82) Meg's Monster (2023)

Released in 2023, Meg's Monster is an RPG that takes very clear inspiration from Undertale, both in terms of world design and in its sense of humor. We play as Roy, an incredibly strong monster with a love for toxic sludge as he sets out to protect a young girl, Meg, in his quest to return her to the surface world. What the game lacks in length or difficulty, it makes up for in spades with its adorable sprite work and a genuinely novel and engaging combat system. Though the writing stumbles a bit, it presents a charming and humorous tale that, by the end, gets more than a little emotional.

We begin our tale with Roy and his best friend Golan in search of food. While Roy is content to eat the abundant toxic sludge, Golan seems to have a more refined palate. By stroke of luck, they stumble upon a small human child who has fallen from the human world above. As Golan goes to enjoy this delicacy, she begins to cry, which seems to trigger the very end of the world. With this knowledge, and her instinctual draw to Roy, the premise is laid out neatly. Namely, if the girl cries, the world ends, thus it becomes our job to return her to the world above.

Roy, with no interest in eating the child, takes it upon himself to protect the small girl as they search for a way to return her to the human world. Other monsters, not as keen to eat toxic sludge, see her as a delicious snack they wish to feast upon. At the same time, we learn of a shadowy council of monsters, tasked with maintaining a tenuous treaty with the humans, all while our pal Golan takes instructions from a mysterious source. There are a number of layers to the story, leading to a few twists and turns that are mostly easy to see coming, but well executed all the same.

Combat is where I feel the true novelty of the experience lies. We control Roy, who is an absolute beast with more than enough strength and stamina to handle whatever comes our way. Attacks on Roy are trivial, as his HP starts at nearly six digits, a feature I would normally be against. However, attacks against Roy also harm Meg's morale, a much smaller meter that, should it reach zero, results in her crying, which is an instant game over as the world itself comes to an end. To combat this, we find various toys in our adventure, which can be used in combat to play with Meg, restoring her morale. It's an interesting system that both sells the immense power of Roy while also still giving the otherwise trivial battles believable stakes.

The story itself, which often takes a tongue in cheek approach to world building, is both fascinating and well written, while still managing to be predictable and somewhat frustrating. Most of the twists and turns presented can be seen well in advance, though a handful come completely out of nowhere. Compounding this issue, the game makes the baffling decision to have a multitude of flashbacks during the second half of the game. Some flashbacks give more information or context to things that happened before, but quite often they just show you things that happened a few hours ago in case you had forgotten. The sheer abundance of them in the latter half of the game borders on ridiculous and is a tad insulting to the player.

All of my complaints aside, the game tells a charming story of a little girl and her giant monster friend and uses the mechanics of the genre to further push the narrative and the emotions of the story. The biggest fault is the over reliance on flashbacks for such a short experience, though some players may find it helpful, and a good number of the flashbacks do help to give more context to the events in the game. Ultimately, it comes off as a proof of concept that I would like to see expanded upon in the future. I love the idea of using the battle system in a novel way that helps illustrate the bond between a young girl and her monster friend, though that novelty only goes so far.