Monark Reviews
Monark tries a lot of new ideas, but only finds success with an intriguing battle system ... and even that has a mileage that may vary.
There's an interesting story here and the horror-JRPG vibe is much appreciated, but whatever enjoyment they could bring you is utterly annihilated by the outrageous, egregious amount of grinding you'll need to do to see the game through. Monark is gaming reduced to a thick, treacly sludge to wade through, no cutscene or story beat or reward ever feeling like it was worth the struggle. Just play Shin Megami Tensei while listening to Nine Inch Nails and you'll have a better time.
Monark is a tangled web of good ideas that could have become a good game, but end up being hidden under an awful execution. The combat system is the best part, but it fails by its excessive repetition and the story stuns the player by taking one of the worst possible directions and throwing away all it could have been.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Some players might be able to put up with the annoying difficulty spikes and the barrages of personal questions to reach the rare highs, but getting that far may very well drive you to madness.
Monark has a lot of good ideas, but almost all of them are let down by a repetitive structure, grindy combat, and baffling design decisions.
We had high expectations for Monark, as some of the people who worked on it have given birth to some of the old Persona games, but we've come highly disappointed, due to absurd design choices and PS2 era graphics.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Monark constantly strains within the confines of expectation, unable to push its ambitions through.
undefined.If I'm not having fun with an RPG I've noticed lately that I have to force myself to play it. Monark started strong but my opinion of it dropped rapidly every time I spent an hour checking everything I had unlocked in the school; I had to be missing SOMETHING that would get me to proceed, right? If you're feeling sharp and are okay with little to no environmental variety then Monark might be worth a look - there's a demo for it - but it's nowhere near the best RPG from this developer in the last six months.
Monark presents us with an experience that draws inspiration from landmark RPG series while also hinting at a survival horror experience. It does a good job when it comes to its attractive art style, a flexible and smooth character development system, a challenging combat, and its plot with themes related to the human ego. Unfortunately the game's execution stands on the way to delivering a fine experience, and the frequent slowdowns that happen even more often during combat, as well as a simplistic level structure make this a game that's unable to stand up to its peers, even if it should not be disregarded by RPG fans.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Monark is a difficult game to quantify into a score; plenty of artistic merits exist in direction, tone, and atmosphere, but at times they're undermined by a lack of refinement.
If you’re seeking a JRPG with a more horrifying aesthetic, you’ll have fun if you can look past those flaws. Shin Megami Tensei fans will probably enjoy what’s offered but otherwise, I can only truly recommend this to the JRPG faithful.
So that’s Monark, a game that really doesn’t do much for me. But at the same time it’s a fascinating game that wants to do things a little differently. You won’t play another JRPG operating like Monark anytime soon. Monark doesn’t hit the mark but it shows us there are folks in the industry taking these swings, even in historied spaces like JRPGs. And there’s a demo, so I sincerely reccommend giving that a whirl and seeing what you think.
MONARK is one of those games that had everything in place for it to be something special and unfortunately either a lack of experience or budget absolutely crucifies it. Uninspired gameplay and poor graphics spend their time battling an amazing narrative and well-crafted atmosphere. You can see where the influences came from and the presentation of the game has some great aspects. But when it comes to the actual video game section of MONARK, you find it’s just middle of the road.
Monark brings to the table a lot of fresh ideas, but the bad game design prevents the game from reaching its full potential, leaving you with nothing more than a mediocre experience.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Fans of JRPGs with time to kill can probably find a game somewhere here with Monark, but I doubt it’d be fruitful. Give this one a pass or buy it on a steep discount so you won’t be in for a rude awakening.
Monark has all of the dot points needed to be a great game, but it just doesn’t go far enough to stand out in any one area. It has a few great nuggets of ideas that would have been great to see expanded upon, but it barely scratches the surface. There are too many areas that were lacking either visual flare or gameplay substance for it to be memorable among titans like Persona and Megami Tensei. Despite that, it still might be worth playing for fans of the genre. It’s like popcorn — it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s easily consumable and will scratch that JRPG itch.
Although the combat system is a highlight, the madness stirs in this repetitive and dull RPG.
Monark has a solid combat system that combines great tactical elements with turned-based action. There is way too much grinding throughout the game that may turn off players who aren’t fans of the genre. But as a whole Monark does present some great ideas that will intrigue newcomers to the genre but nothing groundbreaking for JRPG veterans.
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.