For one, it’s got a 30-year history, unlike most of the games I’ve reviewed, and two, the art style gave me the faintest feeling of something from Studio Ghibli with its anime-esque look and vibrant colors. Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World, published by Studioartdink and developed by Monkey Craft, is an action/role-playing 3D side scroller with elements of exploration and upgradeable weapons, a sassy genie in a lamp, and a rather adorable creature called a Pepelogoo which turns out to be a vital tool for Asha to progress on her journey.Īsha is a bright-eyed, green-haired, young warrior dressed in Arabian-styled nomadic clothing. As she embarks on her journey to become a true warrior she learns that ancient spirits necessary for the balance of the world have suddenly gone missing and it’s up to Asha (of course!) to recover these spirits from the clutches of something sinister.

Armed with her faithful companion Pepelogoo and a magical genie in a lamp they’ll have to venture through portals to vastly different environments and face enemies to save the spirits of the land. The gameplay in Asha in Monster World is rather simple. Asha has a forward, upward, and downward slash attack with her sword, and an empowered attack for more damage and a basic jump. Her repertoire of skills enhances when she partners with her Pepelogoo which gives her a “glide” jump, a double jump as well as a bunch of utility options like reaching far away levers or interacting with environment puzzles to help Asha reach places she wouldn’t otherwise be able to. There are also environment puzzles beyond this like getting keys to open doors which will have you backtracking which is fine, at first. However, the game doesn’t really give you a sense of direction and because everything looks quite similar it can be a little confusing as to where it is you need to go.įor instance, the Genie serves as a teleporter back to a general safe hub area. After defeating what I thought was a boss, I opened my treasure chest and figured I needed to go back to talk to a quest-giving character to possibly progress the story. Upon teleporting all the way out of the dungeon, and talking to said character, it triggered absolutely nothing. So I had to tread back to the same dungeon area, retrace every step, get back to the “boss” area (which was only a mini-boss) and continue on. The game also doesn’t autosave, which harkens back to the days of old, making sure you save your progress frequently, lest you find yourself rage quitting or begrudgingly having to redo the same gameplay session over again.Īnother little peeve I had was about the very few tips on what your companion Pepelogoo can do. I encountered several different game mechanics where I was just utterly confused. WONDERBOY IN MONSTER WORLD CHARMSTONE LOCATIONS FREEĪs a gamer, I know to look for certain cues, but I was still aimlessly pressing different buttons or backtracking until finally something worked.

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