MONARK Review

A mysterious Mist has taken over Shin Mikado Academy causing your world to be engulfed in madness. It is up to you, using your Ego, to save your friends and loved ones from the entities of the Daemon-filled dimension known as the Otherworld. MONARK starts off with a really cool looking hand-drawn animated intro that makes it feel like you are watching an anime. We meet the main protagonist, he has amnesia so his name is whatever you want it to be. You are tossed into a battle with creepy skeletons in a weird world that isn’t your own. Despite being taught a few battle moves, you are defeated.  

Before you get started you get to choose a language between English or Japanese and a choice of difficulty between Casual and Normal. In Casual, you take 35% less damage along with a 50% decrease in MAD gain whilst inside of the Mist. After this short set up we jump into the game. You wake up in Shin Mikado Academy where a Mist is released in the shape of a dome, driving all the students and staff start collapsing and going mad. The Dean of the school, Yoru, gives you a personality test to see which type of Ego you have out of a selection of seven, each coinciding with the deadly sins: Pride, Wrath, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, and Lust. If the world chooses not to accept your Ego, it’ll be up to you to prove that you can live by your own rules and do your own thing. After doing the test, my result was Gluttony.

The task asked of you is to take on the 7 Pactbearers and their irrational madness. A Pactbearer is a human who has made a pact with a Daemon, this gives the bearer incredible powers they wouldn’t normally have. When this happens, three crystals called Ideals form in the Otherworld, this Mist that has overtaken the academy is actually a side effect of a Pactbearers Authority and is connected to these Ideals. But when these crystals are broken the pact is then voided, making the Mist that is located where you are in the school disappear. It’s definitely a little complicated! But luckily you have an evil looking plush bunny to help guide you and give you advice. His name is Vanitas, he looks creepy, but he loves to speak in rhymes and helps you learn all about the Otherworld. 

As you explore the school you will find the different floors of the main building full of Mist. Starting at the bottom, you begin to explore the school and clear it out. While exploring, your phone starts ringing, and if you answer the call you will be transported to the Otherworld. Here you will battle the fiends that are guarding the Ideals. Vanitas tells you that these fiends are Daemonic Incarnations of your Ego and they grow by consuming human Ego, so that’s why they are so eager to attack. The battles are turn-based, so — when it’s your turn — you get to decide if you want to use an Arts attack on the enemy, Wait and recover some of your HP, or Defer and increase your MAD value to let another character on your team take another turn. If you have team members close to you when you are attacking the enemy they will also attack and the same happens if you take damage from the enemy, your character will counter along with the nearby team member. Each battle has its own rules that determine if you win or lose. You lose if your protagonist is killed or his MAD meter hits 100% and you win by fulfilling the stage requirements. If there are Ideal crystals around, smashing them will end the battle immediately, but you won’t get to earn any SPIRIT points that are used to learn new abilities, level up your character, and to exchange for items. So if you want to earn points I suggest defeating all the enemies first before you break the Ideal crystal. 

As you explore the academy you will meet a lot of fellow students, some that are helpful, some that have gone MAD from being in the Mist, and others that are just jerks like Kurama Hitotsubashi. If some of the students have strong Ego’s, you will be able to find a crystal of their greatest strength to power up your character. To find the location you have to use your cell phone and go to the Profile program that has a description of everyone that you have met and talked to. If you read the description it will give you a hint on where you will find their Alter Ego crystals. This isn’t the only usual function of your cell phone: it can be used to level up your character spending SPIRIT points on a skill tree, do the obvious like make phone calls, and access maps that allow you to fast travel to locations you have been before — though I only ever got it to work with the first floor of the main building, but that's where the infirmary is so I travelled there a lot to heal up; be prepared to walk back up a lot of stairs to get to where you were! These are only a few of the functions, but I feel they are the most important.

The graphics in MONARK are what you would usually expect in a newer JRPG (Japanese Role-Playing Game), complete with text boxes showing an animated version of the character speaking. Though when I can see the character right behind the text box talking, I’m pretty sure I know who is currently speaking, so it seemed a little redundant. Though it was kind of funny to see the former class president Kurama freaking out about everything. The music reminded me of lobby music you would hear in an office building or elevator, but it really picks up when you are in a battle. The battle music was great, I wish I was in the Otherworld battling more often!

When you are walking around exploring the school, keep an eye out for a spot that sparkles. This is an item you can pick up, SPIRIT points, or notes the students and staff have left. Some give you clues on where to go, and others are kind of sad with friends promising not to leave each other and saying how frightened they are.

I found it a little frustrating navigating through the school. If I walked into a classroom and walked back out the same door it was disorientating to know which way down the hallway I was coming, it felt that my character was always being turned around the opposite way. Then sometimes I would come across rooms where the door wouldn’t open. Some doors say they are locked, but not all of them do. Once you are able to get outside of the academy it is tricky to know where you are going until you walk into a new building. The map didn’t tell me exactly what every building was. 

Besides these minor gripes, I’ve had a fun time playing MONARK. The story is really unique and different and the interactions with the other students at the school are really entertaining. There is so much drama going on, especially with this Mist making people go crazy. Having to answer personality tests throughout the separate acts of the game was really interesting. I’ve never been asked so many personal questions like if I would ever use my phone to look at dirty websites. It definitely is unique! If you enjoy JRPG’s, interesting stories, and a wide variety of characters and abilities to level up, MONARK is a solid title that you should check out! Plus, I love the rhyming, plush bunny Vanitas who thinks he’s so mean and tough when he’s actually super helpful.