I’ve never really watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but I had heard about it for years from friends and fans of the anime. I was told that, if I was a fan of magical girls and anime, I would be doing myself a disservice by skipping the anime. I then proceeded to skip watching Madoka Magica; in fact, the most I knew from creator Gen Urobuchi was his work on Kamen Rider Gaim, another series where he worked darker themes into a usually light-hearted show. Well, with the release of the new gacha game Madoka Magica Magia Exedra, I decided to finally see what the popular series was about.
Wish for a Memory
You are a magical girl who has lost both her memories and her form, fated to slowly fade away from existence itself, until you are found by A-Q, a mysterious creature that looks over the memsparks of magical girls. Upon hearing your story, he suggests collecting the memsparks to see if they might unlock the secrets of your past. Now A-Q leads you through the memories of various other Magical Girls to try and find out what happened to you and reclaim your existence.
The narrative is actually split between two separate modes. The first is the one I described, where you, as the nameless magical girl, are searching for your memories, and the other is the story of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The story of the anime is recreated faithfully, down to the name of each episode and the content contained in each episode, so if you have watched Puella Magi Madoka Magica before, most of the content isn’t new here. In fact, after watching the first two episodes of the show, which the game translates into the first two chapters, you would notice no differences, besides some things not being explained as deeply.
For example, one of the first scenes that Madoka shares with her mother in the anime is recreated in the game word for word, except I didn’t realize they were brushing their teeth at the time. This is a minor gripe, but there is so much that is lost in translation that makes this the worst way to experience the show. This includes the fact that despite using stills from the anime, Madoka Magica Magia Exedra uses absolutely no animation during the story mode, even for the most pivotal scenes from the anime.
This is the most disappointing aspect that could have been easily fixed. Without the added context from the anime, I was confused as a newcomer. This covers various aspects like why the witches were designed the way they were or why the witches’ lair looked the way it did. In the grand scheme of things, these are minor gripes, but it’s clear that the title leaves out these small details because it expects you to be a fan of the series already. Sadly, this is a mistake that many anime games make, despite attempting to appeal to a player base outside of the original fandom.
Kill The Witch, Get a Wish
Madoka Magica Magia Exedra is a turn-based RPG. In fact, most of the mechanics are similar to Honkai: Star Rail, another gacha game that follows a similar battle system. You will assemble five girls from across the series to fight an enemy party using skills and normal attacks to buff, debuff, and heal allies, among other strategies that you can employ. Each girl will have an element and a class that will signify what she is good at and what enemies are weak to her.
The elements are: Ice, Fire, Light, Plant, Void, and Dark. Each girl will only use that element in their attacks, so it is important to balance out what elements you will bring into the battle. Every foe will have a break meter that will only decrease when they are attacked by their elemental weakness, which is denoted by a symbol above their health bar. This break system is an integral part of combat, as a broken enemy will take more damage from all girls, and each subsequent attack against any broken opposition will increase the damage they will take. However, each girl will specialize in a different aspect of combat depending on their class.
The class system is where you will find the most variety in your team compositions, with the six main classes being: Attacker, Defender, Healer, Buffer, Debuffer, and Defender. The first thing you will notice is that you will be unable to carry one of each class in a party, and I find that having one of each class wouldn’t be necessary because some roles fill the same niche. For example, Defenders specialize in creating shields around the party, blocking damage and drawing enemy attention to themselves, thus rendering your healers redundant because you can already survive most encounters easily.
This makes party forming an interesting endeavor with no single composition being the magic bullet to overcome all barriers. My personal favorite composition was: two breakers of different elements, who were able to quickly break enemies; an attacker, as the main damage dealer of the party; a buffer, who would buff the attacker quickly; and a Defender or Healer, who would keep the party alive. This was able to get through most challenges easily, and I would only update my party based on the elements needed for each stage. However, the combat is the best part of the experience, because how you move from fight to fight is the most disappointing aspect of the gameplay.
Outside of combat, you have no control over your character; instead, she will run forward on her own, picking up any items she runs across. I’ll be honest, this made the entire game feel like it was playing itself, especially when you have the ability to use auto-battle on the basic enemy encounters. You will choose a stage to access, and then the game will run only expecting input from you if you decide to control the flow of battle or during cutscenes. This wouldn’t be terrible if it didn’t look like you were running through a hallway with no variations in design until the next chapter. I was frequently wishing to look at something else, and for much of the stages, I would watch TV or play another game while Madoka Magica Magia Exedra was running.
This is incredibly frustrating for a gacha game that should encourage you to pull on the latest characters and experience the story. However, as far as the gacha goes, I wasn’t interested in pulling on the characters. The game never gave me a reason to feel like I should obtain more characters. In reality, the only time I would see the girls I was expected to pay for would be inside combat. The first story is set in the original series, but most of the girls are from the later seasons of the show. Unfortunately, this left me with one thought above all else: why should we care about these girls? The obvious answer is that you are expected to already have your favorites picked out and want them on your teams, but for a newcomer to the series, there is no draw to interact with the gacha system, leading to a gacha with little incentive outside of nostalgia.
Wishing for More
Madoka Magica Magia Exedra is a mixed bag for fans of gacha-style games who aren’t already familiar with the source material. The story features a recap of a narrative that has already been told years ago, but in a way that will leave some confused on the finer details. The combat, while engaging at first, quickly devolves into using auto-battle on normal enemies, and gives no agency when finally out of combat. However, the experience isn’t all just inherently poor. I’m happy to admit that the overall lack of details in the story made me finally sit down and watch the anime for the first time.
Puella Magi Madoka Magica deserved much better than this adaptation that feels like it’s attempting to capitalize on the popularity of the show through a game without a care for the material. The elements inside the package, on their own, give the illusion of a fully complete package, but unfortunately, it never comes together. This is just another anime game that asks you for more money to get characters with barely any unique story. If you are a fan, there’s a chance you will love reliving the entire anime series. However, it’s hard to recommend Madoka Magica Magia Exedra to anyone not familiar with the series already. You’re better off playing almost any other popular gacha game currently on the market.
