Monster Slayers: Who doesn’t love a good hat? Also killin’ stuff

While the Patapon PSP games were not huge successes, they did inspire a huge wave of games with a similar concept: side scrolling army combat. Monster Slayers is one of many games that takes the concept, does away with the musical aspect that made Patapon notable, and adds its own features. Though some of these games fall flat on their faces, Monster Slayers does a good job of adapting it to its own style and being a fun and all-around addictive game.

Hooray for hats! 

Fighting, job classes, magic, and hats are all things that gamers tend to like. These are the things video games are made of! And Monster Slayers has all four. You create a five man army out of your choice of four base job classes, then you go fight stuff, cast magic, and get hats. What more could you possibly want? A story? Pfft.

This game has class (and hats)

The customization is the main draw to the game. From the four base classes are twenty sub-classes, each one with its own strengths and uses. The amount of sub-classes means every army is unique, and the fact that you can equip hats to each of your units to further boost their stats is just a bonus. Some hats benefit some classes more than others. It’s not really a good idea to give a ninja mask (+15% attack speed) to your priest. You just have to think about who is going to be wearing which hat.

The actual gameplay involves controlling your army as it marches toward its goal. You control it by giving it one of four commands: Quick march, defend, attack, or fall back. You quick march to progress, attack when you want to put out the most damage, defend when you’re being conservative with your HP, and fall back when things are getting too tough to handle. You can’t flee the battlefield, but you can back up and try to recuperate. There is also magic available to you via summoning back at base camp. This gives you a one-time use spell to use in battle.

Oh yeah, there’s also quests

Perhaps what I like because about Monster Slayers (outside of character customization) is the abundance of quests to complete. Some of them progress the story, while others give you more gold or hats. You rarely (if ever) do the same quest twice for gold since there are several options to choose from. With that said, every quest is in fact just marching in one direction and directing your army. But hey, at least the scenery is different!

There really isn’t anything groundbreaking in Monster Slayers — it really is like a non-musical version of Patapon — but it is a staple of the genre because of the customization options and how simple it really is. These types of games are getting increasingly popular, and in many ways this older title is better than many of the newer games in the same genre.