Always Sometimes Monsters

 PC
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 82 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 21 out of 82
  3. Negative: 15 out of 82

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  1. 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 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    Always 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
  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 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    Always 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
  3. Kerpi
    May 23, 2014
    7
    I was really looking forward to this game for awhile since first hearing about it. Generally, this is a good game, but the games to make money get repetitive. The first town is wonderful, and rich with experiences and characters, but this progressively fades. The last towns lack any real polish to the point of containing awkward bugs and glitches.

    Most of the mini-games, both relating    I was really looking forward to this game for awhile since first hearing about it. Generally, this is a good game, but the games to make money get repetitive. The first town is wonderful, and rich with experiences and characters, but this progressively fades. The last towns lack any real polish to the point of containing awkward bugs and glitches.

    Most of the mini-games, both relating and not relating to money, are boring and pad what should be a 4-5 hour game into a 8+ hour game. This really detracts from the game as a whole. In addition, many decisions seem, at the end of the game, relatively meaningless. A few decisions factor into dialogue, but there are too many times where the game effectively says "but you must!"

    The developers should have focused on carrying the strong story from the first third into the latter portions of the game. All in all, this is an impressive feat with RPG Maker, but, paradoxically, the limitations of RPG Maker really hurt the game in several places.

    Overall, I recommend this game if you are a fan of RPGs, have a few bucks to spare, and have a few hours to kill, but, despite how hopeful I was for it, I can't in good conscience tell you that it is a must play game.    … Expand
  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 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    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 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
  5. 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 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    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 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
  6. 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.
    I highly recommend it.
  7. Sjalka
    Jun 17, 2014
    7
    This game is kind of a surprise. I did not know about it - but almost instantly liked it.

    pro: - lovely drawn characters and a lot of choice makes a re-play just as enjoyable as the first time - the story is nicely done, not amazing in terms of creativity but enjoyable enough - many of the characters are quite relatable and the "world" does have a nice feeling con: - not as open    This game is kind of a surprise. I did not know about it - but almost instantly liked it.

    pro:
    - lovely drawn characters and a lot of choice makes a re-play just as enjoyable as the first time
    - the story is nicely done, not amazing in terms of creativity but enjoyable enough
    - many of the characters are quite relatable and the "world" does have a nice feeling

    con:
    - not as open world and choice-based as it may want to be
    - the artstyle, while being good, could have been so much better. especially in terms of customization of character
    - the UI / engine is fairly bad. screen resize, controls and all that is either not customizable at all or lacking.

    my final thought:

    a very good game well worth the money! - but also a game that could have been ( and hopefully may become - as in sequel or something .. ) much, MUCH more. what i did not like too much was the mixture between a pretty mature topic / story - and very simplistic chores or minigames.    … Expand
  8. funboyfun23
    Mar 27, 2015
    5
    'Always Sometimes Monsters' is a game about a starving writer who barely gets by. He/She has issues paying rent, eating , has a terrible income and smells bad. It all changes one day when you get a wedding invitation from your Ex who you broke up with a year ago and still have feelings for. You make up your mind that you will go across the country to meet your Ex at the wedding and beg for'Always Sometimes Monsters' is a game about a starving writer who barely gets by. He/She has issues paying rent, eating , has a terrible income and smells bad. It all changes one day when you get a wedding invitation from your Ex who you broke up with a year ago and still have feelings for. You make up your mind that you will go across the country to meet your Ex at the wedding and beg for one more shot.

    That's essentially what the story is about, without trying to spoil too much. This game is much more story driven then actual gameplay. The story is what kept me interested not the gameplay. If you're the type of guy that enjoys a good story but can dismiss gameplay a bit then you should like this game, if you enjoy gameplay more then a story then this game isn't for you. There is also more of a choice moral system, but it feels more of a piss in the wind when it comes to choices. Most of the choices are basically if your nice to a person or not. A good story, but a bad moral choice system, what about gameplay?

    Gameplay is mostly boring. It won't keep you interested. In between important story events you have free-time and the only way to kill time is do an event, so essentially you can't walk around the town for the afternoon you gotta do something. I usually found myself walking to the employment center and doing one of the boring mini-game jobs. The mini-game jobs are extremely tedious, and boring. It accurately represents what having a boring job in real life is, except you play games in your free time to get away from your boring life. The work minigames just replicate having a job. Totally boring. There is also one video game in the video game but all you do is run over people with a motorcycle while dodging animals, which is also boring. There is also some other small elements like a lotto machine or a sandwich stock market but honestly you don't want to invest your money in that **** because you need it for the story.

    Graphics: who gives a ****?

    To sum it all up. 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. The gameplay is incredibly boooring and anyone who really needs good gameplay will probably get bored of this game real quick. I like this game because of it's story but the replay value is small and I most likely wont be replaying it. I do however enjoy the story which kept invested in the game and I will recommend for you to buy this game on sale or on the humble bundle which is on sale (at the time of writing this review), however don't buy this game if you get bored easily.    … Expand
  9. 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 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.
  10. 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. The gameplay is incredibly boooring and anyone who really needs good gameplay will probably get bored of this game real quick.
  11. Greggor
    Oct 2, 2015
    6
    The game is not so much "fun" as it is thought-provoking. Maybe the story is a bit cliche, but I think playing it was worth the experience nonetheless.
  12. DoktaLust
    Aug 26, 2014
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game involved a barking cat 10/10
    Sometimes I like the concept of being able to choose my own path in games. To be quite honest, I didn't think I would have this much fun in a game. In a sense depending on what you want the outcome to be, you got to be a little patient and somewhat take your time if you want the good outcome.
    At times the game tends to punch you in the gut, but that made the game more interesting.
    I managed to accidentally choose a choice instead of declining it, I ended up orphaning 4 kids, and I actually felt bad. I ended up with the bad ending, but I still have fun with the game.
    This game, was amazing and fun to play.    … Expand
  13. wolf80207
    Dec 27, 2015
    7
    After The Video Review Quickie : Always Sometimes Monsters

    Total play time : 3 Hours Price: $9.99 This game isn't a bad game it's actually a pretty good one, but I don't really feel like playing any more of it due to the fact that I HATE timers in video games and this game has a thirty day timer (you have to make it from one area to another in thirty days), but it does have    After The Video Review Quickie : Always Sometimes Monsters

    Total play time : 3 Hours

    Price: $9.99

    This game isn't a bad game it's actually a pretty good one, but I don't really feel like playing any more of it due to the fact that I HATE timers in video games and this game has a thirty day timer (you have to make it from one area to another in thirty days), but it does have interesting ideas like no combat and even though the game is pretty text heavy it never feels boring to read the text (mainly because they don’t just throw a book at you and call it story, I'm looking at you Space Rangers, Wasteland, Labyriona, Skyrim, etc), also even though I didn’t get very far what I saw in the story I really liked even though it reminds me of a bunch of movies where the guy/girl loses the guy/girl and he/she gets married and invites him/her to the wedding.

    So this game isn't for me but I would have never picked it up if I knew it had timer game-play in it, and aside from that the time I’ve spent with the game wasn’t bad and as I said before this is actually a good game and one I can recommend, but only to those who know what they’re getting themselves into and don’t go in expecting one thing only to get another so my final rating is 7/10 a good game.    … Expand
  14. BrupcatBR
    Aug 15, 2014
    10
    this game is such a masterpiece. its very mature. i dont speak english and i play it anyway, well im just here to say that its the first RPG Maker Game where its just so mature. it contains: racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, mental health, sexual assault, child abuse, animal abuse, drug abuse, and suicide. im just saying that this game in my opinion is a masterpiece.
  15. a_void
    Jul 29, 2020
    8
    Amount of variations in this game kept me to re play it a lot and I enjoyed it every time. Lovely writing.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 26
  3. Negative: 1 out of 26
  1. CD-Action
    Aug 25, 2014
    20
    A great example of an eyesore spit out by indie devs convinced that only the story matters. The worst part is that they had no idea how to write the story to avoid it being a cliché running with the pack of sad, moving indie games. [08/2014, p.69]
  2. CalmDownTom
    Aug 21, 2014
    60
    A strange curio that offers something different, and what it gets right should be applauded.
    Read full review
  3. IGN Italia
    Aug 4, 2014
    82
    A mature adventure game that challenges you with hard choices and puts you in real life situations. The writing is not always at top level, but when it works it's great.
    Read full review
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