Welcome to our review of Monark, the newest JRPG on the block.
Could you face yourself and the threats around you to save the ones you love? Shin Mikado Academy is engulfed in a madness-inducing Mist, and only you can save everyone inside. Develop your Ego to break the pacts set by the Pactbearers and remove the corrupting Mist. Descent into Madness: Jump between exploring the Mist of the real world and fighting within the enigmatic Otherworld. Call upon allies, fight enemies, and unravel the mysteries surrounding your academy. Will you save the world or go mad and destroy yourself?
Into The Mist and Beyond: Dive into a dark realm where reality and the self collide. The mysterious worlds you’ll explore are brought to life in a surreal, dark neo-fantasy style, with intricate character designs and evocative settings.
Power of the Ego: Strengthen your Ego and customize the appearance and abilities of your Fiends. Unlock different Fiends to command in battle, and use the freeform tactical system to position your units and unleash destruction upon your enemies.
How far will you go to save the ones you love? Could you face the threats that surround you? Could you face yourself?
Your world is plunged into madness when the mysterious and deadly Mist surrounds Shin Mikado Academy. In order to save your friends, you enter the Otherworld, a Daemon-filled dimension beyond the real world. Within this enigmatic realm, you must learn to harness your Authority of Vanity and conjure a battalion of Fiends, whose power comes from the Ego of their master.
Develop your Ego through various psychological tests to enhance the power of your Fiends, and lead your forces into battle to fight with and against the seven “Pactbearers” that are corrupting the academy. Embrace the power of your madness to gain strength, but take care not to delve too far, lest you risk losing yourself. Fellow students and instructors will lend you their aid in your quest to resolve the anomalies throughout the campus.
Monark is coming at you from 2 sides, on the one side, you got another JRPG resembling any Shin Megami Tensei clone and on the other hand, exactly the same. Monark is very much like any Disgaea game, the Souls games, … It is one of those games that if you are into it, you will just adore it. If you dislike the genre, you are better off ignoring the game. As a lover of the Persona games, I am biased to call this game a good game. However, calling it a good game does come with some remarks.
Game technically, this is anything you would expect from a JRPG, but it kind of falls short in the “free” roaming aspect as I experienced the game as very linear. I did almost no exploring and just kept following the storyline till I wanted to fall asleep at night. Not really the best way to read any description of a game, but it kind of hits the spot for Monark. Not a bad game, but also not a game that you will remember for the gorgeous graphics or elaborate backgrounds. it is kind of pale in the university. But once you look past that, you are given an above-par experience that will be catering mostly for a niche audience. If you do want to give the genre a try, I can recommend this title a lot. The atmosphere is just the right level of creepy.
In conclusion, Monark may be a niche game, but it is far from bad as an introduction to the genre. Sadly it would fall short when you compare it to the greats in the genre….
