Always Sometimes Monsters

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

Always Sometimes Monsters is a Graphic Adventure released on PC in 2014, ported to mobile devices in 2015, then to PlayStation 4 in 2017, and to Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game puts players in the role of a struggling artist trying to make ends meet while dealing with the fallout of a broken past relationship while also maintaining current relationships.

One of the biggest elements in Always Sometimes Monsters is choice, and players will be faced with many throughout the course of the game that will make them stop and think about potential repercussions, ethical considerations, and the basic human needs of your character. Do you take a job helping an old friend put on a concert, or do you help your elderly neighbor clean up her place? Do you tell your friend the truth about his toxic ex showing up, or do you hide it for his sake? Do you steal money and risk getting caught, or do you resign yourself to being broke and sleeping on the streets? The choices here aren’t always necessarily so easy to see a “right” and “wrong” answer to, and players may want to play through multiple times to see how different choices work out.

The presentation here is not great – this game was clearly created with something like RPG Maker, with unimpressive-looking pixel art visuals. The character art is at least decent, but there’s nothing very compelling here, and at times it’s difficult to get a feeling for what characters are doing just from looking. These visuals are backed by a forgettable synthesized soundtrack. At the very least the writing here is fairly decent, at least.

Well, but that does lead to one of my first issues with the game – while you do encounter a lot of choices throughout the course of the estimated 9-10 hours or so it takes to complete the game, these choices are nearly always binary, and much of the time neither choice you’re given seems great. Your character will often have two rude responses to a character when you may prefer to be diplomatic, or have two responses that seem to be varying degrees of “maybe”.

Another issue I have is that these choices often appear without any notice, and don’t require additional conversation, meaning you could be tapping a button to clear out a text box you’ve read and unintentionally make a choice you didn’t realize you were being given until it’s too late. Also, I have to mention that the walk speed in this game is on the slow side, there’s no run button, and pressing a button to bring up the menu takes far longer than it should.

In the end, I really like the premise of Always Sometimes Monsters, and I think it’s great when a Graphic Adventure or Visual Novel gives players real, tough choices to make. But unfortunately the execution here is pretty terrible. The presentation is shoddy, there are control issues that affect the gameplay, and while the game gives players lots of meaningful choices, some of those choices don’t give players enough options. If you’re looking for a Graphic Adventure with a contemporary story, this game still may be worth trying, but be aware that it has a lot of rough edges.

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tl;dr – Always Sometimes Monsters is a Graphic Adventure about a starving artist dealing with money issues, a past relationship that still haunts them, and trying to make numerous ethical choices in a difficult situation. While it’s a great premise, the execution is pretty terrible, with an underwhelming presentation, control issues, and with not all of your choices giving players good options to choose from. The game’s theme still may make this worth a look, but you have to put up with quite a few frustrations to enjoy it.

Grade: C

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