I've seen Monster World IV pop up in a lot in Genesis retrospectives, and depending on who you ask it's the Genesis hidden gem. The best game we never got, so on and so forth. I've heard it all before, there's plenty of 16-bit titles treated with the same level of reverence both on the Genesis and SNES, and often a lot of that adoration is undue, or at the very least overblown. And yet, Monster World IV's charming art style, earworm of a theme, and excellent cover art have been occupying my mind for a few years now, practically begging me to fall for the hype. I recently found a reproduction cart with an English patch applied and took the 50$ plunge, hoping the game could live up to my lofty expectations and justify spending entirely too much on something that could've been easily emulated.
Ultimately, I'd say it was. Monster World IV sucked me in almost immediately with its deceptively easy difficulty and satisfyingly simple gameplay loop. There's a very specific rhythm you fall into early on which maintains itself for much of the rest of the game: Locate a dungeon key in town, explore the outlying area, the dungeon itself, then warp back to town to stock up on new gear. Rinse and repeat. During the month of November and through December I like to play games with very mellow vibes, and which aren't too mechanically overbearing. Monster World IV fits that bill, though I was surprised to find the difficulty aggressively ramping up towards the end game. This is one area where it falters, the curve is uneven to say the least, and it mostly kicks in during the Ice Pyramid dungeon. Enemies and hazards chew through your health here, and it's not helped by the fact that the dungeon is broken up into three different labyrinths with many similar looking hallways, making it incredibly easy to get lost without a guide. The second of these mini-dungeons utilizes invisible doors, which adds a layer of trial and error that is far more annoying than it is engaging.
The game recovers from this, though the overall difficulty continues to spike tremendously every step of the way thereafter. It wasn't enough to make me bounce off the game, however, and while I do find the second half overall less enjoyable than the first, I can't bring myself to dock it more than a single star. It's really the only element holding this game back from being pure perfection.
Another element of Monster World IV I want to spotlight is its soundtrack, composed by Jin Watanabe, who has surprisingly few credits to their name. That theme I previously linked is rather short, though it's used as a leitmotif through much of the game, popping up in damn near every song. It effectively acts as Asha's hero theme, and while I worried I might initially find it grating the longer I played, each song has a strong enough identity that it never did wear on me. If anything, I really liked hearing how they iterated upon it, and thematically it's a nice way to work in Asha's will and resolve into moments where she's called upon to fight. The soundtrack is very good, give Jin Watanabe more work!
Man, Monster World IV is a damn good game. It's exactly the kind of game I needed to play right now.
Ultimately, I'd say it was. Monster World IV sucked me in almost immediately with its deceptively easy difficulty and satisfyingly simple gameplay loop. There's a very specific rhythm you fall into early on which maintains itself for much of the rest of the game: Locate a dungeon key in town, explore the outlying area, the dungeon itself, then warp back to town to stock up on new gear. Rinse and repeat. During the month of November and through December I like to play games with very mellow vibes, and which aren't too mechanically overbearing. Monster World IV fits that bill, though I was surprised to find the difficulty aggressively ramping up towards the end game. This is one area where it falters, the curve is uneven to say the least, and it mostly kicks in during the Ice Pyramid dungeon. Enemies and hazards chew through your health here, and it's not helped by the fact that the dungeon is broken up into three different labyrinths with many similar looking hallways, making it incredibly easy to get lost without a guide. The second of these mini-dungeons utilizes invisible doors, which adds a layer of trial and error that is far more annoying than it is engaging.
The game recovers from this, though the overall difficulty continues to spike tremendously every step of the way thereafter. It wasn't enough to make me bounce off the game, however, and while I do find the second half overall less enjoyable than the first, I can't bring myself to dock it more than a single star. It's really the only element holding this game back from being pure perfection.
Another element of Monster World IV I want to spotlight is its soundtrack, composed by Jin Watanabe, who has surprisingly few credits to their name. That theme I previously linked is rather short, though it's used as a leitmotif through much of the game, popping up in damn near every song. It effectively acts as Asha's hero theme, and while I worried I might initially find it grating the longer I played, each song has a strong enough identity that it never did wear on me. If anything, I really liked hearing how they iterated upon it, and thematically it's a nice way to work in Asha's will and resolve into moments where she's called upon to fight. The soundtrack is very good, give Jin Watanabe more work!
Man, Monster World IV is a damn good game. It's exactly the kind of game I needed to play right now.
2 Comments
Thank you!
humanwaste
1 year ago