A JRPG with a sad but hopeful story

When I started Meg's Monster, I was under the impression that it would be another one of those open-world RPGs with extraordinary 2D graphics. When I took control of Meg, a little girl who is lost and helpless after the disappearance of her mother, I went through several introductory scenes that explained a bit about the story and where the game would go.

Through this, I was able to understand that a large explosion occurred (about 20 years earlier) that led to the disappearance of Meg's mother. More flashes went by and now I found myself wandering around alone, looking for people to talk to and in search of a reunion. After these scenes, which took a while to pass, already creating a slow gameplay rhythm, my game really started and I could pay attention to some details.

Being an RPG I imagined I would have the experience of a game with a vast open world, with interactions with NPCs and cool quests to be done. However, what I found was a game very focused on the story and combat.

Not that this is a negative point, I recognize that JRPGs have a novel type of gameplay and I like this a lot, but the issue of not having the possibility of exploration did not captivate me. Because it is a 2D game, pixelated and very colorful, I imagined it would be different gameplay. I feel that the game was little explored in this sense.

For now, when I realized what was really waiting for me there, I ended up liking it a lot. Meg's Monster portrays a sad and melancholic story in the beginning, but it also shows her adventure when she meets two monsters, Golan and Roy, who are willing to help her on this journey.

The gameplay can be a bit slow because Meg's story is quite emotional and hard to digest at first. We don't know why, how, and when it will be resolved, but because it is short in length, it is a game that will hook you and make you want to play through it to find out what happens in the end.



Temporary Adoption

Meg's Monster gives us the experience of Undertale-style gameplay, with a focus on story and combat. I chose to play in windowed mode precisely because of the nostalgic feeling this type of game brings, where we played on older computers and the windowed mode was predominant, but there is the option to play it in full screen as well.

After the first fragment of the game's story is shown, my journey with the monsters begins. At first, it is difficult to understand some questions, such as what my goal is from then on. The puzzle of the game revolves around the search for Meg's mother, but how will I be able to do this with the help of a creature that, right off the bat, proves to be threatening?

When Golan gets that call, he walks up to Meg and calms her down by asking about her family. On instructions from his boss, Golan now values good coexistence and encourages Roy to do the same, for everyone's safety.

With this attitude, I understand that the girl cannot, in any way, feel sad or afraid. This phenomenon is the beginning of an apocalypse, so Golan and Roy must be empathetic and do everything to protect Meg (besides dealing with personal issues, such as the fact that Golan is more rational and "bossy" and Roy is more emotional, compensating with his strength).

Combat mode began when a third monster, my first opponent, appeared. He threatened to take me away from the monsters and Roy soon intervened and explained that if something bad happened to my character, the world could literally end, since a simple reaction already caused huge turbulence, and his own "boss" explained that this was very dangerous.



During the battle, I took control of Roy. I had the option to attack and defend, it is really a very simple fighting system (I think some mechanics were missing, like aiming or dodging, for example): just click on the blow I want to use and launch it against our target. I easily defeated my first enemy with only 2 attacks.

As the gameplay progressed, Roy was shown to me as an "invincible" being, since he has a lot of life and deals a lot of damage. Indeed, it is very difficult to be defeated, especially since each fight won, I was rewarded with more life and more damage.

This mechanic changed its difficulty each time I had to face a new opponent. In the second fight, I fought two monsters at once, having to attack them and protect Meg at the same time. This time I had more choices of attack and defense than in my first fight.



Since Roy serves as a shield for Meg in the fights, the enemy attacks do not hit her. However, the little girl's heart takes damage when she realizes that I have been hit. You should focus on defeating the opponents as quickly as possible so that both you and the girl don't get hurt (when Meg's heart bar - which has 30 life - reaches zero, the game is over, so watch out!)

In this situation, I won the battle, and even though I won, the screen still flashed once more and all the sounds came back (since I ended up taking damage), which means that Meg started to get sad again, at the risk of the apocalypse happening.

While the game tells the story of a child who has been lost from her mother and involves a lot of drama, it is also bizarre in some ways, and all of this is set to a wonderful soundtrack - both the more thrilling scenes and those that are more focused on comic relief and humor.

And it is rather funny that Meg becomes intimate with the monsters very quickly. The girl has an innocent mind and talks about childish matters, all the time asking about her family and about Roy and Golan's life. The monsters (especially Roy) are more brutal and do not talk to her much, but always try to make her comfortable and focus on protecting her.

For those who like a more relaxing game, Meg's Monster is ideal for this. With turn-based battles, a cool narrative, and a large pixel world, the game promises to be one of those that keep you immersed until you reach the final scene.

To make you feel at home

The sound graphics in Meg's Monster are simply outstanding. It's hard to describe that feeling we get when we come across a new game, but it brings up our sensory memory, and especially nostalgia. And that's exactly how I felt playing it, very nostalgic and excited to discover its story!

The music is handpicked and very well produced, since the piano sounds bring a sense of fear and anguish and, in the funniest moments, we are surprised with very cheerful sounds, generating a great contrast for the work.

The graphics remind me of several other games of this genre 2D, pixelated and played in the third person (as the game Undertale, for example, which is focused on the story and cherishes this same style).



We experienced listening to different kinds of music, from horror and suspense to adventure. And of course, there is no shortage of classic battle music, which makes our battles that much more exciting!

Even though there is no dubbing, Meg's Monster is localized into Brazilian Portuguese and many other languages. It even uses several Brazilian slang, which I found very nice and brought personality to the game, taking into account that Odencat is a Japanese developer.

The only sound we can hear from the dialog is a voice they put for each monster. It is as if we could hear grunts and each creature has its own noise, something that reminded me a lot of the game Animal Crossing.

The game does not require very high PC settings, so I ended up not suffering any bugs or glitches, the game ran perfectly.

The key to Meg's Monster was made available by Odencat via PR Hound.