MDF: Magical Defense Force Reviews

excellent story so far with very entertaining characters. Very nice art throughout the story as well

Fun little novel about magical girls. Tons of interesting characters and art.

MDF is a creative narrative that uniquely combines aspects of multiple genres. The chapters follow a "Saturday Morning Cartoon" or "Monster of the Week" type structure but still tie into a greater narrative that drives the main story. Each character has a strong personality that stands out and results in some very entertaining interactions between the main characters. Many of the characters, especially some of the villains, have creative and off-the-wall designs. You will find yourself laughing out loud as you make your way through each chapter. As this project is on-going, the chapters released so far are only still setting up the main story, but it will be really interesting to see where things go from here. I highly recommend giving this a read!

Some of the best VNs I've ever played were small, independent productions from small groups. The kind you'd buy at a convention from a Doujin circle for 15$. It might be missing all the fancy bells and whistles, but it has heart and soul to spare...and this game is no exception. MDF is the spiritual successor to all the saturday morning cartoons we loved back when we were kids. It wears its Sailor Moon and Power Rangers influences on its sleeve, unafraid to be goofy and nonsensical. From over-the-top action sequences to slices of everyday life, there's never a dull moment to be had. The rapid-rife comedy, even when it misses, still feels better than any other AAA produced waifu collecting cringefest. If you've ever wanted to sit back and enjoy a good Kinetic Novel, this one stands head and shoulders above the rest. The best past is the characters, an absolute slam dunk of a cast. From the sassy and grumpy Frank, to Hizachi the anything-but-simple hobgoblin, to Mayako the crazy rich swordswoman...its the contrasts that make them unique. Almost Shakespearean at times, I just want to see them interact more. Not just with each other, but the world around them. Honestly? I want to see where this story is going. And it seems the developer is planning on adding more over time so...whatever this story has in store, I'm there. There's so much potential and talent here I'd hate to see it go to waste. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. Give it a chance. I promise it's worth a look. INTERFACE QUALITY: B [it leaves something to be desired, but it does what it needs to do without being over-complicated.] ART QUALITY: A [the soft, bouncy, cartoon-esque aesthetic suits the mood to a T.] WRITING QUALITY: A- [unafraid to be what it is, a 90s era cartoon about teenagers fighting evil by moonlight] EXTRA CONTENT QUALITY: B+ [once I realized it was there, I was taken back to age 13 watching Homestar Runner on an old Mac in the Middle School computer lab] OVERALL GRADE: A- [a worthy successor to the saturday morning cartoons of the 90s. all I need now is a bowl of sugary cereal to make this the complete experience]

I really enjoy the characters in the work. They've got good chemistry and I'm generally excited whenever we get a new character added to see how they integrate with everyone else. I'm looking forward to when we've got our main cast fully formed and get to do stuff with them further. P.S. I want to hug MIchiki and do [redacted] to the cops with Hizatchi.

An overall entertaining package with a quick-to-enjoy cast of characters. Starts off similar to a lot of anime and manga, lighthearted monster-of-the-week, and starts to move more in-depth to each characters' struggles.

Really amazed with how many art assets it has. It's an entertaining read and I really enjoyed it. It's like 9 bucks but that's about what it is to buy a book so it felt justified with how many drawings and how long the story is.

I've never been much of a VN fan, but MDF definitely opened up the avenue for me with its clever comedic timing and lovable characters (Yuri my beloved). I can safely say I audibly laughed several times at every chapter, and each one left me wanting to see what was around the corner. I'm eagerly looking forward to the next set of chapters and wholly recommend MDF to anyone who loves magical girls and the 90's anime aesthetic. Edit: I should clarify I played a build before the steam release, hence my hours looking strange!

If you've been looking for something to read and relax to, MDF is a pretty good choice. The whole story revolves around a loser named Frank trying (and failing) some to get some modicum of normalcy after getting wrapped up in the not-so magical world of magical girls. It's pretty funny and the characters are endearing. It's starts off as a parody of a the episodic "monster of the week" formula and then evolves and gets more complex later on. It's a fun story with great ideas and good art, go for it. Note: if you have trouble running it off a Steam Deck, go to compatibility and either use Experimental or GE-Proton.

As a disclosure, I’m friends with the devs, though I bought this with my own money and I will be quite honest that this doesn’t heavily color my takeaway. I just think that this is solid work that deserves more of a push. MDF is the linear kind of VN, no branching paths or stats. It’s also not as flashy when it comes to some other indie VNs like say Scarlet Hollow or Necrobarista, it’s in Visual Novel Maker so it’s a rather humble endeavor after all. This humility is a strength though, because the game focuses on what it needs to and does so with polish. The game has a whole bunch more unique art than the usual indie VNs, having a good deal of scenes that aren’t just character portraits gabbing at each other in empty rooms. Fight scenes, for one, are mostly all drawn out and the requisite magical girl transformation sequences are actually animated. MDF also puts real effort in its backgrounds, giving a sense of place and having a bunch of background characters that gives its setting depth and charm. The music is quality too and it really adds well to the atmosphere. Another of MDF’s strengths that makes it rather unique amongst VNs is that it has as a very serialized episodic structure. Each chapter is more akin to a TV show episode such as its influences of magical girl anime and tokusatsu than more common VN structures of traditional chapters, branching paths, character specific routes, etc. Reading through a chapter even takes around 15-20 minutes or so which lends to that episodic TV feel. It avoids one of my recurring issues with VNs that they fall into from time to time where their pacing is just an absolute slog of characters just constantly reiterating plot and character beats. This game currently covers nine chapters which is around the halfway point of the “first season”, the last chapter ends on enough of a climax to feel like a good stopping point for now while the rest is still being worked on. I admit I’m in a position where I know where the game will go because the whole narrative has been worked on and finished for quite some time. The first arc is a bit of slow burn in a sense, it does all the setup and fleshes out characters well , and as I said its briskly paced, it’s just that some of the character arcs are spread out some so that the first nine chapters don’t cover them all, which is fine. I do genuinely think MDF deserves enough recognition to be a name in the indie game sphere because there’s real passion and dedication here and I would like to see it all play out because it deserves it.