"My battlefield is here."
Madoka Magica Try Another Story is a free Fan Game for Puella Magi Madoka Magica made by Kazekage Nanaichi
, created with RPG Maker VX Ace. Beginning its life as a series of WIP videos posted to Nico Nico Douga starting from 2011, the game was finally completed and released on August 22, 2021, a whopping ten years after development began. Because of its long development cycle, it incorporated elements from nearly every piece of Madoka media released to date, up to and including Magia Record, making it a Massive Multiplayer Crisis Crossover.Akemi Homura wakes up in her hospital bed... again. She immediately sets out to gather weapons, prevent Madoka from contracting, and collect Grief Seeds to prepare for the arrival of Walpurgisnacht. However, she soon learns that there's something different about this timeline: magical girls and witches she's never encountered before are appearing in Mitakihara in droves. Having failed so many times, she decides that a change in strategy is in order and attempts to recruit other magical girls to her cause. With both new allies and new enemies, will this finally be the timeline where she defeats Walpurgisnacht?
The player controls Homura over the course of a month, searching for witch barriers in Mitakihara, encountering magical girls both friendly and hostile, and experiencing iconic scenes from the anime... though many of them are not as you remembered them.
The game can be downloaded here. The original video series can be viewed here.
A fanmade translated playthrough of the game (ongoing) can be viewed here.
This game provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: There is a character profile in Homura's home, which unlocks new entries as you progress in the game. It contains a lot of key information that's not actually mentioned in the story, such as the cause of the Mitakihara anomaly.
- Alternate Universe: If the premise of the game didn't make it clear, the appearance of Devil Homura in Itzli's barrier confirms that it is set in one. According to her, this world is a multiversal anomaly that the Law of Cycles cannot interfere with, allowing witches to continue to exist, implying that it is similar in nature to the Magia Record world.
- Arch-Enemy: Homura considers Oriko to be this, even going as far as trying to murder her before she contracted in order to protect Madoka. However, Oriko stays one step ahead of her during nearly every encounter.
- Bitter Sweet Ending: Despite having finally defeated Walpurgisnacht, Homura is still haunted by the many worlds she abandoned and questions whether she even deserves to be happy. Also, since Madoka never ascended to godhood, the threat of witchification still hangs over every magical girl. Fortunately, Homura's surrounded by friends, and she has a lot of time to figure things out.
- Bonus Dungeon: Itzli's barrier serves as this, featuring many hostile copies of minions, witches, and magical girls. Its ability to copy magical girls was said to be due to it copying the ability of the Mirror Witch.
- Boss Rush: Walpurgisnacht's barrier is filled with other witches it swallowed up. Though you don't actually need to kill them all just to proceed.
- Break the Cutie: This being a Madoka fan game, this is to be expected. Both Homura and other magical girls are subjected to this throughout the course of the game.
- Breather Episode: One of the stories of the shrine trio has Homura being trapped in the barrier of the witch of dreams, where she reenacts the cake song sequence from Rebellion... Except Sayaka had been inexplicably replaced with Lord Humungus. It's definitely the most lighthearted story in the entire game that involves fighting a witch.
- Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": Inspired by Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable, SG (Soul Gem) serves as the MP equivalent, while EP (Emotion Point) is used to activate Magia and special abilities.
- The Cameo: Mikoto Sena can occasionally be found inside Itzli's barrier, on top of a mirror.
- In a later update, Mabayu Aki can be seen playing with a cat in the city.
- Can't Drop the Hero: You can modify the party composition in the "telephone" interface in Homura's home. However, if you try to kick Homura out, she breaks the fourth wall to tell you that you can't get rid of her because you ARE her. However, you can drop Homura in Itzli's barrier, the only place in the game where this is allowed.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: This game has just as many funny, heartwarming, and wholesome moments as dark, horrifying, and tearjerking ones.
- There's an interactable screen in H.N. Elly that shows a party member's most traumatic memories. Most girls react with sadness or confusion upon seeing themselves losing a loved one. Nagisa, after seeing what's implied to be her mother's death, flat out says that she doesn't care what happens to a person like that... And then there's Mika seeing herself flunking a test, Miki seeing herself peeing her pants in primary school, and Karen remembering when her sister ate her limited edition donut.
- City of Adventure: Mitakihara, which saw a massive influx of new magical girls and witches due to an unknown anomaly. The city itself seemed to be boosting the magic potential of girls, as even girls who couldn't see Kyubey previously started being able to see him when they arrived at Mitakihara.
- Cloudcuckooland: After completing the Bonus Dungeon, you unlock a secret room that's filled with friendly talking Anthony who cosplay as various magical girls. (A Running Gag from the video series.) Even the unflappable Devil Homura is utterly confused upon seeing them.
- Continuity Nod: Almost too many to count:
- Many of the attack names and some of the items are from Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable and Battle Pentagram. The profile images of the Holy Quintet were also recreations of their Portable artworks.
- The checkerboard area that Madoka dreams of in Episode 1 is revealed to be Walpurgisnacht's barrier, just like in Portable.
- The Spectral Weapon Copy used by Homura were based on their manga designs.
- Oriko owns a cooking book by Slice Akiyama, a minor character mentioned in Kazumi Magica.
- Kamihama City and characters from Magia Record are referenced multiple times. For example, Komachi mentions that she studied naginata with Asuka Tatsuki.
- Homura mentions that the school uniform worn by the volunteer club trio was a popular design called the Blue Campus. It was based on a piece of clothing of the same name from Madoka Online.
- When Leon discussed the idea of wishing for the ability to temporarily empower himself with Kyubey, Kyubey mentioned that someone had wished for the same thing in the past, possibly referring to Arisa Narumi from Suzune Magica.
- Developer's Foresight:
- Some witch barriers have a spot where your topmost teammate makes a comment. There's a comment for every teammate, including ones that are normally only available for a second playthrough. For example, bringing Nagisa into Charlotte's barrier causes her to panic that she's violating the laws of causality.
- Every character unlocks one or more new skills at Level 99. Masked Sayaka, a Joke Character whose abilities don't increase with level up, gains a passive skill called "Seriously?" for hitting Level 99, which doesn't do anything.
- In Izabel's barrier, there's a Tarot-based puzzle where you have to spell out "ISADEL" on a password lock to proceed (the letters "Z" and "B" are not present in the names of Tarot cards). However, the letters provided can also spell out "HOMURA", "MADOKA", and "SAYAKA", and Homura has unique comments for inputting these instead.
- In the bonus room, there's a fight against three Anthony that deal almost no damage, have insane HP, and periodically fully heal you. They are meant to be practice dummies for you to test out the characters. However, by stacking Poison, Burn, and Curse status effects on them, which deal damage equivalent to a small percentage of their HP every time they're hit, it is possible to kill them. Doing so causes them to complain that you're mean when you exit the battle.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: This game adopts an element system based on the one used by Magia Record, with a Fire-Water-Wood triangle, a Light-Dark pair, and a Null element. A new addition was the Variable element, which deals extra damage from all elements, but also takes extra damage from all elements. Hitting an enemy with an elemental attack they're weak against inflicts Weakened and restores more EP, making it a vital part of the battle strategy.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: After losing her time stop ability during the fight with Walpurgis, Homura, thanks to teachings from her comrades, recreates her shield and gains the ability to slow and accelerate time at will.
- Enemy Within: Inspired by the depiction in The Different Story, whenever a magical girl is near witchification, a younger version of themself appears to them and tries to convince them to just let go and sink into the darkness. Homura very nearly takes her up on that offer.
- When Homura nearly fell into despair, she was pulled back from witchification at the last second, causing her immature witch form to be trapped inside her Soul Gem. Later, after she defeated a manifestation of Homulilly in Walpurgisnacht's barrier, she gained the ability to draw on the powers of Homulilly.
- Foreshadowing: There are many clues that past France is not what it seems.
- Minou seems a little too eager to believe that a bunch of magical girls time-travelled from the future and landed right onto her doorsteps.
- The local shop NPC accepts yen and offers modern-day items.
- The entire overworld is swarming with witches from the present day, even though there are no barriers.
- Early in the story, Kyubey mentions that there was a string of magical girls being killed and their Grief Seeds being stolen in a neighboring city. Later, Homura finds out that this was the work of Satsuki Asami, who resorted to stealing Grief Seeds from other magical girls due to her massive magic consumption.
- In Yuri's backstory, the Homura who fought alongside her turned into a witch after learning that she was responsible for Madoka's massive karma. The exact same thing very nearly happens to the Homura we play as.
- For Want Of A Nail: While the story is pretty close to canon at the start, it quickly starts deviating after Mami survives her canon death.
- Hero of Another Story: Numerous magical girls appearing in the game are this. Most notably, Kazumi only shows up a few times due to being busy with her own adventure.
- In Spite of a Nail: If you stop Nagisa from turning into a witch, Charlotte's barrier is replaced with the barrier of the Anime Witch.
- Despite making a very different wish than her canon one, Oriko ends up with the exact same powers.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Itzli's barrier automatically causes magical girls to forget everything they see inside when they leave.
- Similarly, the Past France dream world does the same to anyone who wakes up from it. Though there are ways around it...
- Lethal Chef: Despite Mitama Yakumo not actually being in this game, her cooking appears as an item called "Coordinator's Handmade Cooking". Instead of being a healing item, it is a combat item that removes buffs and positive status effects from all enemies, with the item description stating that it's not something that humans were meant to consume.
- Metal Slime: In the Bonus Dungeon secret room's main character boss fight, one of the characters is Kosane Kiriha from Null Magical Girl, who does nothing but drinking tequila and escapes after a few turns. If you kill her before she escapes, you get a Large Orb called "Premonition of Joblessness" that quadruples the amount of EXP earned at the cost of not being able to act at all.
- Non-Standard Game Over: If you fail to convince Mami not to give up after she learns the truth about witches, she destroys her own Soul Gem, Sayaka and Kyoko eventually turn into witches, and Homura resets the timeline again.
- Not Quite Saved Enough: Semi-original characters Mika and Miki Kazuki were among the first magical girls you can recruit and befriend. They officially join you after you save them from witches on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, at a certain point in the story, you'll suddenly find yourself unable to contact them. You'll then find their bodies lying outside the art gallery, their Soul Gems shattered.
- Original Generation: In addition to magical girls from the canon, this game has numerous original or semi-original magical girls, who were either Expies or retooled versions of collaboration characters.
- Post-Climax Confrontation: After Walpurgisnacht is defeated, Homura's group confronts Oriko and Kirika, who still want to kill Madoka to prevent her from transforming into Kriemhild Gretchen.
- Power Gives You Wings: Upon beating the game, Homura gains two powerful new Magia, Black Wings of Corrosion and White Wings of Purification. The former is an all-target attack that debuffs the enemies, while the latter is a single-target attack that buffs Homura. You can also gain them early by beating Warith Arc Homura.
- Devil Homura has an even more powerful version called Black Wings of Divine Corrosion, which debuffs all of the enemies' stats and can inflict Curse on them. Regular Homura can also use this with a unique Large Orb.
- The Power of Friendship: The primary theme of this game. What ultimately allowed Homura to overcome Walpurgisnacht was the fact that for the first time ever, she saw the magical girls around her not as tools to be used, but as friends to be treasured. In turn, they were there to support her through her Darkest Hour.
- Pre-existing Encounters: Most of the normal enemies in the game are visible, allowing you to ambush them with a golf club swing, stun them with a pistol shot, or simply destroy them with a pipe bomb. The only exceptions are the overworld in Past France and the Wraith Desert on the 2nd floor of Itzli's barrier, where enemies are Random Encounters.
- Puzzle Boss: Fake Law of Cycles, the final boss of Itzli's barrier, is accompanied by four nigh-indestructible energy spheres. Whenever the energy spheres are in the same color, the boss launches a powerful attack with serious debuffs or ailments. The trick is to knock the energy spheres out of sync with one another using single-target attacks, which forces them to use much weaker attacks.
- Ret-Gone: This started happening to Homura's group after Minou tries to alter history by killing Tart. Fortunately, Minou's helpful explanation of exactly what's happening gives Tart the Heroic Resolve needed to get back up and fight back.
- Running Gag: Sayaka using "Tiro Finale" as a greeting. Kyoko eventually starts doing it too.
- Madoka being horrifically bad at naming attacks.
- Starter Gear Staying Power: Enforced. Since the player characters are all magical girls, their weapons and clothes are all fixed and cannot be swapped out at all. The only equippable gears in the game are stat-boosting or ability-granting items.
- Start of Darkness: There's an unlockable collection of backstories for the original magical girls of this game. While some of them are bright and lighthearted, others fall into this.
- Status Effects: In addition to classics like Poison, Burn, Dazzle, and Charme, this game has a unique status ailment called Semi-Witchification, which occurs when someone's SG drops to zero. This doubles the damage they take, quintuples the chance of receiving status ailments, and lowers their speed. It can only be cured with a Grief Seed or a Grief Cube from Itzli's barrier. Though its effects are strictly negative for most characters, Sayaka unlocks unique skills when she's Semi-Witchified.
- Superboss: After you complete the Bonus Dungeon, a hidden room opens up, with a series of three incredibly hard boss battles against the main characters of every Madoka title (Ultimate Madoka, Kazumi Subaru, Oriko (Final ver.), Final Chapter Suzune, Final Form Tart, Infinite Iroha, and Kosane), the final bosses of every Madoka title (Devil Homura, Kanna, Oriko, Kagari, Minou, Mikoto, and Eruna), and Ultimate Madoka and Devil Homura. Once you beat all three, there's an even harder boss fight against Iroha leading Yachiyo, Kuroe, and the faction leaders from Magia Record Arc 2.
- Super Mode: Several magical girls have this as their ultimate skill, giving them a power-up and/or an entirely new set of powerful abilities. There are also rare items that allow magical girls to start the fight in their super mode.
- The Cavalry: Just as the battle with Walpurgisnacht seemed unwinnable, Kazumi and the Pleiades Saints arrive to help. They prove to be instrumental in finding and exploiting its weakness.
- Time Stands Still: Homura's signature ability. In dungeons, it allows her to bypass enemies and activate far away switches. In combat, it allows her to take three consecutive actions, which is useful both for dealing damage and for healing allies.
- Trapped in the Past: A major sub-plot in the game is a group of magical girls, including Homura, travelling back in time to France during the Hundred Years' War after using a pair of candles that supposedly improves sleep quality. With no options left, they were forced to assist Minou, who promised to find them a way back. While the other girls are trapped, Homura found out her shield allows her to return to the present at will, though she loses all memory of past France whenever she wakes up.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: There are a few minigames that can be accessed in the overworld, which has Homura fishing, pounding mochi, serving food at a maid restaurant, and giving back massages to Ms. Saotome.
- Some of the Magia involve a brief QTE minigame that increases its power when done right.
- The Sayaka vs Kyoko and later Kyoko vs Yuuri Duel Boss battles have QTEs that allow certain attacks to be countered.
- Past France has a different UI, a new team that levels with Homura, and a large overworld with Random Encounters.
- Video Game Caring Potential / Video Game Cruelty Potential: Depending on Homura's choices, she can save the lives of certain magical girls and prevent their transformation into witches... Or she can murder them in cold blood or cause them to transform through negligence or mistake.
- Villain Episode: The group of playable magical girls in past France almost entirely consist of villains.
- Wham Episode: During a dramatic confrontation with Oriko and Kyubey, the latter reveals to Homura that her ability wasn't reversing time, but the ability to travel to a similar parallel world. This is evidenced by the fact that there are tiny differences in each "timeline", even before she wakes up in the hospital, such as Kyosuke being a guitarist instead of a violinist. This essentially means that every time Homura "resets", a world is left to its doom and a Madoka dies. This, coupled with the realization that Madoka's massive karma was the result of her actions, very nearly drives Homura past the Despair Event Horizon.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: One of the many enemies Homura encounters in the Bonus Dungeon is a copy of Wraith Arc Homura. The latter laments how she was forced to fight Wraiths endlessly for the sake of Madoka, whose very existence was starting to feel like a figment of her mind. Though she's aware that she's a copy, she questions Homura if her nature makes her pain and anguish any less real.
