The late era for the SFC has a lot of interesting RPGs visually or gameplay or even both. One weird one is Monstania as it’s an RPG in the most basic way possible. In a way the game feels more like a collection of battle scenarios with the occasional puzzle and story in between every level. Despite that however, you may find a good game lurking in this one.

The battle system in a way reminds me of Mystery Dungeon where you move from tile to tile and things only move when you do. Probably not the best comparison but it’s what came to mind. You have to either defeat every enemy, get to an objective, or something special like defend a place. If you were wanting any challenge with this one then you aren’t getting it here as the battle system is very easy to abuse the poor AI which has many moments of gimmicking them and making the level a breeze. Even if you do game over, you can retry immediately and don’t even need to load a save.

Sadly the game’s idea of RPG mechanics is basically just leveling up after each section is completed. There’s no actual EXP and this is also how you get items, magic/skills, and equipment. There’s not even a currency system. Going from area to area is also done automatically and there’s no actual overworld or towns to explore. You could probably argue it’s not even an RPG but I’ll be generous and say it still is. I’m not trying to say it’s a bad thing just don’t go into this expecting an actual in depth RPG. The game is also only about 4-5 hours long so you’ll barely be playing the game anyway.

The story is a little interesting though nothing about it really excited me and it left me with a few questions by the end. It also just kind of ends in a boring way imo. Idk, it left very little impact for me. This does have a fan translation but I do wonder how much of it is actually accurate. I’m going to be nice and assume it is fine but some of it is very strange but not necessarily bad. Just be aware that it might not be your thing.

It visually looks fine but nothing stands out about it. The only notable thing about them is the art used for the characters when inputting names or viewing the statuses. I would probably be more positive if it was an earlier game on the system but there are much better looking games by this point. The music is also nothing amazing but it works. I actually really like how this game sometimes does a minimalist approach with the audio and sometimes has the sounds of the environment only play. Still, I don’t know if I’ll listen to it outside of the game.

You know, actually writing this review I realized something. What did I say earlier? “you may find a good game lurking in this one.” I think after writing my thoughts, I don’t think I like it as much as I think. While the game has some fun ideas, I think the game just isn’t the most interesting in the world. It works, and at its worst it's decent. While I do wish it had more RPG stuff going on in it, for what it tries to be, it does it decently. It did however have the unfortunate part of being a couple of months before the next RPG which was the remake of Dragon Quest III. With all that said, you should still at least try it as it’s quite short. Sadly Bits Laboratory would never make another game like this and would shut down a few years later. What a sad fate for the company.