For moments from that series, go here.
1-2-3
- In the Mega Drive remake, because of the console's infamous handling of voice samples, many of the louder voice clips can turn into Jump Scare material, especially when Arle takes stronger hits.
- Close to the end of Episode 1, the game fakes you out with a false ending scene. Arle steps out of the tower, having supposedly completed her objective, then while getting congratulated by the class, everyone starts melting and rotting like zombies.
Not only is there copious amounts of Body Horror, some versions have either Black Eyes of Evil or worse, no eyes at all! - In the original MSX-2 version, the whole scene of kids melting in the false ending was Mamono's doing, and he looks like some demonic avian creature of alien anatomy◊. In the all other version featuring this cutscene, however, you get Fudoushi◊, roughly translated to "Rot Mage" or "Sorcerot" in some fan translations. Fudoushi is even more horrible-looking in the PC-98 release◊.
- Years of characterization have buried it, but in his first appearance, Schezo was someone you really did not want to meet. He's a kidnapper who captures unsuspecting mages and drains them of their power in his personal dungeon, leaving them to rot and die in captivity. He also utilizes the Sleep spell to quickly do the job; one moment you're confronting him, the next moment you're suddenly behind bars in a dungeon. Arle even encounters one such unfortunate victim in the Game Gear version, which can only be described as a gray-skinned rotting corpse◊ with no discernible features other than a gaping mouth and eye holes. Arle's rightfully terrified, because she knows she'll be one more to Schezo's body count if she doesn't escape in time.
- In Episode 3, Arle encounters a problem from casting Ice magic far too often while lost in the woods: frostbite. She has it so bad, they've cracked open and bled◊. The worse part? The store she visited lacked any medicine to help her problem, and decided to fight her way through Mokemoe Labyrinth in spite of her condition just to help get the store properly restocked. Geez, Arle! Have some self-preservation!
- The PC-98 version of 1-2-3 is infamous for cranking up the blood, gore, and horrifying imagery to appeal to the more mature demographic.
- Due to the goriness being amped up, Arle can perform fatalities on certain enemies using the right attack. One example is setting a werewolf on fire.◊ Keep in mind that Arle was only six when she did this.
- One enemy, Garuda, introduces itself by eating Lamia alive, complete with blood dripping from its mouth!
- Even if it was unintentional, Arle straight-up beheads Schezo in the PC-98 version of Madou Monogatari. This all happens on-screen and is about as gory as an 8-bit dungeon crawler can allow, with blood pouring down the front of his cloak. Granted Schezo is a straight-up villain in this game, but the moment still comes out of nowhere and can blindside anyone familiar with only Puyo Puyo. While Arle does shrug off the shock quickly, the same can't be said for the players. It serves as the page image for a reason.
- What happens next isn't any better, as Arle then has to fight Schezo's decapitated, floating head. The fact that he doesn’t particularly seem to actually be affected that much, what with his decapitated head still attacking the player as if nothing happened doesn't help.
- If that's not enough, then there's this thing called "Test Body". It's a multi-armed mass of flesh with a Nightmare Face that stares right at you, and bits of its flesh seem to be stuck to the walls around it. It's also missing a good amount of flesh on one of its leg. Whatever the hell this thing is, it wasn't made through natural means, and it just crashes in out of nowhere right after you defeat Schezo.
- Schezo isn't even the only enemy that can get brutally decapitated in that game. Meet Dullahan◊, who takes the headless knight depiction in a more violent and bloody direction.
- Due to the goriness being amped up, Arle can perform fatalities on certain enemies using the right attack. One example is setting a werewolf on fire.
ARS
- Rulue gets her own backstory in ARS, where she deals with the Count, a vampire with a taste for virgin blood. Rulue's story opens with her realizing she's not even in her own home and is kidnapped for her blood. He even manages to do so in the fight proper, making him nigh untouchable until the Dark Prince intervenes. And he can do it again in one of the bad endings in Rulue's Spring Break.
- Rune Lord is probably the only villain who got the last laugh in all of his appearances.
- In Madou ARS, he successfully drags Schezo into a labyrinth, and all the pieces lined up to name Schezo his successor, as he learned Areiado and is the rightful heir to the Dark Sword. Despite rejecting the idea of dark power before, Schezo now seems perfectly happy to make that future a reality, even smiling eerily at the thought of it. The whole story implies that Schezo was (and probably still is) a puppet to Runelord, making all the villainous deeds he's done, from kidnapping Arle for her power, to attempting to take Sig's arm for his power not out of his free will. The other, more terrifying implication, is that he embraced what he once rejected, consciously committing evil deeds for his own gain.
- Dabbling into Shin Madou Monogatari Gaiden, while Ragnus is the one who defeated Runelord, he killed Ragnus' girlfriend Patty, successfully wiped his memories of Patty, cursed him to de-age if he stops fighting, and manages to steal the Dark Sword when it split from a fused legendary sword, so he could pass it down to his successor.
Unsorted
- Doppelganger Arle is heavily implied to be a half of the legendary sorceress Lilith from dubiously canon Madou Monogatari Chronology and Shin Madou Monogatari novels, with Arle being the other half. According to the early plot of the Gameboy version of Puyo Puyo~n, before it's changed in the final release, the Doppel was driven mad from years of isolation, and now wants to Kill and Replace Arle, even brainwashing the Dark Prince and kidnapping Carbuncle to lure her into a trap. Even if you ignore all of the Chronology lore, Doppelganger Arle is a classical Doppelgänger that has every intent to become the real Arle.
- And Arle isn't the only one with an Evil Doppelgänger, as both Schezo and Witch have ones too. Witch's doppel, named Dark Witch, sticks out for her appearance in "Comet Summoner", where she has her own secondary mode, with a different ending than Witch's. What is that ending? She beats Witch, and takes over her body. According to the manual and the normal epilogue, Dark Witch is a reflection of Witch's future self, meaning Witch herself would be consumed by her greed for power.
- In Doppelganger Schezo's case, he's the spawn of the space-time crystal stealing Schezo's magic, giving him physical form. Unfortunately, due to lacking any semblance of reason prior, he used Schezo's personality and powers as a blueprint, developing the overwhelming desire to steal. Steal what, you ask? Life force. Doppelganger Schezo is essentially what happens if Schezo stayed a villain and never got character development to mellow out. On top of that, due to having space-time powers, he's capable of warping the amusement park's corridors to trap his victims. Suddenly those amusement park attractions sound way more unfun...
- Dark Matter◊, an evil mage once defeated by Witch's grandmother, Wish, sticks out for being a horrifying-looking lich than the mage he once was. He's a giant monstrous figure in dark clothing with one red eye, and two pairs of arms, one skeletal, and the other made of mummy-wrappings, and he manages to get revenge on Wish all those years ago. Witch got immediately stomped off-screen when she rushed off to check on Wish, forcing Schezo to finish what Wish and Witch couldn't. However, just when Schezo thought he defeated him, Dark Matter lingered long enough to possess Wish and use her immense power against Schezo. Good luck, Schezo, you'll need it...
- If Dark Matter didn't bother you enough, here we have the Phantom God◊, an Eldritch Abomination that guards the powerful Seraphim Orb. Note the eerily detailed hands and eyes that seem to be bursting from the forehead. Oh, and that's not the only form it gets. It gets a nightmarish visage◊ when it Turns Red. It's almost as if the skin on its face got flayed off...
- If Dark Matter didn't bother you enough, here we have the Phantom God
- When Arle and Rulue get directed to Kaiso Village, there's only women when they show up. As it turns out, all the men that were once there got kidnapped by Succubus, wanting to turn the male populace into her slaves. That also includes Schezo, and there's a scene of her torturing him to try and break him in...
- While the Madou Monogatari Chronology never panned out due to internal problems, it mentions the Final Ragnarok. Arle went to war with the Creator of the Madou world, and said war spanned across entire dimensions, and by the time it was done, everyone save for Dark Prince was dead and ceased to exist. Dark Prince then proceeded to recreate the world with replicas of everyone, with their ages set in stone, and that's how the Puyo Puyo world was born. The old world the Dark Prince knew was effectively dead.
