Monark is a Good Game that Suffers from its Ideas

Game: Monark

Developer: FuRyu, Lancarse

Publishers: FuRyu, Nippon Ichi Software, NIS America

Platforms: ps4/ps5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Reviewed on: ps5

Release Date: February 22, 2022 (North America)

Introduction

Monark is a good game that unfortunately suffers from its unique mechanics. I played the demo and decided to purchase the game. This game was just not for me. I felt like there was too much grinding and it got repetitive.

Story

I think that the story is pretty good. I was thoroughly engaged and constantly wanted to learn more. The story is what has kept me playing the game. There were some things I was able to guess as I was playing, but I was still thrown off by some of the twists.

Game Play

The game play is pretty straightforward. When the story starts you will be joined by a partner. Your goal with your partner is to defeat the pact bearer of that school building. This is essentially the same process that will repeat throughout the game. The only things that will change are your partner and the building.

I think that that the game play was the weak part of the game. The developers did some unique things like having you use a cell phone as your means of progressing through the game. Unfortunately, this aspect has a negative. Unlike other games in the genre, Monark does not have any random encounters.

Because of this you have to initiate encounters via phone calls. Another difference between this game and others is that rather than gaining experience to level up you get Spirit, which is then used to level up skills. After you level up a skill your level than increases. More on this in the dislike section.

Music

I think that the music in Monark is great. Each boss has a song that directly relates to them. It’s great to hear something different for each of those battles so that you get a different feeling. I also like that you can listen to the music by using the phone in game. Usually when I like a song from a game I often have to look it up to hear it again. Below are my personal favorites.

Likes

I like the characters in the game and how you learn more about them as the story progresses. …think that the characters were pretty well written. I don’t think there was a character that I disliked.

The idea of using using your phone to answer calls to transport to another world is an interesting idea. It was a unique concept, especially since different phone calls gave you different results. Game Play wise, I liked being able to choose what skills I wanted and what I wanted to upgrade.

I really enjoyed the music. Like I mentioned earlier, I believe the music is one of the best parts about the game.

Dislikes

The main thing I disliked about Monark is that it felt way too grindy for me. This was mainly caused by their being no random encounters. To truly level up and be able to continue through the story you needed to repeatedly do battles. There were times I honestly wanted to stop playing because grinding to beat a boss only to grind again became boring.

Other Thoughts

The environments become repetitive since the setting is a school. It’s the same process over and over again. The biggest variation comes from the different puzzles. I will say that some of the puzzles are really vague in what you’re supposed to do so I had to look some up.

One other thing I noticed while playing this game was a bug, well at least that’s what it seems to be. There is a skill that the main character can use that is supposed to make it to where enemies can’t target them for two turns. For some reason as soon as I use it I immediately get hit by the enemy when it switches to their turn. I’m not sure if the description is wrong or if it is a bug that has not been fixed yet.

Conclusion

I think that Monark is a decent game that I would advise you play the demo before buying. Maybe even look watch a play through. If you do not like grinding than you might not enjoy this game. I originally was going to give the game a 7 out of 10, but I reevaluated while writing. Thank you all for reading!

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