Review of Meg’s Monster for Xbox One.
When we are little we fear the strange, what we do not know. Many of the stories that our parents or older siblings read to us were full of bad monsters that scared the children. And precisely this is Meg’s Monster, although here the monsters are not what they seem. We are talking about the last title of Untiea small indie studio known for the high level of its pixel art.
Meg’s Monster is an RPG adventure with touches of strategy that transports us to an unknown world, inhabited by strange creatures and that holds a huge secret. Are you ready to enter the underworld?
my best friend is a monster
After a mysterious prologue, Meg’s Monster begins when a little girl named Meg she wakes up disoriented in a strange place. While the poor thing is looking for her mother, she bumps into Roy y Golan, two monsters that are looking for something to put in their mouths. When the second threatens to eat her, Meg begins to cry uncontrollably, which causes the world we find ourselves in to go into a critical state. Everything starts to tremble and both monsters quickly recoil at the idea of her.
From this moment, to avoid the total destruction of their world, the creatures will make a pact with the girl. Roy, a huge blue ogre who only eats magical potion, will become Meg’s protector until he found his mother.
Please do not cry
The main curiosity that we find in this game of Untie is in his combat system. Here we will take the role of Roythe blue monster that we told you about before. Its health point value is 99,999, something that makes him practically invincible. So where is the challenge really? Well, in what? Meg will be behind him and stress every time Roy takes damage. If Meg’s stress meter reaches its limit, the girl will burst into tears and it’s game over.
As the game progresses, combat will become part of the narrative, with new mechanics that make it feel more like puzzles than showdowns.
Exploring the Underworld
In general, Meg’s Monster is a fairly linear title, although to some extent it allows us some exploration. The game has certain side missions that will add a little more game time (the average duration of the title is 6-7 hours), will introduce us to new characters and provide more information about the lore of the underworld. However, if you want to go straight to the main story, you can do that too. But then you may not be able to do these extra missions, which are worth doing.
During our adventure to find Meg’s mother, we will go through different locations such as the city of monsters, Roy’s house or the dump. Places that exude beauty thanks to a pixel art very worked.
Meg’s Monster is full of determination
Precisely, this artistic style is one of the characteristics for which Meg’s Monster inevitably reminds us of Undertale. Although with a more colorful touch to the Mother o Earthboundthis game presents us very charismatic characters with whom it is a pleasure to stop and talk. The narrative part is without a doubt the best and it shows that it is inspired by the great title of Toby Fox.
The work has texts translated in latin spanishsomething that is more of an impediment than an encouragement to enjoy this narrative aspect. Said translation turns all characters into little more than plain text and strips them of their personality. On the contrary, English text shows nuances of each character. Although the game is not dubbed, we can deduce what his way of thinking and acting is like. We can even imagine what his life has been like up to the moment we are seeing on the screen. Therefore, if you master it, I personally recommend that you play in this language.
Being a story-focused game, most of the gameplay is conversational. This ends up leaving the combat part in the background, which is not as well carried out as in other similar games. In the end it even ends up being heavy because it cuts the rhythm. Meg’s Monster could work perfectly as a visual novel without the RPG component.
To finish, I would like to highlight the soundtrack. The person in charge of putting music to the Odencat game is Reo Uratani. A name that, at first, will not ring a bell, but you will recognize his work in great sagas such as Monster Hunter o Atelier. We will listen to perfect melodies for each situation, the kind that stay in your head and you hum without realizing it. An aspect that, without a doubt, makes Meg’s Monster win whole.
Definitely
the people of Untie has been brave in offering us a proposal very similar to the fantastic Undertale. Meg’s Monster is based on some of the characteristics that made the work of Meg famous. Toby Foxas their brilliant narrative, to offer us an emotional (and short) tale adventure. Although he also wanted to give it a touch of identity by adding fightsthese they don’t quite work well with the set. In the long run, they end up becoming tedious. Its translation in Latin Spanish is not up to par either. On several occasions he ends up stripping some of their personalities charismatic characters which, without a doubt, are the sauce of the title along with the precious pixel art and the soundtrack.
Meg’s Monster
14,99 €
Pros
- Very well done story
- The narrative is impeccable
- Great pixel art and soundtrack
- It has a translation into Latin Spanish but…
Cons
- it is not of very good quality
- The adventure is short, fairly linear, and is not replayable
- Simple combat that, in the long run, becomes tedious