These Ideals are located in the Otherworld, a grim plane inhabited by daemons and where all of Monark’s battles take place. Each section of the story is built around a different party member, but their objectives are always the same: find all three of a Pactbearer’s Ideals (giant crystals that make up their inner self) and destroy them. The drawback, however, is that if this is used in the real world a mist will appear that will slowly drive people mad.īut even with those personal touches, Monark’s greatest sin is repetition. You take control of a Pactbearer: someone who has made a deal with an otherworldly daemon called a Monark that provides a unique power known as authority. Monark sets up a high-stakes story that takes place at Shin Mikado Academy, where a mysterious barrier looms over the school grounds and makes it impossible for anyone to leave. But Monark continuously trips over itself elsewhere due to a disjointed story, static puzzles, and repetitive level design that made staying interested a lot harder than it could have been. To its credit, it does introduce some fresh combat mechanics to an otherwise-straightforward tactical JRPG structure. Monark comes to us from Kazunari Suzuki, best known for his work on the Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei franchises, so it had a ton of potential. It’s always exciting to dive into a new JRPG from one of the genre's veterans at the helm.
