Monster Hunt

Introduction

"Monster Hunt" was developed by midnightzelda using RPG Maker MV and is meant to be the fist game in a series of titles. Unfortunately it appears that the sequel has been abandoned. After all, the developer hasn't updated their blog for the game since mid November of 2016 and the last time the game was listed as having been updated was in late December of that year. As such, I really have a mixed feeling about reviewing/promoting a game like this. After all, there's no way for me to no how the story ultimately ends. And in many ways this game serves as another reminder of why developers shouldn't make their first game the opener in a much larger series. After all, they may lose interest before they finish the first game, much less finish the second or third game.

Story

"Monster Hunt" starts out with a pretty simple premise. Your playing as a ragtag group of friends who are up to their eyeballs in debt. As a result they decide to set out into the wilds in order to hunt down a mythical monster in order to strike it big like Gene Starwind from "Outlaw Star". Of course along the way you learn that Katherine has a lot of stuff in her past that she needs to hide. Though why a stripper named Kitty Kitty Bang Bang is rivals with a fairy or hangs around with demon lords is anyone's guess.

Equipment & Items

"Monster Hunt" is a bit weird in that it tries to go for a bit of Dialoesque feel by having every item, armor, weapon, and accessory have random stats. On the plus side, this does give the player a reason to hunt down multiple copies of the various weapons, armors, and accessories in order to enhance their party as much as possible. In fact, the equipable items not only vary in terms of stats but also in how many scrolls you can socket to them in order to enhance their effects. As a result you can spend hours in this game just farming a particular item in order to find a Crimson Rose with maximum stats as well as having seven slots for further enhancing its powers with scrolls. After all, if your going for the quick and dirty way of beating this game. You'll definitely want to outfit Kailyn with the best gun you can find.

Combat

Combat Balance is rather wonky in "Monster Hunt", or at the very least it teetered back and forth from challenging to easy in my run through the game. Though my experiences may be rather atypical considering how much time I spent grinding in the coliseum for items, experience, and equipment, after it was unlocked. Because all of this grinding I wasn't really able to perceive all of the issues brought up by SapphireFalcon in his/her review of the game.

And to make matters even worse. I'm not sure how she/he approached combat. After all, there are a few skills and weapons in this game that are almost broken if you know how to abuse them. A good example of this is Katherine's K.K.B.B. or Kitty Kitty Bang Bang technique which allows her to seduce entire groups of enemies. And the only enemies truly able to avoid falling into a fit of lust after being exposed to Katherine's sexy dance moves are robots and bosses. And even some bosses are only resistant to the sway of her hips and the bouncing of her breasts. As such, it's pretty easy for her to turn entire swarms of enemies against themselves and their own allies. Allowing the party to swoop in and pick of heavily damaged foes.

And while this is a pretty obvious tactic to exploit for veteran gamers. I still remember my youthful days when I played through Pokemon Red and Blue with a heart dead set on only outfitting my monsters with the most powerful offensive skills I could find. As a result I can't rule out the possibility that other players may have ignored just how useful seduction is in favor of more straight-forward offensive tactics.

Though, I suppose if you want to rely on sheer hitting power. Then, I'd recommend focusing on pushing Kailyn's attack stat to the max. After all, Kailyn's best weapon in this game in my opinion is the Crimson Rose, which allows her to perform her normal attack twice. As you can imagine this makes for a pretty devastating attack if you have enough attack power to back it up. And if you combo this with a few attack buffs on Kailyn herself and you'll have a character that can even make the game's ultimate boss cringe. After all, it's hard to ignore a character that can turn your HP into tiny pieces of mincemeat.



Bug


Well, I did manage to find one minor bug in this game. Even so I really don't feel the need to hold this against the game. After all, your only likely to run into this bug if your willing to stand in a remote corner in an area with enemies and ladders.

Conclusion

"Monster Hunt" is a pretty solid first game in my opinion. So much so that I wonder if the developer has worked on projects previously, but never bothered to upload them to this site. After all, this game doesn't contain a lot of the basic mapping mistakes or balancing issues that I've come to expect from first time projects. And while the game does have a rather unsatisfactory conclusion. It did help me scratch my itch for a game about hunting down monsters.