Until the time comes, when the world is ready to listen...
A small, yet bright ray of light wanders somewhere in the yet-unknown universe.
Yesterday, Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record has finished its 7-year-long story. I played this game for 6 of those years, never missing a single event. I love it so much! And now I have to let it go.
Madoka Magica is one of my favorite pieces of media. The characters are simple, yet compelling, and the story is tight and emotional. But it also gave me something that not many other tales do: it gave me this rich and colorful world, full of opportunities. It's just around the corner, even if the plot itself rushes you forward.
And I was fascinated by this world. I got obsessed with small details and fan theories. I read dozens of fanfics in desperate attempts to explore all those ideas that were left out of the scope of the original anime. I craved more.
Magia Record was my savior. I always praised MagiReco as one of the best gacha games I've ever played. It was free-to-play friendly, and above all, it delivered a great story that took inspiration from the original and meaningfully expanded it. It had likable main cast, as well as many, many more side characters. They may not be connected to the main plot, yet their personal stories and myriad of events helped to grow them into compelling characters.
Magia Record was also respectful. Most gacha games are usually cash grabs that exist to sell anime fanservice to players while having poorly-written, mediocre stories (bonus points if it also tampers with existing canon because who cares?). Yet Magia Record stayed faithful, not only to the original anime but also to all other spin-offs. I'm not saying that there wasn't any fanservice, but it was added in a way that maintained existing lore and made sense.
I've also heard critiques about Magia Record being "too bright" compared to PMMM's "being meguca is suffering," but I am actually glad the writers didn't turn it into suffering for the sake of suffering. Even before Magia Record's existence, I always believed that Homura's story is an outlier and most magical girls don't suffer that much. If anything, the suffer-porn stories ended up the wekest writing-wise (*cough-cough* Ashen Revolution *cough-cough*). So I was happy to be a part of the more hopeful, but still challenging path of Iroha.
And now it ended. MagiReco finished its story and decided to go. Through all these years I played, my biggest fear was that f4s would continue making new, more and more convoluted arcs that contradict each other and themselves, only to continue milking the player base. But they didn't. And for this, I will always be grateful.
Magia Record gave me the thrill of pulling Swimdoka in first 10 pulls, the despair of not getting a single HaregiHomu in 200, the emotional roller coaster of being spooked by Mifuyu as 100th pity and then still getting coveted SwimHomu in the same 10-pull. I will always remember that one Charlotte in Witch Paradox that took me several hours and ~70 turns to cheese her with Blind...
And these are my final girls. Many of them I got during the last month of free rolls. I was thinking what to higlight from my game, from party compositions, to most successful rolls... and decided to show my girls.
So thank you, Magia Record! Bringing together past and present, original and well-known, you created a truly unique experience.
Right now I'm finishing my commemorative art, which I'm going to post as soon as zine creators allow it.
Thank you, everyone, who supported Magia Record all these years, and thank you, stranger, for staying till the end.
