MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy

Mado Monogatari: Fia and the Wondrous Academy isn’t going to light the world on fire and turn millions of gamers on to a lost RPG franchise of gold, but it is neat that it exists and hasn’t gone through any weird legal filters. Sega heads finally don’t have to be a savvy enough person to be aware of niche-within-a-niche fan translations to get a little slice of history of their favorite puzzle game. Mystery Dungeon sickos may be disappointed with a game that looks like one of those but thoroughly isn’t, but the combat mechanics feel distinct and fun to play with even if their busyness doesn’t always translate to a challenge. Sometimes a dungeon-crawler can just be cute, and that’s okay.