Always Sometimes Monsters

1. kman1

   May 23, 2014

   10

   Didn't expect this much fun when I bought this. made me take a good look at myself.
   Playing it over again with a totally different attitude.Didn't expect this much fun when I bought this. made me take a good look at myself.
   Playing it over again with a totally different attitude.
   I highly recommend it.… Expand

   • 8 of 15 users found this helpful
2. GeekAssassins

   May 27, 2014

   10

   Always Sometimes Monsters is a unique RPG made by Vagabond Dog with publishing services by Devolver Digital. The price is $9.99, with salesAlways Sometimes Monsters is a unique RPG made by Vagabond Dog with publishing services by Devolver Digital. The price is $9.99, with sales available on Steam, and is available on PC. The aim of the game is to tell a story of choice and consequence that reverberates the human experience. The question is, does it succeed?
   
   Story and Dialogue
   
   The story follows your choice of character on a mission to get from east coast to west to see the ex of your choice. You’re flat broke, making the trip an almost epic adventure. This is the true beauty of this game. The story is a very real telling of what it is like to have an obstacle in front of you without having the luxury of being able to throw money at the problem. Finding a couch to sleep on feels like a blessing after having to sleep outside a few nights. As it should. The dialogue between characters comes off naturally and smooth compared to some other RPGs out there, and the colorful cast of characters never tend to filter too much. Playing the story of ASM felt very much like playing through an indie film, or a gritty show from FX or HBO, and the experience is an awesome one.
   
   Control
   
   The game plays as well as any other game made with RPG Maker. Everything is solid in the fact that pushing buttons makes things happen. There is no reinvention of the wheel here as it is not needed. If you’ve played any RPG since the SNES you probably know how the controls feel.
   
   Art
   
   The character portraits are nice to look at and the in game sprites are reminiscent of old school RPGs. The towns are a perfect size and layout being big enough to explore but small enough to remember where you’re going. Small details set off the overall feel of the game, whether it’s a stray piece of graffiti or campaign posters plastered around. The only problem I experienced was the floor looking like a curb once and I didn’t think I could walk any farther when I could.
   
   Sound
   
   Menu sound effects are a delicious 16bit variety, and the soundtrack absolutely shines here. It never got on my nerves and there are a few tracks on there that are solid arguments for buying the soundtrack.
   
   Fun
   
   This category is a tricky one. Always Sometimes Monsters is not necessarily a fun game. The mini games are a bit of social commentary or an in-joke. The game itself is not aiming to be fun or offering a new mechanic that could be manipulated for your own fun. The star of the show is the story and in that respect ASM is a blast. I have multiple replays planned for different actions and to see the different dialogues. The story wanted to share the human experience, and this is how I’ll judge the game in this category. ASM is the only game I can think of off the top of my head that made me reflect on my actual life. The final hour or so offered a story and series of choices that forced me to reflect on similar situations. I had my ending plotted out in my head before a few of the last elements played out, and once they did my game played out the opposite way. The game did not actively manipulate me into choosing something different, but the story put me into such a mindset that this happened anyway.
   
   Final Tally
   
   Always Sometimes Monsters is a beautiful experience. Beauty does not always mean pleasant or fun or joyful. ASM is a defining moment in the video games can be art argument. Not everyone will like it. Some typical gamers will flat out hate it. But if you’re not typical, and if story matters to you more than twitch reflex, then by all means buy this game.
   
   Score: 10 – Buy Now… Expand

   • 6 of 8 users found this helpful
4. FolkenVIII

   May 27, 2014

   10

   This game is an experience.
   First, let's be clear :
   DON'T buy this game if : - You don"t speack English - You don't like to read (there isThis game is an experience.
   First, let's be clear :
   DON'T buy this game if :
   - You don"t speack English
   - You don't like to read (there is a LOT of dialog)
   - You are not an open-mind person
   - You are alergic to the old school graphics
   
   So, Always Sometimes Monster will show you basically what type of person you are :
   Are you ready to work hard to get a few legit money to eat a sandwish, but not enought to sleep into a confortable bed, or are you ready to take the money of an old lady for your own confort ?
   If someone is bad at you, will you injure him or will you investigate to find something that could make him jobless ?
   Do you want to live in the past and try to find the lost love of your life, or do you want to live to the futur, without her/him ?… Expand

   • 7 of 11 users found this helpful
5. SuperkenGaming

   Oct 13, 2017

   7

   Always sometimes monsters
   Not always the hero
   Always sometimes monsters is a bit of a life simulator where you play as a writer... the gameAlways sometimes monsters
   Not always the hero
   Always sometimes monsters is a bit of a life simulator where you play as a writer...
   the game starts with you choosing a character and then choosing that characters boyfriend or girlfriend…
   And then it smacks you with life
   you lose your job as writer
   your partner leaves you
   you’re evicted from your apartment and you getting a wedding invite to guess who’s wedding?
   And you spend the 9 and a half hours of this game trying to get to your exes wedding
   Being broke and now homeless, doing this is no easy feat, so it’s up to you to get from city to city by helping out characters around the world, or you could straight up just buy a bus ticket..
   Either way it’s a day in and day out grind of hustling…
   You can get a job chopping up animals or tofu...
   Do odd jobs around the city for a few dollars or invest in sandwich stocks at the bacon shop... but there’s more fun to be had in solving the problems of the town and its inhabitants
   The game does a great job of making the day to day grind feel real, of finally thinking you almost have enough to pay rent and then realizing, right.. I have to eat… spending my days’ worth of work money on some food so I can fall asleep...
   And while sleeping you’ll occasionally have a dream about your ex... Indicating you may not quite be over them... and your intentions for arriving to this wedding might not be so pure... or maybe they are... it’s up to you... the game is full of choice
   from writing about your day before you go to sleep to making choices around the world to get on peoples good sides so that they’ll scratch you’re back later on… while at the same time making sure a choice you make for one person doesn’t affect another..
   The game isn’t in your face about choices mattering, but every once in a while I got smacked with the realization that if I made a different choice earlier... this solution to get to the next town probably wouldn’t have worked…
   this cycle of rise and grind continues through all 9 and a half hrs. just with different towns and different jobs.. Jobs that feel as tedious as they would in real life…
   So the game does a great job at immersing you into its world…
   however I feel the game overstays its welcome a bit... there’s a section in the middle where the game wants you to get involved in politics for a town I had no connection to and I didn’t care for…
   This town is when I really started to get bored with the grind of getting through the day to day with this game and just saved up for a bus tickets as fast as I could ignored its problems and left to the next town…
   A town a little more interesting but still… I was over the gameplay and grind so I rushed through getting out of this section as well, trying to get to this wedding as fast as I could…
   Performance wise, I did run into a crash every couple of hrs, and the game would freeze up for a few seconds every now and then, but nothing too annoying to deal with
   Despite overstaying its welcome, Always sometimes monsters does a great job at feeling alive..
   The world feels lived in, immerses you and makes you think about yourself in ways that few video games do…
   It’s worth picking up and playing through, but I don’t believe its best played in one sitting or even 2 like I tried to do
   I give Always sometimes monsters
   a 7/10… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful
6. meanspirit

   May 25, 2014

   7

   I have to agree with Kerpi's review. The idea of the game appealed to me but I think the reality is somewhat disappointing. When I think ofI have to agree with Kerpi's review. The idea of the game appealed to me but I think the reality is somewhat disappointing. When I think of choice and morality, maybe somewhat unfortunately, I seem to refer back to The Stanley Parable as being something of a benchmark. This doesn't really come close in that respect.
   
   The idea of this game is good - to induce self-reflection, analysing your own actions and choices and try to get you to think about yourself as a person. I think in this, it succeeds somewhat. But the execution leaves something to be desired. I think there are a few times in the game where it tries to go 'philosophical' on you, but it feels forced and therefore not particularly intelligent. And, although I've only played through once, it seems like a lot of the stuff you do doesn't really matter in the end. Though to some degree, one could say that the fact that it makes you think about the choices you made is worthy of praise.
   
   Other than the core story, there isn't much around. The stuff to do on the side is rather boring, though I can understand that part of this is intentional to add a sense of realism to having to earn money to survive. Ultimately, this doesn't matter a whole lot anyway as there is at least one serious flaw that allows you to make unlimited money anyway.
   
   Most of the frustrations come from the execution and presentation. I understand that the game is trying to emulate old style RPGs. However, there are practicalities that I feel should be addressed by default in a game in 2014. Running at a native resolution is one of them (this game does not). Some control over input and game options should also be a given. I found the music got really annoying after a while but I couldn't do much about it. The controls are a mess. Firstly, you aren't told what they are, and secondly, this game is clearly based on mechanics taken from the NES era. 4 directions and a couple of main buttons. I couldn't use a controller or the mouse, which meant that moving around, navigating menus and inputting characters or numbers is as tedious as hell. Finally, there are quite a few dialogue typos that I've noticed, which is a little disappointing to see in a finished game that relies so much on textual information.
   
   It's certainly a game that deserves attention. The concept is great and the story compelling. It's pretty cheap and I would say worth the asking price for the amount of enjoyment it brings. However the execution is wanting. Therefore, I would recommend it but only with some heavy caveats.… Expand

   • 4 of 7 users found this helpful
7. titust

   May 28, 2014

   7

   It's not bad for a first attempt. There are mistakes littered throughout the world, but for me that was part of its charm. There's a certainIt's not bad for a first attempt. There are mistakes littered throughout the world, but for me that was part of its charm. There's a certain feeling of sincerity that can only be achieved by a small team writing about life.
   
   I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone who isn't interested in game criticism, because without a critical mindset, various missteps will leave many feeling confused.… Expand

   • 2 of 5 users found this helpful
8. Muramas

   Oct 25, 2015

   5

   The story is interesting, it's the only thing that will keep you invested. The moral choice system is lame and could use some work. TheThe story is interesting, it's the only thing that will keep you invested. The moral choice system is lame and could use some work. The gameplay is incredibly boooring and anyone who really needs good gameplay will probably get bored of this game real quick.… Expand

   • 0 of 5 users found this helpful

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