Monster Loves You Too! Review – Growing up Gnarly

Monster Loves you Too! opens to a sea of green goo that reminds me of the cell stage in the game Spore. We (the adventure’s protagonist) slowly become conscious of ourselves and the desire to eat everything around us — as well as the craving everything else has to eat us right back. Stealing a nibble on another newborn and swiftly avoiding being eaten myself, something pulls me from the goo, jumpstarting the brutal game of life as depicted in Monster Loves You Too!

Stealing another grub from the vat of goo after specifically being told not to, I was quickly told the realities of monster life as my new best friend knew them. First of all, the fact that I was a vat-grown monster with ravenous hunger was explained, but it went in one ear and out the other because it was pretty obvious at this point. The second I was given the option to fish for newborns for a quick snack, it was clear that this would be a game of ruthless survivalists in a cave full of wretched creatures.

As my buddy led me to our supposed master, who used violence and food to bribe my feeble form into servitude, the more nuanced aspects of monster life became clear to me, and I couldn’t help but smile ear to ear when I realized the direction the game was going.

See, Monster Loves You Too! is a text-based adventure with some phenomenally grungy art to help paint the picture of the gross, trashy monster pit you’re in. A series of player-selected prompts drive the story forward and steer you away, or towards, your overwhelming monster instincts. Not every decision gets to be made for free, however, and how you play your monster rewards you with some special resources used to resist becoming an utterly feral mess.

Brains, Flesh, and Guts are the three main attributes that make up a great monster. Brains, the most self-explanatory of the bunch, are used to sit back and think before just diving tooth and claw first into a problem. Flesh is your health, which is needed to remain strong and healthy. Because some monsters are naturally docile to bigger and more fearsome monsters, Guts is your ability to maintain your cool and stand up to the bigger, meaner threats.

Each attribute is displayed as a currency, and certain actions, such as standing up to a monster that wants to bully you into submission or stopping yourself from devouring a sleeping friend, require you to spend a point of these attributes.

The opposite of these attributes is your flaws, which actively lock out your attributes and raise them when you don’t, or can’t, use them. Docility, Greed, and Malice are all natural and common flaws in monsters, and as Docility and Greed rise they can lock you out of making decisions that require Guts or Brains, respectively. Malice is the most unique of the bunch, as when it rises, it can force you to take increasingly monstrous and cruel actions.

Restoring your attributes and increasing your max amount of each while lowering your flaws is how the game challenges you and forces you to play the balancing act between kindness, common sense, and the gritty survival of the fittest society that is monsterdom.

Using guts and brains can help you out of a serious jam, but if you run low or even out of your natural resources, you can find yourself hung up on later problems. Taking an opportunity to rest and feed can restore your attributes, but the biggest bounties always come at the cost of being a nasty little monster, often raising your flaws and taking advantage of or even hurting your would-be friends.

Having these attributes in bulk does not give you a series of get-out-of-jail-free cards, though. Just because something is using brains or guts does not mean it’s the correct decision, and you still have to pay attention to what you’re reading and decide if the option you’re choosing is the best. I always found it funny when a Brains decision ended up being my monster overthinking, thinking something incredibly complicated was about to happen, only to have a rock thrown at his head.

I LOVE this system. I like that not only are choices locked behind diminishable resources, keeping you from just making the best decision every time, but giving into your monstery vice forces you to play differently. Sometimes, I wanted to help my monsterling companions, but due to my rising malice, I simply teased or even attacked them. This is a great way to simulate the brutal and instinctually cruel nature of the monsters the game wants to express. If even you, the player, are not totally immune to these instincts, they must be powerful and dangerous compulsions.

The story, for the most part, is really good and full of some good twists and misdirections I wasn’t expecting. This is especially so for the main character, the building blocks established early. However, the game is jam-packed with what feels like filler designed to drain away your resources.

These filler segments are made a little more grueling when the monsters ramble on and on, only for you to realize they aren’t really saying anything. Perhaps it was some translation errors or some clever comedy that just went right over my head, but there are plenty of points in the game where the monsters around me will simply talk and talk and talk, and by the time I finish reading all of the text, I realize I have no clue what is going on, or that the game just gave me ten minutes of dialogue for the monsters to come to a conclusion that should have taken them two or three.

I’m still unsure if I was the problem, and there was even a bit about bell curves that felt like it simply went over my head.

There were plenty of on-and-off-again moments where a character’s intentions were completely misinterpreted, or I had my monster do something that utterly ruined his day, not fully understanding what the prompt asked of me. This was at its worst in the combat segments. This didn’t happen all the time, mind you, but there were times when I couldn’t totally understand what was being described in the text about a monster’s attack or my options to counter it. This is a particularly dangerous time not to know what’s going on, as picking the wrong move could see my monster getting seriously roughed up.

Monster Loves You Too! offers a captivating and immersive experience that delves into monsterdom’s gritty and instinctually cruel nature. The text-based adventure, enriched by grungy pop-up-book art, unfolds a narrative driven by the player’s choices, constrained by the dynamic interplay of attributes and flaws developed based on how you play the game. This intricate system challenges players to balance survival instincts, kindness, and common sense.

While generally engaging with unexpected twists, the story is somewhat marred by filler segments that, at times, can be verbose and challenging to follow. That being said, the struggle to survive and overcome your inner beast is captivating, and the game is full of interesting characters and fun plot points, even if the progression can be a bit muddled and confusing.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a PC review copy of this game. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Monster Loves You Too! is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and IOS.