Monark - Review

Shin Mikado Academy is engulfed in a madness-inducing Mist. Can you as the Vice President of the True Student Council and the Pactbearer of Vanity save your school and the students from the dangers before them?

MONARK is a turn-based free move style tactical role-playing game. You are, as is the case with many JRPGs, the nameless and silent protagonist, as well as the Pactbearer of Vanity, the only Pactbearer that isn’t one of the Seven Deadly Sins. It is your responsibility as the Vice President of the True Student Council to defeat the other Pactbearers and in turn purge the mist that is slowly engulfing the school, which is turning all the students insane.

Unlike many JRPGs of the last 20 years, MONARK starts off slightly different in that you get into the gameplay almost immediately. After a short exposition, you’re thrown into your first bit of combat, and get introduced to the game. You also get absolutely ruined by the first bit of combat, and this is important to remember. Even though you are meant to lose here, this is a warning. MONARK is going to punish you if you’re under prepared or not ready.

MONARK is essentially split into two major parts. Combat and narrative. There is an overworld, and there is some very, very minor exploration. Most of that exploration will be spent looking for shining spots in the environment for lore or looking for stat boosting alter egos. The overworld is uncomfortably bright, relatively bare, filled with boring and irrelevant NPCs. There is very little reward for deep exploring, and almost every environment is identical to the last, mainly with a slight change in the pattern of the rooms, more than anything substantial. You’ll start on the bottom floor of the building, progress up floors almost like stages, and then reach the roof where you’ll face the boss of that area. It’s simple, but it’s nothing special. If you’re used to the deep worlds of games like Persona or Shin Megami Tensei, with which MONARK shares many visual similarities, you’ll be disappointed. More in the vein of XCOM, the game could almost be completely individual maps and it’d feel almost no different.

Thankfully, the narrative and combat sections are deep enough that they far out-shadow the bland and boring overworld. You’ll also spend far less time in it, than you will the better aspects of the game. Unfortunately, there is a glaring problem with the combat itself. There is a severe, severe lack of enemy variety. There are perhaps five or six different enemy types, most of which are only really different based on what weapon type they use. All the boss encounters are rather unique, and typically involve two boss type enemy designs, which does flesh it out a little. The combat itself is rather straight forward but does require enough strategy to be effective with it. You’ll often be pushing your protagonist as he is typically far and beyond the strongest character, but in the same vein, if he dies, you’ll lose the battle. There is a fine line to walk whilst levelling up your characters, as they can easily fall behind, and make you want to not use them all. There are a huge number of abilities to use in combat too, even if most of them I never actually felt a need to use.

For those vested in min max gameplay, there is a lot here to allow that to happen. The sheer number of abilities, and the different ways to build your characters, will allow you a freedom over the game that a lot of Tactical RPGs seem to miss the mark on. For the first fifteen hours or so, the combat will also be pretty much on par with you. You’ll have very little reason to grind. Around the twenty-hour mark however, the game seems to take a giant leap upwards in difficulty. The length of the game is dragged out at this point, as it becomes practically impossible to progress without grinding levels and abilities. If you haven’t done a little bit of exploring to find phone numbers to call to unlock stages to grind out, you’ll be in struggle town as well. Enemies that are three or so levels higher than you will be almost unconquerable. Beating encounters for the most part is rewarding enough and will keep you going despite the somewhat repetitive nature of it.

The story is a little bit all over the shop at times. Whilst it’s nothing particular unique, it’s the way it is told that makes it thrilling. There is a general theme of the Seven Deadly Sins, and exploration of people’s minds that lead them to become Pactbearers with the specific demons of each sin. What wasn’t expected is how adult the story actually is. What seems like another run of the mill anime inspired Persona knock off high school game, is quickly flipped on its head. After clearing the first area, where the bad guy is mind controlling and in turn completely manipulating everyone within their classroom. You’ll be able to choose from a few different options. The dangers of these areas range from a sickly, ENVY filled old man who is forcing all the students to suffer his pain, slowly killing them if they try to escape by amplifying the pain to all remaining students.

Perhaps you’ll encounter the building that has its floors and walls covered in blood, with another reference to the incredibly prevalent bullying epidemic that is occurring in Japan, that many games are commentating on through gaming media these days. There are dark themes here, and it pulls no punches. There is bullying, manipulation, envious hatred, emotional manipulation and murder. There are even hints at some more taboo subjects, such as twin love. MONARK really accentuates the sins of people to their limits and the story does not shy away from the vulgarity and brutal nature of some of them. Interestingly, the main characters that you play with are far less interesting than all the antagonists of the game that are torturing and causing madness and pain in the other students.

MONARK’s secret shining point is its soundtrack. Whilst not ground-breaking, the music throughout the game, and the ambient sounds you’ll get as you play through it, truly elevate it. The unique tracks for the battles and boss fights are fantastic. There is the ability to buy the soundtrack on the Steam version, and I would definitely recommend it. MONARK definitely has an OST on par with, if not slightly better and more appropriate, than games like Persona or Triangle Strategy.

MONARK is an interesting take on the Tactical Turn Based RPG style of gameplay. Using themes that are already popular in the genre, such as high schools and loose religious overtones, whilst attempting to make its own stake with a few tweaks on the defined combat types. Whilst there is a lot of things that MONARK could have done to improve itself, the fundamentals of the game are there, and the overall enjoyment is pretty high for a 30+ hour game.

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by NIS America

The Pros

+Combat skill variety

+Deep story that doesn’t overstay its welcome

+Great soundtrack

The Cons

-Boring overworld

-Very grind heavy in latter half

-No major reasons for exploration