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Have you played Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom?

  • Yes

    Votes: 406 53.2%
  • No

    Votes: 261 34.2%
  • Thanks for reminding me I’ll do it now!

    Votes: 96 12.6%

  • Total voters
    763

squall23

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,771
I enjoyed it enough, although I'm never a huge fan of these games where the basic attack range is so short. Metroid has a gun and Castlevania at least gives you a whip. Strider despite using a sword has super long range which was good.
 

Fuzzy

Completely non-threatening
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
18,127
Toronto
I should! I've played some of them. First one back on C64, which was probably a crappy version but it was at least good enough that nostalgia hit me in Monster Boy with the relics and oh so lovely music. I've only finished Monster Boy, Dragon's Trap on Switch and a WB5 Monster World 3 on emulator using save states since I thought it was devilishly hard.
www.resetera.com

Wonder Boy -- What is the secret of your power??

First of all, some music for this post, I encourage you to read this topic while playing this song: Monster Boy just came out and is one of the very best games this year, but the casual fan might not know that Monster Boy is the 7th game in one of the longest running gaming series out there...
 

Gelf

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,294
It's on my Steam wishlist but I have been swamped with good metroidvanias lately. I have several in my library that I'm yet to play already.
 

PlayBee

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 8, 2017
5,530
I played a couple hours of this game and really did not enjoy it for some reason. I think the combat was putting me off. I generally love Metroidvanias
 

Eila

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,941
I will play it sometime. They took their sweet time getting the PC release out, and it was a bit expensive for me.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
Maybe I'm just not at the part where it gets really good yet or something.
It never stops progressing so I would say so, as long as you're not hating it my advice would be to keep going and see if it pulls you in a bit later on, maybe use a guide for a bit just to keep you pushing forward.
 

legend166

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,113
I'm in the middle of it now. It's okay? I guess pretty good?

I think I was thrown off by some of the praise from this place. I'd put Hollow Knight waaaaay above it for example.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
I enjoyed it enough, although I'm never a huge fan of these games where the basic attack range is so short. Metroid has a gun and Castlevania at least gives you a whip. Strider despite using a sword has super long range which was good.
You get ranged attacks too but I understand what you're saying. For me it's the different characters/forms that makes it so gloriously good, makes both traversal and attacks more varied, and it doesn't complicate things with a million buttons to press which is highly appreciated for an old fart like myself.
 

Naga

Alt account
Banned
Aug 29, 2019
7,850
I've played it, and while it's nice, I definitely wouldn't put it in a top 10 metroidvanias.
 

mindsale

Member
Oct 29, 2017
5,911
I enjoy the game but I wouldn't put it up there with Ori or Steamworld Dig 2 or anything.
 

Mbolibombo

Member
Oct 29, 2017
7,043
Nop! It's very much on my list.. I wanted a physical copy but as it wasnt released as one in Europe I was left dry. Importing games from the US to EU can be quite costly sadly.

Though, I am planning to get it digitally at some point.
 

Dogui

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,784
Brazil
Nope, but will do eventually.

I don't think Hollow Knight or Ori nearly represents what's great in the indie metroidvania scene tho. If anything, people seems to put them above the others purely by aesthetical reasons, and Monster Boy being so beautiful kinda makes me feel maybe it's the same case here.

But i will give it a fair chance eventually along with the entire series.
 

Ketchup

Member
Nov 5, 2017
170
It's a great game with some issues. It's length being one of them as whilst all the content is great it should have been about 1/3 shorter. Some of the puzzles and actions are too tight and cause multiple deaths and frustrations. It just needed a little bit of extra polish to remove these rough edges and problematic areas but 95% of it is great!
 

Malcolm9

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,040
UK
I managed to get all the animals forms and then I got stuck, I'm presuming near the end game, on the section with multiple lasers.

I've being meaning to go back but I don't know if I can be bothered. Personally I really enjoyed the game up until the mansion where it took a nose dive for me.
 

Another

Banned
Oct 23, 2019
1,684
Portugal
Big fan of the WB games since I was a kid so this is probably right up my alley and I would've played it already if it hadn't released at such a tone deaf prince point. Waiting on a deep discount before I take the plunge but it's inevitable!
 

Alienhated

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,527
I did.

It's a pretty good game, almost great, just not the most perfect thing ever as some people painted it when it came out.

Its first half it's almost flawless, but from the Volcano area on it becomes noticeably less polished and well thought up.
The Graveyard area can legitimately make people give up on the game entirely.

Also it's a good looking game for sure, even though i didn't like all those deformed animations going on in the stages.
I appreciate that they tried to make it anime style, but the final result was kinda inconsistent.
As a spiritual Wonder Boy game i thought it was nice but a bit too much focused on puzzle solving.
They filled it with all the fanservice they possibly could but still it lacks the soul of the original series in my opinion.

Overall it's probably the most purely fun and fast paced metroidvania game i've ever played and if you like the genre you should definitely play it.
 

monali

Member
Mar 8, 2020
513
Awesome game, it's more of a Zelda-like than metroidvania though, it has many dungeons with solid level design and ideas, big and connected world and many tools with great pacing, it has some backtracking but nothing of the like of metroid or castlvania.
 

Bulebule

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,803
It's one of my favourite metroidvanias but I didn't like the white tower puzzle and the prize was rather poor for being so obscure. Were there any hints in game? I believe all other puzzles had hints.
 

B. Spaceman

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
2,296
Spain
The soundtrack is amazing, and I love all the references to past Wonder Boy games






The game just has a really good vibe. Feels like a proper fun adventure
 
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Firebrand

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,709
Good game, personally don't think it reaches the heights of Dragon's Trap (especially) or Wonder Boy in Monster World, but well worth playing through. Main gripes would be some of the hit detection, the way it leans a bit too heavily into nostalgia, and the mixed quality of the character art.

Soundtrack has a few real earworms, and hearing some classic tracks redone by Yamane etc was a delight.
 

Alienhated

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,527
Lol I though I was the only one frustrated with this area, even the dungeon was pretty frustrating IIRC even though its design was good.
You're definitely not alone since it's the most criticized thing in the entire game.
We even had its original designer in the official thread replying to all the people that were angry about it, lol.
I heard they patched it in order to give players more hints about where to go/what to do though, so i don't know how it is now.

The soundtrack is amazing, and I love all the references to past Wonder Boy games

I loved the rearrangments but i found kinda disappointing that they gathered such a composer dream team only to not make them work to any original track.
 
Oct 28, 2019
5,973
Game is brilliant but somehow gave up at the Volcano level? Dunno, the difficulty spike felt too large for me to want to bother with it.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
I managed to get all the animals forms and then I got stuck, I'm presuming near the end game, on the section with multiple lasers.

I've being meaning to go back but I don't know if I can be bothered. Personally I really enjoyed the game up until the mansion where it took a nose dive for me.
Sounds like you're at the final stretch. Don't drop it now!
Do you have the gold sword?
If you do then just take it out and keep going and save the world!
If you don't then you need to back out there and search for the parts. You get the locations plotted at the map when looking at the stone map.
 

monali

Member
Mar 8, 2020
513
You're definitely not alone since it's the most criticized thing in the entire game.
We even had its original designer in the official thread replying to all the people that were angry about it, lol.
I heard they patched it in order to give players more hints about where to go/what to do though, so i don't know how it is now.



I loved the rearrangments but i found kinda disappointing that they gathered such a composer dream team only to not make them work to any original track.
Well I never visited the OT so I didn't know it was a common complaint, actually I loved how the game was vague in its objectives inside the dungeon, but my frustration was due to those ghost enemies (well all the enemies in this area were so annoying to be fair) and how much they respawn, they almost drive me crazy lol, the game some time feels like an NES game with some of its design which weird.
 

Post Reply

Member
Aug 1, 2018
4,507
For me personally, I wouldn't put this game in my top 5. It had a lot of potential and aesthetically I love the game, but once I reached the Volcano, I just started getting super annoyed with many aspects of it. Then, once I reached the haunted mansion, I realized I was just hate-playing the game and just wanted to get to the end as fast as possible.
 

Thomas Kern

Executive Producer at FDG Entertainment
Verified
Nov 7, 2017
224
Germany
It launched at a high price + ignored one of the most popular platforms for indie games for like half a year, it's not a wonder it doesn't have half the rep of similarly awesome games that are 10-25 dollars cheaper.

Still baffled they did an Xbox port before a Steam port, but at 40 bucks it likely wouldn't have done that well on PC at launch either I guess.

We didn't ignore the PC , we just didn't have enough resources to launch on 4 platforms at the same time. Xbox was included because when we submitted the project to Microsoft many years ago we agreed to same-day launch with other consoles. Microsoft did a great job at supporting our marketing efforts and they let us show the game on MS trade show booths. Once we launched the game around Christmas time, we started working on the PC port and it's not just a simple port. We have unlocked framerate and ultrawide monitor support. I don't know many 2D Games with this. See - we aimed to get the best version out for each platform. That goes from PC at 240fps and higher to Switch with 60fps docked/handheld mode at max resolution.
 

Thomas Kern

Executive Producer at FDG Entertainment
Verified
Nov 7, 2017
224
Germany
You're definitely not alone since it's the most criticized thing in the entire game.
We even had its original designer in the official thread replying to all the people that were angry about it, lol.
I heard they patched it in order to give players more hints about where to go/what to do though, so i don't know how it is now.

I loved the rearrangments but i found kinda disappointing that they gathered such a composer dream team only to not make them work to any original track.

Yes we patched it and I'm back once again, can't resist to check out Monster Boy threads! ;)
As for the composers dream team: Many many tracks are original compositions and not just re-arranges. Of over 60 tracks, around 30 are re-arranges.
 
Oct 25, 2017
2,644
This has been high on my wish list for a while. The price threshold now seems right with the 50% discounts on Switch in recent months, but I haven't been able to find the time, and it's one of several games of this genre (or cluster of genres) in my backlog that I want to spread throughout the year.

I never, ever trust the term Metroidvania these days with how liberally it gets applied to things that don't resemble the Metroid half at all, but there is a lot about this game that comes off to me as inherently appealing regardless of any nitpicking about genre taxonomies.

Awesome game, it's more of a Zelda-like than metroidvania though, it has many dungeons with solid level design and ideas, big and connected world and many tools with great pacing, it has some backtracking but nothing of the like of metroid or castlvania.

Thanks for this; from the sound of it, I should expect a flow and structure closer to something like, say, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. There really does need to be a better shorthand for side-view/2D games that have a Zelda-like puzzle-dungeon format; the kind of linearity or non-linearity and player progression in these games really doesn't strike me as Metroid-like at all.

Yes we patched it and I'm back once again, can't resist to check out Monster Boy threads! ;)
As for the composers dream team: Many many tracks are original compositions and not just re-arranges. Of over 60 tracks, around 30 are re-arranges.

Thanks for coming by with all the insight. Whenever I hear about developers patching something in response to player complaints about guidance or difficulty—yes, sometimes you look at that and you say, we should have done that differently—but if i'm coming in late as a player, it always leaves me curious about how things played out in their original form. But that's because I often find myself on the unpopular side of arguments about whether hints, additional checkpoints, and the like are really needed.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Oct 27, 2017
9,003
Thank you very much! Also to everyone who played it! ^_^
Thank You and the whole team for making such a brilliant game! It really shows that you were having fun making it, the late game craziness and the cellar had me grinning like a kid from nostalgic overdose! Just awesome! =)
 
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Tomasdk

Banned
Apr 18, 2018
910
I love metroidvania games but I ragequit this one a few hours into it. Something just doesn't click with me, I find the gameplay quite bad, maybe because of the form the game forced me into that is pretty useless for combat that plays terribly. Maybe I could try to go back and continue sometime.
 

Piston

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,155
Need to beat this Game but the haunted Mansion level turned me off for some reason
The game is great but that Mansion goes on forever and really kills momentum. It isn't obvious on where to go or what to do at multiple points and it is a huge place to backtrack through. Overall I'd still give the game an 8/10, a lot of things are done really well.
 

Łazy

Member
Nov 1, 2017
5,249
Surely you can just come back and look for chests you missed ?
Or it doesn't feel so metroidvania.
 

Thomas Kern

Executive Producer at FDG Entertainment
Verified
Nov 7, 2017
224
Germany
Thanks for this; from the sound of it, I should expect a flow and structure closer to something like, say, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. There really does need to be a better shorthand for side-view/2D games that have a Zelda-like puzzle-dungeon format; the kind of linearity or non-linearity and player progression in these games really doesn't strike me as Metroid-like at all.



Thanks for coming by with all the insight. Whenever I hear about developers patching something in response to player complaints about guidance or difficulty—yes, sometimes you look at that and you say, we should have done that differently—but if i'm coming in late as a player, it always leaves me curious about how things played out in their original form. But that's because I often find myself on the unpopular side of arguments about whether hints, additional checkpoints, and the like are really needed.

I would agree to call it a mix of Zelda and Metroidvania, going further than Shantae games. Zelda, because of the typical Zelda-like puzzles for traversal and during Bossfights. Comparing it with Shantae: In Shantae, the islands or stages aren't interconnected whereas Monster Boy has a completely interconnected world design and map. Just like classic Metroid and games like Castlevania Symphony of the Night.

As for the gameplay related patches: We made very small changes to not change the overall intention of the levels. It's basically 2 information markers on the map and a little more HP reload on small save spots starting in the volcano. We also made very little changes to a secret and a set of equipment..
 

Thomas Kern

Executive Producer at FDG Entertainment
Verified
Nov 7, 2017
224
Germany
Thank You and the whole team for making such a brilliant game! It really shows that were having fun making it, the late game craziness and the cellar had me grinning like a kid from nostalgic overdose! Just awesome! =)
Thanks a lot! Happy to hear that and we really had a great time making this game and we're very proud of the game
 

noyram23

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
9,372
It's $14.99 on Steam and GOG at the moment so if you have a PC..jump in! ;)
I'm planning to get it in PS4 since im planning platinum it, last time I checked it was 20 there. I'll probably get it but im a bit worried it will be a lot less when i'll finally be able to play it (tackling backlog) but oh well great game deserve a buy outright