Always Sometimes Monsters (ASM) is a romantic role-playing game developed by Vagabond Dog, a small independent studio based in Toronto, on RPG Maker and edited by Return number for PC (via Steam). Its rather retro style and its level of accessibility (a lot of text in English) does not really make it an easy game to access, but once the first beginnings were passed and accepted, I left to live my adventure.
The pitch
Like The Walking Dead or other recently released games, Always Sometimes Monsters (ASM) offers the player a multiple choice story. However, compared to these illustrious competitors in the field, the all-pixel graphic choice makes it possible to multiply to infinity, or almost, the crucial choices and therefore to take each player on a truly personal adventure. Decisions are therefore often difficult to take and assume. Each decision can make your character evolve more or less socially but also can transform the gameplay by making it more or less difficult. It's up to you to decide….
Un peu the Gameplay
ASM's main game mode consists of lots of reading, lifestyle choices, and a few mini-games to spice it up. You will therefore spend most of your game chatting with people to learn more about them but also especially about you.
The main character, whose gender, physique, name and sexual orientation you will have previously chosen, is a broke writer, single and sad to have been dumped. Incidentally, he has no more a penny and is psychologically at the bottom of the hole. In short, everything is fine and in the end everything could only get better. Well no, late rents catch up with you very quickly and you find yourself thrown out by your (ex) landlord. Suddenly, the first few days put you in the shoes of a homeless man who must survive in an urban environment in order to get by. From this moment on, you will have to make the best use of your time to move forward. Conventionally, you have a limited number of actions per day which is itself separated into 3 sections (2 sections of days and night) but unlimited movements on the other hand. Each action, such as working, completing a main or secondary quest, uses up part of the available time. You will also need to find food and drink and a place to sleep. You should therefore not waste too much time in unnecessary actions if you want to evolve positively in the game because ultimately, the worst is yet to come when you receive an invitation to the wedding from your ex, the love of your life ...
As you progress in the game, you quickly realize that the choices are really very difficult to take but also of a rare perversity. What are you willing to do to make money, to win back lost love, to save the people you love, to actually live? There are always negative consequences for even the most positive choices, and job choices that bring in a lot of money inevitably have big social disadvantages. It is indeed almost impossible to satisfy everyone but especially not to involve anyone in their choices. In this, the game is a real achievement as a mirror of real life.
In this adventure, a lot of things happened to me, I got lost, I also found myself, I helped people, I betrayed some, I evolved a lot but ultimately not that much. I almost starved to death, but finally got off the street with some difficulty. I have been confronted with electoral fraud, corruption and drugs. Finally, everything is so possible and different with each game according to your own choices that you can make your adventure what you want even so often, as in life, the game can sometimes send you to the ropes and quickly knock you out. . I won't tell you where the game ultimately took me because I couldn't do it without telling you a part of the story that is important to discover while playing. In any case, it was a somewhat traumatic experience that may have avoided a lot of psych sessions ...
Little game guide
Each adventure is really personal, for once it will not be a guide but rather game tips:
- Let yourself be carried away by your choices, it is also the way to get to know yourself better
- Try to make choices that are contrary to your habits (yes, it is contradictory ...) so that you may get lost on a less well-known path.
My opinion
- Huge potential and therefore fairly strong replayability.
- Several (almost) free shrink sessions.
- A fantastic musical composition.
- Very limited graphics.
- Only in English.
- The game is played on too small a screen.
In Always Sometimes Monsters, I was confronted with the worst and the best of the human being but also of the game. Indeed, in spite of very good times spent making choices, assuming them and often regretting them, I had to constantly struggling and wasting time understanding what was being offered to me. Suddenly, I improved my English but it was not necessarily my primary objective. Suddenly, I strongly advise anglophobes against this game with millions of untranslated lines of text. However, I think that if we are not too careful about the graphics and the interface which are clearly to be reviewed and that we have a minimum level in English, we will appreciate the history and the varied possibilities offered by the adventure.
