Monster Girl Manager
- April 25, 2023
- nabladeveloper
Get on Steam
Get on itch.io Store"Monster Girl Manager" is a roguelite game where you lead a team of procedurally generated monster girls through dungeon crawlers, with gameplay inspired by Mystery Dungeon. Each monster girl has unique traits, strengths, and weaknesses, affecting dialogue, skills, abilities, gift preference, and training preference. Collect artifacts and manage your team's health and energy while navigating through trap-filled, multi-floor dungeons. Customize the game by uploading your own sprites and dialogues.
PC
Windows
Xbox
Reviews
- The game features a fun monster girl generator with a lot of customization options, allowing players to create unique characters.
- The combat system is enjoyable, providing players with various tools to create powerful setups and strategies.
- The art style and music contribute to a cozy atmosphere, making it a charming experience overall.
- The game suffers from a lack of clarity in the UI and some quality of life features, making it difficult to navigate at times.
- There are significant difficulty spikes that can disrupt the gameplay experience, leading to frustrating moments.
- The town management aspect feels simplistic and underdeveloped, limiting player interaction with the monster girls.
- gameplay34 mentions
- 18 % positive mentions
- 74 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The gameplay is generally praised for its fun and engaging mechanics, featuring a straightforward loop that allows players to manage and train a squad of monster girls while exploring dungeons in turn-based battles. While the game offers deep strategic elements and a variety of character combinations, some players feel that the current early access version lacks complexity and time pressure, which can diminish the sense of challenge and progression. Overall, it is seen as a solid foundation with potential for growth, appealing to those intrigued by its unique premise.
“Fantastic game, easy to understand game mechanics plus near infinite combinations for the characters.”
“Very good RPG mechanics, optional lifespan (on by default), easy to learn system but has deep strategy elements; it's a good time.”
“The general gameplay loop includes spending the week giving your monster girls gifts, speaking with them, or relocating them to a different job to raise a chosen stat.”
“This is where the gameplay loop starts to fall apart for me, because there are certain features that seem to be borrowed from their respective games without a clear understanding of what made them compelling in the first place.”
“What's more, the lack of time pressure makes the entire training mechanic kind of meaningless.”
“I like the premise, but I think I'll try again later when the gameplay loop makes more sense and it's not such a struggle to progress.”
- graphics14 mentions
- 21 % positive mentions
- 57 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are characterized by a charming pixel art style reminiscent of 16/32-bit RPGs, which many players find cozy and detailed. While the customization of monster girls is well-executed, some users note that the overall graphical experience could benefit from additional polish. Overall, the visuals are generally well-received, contributing positively to the gameplay experience.
“I loved Dragon Creek for the art style and clear attention to detail, and Monster Girl Manager is just as charming for the same reasons.”
“The pixel graphics work surprisingly well for this genre and allow for easy customization of the monster girls.”
“The art style and feel of the game is quite cozy.”
“It makes for a very uncomfortable graphical experience that could use some polish.”
“Pretty graphics, randomly generated appearances.”
“The music is well done; the graphics are well done; balance is being balanced but still a fun experience.”
- music12 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally well-received, with many players appreciating its relaxing and varied JRPG-inspired tracks, which contribute to the overall charming atmosphere. However, some critiques highlight that while the music avoids repetitiveness, it can feel somewhat bland and haphazard at times. Overall, it complements the game's art style and enhances the experience without focusing on sexual themes, which is a refreshing change for the genre.
“The music is well done; the graphics are well done; balance is being balanced but still a fun experience.”
“Music is some nice JRPG jams.”
“Relaxing music, comfy pixel art, adorable monster waifus, and then some.”
“The music, although it's varied enough to avoid repetitiveness (and I appreciate it a lot, make no mistake), is a bit haphazard and bland.”
- emotional10 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its heartwarming and wholesome writing, combining fun elements reminiscent of monster rancher and darker themes in a more accessible way. Players find it refreshing and enjoyable, expressing a desire for continued development in this wholesome direction, indicating a strong emotional connection to the game's charm.
“The writing is pretty darn heartwarming!”
“All in all, I can see myself easily putting ten or more hours into this game, and I deem it worth playing and supporting as I hope to see more wholesome monster girl games in the future!”
“This makes this game a very refreshing one, and I would really like to see this game's development follow this wholesome route.”
- humor6 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highlighted by its quirky and unbalanced mechanics, allowing for amusingly broken artifact combinations. Players enjoy the cute characters and their funny dialogue, making the experience entertaining and safe for work. The interactive element of creating monster girls with humorous phrases adds to the overall fun, especially when shared with friends.
“There's a decent amount of content (haven't completed the game just yet), and absolutely no balance, so you can make some hilariously broken artifact combinations, which I love.”
“The girls are cute, they say some funny stuff, and the game is safe for work, which was a bit of a surprise to me, but a surprise I like.”
“I streamed the process to some friends on Discord and had a blast inputting funny phrases to see what kind of monster girl would come out of it; the concept alone hooked me.”
- optimization4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 25 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's optimization mechanics encourage players to experiment with different monster girl combinations and battle positions for optimal performance. However, what initially appeared to be an engaging risk-vs-reward experience diminished as players uncovered the limitations of the game's systems, leading to a less compelling gameplay dynamic.
“The game heavily encourages you to experiment and find the best monster girls for your party and determine their optimal positions in battle for maximum effectiveness.”
“What initially seemed like a really fun, risk-vs-reward, push-your-luck experience, where you'd venture into dungeons with an unoptimized team to see how far you could progress, became less engaging as the game's systems unfolded.”
“What had - at first - seemed like a really fun, risk-vs-reward, push-your-luck kind of thing, where you'd go into dungeons with an unoptimized team and see how far you could get, became something far less interesting as the game's systems revealed themselves.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a mixed experience; while the money acquisition rate is considered fair and not overly tedious, the repetitive nature of the tasks can become tiresome.
“The current rate of money seems to be pretty good, not easy, but not tedious.”
“The back and forth gets tedious.”
- character development2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is largely dependent on the random artifacts players acquire during dungeons, limiting strategic choices and depth in character progression. This reliance on chance detracts from the overall experience, as players have little control over how their characters evolve.
“There's not really much room for strategy in each dungeon, especially given that your character development within the dungeon is shaped entirely by the random artifacts you receive.”
- story2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 100 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game currently features three dungeons along with an accompanying story, indicating a developing narrative that enhances the gameplay experience.
