Sayaka Quest definitely doesn't skimp on the "horror" parts of the setting.
- Sayaka can and does die if the rolls or decisions call for it...and we get to see the consequences.
- The first death...she gets sliced apart by a Witch's scissors. There's even a nice little sketch
◊ for it. She sees herself get cut open, even after she's been decapitated, and feels every bit of the pain...until the scissors reach her soul gem. Then Homura brings what's left of the gem to Madoka...- Her second death was against a star witch that went suicidal and turned itself into a black hole. Sayaka managed to make sure Kyouko made it out...but was too slow and was caught in the black hole. She managed to break her own gem before being torn apart completely, leaving a broken Kyouko to mourn outside. In and of itself, not too horrifying...But in a canon continuation, Kyouko witches out from despair on the spot as Sayaka was the last in a long string of people she'd lost. Her Witch then slaughters Miki-Mom, Hitomi, and one of Sayaka's classmates, with them screaming as it happens.
- Her third death. The main characters all die. Including Homura. Their killer mentions hoping for a strong magical girl to eventually take their place and manage to kill her...Not knowing about Walpurgisnight.
- Akane's first death. Her head is literally sucked from her body, then her decapitated corpse is smashed by the witch. Then you get to see Tomo's, Sukuyo's, and Yoko's reactions...
- The Bad End against Walpurgisnacht. One of the Witch's familiars, in the form of Mami, shoots Sayaka in the chest. Okay, that's fine, since her Soul Gem is located on her navel. Except Kyouko was right behind Sayaka and the shot tore right through both of them. Homura didn't even stick around to see Sayaka's reaction. And the familiars just watched her Witch out.
- The first death...she gets sliced apart by a Witch's scissors. There's even a nice little sketch
- The Tokyo group. Their mentality, origin, and how they get grief seeds. Plus the fact they are more or less completely insane and no one could or would stop them before Sayaka came along. Plus, given the setting, they might actually be right.
- And now we get a look at what one of their Witches would have been...and it's not pretty
- And now we get a look at what one of their Witches would have been...and it's not pretty
- Moid's original witches tend to be...interesting to say the least.
- The quest's version of Elsa Maria is just human enough to speak...in Witch runes, and is still capable of some, very limited thought.
- She'd have responded if Sayaka had tried talking to her more instead of killing her then and there.
- The Witch of Torment, courtesy of Moid and Thagguy. A colossal, bipedal emaciated bear-like... thing with a looooong blood-red tongue, skinned, bloody paws, human teeth and blizzard winds pouring out of its eye sockets. All within a barren tundra-like barrier where burning familiars suicide bomb it's front paws. One shudders to think what kind of Meguca could have turned into a thing like that.
- Three of them, apparently. And if Sayaka bad ends, Ophelia and Octavia are joining in the fun...after Skadi tears them apart.
- It laughs. It's essentially a baby homegrown Walpurgisnight. And no one even knew about it except Homura.
- And now, we have a giant ice centipede with HUMAN ARMS making up its legs BURSTING FROM THE BEAR'S CHEST.
- The quest's version of Elsa Maria is just human enough to speak...in Witch runes, and is still capable of some, very limited thought.
- Sayaka Quest plays up the "Lich" aspect of Puella Magi. Limb loss is a common occurrence and she often doesn't even notice being injured, to the horror of characters not in the know.
- This delightful take on the Quest premise and Kyouko's Heel–Face Turn. While confirmed for not being quest-canon, it's plausible enough to be very unsettling.
- As of the bus scene, a sufficiently angry Puella Magi without special strength could cripple (and it's implied kill) a bystander with their bare hands if they lose control. Completely by accident. And magical girls in this setting are the pinnacle of stability...
- Sayaka's many, many happy dreams filled with fluff and joy. Witching out. PTSD. More PTSD. Post-Walpurgisnight Mitakihara. Did we mention the PTSD yet?
- Don't forget that one time where we are treated to Sayaka's wonderful close up dream of how Kyouko would look like when she morphs into Ophelia. Where her face melted off to form a burning candle.
- If one of the cast dies, it's practically a given that the others will rapidly follow. Sayaka or Kyouko dying leads to the other Witching, Akane'd be in bad shape without their support and vice versa, and the newbies are only hanging on because of those three...And since Homura's one of these dominoes...
- Sayaka just had to regenerate everything except her head, neck, and soul gem. Thankfully, we didn't get art for that scene.
- Let's not tempt ol' Moid's creativity.
- Barbara. A giant spider, and not the friendly kind. That spawned tides of smaller word-spiders that literally flayed Sayaka and Kyouko alive, repeatedly.
- Sayaka almost witched herself out, healing Kyouko's serious (but not life-threatening) injuries...and didn't seem to have much of a problem with it.
- Oktavia dialogue started to show up in the invisitext. Then Sayaka started to repeat it out loud...
- What happens to Akane's friends. Reduced to just their soul gems, then dumped with corruption from the Tokyo Six until they turned into witches...and then farmed again by the Six for their grief seeds. This, more than anything, leads Sayaka to actually want to kill the Tokyo Six.
- Nanami Fujioka. Just...Nanami.
- A shaft was forced out of Walpurgisnacht's gears during the group's fight with her. She stopped her laughing somewhere along this, then suddenly began laughing again. And the pitch got lower. And lower. And lower.
- The Aokigahara Forest Witch; a post-Walpurgis witch put up as a boss by Moid, complete with poll on whether to fight her or not. Not fighting her won out, but that didn't matter, because there would have been no point fighting the Witch. Why?
- +900 bonus to all rolls unless we found a weak spot.
- The whole forest is the Witch.
- The weak spots are covered with Familiars.
- The Familiars take the forms of the victims of the Suicide Forest.
- One such victim is Sayaka's father.
- Moid guaranteed that, if the girls were to survive the Witch's attacks long enough to meet the Familiars, they would witch out immediately.
