Always... Sometimes... Monsters?

[garbed_attic]

So, Always Sometimes Monsters is a new game I bought from GOG and have just completed.

It looks like a later 1980s Japanese RPG... or else, just something knocked up on RPG Maker, which may actually be the truth. It's blocky and pretty ugly, though the locations seem convincing, as though they may have been based on real places the creators have visited. Basically, there's convincing clutter in the rooms and stray dogs in the street. The environments are bare-bones, but don't lack wholly in verisimilitude.

However, it's not a game worth playing for its graphics, but for its storytelling style. Simply, early on in the game you get to choose your character avatar, including their gender, sexuality and race, all of which affect how other characters treat you in the game - what kind of prejudice you'll encounter, that kind of thing. I think that's great as an empathy simulator and I like that it doesn't assume that the player is a white, straight dude.[nb]like me[/nb] I played as 'Minnie', a young lesbian of colour, who liked bad romance films and whose diet mostly consisted of bacon. Together we made bad decisions and took up boxing. The whole game is about bad decisions. Sometimes these choices are pretty superficial and the game has a slight cod-philosophical tone to proceedings, including a wholly unnecessary frame narrative.

But I really admire the ambition of the thing. It was weird and engrossing and its faults were mostly endearing. It felt a bit like a precious teenager, but one you were happy to accept a mix cd from. It's worth checking out, for the most part. I feel fond of it.

It would also make for some very funny 'Let's Play' videos. mad_hair could get on that.

Here it is:
http://www.gog.com/game/always_sometimes_monsters

[Mister Six]

Aye, I remember reading about this on RPS. Is there much of an overarcing plot/goal, or is it a bit less conventional than that?

[garbed_attic]

As far as I can tell there is an overarching plot, which was a little disappointing. To be fair though, it was made by a very small team and the game is pretty long - I can imagine it would have been too much work to have a truly bifurcated narrative. I'd guess I'd say it was an 'elastic narrative', that only truly splits at the end. In fact, the ending is really good, in as much as you can make bleak choices which still feel like you have accomplished a 'true ending' rather than just a 'bad end', as it were.

I would like to see something of this nature with lots of different narrative paths though. Like, a video game version of Kim Newman's Life's Lottery.