Anything with Skullgirls creator and character designer Alex Ahad attached is bound to be filled with cute monster girls, and that's definitely the case with Miss Monster: Bound By Fate, a Pokemon and EarthBound-inspired turn-based RPG where you recruit and battle with over 120 monster girls and guys.
I say recruit, but developer Squidbat goes all-in on Miss Monster's Kickstarter campaign, which has more than doubled its $15,000 goal in a few days. "A monster girl (and guy!) catching game where you can really get to know your monsters!" it says. When the dev says "really get to know," they mean really get to know based on the "Dating?!" subsection of the Kickstarter.
"You can't trust a stranger to watch your back, right? Get to know your monsters in a one-on-one setting," it reads. "Bond with them, and they might be willing to fight that much harder for you! Each character has a unique, interesting perspective on the world. You'll have to be careful not to upset them with something you say. But, maybe if you spend enough time with one of your friends, you could take things to the next level...?"
I'm not totally clear on the practical or in-universe ethics of "catching," battling, and flirting with demonstrably intelligent beings who are technically only half-monsters known as Quelaga. "Most humans are distrustful of them, seeing them as little more than beasts, but you know better than that. They're every bit as intelligent as humans!" Squidbat says, leaving no room for doubt. There's an oddly grisly section in the trailer, too, but several Japanese games and anime have certainly gotten away with weirder ideas than this California-based studio startup.
Much of the art for Miss Monster is currently unfinished, but the character designs, headed up by Ahad, who was joined by the likes of crybringer and Alex Griffith, have clear Skullgirls energy. Your childhood friend is a slime girl named Magnolia and one of the physical rewards is an NSFW 3D mousepad of her – I reckon the devs and artists know exactly what they're doing. That said, there is notably no indication that this is a true, R18, capital-A Adult game.
"I did designs for this project, and you can expect to see more if this is successfully funded," Ahad said on Twitter.
Squidbat is shooting for over 120 "distinct species" of Quelaga, with 14 types (105 type combinations) between them. This includes Pokemon staples like Fire, Water, and Poison, as well as more fantastical ones such as Magic, Beast, and Brutality. Type matchups allow for double, halved, or nullified damage just as they do in Pokemon, though I don't see any 4x double weaknesses on the type chart. Specific Quelaga types also wield overworld abilities that you can use to clear a path during exploration, echoing the Rock Smash-type obstacles of many Pokemon games.
Miss Monster is billed as a turn-based RPG with options for active turn-based (that is, cooldown-based) combat, with up to four mons in your party and up to eight enemies on the field. The promise is a "35+ hour base campaign" with side and post-game content that can fuel "well over 130 hours total" for completionists. I'm particularly intrigued by the game's "Mystery Mirage," which sounds like a built-in randomizer: "The walls are always shifting, creating new, unique layouts every run through!"
Speaking of which, the first, already complete stretch goal includes a Nuzlocke mode for hardcore players, enabling the fan-made permadeath runs popularized in Pokemon games. Squidbat doubles down in the also-complete randomizer and speedrun stretch goal, promising procedural teams, monsters, and item placement as well as support for speedrun categories "as they develop in the community." It's a nifty acknowledgement of the way that a non-trivial number of modern Pokemon players actually experience the games, which can be a bit boring to some without tacking on extra challenges and restrictions.
Ahad's fame aside, the studio says it is "comprised of veterans in the industry, poised and ready to deliver a fresh, new experience." It turned to Kickstarter for its debut game because the model enables community involvement and, it argues, because "going through a traditional publisher deal results in losing creative control of the game, meaning they can insist on things that would end up hurting the final product." Squidbat adds that "we're passionate enough that we've already sunk around $25,000 of our own money into development."
The estimated delivery date on Kickstarter is December 2028, which is the closest thing we have to a release date for this game right now. Miss Monster is targeting PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
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