Monstrous Wars is a really strange game: it starts more or less like Money & Power, a game I reviewed earlier. Yes, the plot is very similar: we're in a strange world that blends magic with technology, a world ravaged by a war caused by a powerful madman that was apparently defeated (but as I learned in M&P, even if the evil mastermind is no more, there are always heirs or apprentices).

In this world we impersonate your typical Jrpg hero: Toshi. He's the classic good natured young martial artist and swordsman. He is also curious and thrill seeker, and this is all needed to motivate him as his adventures consist mostly in wandering, exploring and sometimes fighting. I say sometimes because fighting is not the centre of the game but let's see:

The Good
Monstrous Wars is a pretty gorgeous looking game: mapping is good (even if certain maps are a bit confused and cluttered with obstacles, but I'm referring to the Junkyard, so i guess it's done on purpouse) and the choice of charset and chipsets (unfortunately no facesets) is excellent, as there is a ton of different enviroments and places, not to mention lots of characters nicely animated (I also noticed that tall grass moves when ou run on it!), and I am not referred just to combat but also to the cities and their populations. The final result is really well done and rich of details. Also exploration is encouraged, as you will find many hidden bonus/extras going around and finding hidden paths that will reward you with some items and/or extra dialogue. This is nice!

Then let's speak about... well, no, here combat is not so good so I'll left it among the thing I did not like. But hey there is much more! There is infact a monstrous number of side activities and minigames, puzzles etc. , like for example a real-time arcane combat, a stealth section, a motorbike minigame, a climbing rhythm game, and so on. They are all quite short and not too difficult, so they won't be a tiring experience, but just a nice diversion to all the walking and exploring you'll have to do.

Ok, the dialogues. I don't remember typos, and I find it concise and adequate, same goes for music: the selection of sounds and themes is ok, clearly not as impressive as the graphics, still it's an appropriate selecion, well done!



The hmmmmm... ok!
Ok there are some things I cannot evalutate completely since this is a demo. And one is the story. I'm a bit undecided on the judgement: the beginning, from the (epic and excellent) intro to the first two hours of the game are really linear and quite "classic" both in setting (typical Jrpg adventurer's rural hometown) and missions (fetch quest, fight weak enemies, etc) then, BAM! You find yourself in a city and soon the game is more open ended even if a bit "disconnected" by the main story. For example you are encouraged to visit a a bell tower but... there is no reason to do that. Then there is the part with the virtual reality that is strange: in the beginning when i saw the old man working of the robot I was expected a new companion or something linked to his work, instead no! And the same goes for many events/visions/dreams that have apparently no meaning.
Apparently.
But of course, because the game is not completed! Anyway I hardly find a reason for some choices (like when you play a different characted that just have to walk through a corridor and optionally speak with some refugees. Why? A cutscene would have been sufficient!). Since the story is not completed I cannot dismiss them as fillers, but the beginning of the game was VERY classic, then it became a trip filled with mages, ghosts, kung-fu animals (on this thing are the various anthropomorphic animals commonly accepted like in Dragonball? Money&Power, that I mentioned before, addressed the presence of different races, here I don't think it's mentioned. Ok this is just a little question compared to many others, like the various trippy cutscenes).

Then there is the protagonist: I guess there's much we don't see of him in the demo as he is a rather stereotypical character, by the way it's not a bad thing, he's likeable and simpathetic, but he surely could benefit of extra development.



The Bad
Unfortunately there are bugs/errors: some are harmless (you can walk on the ski outside the hotel room balcony) others aren't (if you hide in one of the lockers in the hospital stealth section you can be stuck... luckily I was able to complete it without using the second cursed locker!).
The worst one if the disappearing key: in the beginning the mother will give you the attic key. STOP! GO IMMEDIATELY there and pick the torch, because if you go in mother's room the key will disappear and you won't be able to progress the game.
Then there are some places in which the main character appears of is split, but I see that these are just glitches that sometimes happened, others didn't... I don't know but it's ok, there are so many animations that some little errors are passable.

Let's speak about combat. Ok, it's not so bad, no, battlers are nicely animated but unfortunately the whole combat system is boring: first you are usually alone, except in some segments where you have a temporary ally. But forget the joy of building a whole party, and also the option to equip characters as most equipment pieces are found during missions and money have to be spent mainly on consumables. But as I wrote before combat is not the central point, so it's not really mandatory buying lots of healing items, it's not mandatory to grind, and it's better avoiding most opponents, because, luckily, there are no random encounters, but instead you will find the enemies wandering on the map (even if sometimes it's not easy to avoid them, see for example in the Junkyard, and consider that they will respawn!). At least difficulty of combat is quite easy, the only difficult fights are those that you are expected to lose. So what's bad in this? Well for example characters have few attack options and usually there is little difference among the attacks. Maybe an elemental attack is slightly stronger against some enemies, but the difference of damage is often minimal. One character has a healing power but is quite inefficient.

A Final problem is that you have to read carefully in order to understand the next move. Sometimes in fact there could have been more explicit indications (for example "go to the police station". Ok but where it is? There are no indications, nothing. Or "Meet your brother" but where? You have to explore and wander in order to trigger a determined event).



Final Thoughs
This is certainly an ok game whose greatest shame (beside the game-breaking bugs) is the lack of conclusion. Anyway it's a pleasant adventure, filled with activities and without the repetitivity and grinding of most of the classic Jrpgs. Also, this game has THE BEST modern urban enviroments and charsets ever seen in a Rmk2003 game (except maybe for Psycho Platoon, a japanese game). Combat is shallow, but everything else fits perfectly and the game doesn't lack activities and entertains well those players who likes exploring and expect something different (and more modern) of the usual Rmk2003 games.
So for me, as it stands this game totalizes 3.5
Graphically a 4.5, pity for the bugs and tedious combat (and the messy storyline too) that detract from the final result. If this was completed it would have been a Monstrous Game, for now this is just a Monstrous Demo!