Masumon KIDS (マスモンKIDS), launched 6/25/1998, developed by System Comfortable, launched by Toshiba EMI
Grasp of Monsters is a sport that originally got here out for Japanese computer systems in 1988 and was ported to a bunch of various programs — the Genesis and Ps variations got here out in English and so are recognized to some Western avid gamers. I’ve by no means performed it, but it surely appears to be a technique sport based mostly on summoning monsters.
This was apparently alleged to be a better model of the sport that was extra acceptable for youthful avid gamers who wouldn’t be capable to get into the sophisticated authentic sport. It barely squeaks by as a technique RPG beneath my definition however in the long run I didn’t play a lot of it.
The story, so far as I acquired, entails monitoring down 4 Holy Knights to hitch your staff in opposing the forces of evil. I didn’t get this far, however the instruction booklet mentions that a part of the sport takes place within the current day, and also you see reincarnations of the characters there. That looks as if an attention-grabbing idea however I’m undecided how properly it’s carried out.
The battle system relies on the MoM roots. You may have your fundamental summoner character plus any of the Holy Knights you discovered to date. There are a few summon circles on the map, and in case your summoner is standing on them you may summon folks on your staff. One unlucky determination (that I noticed a whole lot of Japanese opinions complain about) is that every stage has a hard and fast set of three monsters you may summon. It’s totally different for every stage, and whereas the monsters can acquire ranges, no monsters stick round after the battle, in order that they’re primarily simply meaningless grunts. Solely your summoner and the Knights protect their ranges. That is what makes it really feel to me extra like a technique sport than a technique RPG.
Every stage appears to work the identical approach. There’s an enemy summoner (or two) that begins on a summoning circle, and can use every spherical to summon monsters to fill any of the 4 empty areas round them, after which all of the monsters will come assault you. Finally the enemy summoner will run out of monsters to summon.
All the summons are fairly weak, however your non-summon monsters should not actually sturdy sufficient to clear the levels on their very own (I used to be in a position to form of do it for the primary few maps, however not likely). I believe the intent is that you simply maintain your summoner on the beginning circle and summon numerous monsters till the enemy runs out, after which go in and end him off.
This takes a very long time, although, and I believe in case you performed the entire sport this fashion (particularly in case you didn’t use emulator speedup) you’d be taking a look at fairly an extended sport. Though there’s a youtube playthrough of it that appears to be round 20 hours so perhaps it’s not so long as I believe.
Summoning the monsters requires gems, which you should buy at a store between ranges or get well from battle by stepping on a sq. the place a summoned monster died (you or the opponent). You may as well purchase spells as properly, which is the one factor you may equip in your summoners. The spells have a sure variety of makes use of, and I believe after they run out you must purchase a brand new one.
So this sport actually wasn’t my cup of tea; I actually didn’t wish to play 31 levels of it. I seemed round at Japanese opinions and it looks as if lots of people complained about the identical issues I did, however I believe in case you are extra tolerant of those form of “grunts vs. grunts” video games you may get extra out of it than I did.
