More than just a Metroidvania-Zelda?

Clara wakes up to a phone that isn’t hers. On it, she finds a perplexing message left by a hacker named the God of Binary, stating that her time left in this world is short. Her only clue is a series of encrypted messages locked on the device – and a mysterious new friend who woke up to a phone that wasn’t his. Monospaced Lovers is a semi-hardcore platform-adventure game that defies the traditional Metroidvania formula. The game features exploration-driven gameplay reminiscent of classic Zelda, combined with a visual novel-inspired storyline that’s equal parts emotional and philosophical. The game strives to be original – a novel experience that’s more than a mashup of two existing genres.

Monospaced Lovers isn’t your typical platformer or adventure title. It feels like it takes its inspiration from the likes of Metroid, Castlevania and Zelda, but there’s more to it than that. It also has bullet-hell bosses, so prepare for that.

You’ll need to solve a number of puzzles at the beginning before you can even translate what the slime creatures are saying. There are a nice number of quests, over 60 collectibles to track down all within a nice visual-novel appearance. The puzzles are well thought out and you’ll be going back and forth trying to unlock new areas or find new items in true Metroidvania fashion.

The design is impressive overall with its visual-novel art style, but the actual level design is also pretty good. I enjoyed my time throughout the game and didn’t experience any glitches through my playthrough. The music also has some great tracks that capture the atmosphere well overall.

The Verdict

Monospaced Lovers is a nice mixture of ideas and genres, but it has its own identity in the middle of it. They’ve done well to establish this and with some clever level design, interesting characters and decent gameplay, its well worth a look.

Score: 8.0

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co