationworld.com
In the utilities section, click on the IPS Tools link.

An easy way to tell if the game has a header or not is that if you do
the above and the game does not run, it probably has a header.
Use SNESTool to add one. And don't whine about SNESTool not working in
Windows XP, it works fine for me and I'm running on XP Pro.

-------------
6.How to Play
-------------
This is a brief explanation of the game's systems, as they are slightly
different from your average two-cent RPG.

The Adventure Screen:
The top... 75% of the screen is a view of the world Arle lives in.
Typical RPG stuff.

In the bottom is a fancy display featuring nine orbs, Arle's portrait,
and (at the beginning of the game, at least) an empty window. The orbs
represent Arle's experience; when all nine glow, she gets stronger.
Arle's portrait serves as a visual display of how much health she has
left. If she appears to be in distress, it'd behoove you to heal her.
The window on the right, opposite Arle's portrait, will eventually
fill with items that can be used to do different things, such as play
a flute or shatter a loose floor. Only one can be used at a time;
toggle through them with the L and R keys and use them with the Y
button.

Please note that you can also press the select button to bring up
a map of the world the game takes place in. While it's displayed, you
can also press the X button to toggle through three options for viewing
the map -- one will show you where each of the Stones can be foud, another
will show a some places you can visit, and the third will show different
regions.

Subscreen:

In the top right, you'll see two icons, a little bag and a little circle
with eyes. The number next to the bag tells you how many cookies (the
game's currency) you currently have. The little circle is a Puyo Pie,
and tells you how many Pies you currently have. If Arle is ever injured
in battle, so long as she has at least one Puyo Pie, she will be restored
to full health.

The icons all along the bottom of the screen represent various commands
you can perform in the subscreen. To view an explanation of any of them,
place the cursor on top of it and press the "X" button.

The Report Card:

The Report Card shows how Arle's strength is progressing in relation
to the game. Beneath her portrait is a textual description of how strong
Arle's gotten; it will range from "So weak!" to, at least, "Kinda Scary"
and perhaps even "Mad Munchkin", although I personally have never
attained Mad Munchkin status and believe me, I've tried. Beneath Arle's
name are bar-graph (flower chart?) readouts of how each of her main
parameters are progressing, and beneath that are visual representations
of all of the special items you've collected.

The right-hand half of the report card shows how many of the Secret Stones
that Arle's found, as well as which spells she's learned and, where
applicable, how strong those spells have gotten.

The Battlefield:

Battle behaves similarly to most turn-based RPGs, although it never
actually shows how much damage you do -- instead, it gives you a
description of the monster's (and Arle's) current status and you have
to judge for yourself how strong or weak you and your opponent are
based on that. Again, if you're ever confused on what the icons do,
simply press X when the cursor is over an icon to get a description
of what it does.

Occasionally, after you meet him, Carbuncle will show up in battle and
do... something. Both his appearances and actions are random, and I
have yet to figure out whether they actually serve any purpose other
than to make the game that much cuter.

SUPER BONUS FEATURE
If you're strong enough and hold L or R when entering a battle,
you'll be able to skip it and gain cookies and experience from it anyway!
