 Ssssssssssssssssssssss. Ness-drunk? Every week I get a few comments here and there saying, boy you must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. Nope, there's still lots of good stuff to cover, including games like Mondania. This one was made by a combination of the folks behind Harvest Moon, as well as Bits Laboratory, in 1996. It never left Japan, but there is an English patch available at romhacking.net courtesy of the kind and patient folks at Aeon Genesis. As you can see, this game looks pretty dang good, with the sprites and environments looking similar to games like Energybreaker and of course Super Mario RPG. And like those games, Mondstania is an RPG, kinda sorta, while it falls into a bit of a gray area on the RPG spectrum, as SuperDirect calls it. Mondstania is actually the name of the island where the game takes place, and you play as Fran, who with the help of his friend Tia, is searching for a fairy. They were thought to be extinct on the island, but the game opens up with Fran seeing what is clearly a fairy-like light, although this one doesn't stop to shout at you to LISTEN! LISTEN! HEY! LISTEN! Ugh, sorry about that. But yeah, Fran's obsession with finding a real fairy takes him and Tia across the island where of course things are not quite what they seem. And before you know it, you're smack dab right in the middle of a big adventure. Like I always say in videos about games like this, don't go into this one expecting Shakespeare, but one thing that makes Mondstania stand out is the colorful light-hearted nature of the presentation, and the story holds up its end of the bargain as well. Despite appearances, however, this game is almost entirely linear, with only a few points here and there where you can choose where you can go next by selecting a certain answer. Once you've entered a location, you can't leave until you complete all the available objectives there, at which point you're shuffled off to the next location. The objectives you'll run into are usually just, uh, kill or be killed, really. But there are some puzzles here and there that you'll have to figure out, but it's nothing too complex. I mean, at one point you're cleaning floors. The structure really boils down to just clear the screen, same as games like Soul Blazer or Illusion of Gaia, and you automatically level up just like in those games as well. Unfortunately though, in the case of Mondstania, there's no item shops, and all the items are predetermined, you learn new abilities at set times. So yeah, like I said, pretty dang linear for a role-playing game. The combat, however, is a bit weird. Battles take place on a grid, as you can see, across varying terrain with your party consisting of two characters, usually Fron and Tia, but there's other folks you run into throughout the story that can join you, albeit temporarily. You can move your party either one character at a time or together as a pair, and you take out enemies with either your default attack or by using a special ability which requires action points. What's weird here is that enemies only move when you do, and they attack right after you attack, so it can be a bit awkward to get used to. Similarly to grid-based games of this nature, you always want to get behind or to the side of enemies, if you can, to get the most out of your attacks, and there can be as many as 18 enemies in a location that you got to take out before you can move on. The combat here is really what's going to make or break this game for anyone that tries it. It's a very simplified version of what you might recognize from games like Final Fantasy Tactics or even something like Treasure Hunter G, but I think the closest comparison is probably something like Azure Dreams for PlayStation. So if you've played that game, you can kind of understand the way this game plays. Mondstania does offer all sorts of different weapons and spells, both melee attacks and ranged attacks, so that's cool. But still, your movement corresponding with enemy movement can feel kind of awkward at times. I already mentioned the presentation here and the graphics are great throughout the entire game. One highlight is the sheer number of unique settings and environments you get to see, and it's clear this game really does have that square soft level of polish when it comes to the visuals and the music as well, especially the music. The soundtrack here might be the best part of this game, composed by Noriyuki Iwadare, the same guy who did the music for Lunar and Grandia, and nearly every single track here is something that you want to hear again. This is one of those games where I had no problem taking my time because I was enjoying the music so much. Now, the one big flaw of this game is that it is way, way too short. This is barely a four-hour playthrough, which is pretty disappointing considering the amount of great stuff they managed to pack into this one. Yeah, this game is fun while it lasts, but when you finish it, it's almost impossible not to feel like that's it. Like, come on, did I miss something? Are there at least alternate paths I can take or something? Nope, this game really is that short. I'm not asking for any kind of 40-hour epic story or anything like that, but this game really felt like it needed more meat on the bone. So yeah, Monstania is well worth checking out. It's a fun story with a lot of polish, the visuals are great, and the soundtrack is fantastic from start to finish. The combat system is a bit unusual, but it's still fun. It's just such a shame that this game is so short. I mean, that's not going to be a reason to not play it. It's just a bit disappointing is all. Still, for what's here, Monstania is a good time, and since this game never got any kind of release or re-release outside of Japan, this is another game you got to play any way you can. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.