The Monster adores you! This is one of those indie titles where we’re not sure if it’s still a game. Despite being marketed as an RPG, it is mostly an interactive tale.
The principle is straightforward. We take on the role of a monster. We will recount his tale, have adventures, and build character qualities from his birth in the Great Vat of Green Goo until his possible death. Doesn’t that sound like an RPG? Except Monster Loves You! is a sequence of dialog boxes that chronicle our hero’s exploits and give potential answers to the challenges he faces. The game takes the player through five phases of the monster’s existence, gradually giving the user more and more decision-making flexibility. After completing the first section, we obtain access to the board, from which we may select which adventure to play. Each option has the ability to effect one of our monster’s five characteristics: courage, cunning, fury, honesty, and compassion, or, later in the adventure, respect among its brethren and the human-monster connection.
As we progress through the adventures, we make decisions concerning the shape, also in the literal sense, of our adorable hero. Unfortunately, we have no direct power over the look, and in certain adventures, the option of which traits we develop may be highly ambiguous. To keep the game’s concept intact, the designers determined that before we click on the adventure, we only know as much about it as we can gather from the symbol. On the one hand, the unknown provides a little of flavor, but the lack of explanation can be a bit monotonous over successive efforts at the game, which forces you to go through the plot more than once. Because we only need an hour to complete the game the first time, and we know the text of certain permanent game parts, following tries will be considerably faster. This might be a turnoff for gamers who dislike having to replay a game again and over, even if elements of it will never be the same. The allure of Monster Loves You! however, lies not in its duration, but in the amount of alternatives for the monster’s evolution, and therefore – its history.
The game has fifteen alternative endings, all of which are determined by actions made in the last stage – during the Trial – or in the stage preceding the confrontation with humans. This is not to say that our earlier actions are unimportant; the data accumulated over the majority of the game are utilized to perform tests and determine if we will be able to pass the Trial at all. If our character is not significant enough to become an Elder and decide the fate of the planet, he will disintegrate in the Great Vat to determine the nature of future generations of monsters. The game’s look and sound may seem that it is aimed at youngsters, although this is really a play on convention. Monster Loves You! stands out for its unique atmosphere and strange names. We frequently ask questions directly to the narrator, who explains obscure components of the environment, and at times, we can only answer to the scenario depicted in the window with a lengthy, drawn-out sigh that can linger for multiple speech bubbles.
Monster Loves You! is a straightforward game. We go through the stages of a monster existence in unchanging locations, with the same joyous music playing in the background. We won’t see a single cut-scene here, and we’ll just read explanations of all scenarios. A visit to a world where monsters study humans with great interest, battle Puss in Boots, and escape the death of the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, on the other hand, is incredibly intriguing and addicting.