RPG/puzzle game Monstruous sees you commanding a team of warriors who are looking to defeat a monster by using a handful of actions in the right order.
Your party contains four tough creatures, all with their own abilities and powers. You are able to use these various abilities once per level as long as that character is still alive. These abilities can play off of each other, like how the trumpet played by your frog can add a charm effect to the bubble wand another character uses.
These different combinations mean a lot when it comes to the game, as you will need to find the perfect combination of moves in order to defeat each monster. There is seemingly only one correct combination per battle, so you might need to play a few times before getting it completely correct. Luckily, you are able to fast forward the time if you want to try out everything.
The monster does fight back, though, and if you don’t take your turns correctly, you will find that some of your team will get eaten. Being dead, unfortunately, means they will then not be able to make any of their moves. Some moves do take a few turns before they are fully activated, too – for example, drinking coffee takes three turns until you are done drinking.
Monstruous currently is a very short demo, but the style and different moves make for a clever start. I’d love to see where these unique warriors go next, and what monsters are lurking there.
You can play Monstruous for free on Itch.io.
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I found this very inspiring! Kind of like the games one made for friends and parents while growing up, testing out some experimental gimmick or personal little story using paper, dices and so on. I remember a friend making a little hunt game where you hunt mice as a lynx on a separate paper with a small window, through which the forest housing the mice could be explored. Loving this mentality in the indie game sphere 🙂
And on “seemingly only one correct combination”: There are in fact (mild spoiler warning) several solutions; not all members must be alive as long as the big guy goes down, so some ending might be a tad less happy than the other.