Madoka Magica Portable Kyoko Route

That was my only hope left(残された最後の希望だったんだ) -- Kyoko Sakura

Summary

Mami is killed by a witch. Kyoko is informed by Kyubey and goes to Mitakihara to take over this rich domain. But there is a new magical girl now. What will Kyoko do in the following days?

This route is unlocked after Sayaka's route, after completing the end where Sayaka stays a magical girl and helps fight Walpurgis.

Story

Warning, this section contains spoilers.
When Kyubey informs Kyoko about Mami's death, she comes to Mitakihara. She is unhappy when she realizes there's a new magical girl in there already, Sayaka Miki. She decides to teach Sayaka a lesson. As in the anime, Sayaka goes to visit Kyousuke, and Kyoko observes her interaction in the viewing platform. When Sayaka goes hunting Anja, Kyoko appears and interrupts Sayaka's fight; Kyoko challenges Sayaka into a fight. But this time, Madoka is not present to intervene. Kyubey instigates Sayaka to seek Madoka's help, but Sayaka refuses. Homura then appears to break up the fight. After Kyoko leaves, Homura thanks Sayaka for not seeking Madoka's help. But she also warns Sayaka that she will kill her if she brings Madoka with her when hunting witches. Then Homura goes to game center to seek cooperation with Kyoko. Although Kyoko doesn't trust her, she accepts her suggestion for a temporal alliance. Meanwhile, Sayaka is going to visit Kyousuke, but there are familiars to be dealt with first. After she finally finishes her duties, it's too late to visit Kyousuke since it is passed the hours for hospital visits. Since Kyoko now cooperate with Homura, she would like to know details about her. She asks many questions, but Homura refuses answer most of questions she asked. Homura only tells her that she becomes a magical girl for someone's survival, but she won't mind what happens after that, and don't care how much sacrifice it will pay. This differs from Kyoko and Sayaka. The next day, she arrives Mami's apartment and recalls their combination before. She finds a teddy bear on Mami's bed, which was earned from a prize machine by her, and is still not abandoned. One day Kyoko feels unhappy with a familiar and kills it. Kyubey seems surprised as it is rare for Kyoko to kill familiars unnecessarily or even waste her magic on them, unlike Sayaka, who wastes ten times more magic that Kyoko uses. Kyoko then asks how many grief seeds Sayaka has. Kyubey answers that Sayaka has no grief seeds at all. Kyoko is astonished with this answer and she goes to stop Sayaka from hunting familiars. Kyoko asks Homura how is it that she knows the time when Walpurgis will come. Homura refuses to answer her question, so Kyoko determines she must be lying. The next day, Kyoko makes a grave for Mami. Kyubey asks her why she did such a meaningless thing, and Kyoko answers that she can only calm down by doing it. Maybe deep down, she is still the daughter of a priest in her heart. At night, Kyoko asks Homura why she doesn't consider seeking cooperation from Sayaka. Homura says it is impossible and suggest Kyoko she can try it herself, if she wants. (Homura remembers how Sayaka won't listen to reason, even words from Madoka won't change anything. Homura believes Sayaka is doomed the moment she contracts. But Homura doesn't tell this to Kyoko.) As Kyoko sees Sayaka more and more, she begins to show her sympathy for her. Kyoko doesn't want to see another magical girl turn out to be like Mami. She advices Sayaka to do more for herself, but as in the anime, this ends up with the fighting on the flyover. Madoka comes and throws away Sayaka's soul gem again. Homura then arrives and quickly get her gem back, and explains what Kyubey tells in the anime to them. Kyoko then visit Kyubey angrily, asking him why he didn't tell her the truth. Then she killed Kyubey, but soon another Kyubey comes and let her know it useless to kill him. Madoka goes to Sayaka's apartment to comfort her. Sayaka is sad and angry, since Hitomi comes just a moment ago to tell her feelings. But she then warns Madoka never make the same mistake to make a contract with Kyubey. However, after Kyubey's rhetoric, Madoka almost changes her mind before Kyoko coming to stop her. Then Kyoko also warns Madoka not to contract. By knowing Madoka, Kyoko now is able to know more about Sayaka. When Sayaka is depressed from the revelation of Hitomi's confession to Kyousuke and state of herself, Kyoko tells Sayaka her story. The story is identical to what is shown in the anime, but with more details. Kyoko felt very happy after contracting. Her family was never hungry again, and she got to know Mami as a new friend. One day, Gisela appeared in her father's church. After Kyoko destroyed the witch, her father saw her in her magical girl outfit. He asked what happened, and Kyoko honestly answered and told him about everything. Her father then went outside to tell everyone that what he taught them was wrong and that they should believe the opposite. Everyone accepted his new speech immediately. He then realized that the new converts were not coming to his church because of faith, but because of magic. He called himself a demon, and his daughter a witch, and his followers also answered the same way. Finally he killed his wife and Kyoko's sister and hung himself. After this, Kyoko separated from Mami and returned to Kazamino. Kyoko suggests to Sayaka to fight for herself only, but Sayaka refuses to listen. Sayaka points out that Kyoko is not that selfish; Kyoko is only frustrated because her wish backfired. Sayaka is even willing to fight for Kyoko's sake. The next day, Sayaka sees Kyousuke and Hitomi together. Madoka is worried about her so they talk at school. Sayaka thanks Madoka for her concern and then goes to the station where Kyoko meets her again. Kyoko tries to comfort Sayaka, but Sayaka says it is now too late. Then Sayaka turns into Oktavia. Kyoko tries to call Sayaka back but her efforts are in vain. Homura arrives to the scene and brings her away. Just as what happened in the anime, they both meet Madoka, and Homura explains everything about the secrets of magical girls and witches. The next day, Kyoko brings Madoka to Oktavia's barrier in an attempt to turn Sayaka back into her old self. However, when they arrive at the center of the barrier, Oktavia vanishes. Homura comes to them saying that to prevent Kyoko's sacrifice, she killed Oktavia herself. Kyoko is furious with Homura. Then there are 2 possible endings, depending on how dark Kyoko's soul gem is. 1. Kyoko does not become a witch. Kyoko tells Homura that she thought of Sayaka as her last hope. She really wants to kill Homura but she is stopped by Madoka, saying that Sayaka wouldn't wish for that. Kyoko then tells Homura she won't help her anymore and leaves with Madoka. In her father's old church, Kyoko tells Madoka not to cry every time something bad happens. She also tells Madoka not to make a contract, it won't do anyone any good to become a magical girl for others' sake. Walpurgis comes. Kyoko thinks Homura is hiding herself and running away, but after feeling the shock from that battle, she realizes Homura is fighting against Walpurgis by herself. Although Kyoko is unwilling to go and help her, she asks herself what Mami and Sayaka would do in such a condition. After calling herself an idiot, and explaining herself that she is not fighting for Homura's sake, she goes to fight Walpurgis. But Walpurgis is too powerful to be defeated by Homura and Kyoko. She and Homura are both hurt. Madoka comes to help them, and makes a contract to destroy Walpurgis immediately. However, she then turns into Kriemhild Gretchen and kills Kyoko in a single shot. Homura then resets the timeline. 2. Kyoko becomes a witch. Kyoko questions Homura what if Sayaka could be turned back, and why she is so cruel. Homura corrects her that she didn't kill Sayaka; She kills the witch born from Sayaka's soul gem. Also she tells Kyoko it impossible to turn Sayaka back. Kyoko realizes how meaningless are the things she is doing, and begins to laugh. She says that since she can't help anyone she wants to save, she will curse the world. She transforms into Ophelia after this and is finally killed by Homura. Madoka is very depressed since both Sayaka and Kyoko died in a short time. She comes to Homura's house to talk to her. Homura tells her that since she now knows how cruel the world of magical girls is, she should be far apart from this. She also tells Madoka not to enter her room anymore. After Madoka leaves, Homura begin to cry, since she doesn't hope Madoka to become a magical girl for her. Then Walpurgis arrives to town. Everything is the same as 4th timeline and Homura finally resets timeline.

Observations and Trivia

Mami Shirata (Momo's seiyuu), and Banjou Ginga (Kyoko's father seiyuu) reprised their character's role for the PSP game. Their previous Madoka work was the Drama CD, "Farewell Story". However, Kyoko's mother has no speaking role in the game so Kikuko Inoue does not make a return.
When Kyoko asks Homura about her ability, Homura refuses to tell her, saying that she doesn't want to let Kyubey know. She only tells Kyoko her wish is to protect someone from death. When Kyoko asks her what's difference from her or Sayaka's wishes, Homura tells her that she won't expect anything from that person.
Madoka's wish is to let her family be happy, in the witch ending. When she becomes Kriemhild Gretchen, Kyubey tells Homura that Madoka needs to spend too much magic to defeat Walpurgis, so it is inevitable for Madoka to become a witch.
In Mami's apartment Kyoko notices a stuffed teddy bear and has a flashback of the time when she used to be partner up with Mami (during the time frame of Farewell Story). Kyoko won the stuffed bear at the arcade center and she gave it to Mami.
- Kyouko places the same stuffed teddy bear on top of Mami's grave, which is in sight of Sakura Cathedral in the back.
Homura's personality is depicted differently in each separate route:
- Homura is depicted as cold hearted, ruthless and aloof. She explains to Madoka that her intentions are selfish and Machiavellian.
- When Madoka tells to Homura that she is thinking of contracting to help her with Walpurgis, Homura goes ballistic. Homura insults Madoka and goes into a tirade, telling her how she intentionally let everyone die as part of her plan, that she wanted Walpurgis' enormous Grief Seed all for herself. Homura threatens Madoka not to show up during Walpurgis Night or she would kill her. Then Homura yells at Madoka to leave and that she never wants to see her again.
  - After Madoka leaves, Homura breaks down in anguish, and apologizes to Madoka for being mean and horrible to her and for lying to her face.
    - However, Madoka is suspicious as Homura's words and actions don't match. She wants to believe in Homura and she believes that there is a reason for her horrible behavior. Madoka shows up to the time of Walpurgis Night and makes her wish to save Homura and everyone else.

Speculations

Strategy

In the flashback, Kyoko's abilities are reset to only her Thrust (突き). However, you can work around that by not using any of items you received from Anja, particularly spell books, which will then be available to be used by past Kyoko. With Flying Lance (飛槍) and Dozen thrust (打突), Elly becomes easy to defeat. If for some reason you did not remember to get them, you can often find one spell book in Elly's barrier to learn Flying Lance, which should be enough to defeat her.
Since the ending is determined by the state of Kyoko's soul gem, save grief seeds to use on her, to keep her soul gem from going completely dark until the cut-scene after Oktavia's barrier. This may not be possible if her emotional value is too high. You will know when it's completely dark, because it will become impossible to use any ability that require MP.
Ophelia is potentially one of the more difficult fights in the game. Her melee familiars hit hard and her flame throwing ones can shoot flame up to five squares, past the meleers. So particularly when stacked, they can be formidable. Try to avoid having them stack but should that occur, Delay Mine (ディレイマイン) is helpful. Ophelia has a very powerful Rosso Fantasma, which will instantly put her images in melee distance. This can result in multiple strong attacks in one round, enough to kill Homura. The fight becomes manageable if Homura uses Clock Up, Suspend Time and Clock Down to quickly kill off Ophelia before she starts her attack.