"Monsters & Men" is already the 16th game made by solo developer Shane Crawford (Wolfs Moon Studios). While a few of his more recent games were a bit short or too different, "Monsters & Men" is finally another full-length JRPG. If you enjoy classic old-school (RPG Maker MV) JRPGs with side-view turn-based battles, or if you enjoyed any of Wolfs Moon Studios' previous games, then you won't regret playing this game. An average playthrough should last around 30+ hours.
Once again, offering an enjoyable process of making one's party stronger through battles and loot is what makes the game really fun, though there's a catch: This time, most of the loot isn't composed of awesome equipment, but instead of crafting materials to craft equipment (which is not so awesome at the beginning). I would have preferred more equipment drops, even though I know it's hard to do that without making the crafting (feel) useless. Another issue is that the player gets tons of crafting material drops, but a few crafting materials' drop rates are so low that it still takes forever to craft all equipment pieces. The crafting in previous games felt more useful and rewarding, yet the crafting in this game is still a welcome addition. Be prepared, though, to reach the final boss and still having half or a quarter of the items left to craft.
As usual, there are many other means to get stronger. Most prominently, Veteran Experience (VE) can be spent to strengthen the party members. Veteran Experience, like Experience Points (EXP), can be gained by battling monsters and then used to unlock stats boosts and powerful passive abilities. Compared to previous games, the Veteran Experience system has been reworked, and clearly for the better. It can be utilized much sooner and offers many more and new bonuses that become available when a party member has reached a certain level and/or when certain other prerequisite bonuses have been activated before.
Another "watch numbers go up" feature also shows up again: Skills can be leveled up through usage in battle. I honestly can't tell if skills really get stronger by leveling them up, but it's still a motivating feature. It takes forever, though, to bring a skill up to maximum level, and it's easier to level up the "swift action" skills that can be used immediately without wasting a party member's turn. Speaking of skills: They're once again varied, covering the whole spectrum from damage to support. Each of the 11 playable party members has similar skill sets, which ensures that they're all useful, but which also means that they feel somewhat similar, and paradoxically, this makes the stronger party members (like Raven) stand out even more.
Stats Point allocation is also available again. Each party member gains 5 AP per level-up, and these AP can be invested into bonus stats points. It's the same system that was used in "Violet Kingdom", which means it's once again a great idea to dump as many points as possible into Defense (physical) and Resistance (magic defense) as soon as possible, even though investing in these stats consumes more AP compared to the offensive options.
The turn-based battles are rather difficult this time. Unprepared and underleveled parties can easily meet an early demise. The game can be completed with low(er) level parties, but be prepared for random encounters and boss battles to take a while. They can be brutal, and even after outgrinding the challenge, they're still formidable punching bags. Furthermore, be prepared to switch equipment on a regular basis, not only because of newly obtained or crafted loot, but because you always have to consider if you need a stats-based equipment approach to (quickly) deal with enemies, or if you can afford to equip your party members with EXP/VE boosting equipment (and you also need to take protection against status conditions or elemental damage into account). Later on, it's always a good strategy to buy stats-enhancing Potions and dump them all into the magic stat of your favorite magic attacker, which enables Raven or Plum, for example, to one-shot most group-based mobs with "Ultima" or "Holy" respectively, and which in turn lets you afford to equip your other party members with EXP/VE boosting equipment.
Oh yeah, there's also a story. As in many other Wolfs Moon Studios games, it's good, even though, like my reviews, it won't win any awards. To be fair, though, this game contains some of the best dialogues written for any Wolfs Moon Studios game, so I suspect that Shane Crawford may received some support from his wife (kidding). Basically, there's an evil empire (the Kingdom) that experiments on monsters & men (I did the "title drop") and strives for world domination. People that suffer from the Kingdom, and even some that work(ed) for them, band together to stop them (and of course, the game plays with the idea that all human beings can turn into monsters, even without some external scientific or arcane influence). There's a huge twist, though, and you can (but shouldn't) click on the following spoiler to get an idea: [spoiler]FFVI[/spoiler]. Once again, the story is good enough to keep the player going, and that's all that matters. The same applies to the characters, be it your own party members (e.g. Raven and her mysterious origin, Aldric/Chernabog and their tragic pasts) or the villains (schizophrenic knight Penny, power-hungry Emperor Cryborne, mad scientist Viktor).
I still need to dance around the above spoiler, though. Due to a certain story event at the game's mid-way point, access to all previously visited locations is permanently cut off. Even before that event, some locations are one-time-only, which equals permanently missable stuff. Wolfs Moon Studios' more recent games were practically free of permanently missable stuff, so the player needs to stay vigilant when playing "Monsters & Men". Since it takes a while to assemble all 11 party members, and considering that they are split-up again several times afterwards, it doesn't hurt to crazy-prepare. While only 4 party members can actively participate in battle, the reserve party members at least receive the same amount of EXP. Reserve party members don't receive any VE, though, so it's important to care for all of your party members.
The dungeons and their designs are sufficiently good, though they could always be longer and more complex. This aspect leads us to a long-standing issue, though: Once again, the game features a lot of (barely edited) "sample maps", which come with the RPG Maker MV software. No matter if it's the dungeons/maps, the party members' skills or the characters (names/graphics), be prepared to see a lot of familiar stuff, especially if you played most of Wolfs Moon Studios' previous games. What makes this worse is that the issue isn't restricted to towns, but also affects the dungeons, and if that wasn't already enough, even original dungeons from previous games get re-used (long-time players should ready themselves for a third trek through Spore Cavern). There are still a lot of maps specifically crafted for this game, and I prefer all of them over the sample maps, even if the mapping still doesn't meet sophisticated requirements.
As usual, the game offers decent side content, but I had really hoped for more optional dungeons in the game's latter half (at least a few optional roaming or "hiding" bosses can be tackled towards the end). I think it's great when the (side) content motivates the player to make their party members reach maximum level naturally. In other words: More (of the good stuff) is always better.
Nevertheless, despite the aforementioned nitpicks, "Monsters & Men" is another entertaining full-length JRPG made by Wolfs Moon Studios that can be enjoyed by veterans and newcomers alike, and that's noticeably better and longer than some of the developer's more recent games. In order to satisfy JRPG monster players’ needs, JRPG monster developers need to step up.
