Monark has some unique elements, but stumbles along when it needs to run
- Developer: FURYU
- Publisher: NIS America
- Release date: 22nd February 2022
- Genre: Tactical JRPG
- Platforms: PS4/5, Nintendo Switch, PC
- Reviewed on: PS5
- Game Supplied by: Publisher
Monark Review
Back in 2018, a little known action JRPG was released by Furyu, called Crystar. It was critically acclaimed for many reasons, most of which centred on the game’s great characters and willingness to tackle mature themes. The main criticism of the game was that it lacked polish, as the environments were regurgitated with the same assets over and over again. That grated even more as it required a lot of grinding over those same boring levels before you would be strong enough to carry on with the game. I wondered at the time whether any follow-up game would have a better polish and more in-game variety. The result is Monark, and yet again it’s a mixed bag.
A new type of adventure
To its credit, the gameplay loop of Monark is unique to anything in the genre. I’ve described the game as a tactical JRPG, but it could also be called a detective game as well.
For reasons you have to uncover, a mysterious mist that causes madness has covered the high school of Shin Mikado, which won’t allow any students to leave. To save your friends from the mist and escape the academy, you have to enter a daemon-filled Otherworld to defeat the seven “Pactbearers.” These Pactbearers are the source of the corruption of the academy and are each themed around the seven deadly sins. However to reach the Otherworld you need to find clues within the school itself to then be able to find a mobile phone that, when answered, will transfer you to the Otherworld.
Along the way, you will find out a lot, not only about your character but also about yourself, as the choices you make register on a chart to tell you what kind of person you are. Near the very beginning of the game is a fifteen question psychological test you have to answer that will give you a picture of your personality. This continues throughout the game with the answers you give in some of the dialogue.
Clue Finding and Combat.
As you progress through the game more people help you in your quest, but to get going you need to explore the academy and find clues. These clues have to be found as to enter a new room or unlock a computer, you will sometimes require passcodes. Another way to progress might be to correctly answer a question from a person blocking your path; The answers to these puzzles are found in the many collectables scattered around the academy and require a lot of text reading to figure things out. The balance of these puzzles wasn’t great however as they ranged from the blindingly obvious to the obtuse.
To complicate the situation, when you are searching for a phone it will often be when you are in a part of a building that is covered in mist (quite literally), which will make you mad if you stay in it too long. This can impose a time limit to how long each foray for clue searching can take, though a simple fast-travel back to the infirmary will clear up the madness and allow you to continue. When you do finally locate the ringing mobile phone and answer the call, you are then transferred to the Otherworld.
The combat in the Otherworld is a turn-based strategy affair, that allows you to move your characters and fiends they can control around the battlefield, similar to the way you would on a chessboard. By doing so you can gain an advantage over the enemy for certain attacks or stat buffs you can apply. It’s not a grid-based system as there is freedom of movement, but it’s very similar to the system used in the Valkyria Chronicles games.
The fiends you have available are based on the results of your personality test and can be used as chess pieces to move around. You can also upgrade your fiends, yourself and other characters. However, the only way for a battle to end is if you win or your character is killed – with no revive options, it’s wise to upgrade your character before focusing on other things.
This is exacerbated by the fact that the difficulty feels like the “casual” mode should have been the default normal mode, as playing on anything other than casual resulted in many failed combat encounters. Playing on casual was by no means a walk in the park either. This is made even worse by the fact that, about ¾ of the way into the game, despite ranking up your character as best as you can, there is a difficulty spike that requires a lot of grinding to overcome.
Each character has their own set of skills, weapons and arts to deploy and it was interesting figuring out tactics to use for battles. The range of abilities is standard fare, with melee hits, spells, arts (that are more powerful hits with the weapons), individual stat buffs, team stat buffs and healing, to name but a few. However, the more efficient you are in battle, the higher the rewards are for spirit points. Spirit points are the currency for the upgrades, so learning how to become better in battle, and even repeating the same ones to learn about what works, is recommended.
As you explore each dungeon you have to locate three crystals and break them before meeting the boss. The boss fights felt like the parts of the game where the most attention to detail was found, as the music ramped up and the battles were excellent.
Graphics and Audio
If you have played Crystar, you will immediately feel at home with the aesthetic of the dungeons in Monark as they look very similar to the same assets as were used in Crystar. It’s not very interesting, the models are quite blocky and very bland, but it has nice background artwork. The textures of the floors look good, but the environments as a whole feel empty and devoid of anything interesting to discover.
Unfortunately, the academy is even more boring to look at than the dungeons. It has very drab and uninspired locations, typified by the fact that all the text reading aspects, maps and menus are all bedecked in various shades of grey. Feeling grey was an accurate way of describing my feelings during this time. You spend an awful amount of time exploring the same drab environments. When I was frustrated by yet another obtuse puzzle it had me putting the controller down to play something else quite frequently.
Character models were equally uninspiring, as they are plain, uninteresting and devoid of any interesting features. The only redeeming feature for the drab boring backgrounds and settings was that the 2D artwork during conversations was good and the voice acting was excellent.
There’s a good story to sink your teeth into and get involved with, especially as there are some quite dark, mature themes in the game. There aren’t many horror-inspired JRPG’s on the market, and although this isn’t an out and out horror game, it may make some players feel uncomfortable at times.
The experience
The game as a whole has many interesting features that could have made playing Monark very good. I can’t recall any other JRPGs that have a gameplay loop like this, being part detective, part turn-based strategy, whilst covering dark mature themes. The lack of environmental exposure for any part of the game wouldn’t have been much of an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that to go deep into the game and be able to effectively deal with the combat, you will have to grind quite a lot. I needed to repeat one level four times.
I can not think of many JRPGs that don’t require players to do some grinding, and it’s an expectation of many who are interested in the genre. Grinding is acceptable when areas are fun to go back to, whether that be because they are interesting to look at, have hidden secrets or levels, or have great enemies to fight. Where Monark grinds itself to a halt (literally) is that it has none of the above. Without the grind, it would have made for an excellent, albeit shorter experience, but in this case, less would have certainly been more!
The other issue is that this has got to be one of the most uninspiring games to look at, especially for a JRPG. The character models are so boring; Even in their most glamorous forms in battle, they are still average at best. For most of the game though, everyone is dressed the same, in the same corridors of drabness, all covered with a grey mist, and over fifty shades of grey in the text and menus, so much so that I found it quite depressing.
Summary
If you don’t mind the grind and the drab aesthetic, there is still a really good game beneath the surface here. It’s interesting, different and unique and explores themes other games avoid. With some more polish and time, this could have been excellent.
