Monospaced Lovers

It's a crime that this game doesn't have more attention. This is honestly shaping up to be one of my favorite games of 2024. What intrigued me about the game was by looking at the description, it listed "La Mulana" as one of the inspirations for the game. I love puzzle type Metroidvanias (even if I didn't specifically like a lot of things about La Mulana, the sense of exploration in the game was great) such as Animal Well and the late game of [spoiler]Environmental Station Alpha[/spoiler]. Monospaced Lovers in my personal opinion executes this in spades. The game is a metroidvania with focus on bullet hell, precision platforming, and the aforementioned focus on puzzles, the cross-section of player enjoyment is small, yes, but this somehow uncanny valley combination of genres just somehow hit correctly for me. While I have seen Venn-Diagrams of intersection between two of the listed genres (in particular, Rabi-Rabi with platforming and bullet hell), I haven't seen anything that goes risky and combines all three of the genres together, and the game does this tremendously. I will say though that god, the game is unapologetically difficult, in all three aspects I listed beforehand. I…

I cannot in good conscience recommend this game to any casual player. It is frustrating to wrangle this games poor designs and collisions at times to get completion, and it is a VERY difficult game as advertised. There's a good story, and it's relatively fun if you're able to remain calm, but it is not for a normal player. For reference, my breaking point was a series of finnicky challenges involving sliding, and a certain picnic invitation being screwed over by obstructive physics where each attempt requires a full days worth of length (where a save reload is faster), and paired that with a miserable 1 minute and 30 trial that is just boring to try. After completing the True Ending, I can say with certainty that it is a good story worth experiencing- Just not worth the struggle if that is not your thing. If there was a mixed review option, I'd use it here.

As it was already said a couple times - it's truly a game for a specific audience, those who like hardcore mechanical difficulty, obscure puzzles and visual novels The highlight of the game in my point of view is the dialogues. The conversations between characters feel very natural, with just the right amount of goofiness. The main plot also brings up interesting questions about [spoiler]Artificial Intelligence[/spoiler], the reality and self-consciousness The level design is a bit rough visually (mainly talking about floating blocks in the sky e.t.c.), and hitboxes/projectiles look kinda generic gradient circles, but if you ignore that I loved character art, especially of the main heroine, also background scenery is beautifully hand-drawn Unfortunately (for me) harder puzzles felt more like hunting easter eggs, instead of vague hint-based puzzles/riddles In any case this game will certainly hold a place in my heart. Even though it's [i]extremely difficult[/i] if you play on Hard mode - there's something tranquil about it, the art, the music and the writing style form one whole piece that is unlikely to be forgotten

[h1]Monoscaped Lovers[/h1] [h1] 8/10 [/h1] [h3] The Space between Zelda-inspired and Metroidvania-inspired [/h3] [h2] Story, Art and Music [/h2] The story is consistently engaging and features a delightful cast of characters, there was never a moment when I didn’t enjoy the writing in their interactions. I’d say the overall vibe of the story could be summed up as Firewatch meets Undertale and Celeste. The hand-drawn art looks great and it’s well-animated. The soundtrack is also quite nice, leaning towards a calmer vibe overall, even when what's happening on screen is pure hell, there are a few songs that really stuck with me. [h2] Metroidvania-lite [/h2] The story progression is fairly linear on paper, though the game doesn’t tell the player where to go next, giving you some freedom to figure out how to advance the main story. On top of that, it counts with non-linear exploration for side content. Its map is smaller and more compact, with an area at the center of the world that connects to the others, offering around 5 areas with some degree of interconnectivity. Unlike other games, the collectibles aren’t player upgrades; instead, they provide story content and cosmetic items …

Its unfortunate this game probably won't do well with the larger audience as there is absolutely no hand holding and is insanely difficult in all aspects including puzzles, platforming, and bullet hell dodging. It may even be the most overall difficult game I have played so far barring those with fake difficulty utilizing tank controls, UI screw, and such. If you are a masochist like me and can get past that though, it's an incredible journey with great visuals, story, dialogue, and tight gameplay. Game does not hold your hand, but achieving the end makes that feel even more accomplished.

Monospaced Lovers is such a cool game if you’re into puzzles and, like, retro computer vibes. It’s all about lining stuff up perfectly and solving levels that feel like you’re coding or playing with typewriter fonts. The look is super clean, kinda like an old terminal screen, and the music is chill too. It starts out easy, but the puzzles get way harder, so it’s actually really satisfying when you figure stuff out. If you like games that make you think but don’t stress you out, you’ll probably love it.