[i][u][b]Monstrous Lovers[/b][/u][/i] is a light-hearted BL visual novel. It features four different monsters to pursue a romantic relationship with, all while trying to juggle your job in a new town. Just when you think things are finally settling into a comfortable routine, big news hits the town, shaking things up once again.
[b][i]Characters:[/i][/b] [i][u][b]Christopher Wells[/b][/u][/i] is our MC who is bored with his current job position. He feels like he's not doing enough to actually help those who need it. He requests to be transferred to Saint George, the city with the highest population of monsters in the country. Despite his desire to do good, he's not exactly welcomed with open arms. Underfunded, understaffed and not exactly welcoming of humans, Christopher really struggles to even officially claim his job.
Christopher isn't anything special. He's just a basic guy trying to live his life as a government employee. He wants to do good but it's an uphill battle because of his race, especially in his new town. Combine that with the fact that he is a bit of a perfectionist, likes to stick his nose in other peoples business, and can become pretty irritated over the smallest things, he's not really having a great time of things.
[i][u][b]Sebastian Griffin[/b][/u][/i], the boss of the office, is a bit of a weird one. I feel like he was written to fill in the tsundere trope. There are times Chris thinks that perhaps Sebastian is doing something nice for him, but covering it up with insults. Having played through his route, I'm pretty confident that he's just an ass with some very serious temper problems. Even in his good route, there isn't much in the form of character development. Perhaps this is just Christopher always seeing the best in people?
Despite Sebastian's position, his commitment to the job, and his skill at getting things done even with the minimal funding, he holds a pretty big secret that could rip everything away from him.
[i][u][b]Vincent[/b][/u][/i] is our beloved vampire, new housemate and co-worker. He's the biggest flirt: always trying his luck with Christopher even if Chris doesn't reciprocate. Very popular with both the men and the ladies. Vincent is pretty lazy when it comes to his job. He is always late for work and manages to disappear when something calls for his attention. Despite his laidback approach, when something catches his interest, he will give it his full attention.
Vincent has a mysterious past that is threatening to catch up with him, and maybe even those he's holds near and dear to.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2543715283
[i][u][b]Isaac[/b][/u][/i] is an android and our other co-worker. He's basically a human-sized walking Ken doll with ball joints. Or just a ball-joint doll I suppose... He wears nothing but a single, open, red coat. On any other person, I'm sure he'd be fired for public indecency, which would be a shame because he's homeless and lives at the office.
Androids are pretty rare in this universe and because of that, Isaac is mistreated a lot: often being called "it" or "robot" by Sebastian and not trusted to take care of sensitive work himself. Being a machine of sorts, Isaac is very capable of mundane tasks and has an excellent memory but lacks emotional judgement. He's stoic and generally only speaks when he needs to. He hides a pretty big secret.
[i][u][b]Ben[/b][/u][/i] is the fourth and final romance option. He is, of course, the overly friendly werewolf and your neighbour. Ben and Vincent have been friends for quite some time so it's only natural that Christopher becomes a part of that friendship too. Our cuddly werewolf is the sole guardian of his six younger sisters. Needless to say, he has his hands full most of the time. That doesn't stop him from offering his help at every opportunity though. He is definitely one of those guys that are too nice for their own good. Everyone likes Ben, but you'd be hard-pressed to find people who would choose to hang out with the man. Because of Ben's large responsibility to his sisters and the fact that he is the only one that works, it wouldn't be remiss to find that he's done some questionable things to make ends meet.
[b][i]Scene structure:[/i][/b] Reacuring issue where scenes are set up, details feel like they might become important, but are never brought up again. There's no conclusion to what happened, leaving the whole thing to feel irrelevant. There are also a lot of scenes that have missed potential. In one route, Chris wants to use his first paycheck from his new job to buy his friends a little gift each. We see him go shopping and buy [i]something[/i] for them but that's it. There is no follow-on scene or even any hint that he gave the gifts to them all. This could have been such a sweet opportunity to bond with the LI but was sadly skipped. Because of such a jarring structure, when the scene jumps from one to the next, I wasn't aware of how much time had passed between them. A day? A week? It isn't always made clear. I felt like there was just too much guesswork to follow the timeline correctly.
[b][i]Background music:[/i][/b] The music selection for this title is very well chosen. It's hip and funky for the fun scenes but more mellow for the serious stuff.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2550789858
[b][i]Voice acting:[/i][/b] The store page describes this game as having "partial voice acting by industry professionals". Although the quality is very good and done in Spanish, it isn't partial in the more common sense. Where most VNs have lines voiced here and there through the game, or random words even, [i][u][b]Monstrous Lovers[/b][/u][/i] has more, what I'd call, a fully-voiced introduction. It's exactly what it sounds like, the first section of the game is completely voice acted and then nothing after that.
As I said, the quality is really good and it's not often you find Spanish actors, but that fact it suddenly stops after a certain point leaves the game feeling a little hollow from there onward: as if something is missing.
[b][i]Romance:[/i][/b] The romance, although not that heavily focused on, is generally really sweet most of the time. It's wholesome and brought a smile to my face on a multitude of occasions.
[b][i]Adult content:[/i][/b] The 18+ content is very light. There is no CG and any steamy description leading up to the scene varies in length greatly. In one route there was just a brief mention that they had sex after kissing. If you are hoping for something a little more [i]enjoyable,[/i] I'm afraid you might be disappointed here. I didn't feel like the scenes really added much to the overall story either.
[b][i]Tight routes:[/i][/b] It's extremely hard to get any sort of ending that isn't the bad one without the use of a guide. I played through the game several times while mixing my answers and always found the same ending. I was half expecting [i][u][b]Man-Eater Games[/b][/u][/i] to follow suit after a different yaoi company and release a paid guide. I was very thankful when they released an official one for free.
[b][i]Minor text errors:[/i][/b] There are a fair few typos and grammatical errors throughout. Nothing that will cause an issue with understanding the story, however. An additional proofread and some touching up would polish this novel to near perfection in that regard.
[b][i]Overall:[/i][/b] I feel like [i][u][b]Monstrous Lovers[/b][/u][/i] could have been so much more if only a little more time and thought was put into it. It wasn't terrible by any means, but with all the little issues, it wasn't great either. Perhaps I was hoping for more than the novel was able to give but I have been left feeling a little disappointed.
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