Madou Monogatari II (PC-98) - Gameplay

Gameplay of Madou Monogatari II, a dungeon crawler RPG developed and released by Compile in 1990 originally for the MSX2 computers, it was later ported in 1991 for the NEC PC-9801.
Sixteen-year old Arle Nadja (the heroine of the Puyo Puyo series during the Compile era) is imprisoned by Schezo Wegey, a dark wizard who wants to steal her magic powers. After Arle manages to escape Schezo's prison, she heads for the Lyla ruins to retrieve the Rubelcrack gem so she can get the Uranus staff.
The series had a unusual amount of voice work for the time (the PC-9801 port of Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 had separate floppy disks for the games, voice overs, and for storing saved games). It also features some quirky gameplay mechanics: Arle's health and mana aren't given numbers but by her facial expressions and her dialogue (such as "Feeling great" or "Plenty of magic power left"). Status ailments are indicated by the change of music, while the amount of experience points you've earned are indicated by the jewel slots in the UI (as you earn EXP, these slots will fill up and once all slots are filled, Arle will level up). The only clear indicator the game gives you is how much gold you have. Combat is also a bit quirky with Arle battling enemies with nothing but magic spells (her spells "Fire" and "Ice storm" are free to cast).
Unlike the original and other ports of the game, the PC-98 port in particular is notable for toning down the lighthearted elements of the series by featuring realistic looking enemies, and giving Arle the capability of performing fatalities on enemies. No, I don't know why the guys at Compile did this, but they ditched all that creppy stuff in Madou Monogatari ARS, which came out a year after the 1992 release of Puyo Puyo.
I've used an English translation patch by Yuvi and SnowyAria (you can find the download link at ROMhacking.net) and played the game on the Neko Project emulator which is probably the best PC-98 emulator, save for the lack of a lack of an inbuilt video capture option.

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33:25
Shezo: *AREYADO SPECIAL!*
Arle: *Ge-ge-ge!*
That talk sounds crazy. XD