7/30/2015 - 6:10 PM - GMT+8
By: Seth Legaspi
Another game by the same developers that brought us Monster Monpiece; Compile Heart delivers a much more story-aligned, and rub system polished game called Moe Chronicle. I am really impressed by how far they have brought the "Rubbing System" in this game, which reminds me of one of those very interactive visual novels with a dungeon system.They've come really far from Monster Monpiece, and I find it quite lacking that there's not much talk about this newer game of their's, thus this review.
Once again, I would like to state that this game is not for everyone, it fits a certain niche, and its age rating of 18+ speaks for itself... If I were to make an analogy however, it's sort of like a much- much more extreme version of Pokemon, where you have to do stuff to actually capture the monsters. (Please don't hate me)
The first thing everyone has to know of course is that this game has a LOT of fanservice. As the title suggests, the game is full of 'moe' (wiki link), which is complemented by said fanservice, and characters mostly made up of monster girls. Yes, those monsters that were used to scare us as children are used in this game to invoke 'moe' and achieve a glorious amount of fanservice. (I used the word 'fanservice' in this paragraph 4 times)
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To begin with: the Opening Song, "Dream Chronicle", was very upbeat, and the visuals presented psyched me up for the game itself. It was a really refreshing opening song, since it gives that 'new episode' feel everytime one starts up the game.
The game, as an RPG, has a dungeon crawling function as its main form of play, with a really clever way of using a first person point-of-view that helps in immersing within the game world. Despite this, the graphics could have been better with 3D characters and more variety with the models, as seen in Monster Monpiece. The game also has a pretty cool layout and art for the dungeons, this experience is then enhanced through the cute sound that the monster girls make when you hit a wall, along with the background music.
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For the battles, it's a simple system wherein one orders their team to use certain skills to attack the enemy team. The player, which sort of acts like the 'Pokemon Trainer' in this case, has the option to increase their 'desire energy' that can be used to power up a monster girl's next move, be it an attack, or a heal.
What I like about these battles is that it's fast-paced, and the special attacks has that "oh shiny" kind of effect on me, it also gives the player the power to simply skip the special effects to make the battles much more fast-paced. The controls are also very simple, as well as the elemental weaknesses and strengths, since it's very straight-forward once one plays this game.
As a signature for many Japanese games, there will of course be the 'affection level' for the many heroines present within the game. Not present in the image below would be the option to change the heroine's costume once one reaches a certain intimacy level, as well as an 'egg system', which is basically the item creation function. This function can be pretty interesting for some, since each heroine gives different results for certain ingredients with this function.
Players are also given the option to give a monster girl a pet through the 'Pet Pact' function, which gives certain boosts within a battle, ranging from extra attacks to defense ups. Of course, if one does not want to or does not have the option to give any suitable presents, there's also the ever present bumping scratch to increase intimacy, in contrast to Monster Monpiece's power-up reward and art change. One more interesting function is that one can renovate the monster girl's room to something much more grand.
All in all, this 'sim'-like function really got my attention due to its simple complexity, since it gives that 'meaning' in playing this game.
The rubbing function is also similar to the Monster Monpiece version, with the same controls and types of rub. The 'polish' that I am talking about is its use in capturing Monster Girls, as well as its effect on the 'affection' level of the heroines.
As for the characters themselves, true to the game's namesake, they each have two 'moe' traits. These traits give possible bonuses depending on the party composition, as well as certain conditions within a battle.
As for the game's story...
Yes. That's technically the main problem that the Main Character is trying to solve throughout the game in addition to the main problem of saving the world by bringing the "Legendary Monster Girl" back to her senses, as ordered by the town' elder after being given a royal decree to send people to defeat the "Legendary Monster Girl".
All in all, the game is very fun; taking into account all the time I spent on it fully engrossed. The controls are really easy to use, the story is really entertaining, and the 'sim' like functions adds that certain spice to it, along with the glorious 'rub system'.
I recommend this game for fans of the Monster Monpiece game, as well as those who are into moe anime characters. Oh, I also recommend this for fans of the rising 'Monster Girl' sub-genre since this game is completely packed with them!
My Rating:
(8/10)
Good Stuffs:
- Monster Girls
- The Voice acting. Remarkable.
- Rub System
- The Story. It was really entertaining
- The character art
- Loading time is almost non-existent
- First person POV in dungeon crawling was really smart
- Monster Girls
Not so good stuffs:
- Graphics could have been better, and would have helped with player immersion
- Bumping Scratch was very underrated in-game in terms of reward and how easy it was to get rub-points
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| Best Character |
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