Another game I couldn’t get into. I was bored stiff within an hour. In Master of the Monster Lair
Well, I can’t say I was excited by the premise to begin with, but if the gameplay had been the least bit interesting, maybe I’d be making a completely different kind of post. Unfortunately, dull doesn’t even begin to describe it.
In the morning, you wake up, go to the dungeon, dig some holes. You put beds and fields and rooms in the dungeon so the monsters will move in. Do until you run out of HP, go home, eat and sleep. Next day, do the same, except you now have to fight the ungrateful monsters who moved into the rooms you so nicely prepared for them.
Each battle will play out the same as well. You either whack them to death slowly and methodically, or you use a magic bomb to wipe them out. Also fighting enemies one-on-one will rarely produce item drops. You have to group them together in twos or threes using dungeon design, take them all out, and then the last one will drop an item. This may be a weapon, a food item, or some other random junk that a townsperson may or may not be looking for. Fight some more enemies, dig, some more holes, go home and repeat the whole process all over again.
I managed to finish the first floor of the dungeon before giving up. Once I’d gotten enough monsters to move in, a boss showed up and I beat it. My reward was the ability to go down to a new floor which was even bigger and more yawn-inspiring than the first. At that point I started having doubts. Is this really what the whole game is about? I paused to do a little research and dammit, I was right. It’s just digging holes from morning to evening to house monsters who don’t even appreciate your efforts. As if that wasn’t bad enough, you have stay in the same town throughout the game, interacting with the same people throughout, and all they use you for is to run errands and get them new kinds of food from the dungeon. What would I have gotten if I’d kept digging down through 10 levels of dungeons…nothing? Dunno, don’t care.
To be honest, I only tried Master of the Monster Lair because I’d heard it was similar to My World, My Way, and I liked that game. MWMW was repetitive in its own way, but at least you could move from place to place and it had the trappings of a story. When it was over, I felt good, having put that cocky adventurer in his place. And it was nice to trace my progress all over the map, looking at all the towns I’d been to and thinking of all the bosses I whooped. When MoML is over, I’m sure all I’ll feel is, “Gee, I just dug a bunch of holes! Yay, me!”
Or at least I imagine that’s how I’d feel, because I just decided that I’m not going to finish it. I have absolutely no motivation to do so and I’m already deep into playing Saga 3 anyway, so I’m not exactly starving for games. No proper story, no proper gameplay, same 5 or 6 characters, same enemies I already saw in MWMW? There’s nothing in this particular game for me.
On the other hand, the other day I saw the cover of a spin-off/sequel to this game, with an emotional-looking bishie on it. It was called Date ni Gametsui Wake ja ne! Dungeon Maker Girls Type. This version was developed by Idea Factory (I think?) and the premise sounded a little more interesting: a grumpy, money-hungry mercenary named Hugo stumbles upon a strange village and is roped into becoming a dungeon maker by a half-human white mouse bishie (<–feel free to reread that till it makes sense) so I was tempted to hold out hope for it. I’m still tempted, because it’s got some seriously nice looking bishies:
…even though your main character is male, uh-oh. I’m a sucker for nice character designs anyway [The one with red hair in the middle. The one with red hair in the middle!!!] And it looks like there might be some good character interaction in this game. However, screenshots of the actual gameplay make it look like the same old crap I just suffered through. The gameplay description on the official site is what I was dreading: accept an item request, make a dungeon that has monsters that will drop that item, beat those monsters, get the drop, fill the request. On the other hand, it could be something like Rune Factory, where carrying out quests leads to character development and romantic relationships. Wait, not “it could be”, that is how it works! That sounds great!
I’ll have to think about this for a while longer, while I try to finish Saga 3, which has finally gotten interesting. If I do try Dungeon Maker Girls Type, I’ll write about it eventually. Until then, goodbye to Master of the Monster Lair.
