If that’s what you look for in a game, Master of the Monster Lair is one of the best RPGs you could play. Otherwise this won’t be the next game you’ll want to master.

Whose Lair Is It Anyway!?

It’s yours and you are in charge. When monsters attempt to make it their home, the town’s cranky mayor asks for your help. Like any good Orkin man, you go down into this dark and dank dungeon with a talking shovel (doesn’t everyone have one of these?) and not a single piece of armor. You’re fighting bare-knuckled, but that’s alright: these monsters are as weak as they are ugly. It doesn’t take much work to send them into the next life. That is, assuming monsters have more than one…

This is one of the essential facets of Master of the Monster Lair. The second has you digging through the dungeon – which you’ll soon discover has more than one floor – via the removal of giant blocks (pieces of the dungeon). The all-knowledgeable talking shovel is limited to just 10 block removals per game day. To reset that number, exit the dungeon and go to sleep. In-game sleep, of course. Real sleep is for tired people, and we gamers never tire.

But do not sleep before eating a meal, which is the only way to level up your characters. Meals are comprised of ingredients that are purchased from a young salesgirl or items that are won by defeating monsters. Since the latter items are often more valuable (and more potent when leveling up), you will still, in a sense, grow stronger by battling often. However unique this system may appear (technically it’s not, as other RPGs have allowed you to level up by eating), it allows players to cheat very easily. If you have extra dough lying around – not a hard task considering the number of spare equipment you’ll gain and re-sell – purchase some food and spend 10 minutes eating and sleeping. Within minutes, your party is super-strong.

A look at the battle view; enemies on top, party stats (for Owen, Gloop and Kate, the main fighters) on the bottom.

Owen the Builder

The third process has you planting dozens of buildings (square areas that are the same size as each piece of the dungeon) to attract specific kinds of monsters to each level of the dungeon. The overall goal is to attract enough monsters to unlock the boss – a meaty, beastly creature that will likely overpower characters that haven’t been eating their spinach (which increases HP). Thus, it’s back to eating and sleeping until you can defeat the monster.

Buildings should be planted in a way that fosters the kinds of battles you wish to encounter. In my preview of the game, I reported that you needed to align three buildings in order to battle three monsters together. That’s true, but that report came at the advice of the talking shovel early on in the game and isn’t quite that simple. When a building is approached, its keeper (the monster) will run out to escape or attack. Most buildings have one entry/exit point, so they’re always going to come out of the same place every time, and they always run straight forward.

Thus, if you place three buildings in a row with each door facing in the same direction, you’ll end up fighting the monsters one-by-one. There’s no way to approach the monsters to make them all come out at once. But if you leave a space in between two buildings and angle both doors toward your character, the monsters will come out at the same time. To get a third monster to enter the fray, place the third building in between the first two and one row back, with the door pointed toward the opening. That way you still have the empty space to enter and can score a full-size battle. The reason being, of course, to gain items (three-monster battles drop items every time; one- or two-monster battles may not).

Combat also feels like a process, as you’ll go through the same few motions – attack, cast magic, use an item or try to run – in every battle. The turn-based setup and brief battle animations are well produced. There is nothing overly impressive to look at, but that’s typically the case for the best role-playing games. However, the battle’s pace is a tad sluggish; if your attack or item strikes three enemies simultaneously, the game takes forever to shift from each monster to the next. Once it shifts, the animation is quick. But the whole process is slow and will annoy most players – even those who love these kinds of games.

Plant this garden structure to attract specific monsters. No watering needed.

All of this is done to unlock the next level in the dungeon, followed by a repeat of the entire process. Incredibly, this is actually engaging. This game is far from spectacular. You might even grumble while playing it. But if you like the Harvest Moons of the world, games that demand your constant attention and are unexplainably rewarding for it, there is something special about Master of the Monster Lair.