Monark | PS4 Review

At first glance NISA's latest IP might come off as a Persona or Caligula Effect copycat. You'll be glad to know that Monark does it's own thing though, and does it well enough. What you'll get with this latest academy oriented adventure is a dual world ordeal wherein Daemons, and the student body mesh in a conflict of Egos. Our hero of the tale, and his tag along group of academy acquaintances, each go to said academy to hone their Egos. Egos are the sum of personality traits aligned with the seven deadly sins. In this case the hero, whose Ego is tested early on via an introductory quiz from the school's dean, ends up playing into his leadership, and command role. 

As a Pactbearer who made a pact with a Daemon Monark named Vanitas for a wish to protect his classmates, this protagonist who was put through the ringer, can control a small army of sin specific fiends that are summoned in the Otherworld's battlefield to fight Daemons of varying ranks including other Pactbearers. He can also wield a powerful weapon known as imagigear that acts as a soul manifested weapon specifically designed for him. The fiends which act as party members for the Pactbearer take on traits according to the seven deadly sins, and each have their own unique skills and weapons. Additionally they can equip vessels that have inherent benefits in battle. With the additional aid of other human party members who can manifest imagigear as well the party is fleshed out in full allowing the taking on of the multiple Daemons at hand. Utilizing this unique protag, companion, and fiend system is how they will come to conquer the seven other evil Pactbearers who currently have the school under barrier lockdown in a miasmic Mist that causes mind altering afflictions to the students who come in contact with it. Minding the Mist's MADdening effects, and dealing with Daemons as well as the Pactbearers is the main goal in this new chapter driven story.

Starting off in a cinematic fashion the player controlled protagonist who is named by you is thrust helplessly into the Otherworld where they seemingly meet their untimely demise under a test of sorts by an unknown entity, and an army of lesser Daemons. From there the fallen student finds himself in a sort of mystery sequence involving the school's dean where he takes a 15 question multiple choice Ego quiz to decide what his Ego aligns with according to the seven deadly sins. After which he awakes abruptly to the voice of his little sister as she desperately begs for him to be okay. 

Caught up in the Mist on the second floor of the academy this confused, and amnesiac hero finds himself escaping certain death in the company of the student body president (Hinata), a school doctor (Kekaru), and his little sister (Chiyo). Along the way to the first floor, and due to a mysterious phone call his sister receives the pack of students are teleported to the Otherworld where they meet, and are saved by a poetically inclined Daemon Monark that refers to himself as Vanitas. This black colored voodoo looking stuffed bunny with an attitude makes a pact with the protagonist gifting him authority which in turn provides him with a imagigear weapon, the use of arts & authority skills, and the commanding role over a single fiend. With this he bests his adversaries, and is sent back with his newfound partners to the academy where the adventure continues in Chapter One, and the chapters that are to follow ...

Combat in the Otherworld is a turn based ordeal. In it the Pactbearer protagonist, his human academy companion, and his accompanying party of customizable sin oriented fiends will take turns positioning themselves strategically in regards to Daemon positions, and will follow up with a select array of actions. A movement, and an action. These actions include Arts, Authority, Defer, Item, and Wait. Arts act as the basic attack whereas Authority offers up special skills that can be unlocked using earned spirit points from battle. Defer, on the other hand, acts as a means to pass a characters' turn onto another character. Allowing a single character too have two consecutive turns, if desired. Finally, the Items option which allows for the use of ailment curing items, health items, and MAD clearing mind stabilizers is the staple RPG feature you'd expect. 

When it comes to these base actions accompanying fiends can also gain Arts, Authorities, Defer, Item, and Wait options. These options are made available from both their respective skill tree, and attachable vessels that act as beneficial equipment pieces. Mainly bonus Authorities. Vessels come in several different rarities including N, R, SR, SSR, and EX. Each benefiting the fiend in a progressively more helpful manner. You can only assign fiends to your party that align with your most prominent sin stats. Sin stats, are increased in a couple of different ways past the initial dean given pop quiz at the start. This includes through battle, and through academy psych exams given by other academy students found at the academy. In battle, for example, the results you get are the sum of all the types of actions you took, and reward you with a letter grade, accordingly as well as spirit points and sin stat increases. Through the psych exams, the alternative stat leveling option, you'll be given a multiple choice question with multiple answers to choose from. These are basically as they sound. It assesses your sin alignment through a moral question, gives a brief description of what kind of Ego or personality you have in return, and awards you bonus sin stat value increases accordingly. Sin stats that are earned through the party mostly effect fiends, and fiend usage in-game.

Turn taking is also a crucial part of combat, and not only involves the base selection of actions, but movement actions as well. All characters can move first, and then choose one action from the available actions. Moving or positioning is accompanied by a highlighted underfoot circle which highlights where the party member can move, and where that party member can attack. Moving a character so that their circular radius overlaps the Daemons is how party members are able to target, and take action against said Daemons. If party members surround a Daemon, adjacently, they can also trigger assists that can hit said Daemon as many times as you have party members. This comes in handy with the protagonist's Resonance Authority skill which tethers human party members together so that they can share buffs, and added stat benefits. The catch being that they also share damage, and ailments. Some Authority skills like healing skills can be cast on adjacent party members as well, and even the fiends can be healed by overlapping their surrounding & underlying circle of effect. 

As a character action you can also defer your turn to pass it along, allowing a fiend or party member to have a second turn. You can defer or choose Wait, and position your party members to take their turn and actions during their next turn. Waiting heals your party members a little with each wait taken. As far as deferring a turn goes the big catch with deferring actions is that it raises MAD levels, and in turn risks hurting your party members when they go 100% MAD. MAD is the result of the Mist affliction that plagues the academy students, and turns them into the "Unsettled". In an "Unsettled" state a party member, like the NPC counterparts will lose control, and ultimately fight against those they are near. Dealing major damage to them. In a similar way MAD percentages are also raised with the continued use of Authorities. This can be either detrimental to party success, or helpful if played to your favor. It's detrimental if party members are near the MAD character, but is beneficial if party members distance themselves letting the afflicted do increased damage to approaching enemies. In an opposite way using Arts more raises the party members' Awakened percentage. Figuring out how to use both the MAD, and Awakened states together at the same time is the key to capitalizing on both state's added benefits as a party member that is dually afflicted gains both the damage and defense buffs as well as no penalty to Authority use while maintaining total control of all actions. 

When it comes to the main battle objectives the goal remains fairly much the same across the board. In the Otherworld, which is accessed via a phone call through a pile of smartphones back at the academy, your end goal is to defeat the guardian Daemons there in order to gain access to and destroy the Pactbearer's Ideals. There are a certain amount of Ideal crystals that must be destroyed to simultaneously clear the Mist from an academy floor, and destroy the Pactbearer's pact. In addition to this you'll sometimes have to do what is called a "Death Call" while at the academy through Vanitas to eliminate the academy floor's increased MAD affliction so that the battles you face aren't more difficult. That, and so the Unsettled won't immediately raise your MAD level to 100% when approached. It's an instant GAME OVER if that happens. These Death Call battles are known as "Singularity" battles, and have their own Ideal-like crystal to deal with. Something that is destroyed in-battle after the Daemons protecting it are all defeated.

Back at the academy, and between battles you'll be tasked with forwarding the plot through character interactions, and clue search quests. There are rooms where you'll enter to find clues highlighted by red sparkles for access to the next floor's Ideal battle as well as students whom you must confront via conversation, and cutscenes to further open up the plot and features to you. There is also a couple of main hub rooms including your groups' TSC (True Student Council) room, and the Infirmary. The TSC allows you to converse with the TSC group, and access Vanitas' spirit shop. The spirit shop grants you access to health and ailment items that you can spend earned spirit points on in preparation for battle. It also allows you to dismantle fiend vessels for spirit points. 

Spirit points are a multi-use currency that is used to unlock character Authority skills in their characters' respective skill tree, and to use at Vanitas' spirit shop. Across the hall from the TSC room exists the doctor operated Infirmary where you can pick up some free mind-stabilizers from Kekaru for free to offset the MAD effects that increase on the floors with Mist, and in battle. Aside from the main rooms of interest there exists multiple floors. Floors are numbered, and usually as a rule the floor above is plagued by the Mist with the inhabiting Unsettled acting MAD from the affliction thereof. You will be basically tasked with clearing each floor of the Mist by taking on that floor's Ideal & Singularity battles. On the side you'll also use the NPC profiles you gain access to on the protag's smartphone through NPC conversation to find, and locate hidden Alter-Ego crystals that can be found in certain rooms associated with the NPCs. These Alter-Egos can only be obtained when your sin stats are at a high enough value. Once you get them they will increase your fiend unit's power. 

When it comes to the smartphone function, in general, it's the all-in-one gadget you'd assume it to be. It has access to all your Academy & Otherworld info as well as an Item menu, NPC profiles, Psych Exam results, soundtrack songs, a phone call function for accessing between Ideal battle, battles at Vanitas' avatar, a map that can be used to fast travel between floors & rooms, Sound & Graphics settings, and even a Save/Load option. This is your go to multi-tool in the world of Monark, and ultimately it keeps the characters connected to both the academy, and Otherworld. When it comes down to dialing up Daemons for the RPG grind Vanitas basically says you can dial any number, but to be careful that you might access battles deeper into the Otherworld, and thus face off against harder to defeat Daemons. The more difficult the Daemons are to defeat the greater the rewards.

Visually, and audibly Monark is a step above the quality of Caligula Effect. It has greatly improved graphics, especially on a PS4 that supports 4K HDR settings. There's some interesting character details, and the world itself is more than a bland display of assets. While character models do move stiffly, and their mouths are out of synch with the English vocals they look impressive in a modest Persona kind of way. You'll also find artistic representations for each character beside text blocks. The soundtrack isn't bad either. Songs in the adventure are both atmospheric and climactic with tracks fitting each, and every given situation. Accenting the game with a darker more serious, and often times ominous vibe. In the way of customization I also felt Monark did a good job in allowing the player to lightly personalize the human party members, and the fiends. Party members get costumes that can be changed through the smartphone menu system, and fiends can be altered by parts allowing for gender changes, physical alterations, and even hairstyles in their own menu. It's creative, and it's personal touches like these that add to the value of the game. The added fact you can individually name the fiends is awesome!

The Verdict ...

I enjoyed Monark much more than I thought I was going to. It's a completely different beast than what I assumed from the trailers, and definitely more fleshed out. Both with the storytelling, and features. Particularly with the battle mechanics, and fiend system. While their is some obvious inspiration from JRPGs like Persona, and The Caligula Effect, Monark definitely has it's own identity. I really liked the casting of main characters, and thought that Vanitas was a masterfully crafted character himself. I loved his voice in English, and his knack for rhyming in verse as he converses with the key characters. The English voiceovers are, in themselves, impressive. There's certainly some standout talent in that casting. You will also find the usual Japanese language setting, if you prefer. Complete with much more emphasis on acting, no less. Overall this game, which seems to be NISA's covertly suggestive parody of our current real world lockdown/Covid predicament, is a masterfully done episodic telling of a world gone MAD. A world of sin, and suffering. Governed by an evil not unlike what we see in the real world. Much like our own. For that it gets a hyper enthusiastic recommendation from yours truly! I do so love NISA's incorporation of real world scenarios that are molded into JRPG adventures. Don't miss out on this gem!!!