MADO MONOGATARI: Fia And The Wondrous Academy Review (PS5)

MADO MONOGATARI is a series that may not sound familiar, but it is something that jumpstarted something that might be to you, Puyos. That’s right, games like Puyo-Puyo, which became big and is still a franchise today, were started by a different series, MADO MONOGATARI. After years of the license being inactive, Compile Heart has partnered with Sting and other key figures and companies to bring together a brand-new MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy.

Game Name: MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy
Platform(s): PS4, PS5 (Reviewed), Nintendo Switch
Developer(s): Sting, Compile Heart
Publisher(s): Idea Factory International
Release Date: Jul 29th, 2025
Price: $49.99

MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy is about a girl named Fia who wants to be a mage. Her grandmother was a mage and even gave Fia her old Grimoire to take with her to magic school. Fia is joined in her studies by a warrior named Will who wants to be a hero, a prodigy mage named Leena, an older mage known as Totto, and a dragonborn known as Eske. You need to fulfil lessons and on-hand training to get promoted to the various levels of mage before you graduate from the magic school.

Becoming A Full-Fledged Mage

The loop of gameplay is rather simple in MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy. You can take lessons from the classroom or even accept trials from the teachers in the academy. You can also look at the field outside the academy to fish, plant fields of flowers and plants, and grow trees. You can also synthesize items with materials. The trials from the teachers are generally completed through dungeons.

MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy is a roguelite. These dungeons have a set amount of floors, but the floors themselves are procedurally generated. Generally, you need to get to the last floor of the dungeon and beat the boss to complete the trial. The floors consist of traps, treasure chests, environmental additions like lakes to fish at and trees to fertilize, and enemies to fight.

Combat is an action turn-based system. The timeline determines the turn order, and as time passes, the character’s icon gets closer and closer to the end of the timeline, which means they can perform an action. You can set up your character’s action before you reach the end of the timeline, letting you react in real time. The enemies are generally colored to match the element they have an affinity with. You can use elemental magic to dish out extra damage if they are weak to that element.

Bringing MADO MONOGATARI To Life

The charm of MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy is the personality of the characters and the humor in its writing. At first, it seems like the game will be pretty generic in its setting and its premise, but rather than doing a normal ceremony to help celebrate the academy, shenanigans ensue. Carbuncle, the little mascot character that hangs around Fia takes some curry, and it connects all our main characters through Eska the Dragonborn character, breathing fire everywhere thanks to the curry. Will wants to take Eska down through his desire to become a hero, and it backfires spectacularly. The visuals of the characters and the absurdness of the humor made me laugh more than a few times in the game.

Part of the spectacle that sets the game’s comedy is the art. The character designs and the faces that these characters make are insanely hilarious. There are heartfelt moments that come from the relationships in the game, but the focus is largely in the comedy, and that doesn’t take away the seriousness. It might, though, if you are someone who can’t take these moments seriously due to a skit that happens after the moments happen. The characters have exaggerated personalities, but they utilize that a lot in these skits. Will wants to be a hero, Leena wants friends, but is constantly her own enemy at pushing people away, and Eske wants to either marry Fia or have Fia kill her. She changes based on her feelings at the time.

Graduation

MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy has a lot to love. It has a simple gameplay loop, though it can get a bit repetitive. It also has a great sense of humor as well as a fun sense of adventure and camaraderie within its cast. It is a fun time and worth a look. Though it might be good to take it in small chunks so you don’t get bored of dungeon exploring by doing tons of floors at a single instance.

MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy will be available July 29th, 2025, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

Review Disclosure Statement: MADO MONOGATARI: Fia and the Wondrous Academy was provided to us by Idea Factory International for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

Affiliate Link Disclosure: One or more of the links above contain affiliate links, which means at no additional cost to you, we may receive a commission should you click through and purchase the item.