Forgotten Games: Monstania - SNESdrunk 

As a grown ass adult, I've come to really appreciate short games. The combat looks like they mixed and simplified roguelike and tactical RPG systems. Gonna check this out!

It’s folks like Aeon Genesis that’ll make sure you’ll keep going for a long while.

A 4 hour RPG sounds like exactly what I need.

It blows my mind that I've been playing the SNES since launch, emulating unreleased and obscure games over the past 20~ years, and there's STILL games I've never played or even heard of that look quite good that somehow escaped my radar. I think the SNES is one of the best video game entertainment systems ever created, even 30 years later.

Ironically, I was ambivalent on this game UNTIL you said it was "only 4 hours". I play so many 30-50 hour epics that a bite-sized one-and-done RPG is actually precious, precious mana to me.

Total length of video: 355 secs. Total length of "SNES Drunk": 4.5 secs. 1.27% of the video was spent listening to "SNES Drunk".

Never heard of this one. I love how this channel constantly digs up so many games from the classic era that I not only missed out on playing (hardly an uncommon occurence back in the 90s as an Australian PAL gamer, who got shortchanged on releases even more than the other PAL regions), but never even heard of in all the years since following the rise of the internet.

The art style is GORGEOUS!!! that’s what I call originality! games like: this, mario rpg, yoshis island, spike mc fang , doremi fantasy , kirby, parodius and so on are what get me hyped up when it comes to graphics

I could see the Harvest Moon influence almost immediately. Nice find, always love finding hidden gems on this channel! And that soundtrack sounds killer!

The "enemies take turns after you do" looks like the same roguelite design in Torneko's mystery dungeon or Shiren the Wanderer. Just without the randomization.

I appreciate the little segments of "music only" at the end of each vid.

I remember you covered this game briefly in your SFC RPG series. I played it any way I could and enjoyed it quite a bit. Did not realize the composer of Grandia also scored this game. Pretty cool early tactical RPG for the system.

Please keep the translated games coming. We missed out on a ton of great 16 bit games.

Your videos are an awesome way for me to start day dreaming at work, about grinding on my favorite games.

Hey SNESDrunk, just wanted to say I love your videos and appreciate you consistently putting out quality content. Keep doing what you’re doing!!

Love this game, glad to see you cover it. It's often on hidden gem lists as a fun beginner tactical RPG.

Wow, surprised never heard of this. Man, SNES is one deep console. I dunno what all you'll dig up if you decide on tackling PS1 and PS2 games, who also have some fascinating obscurities.

I've been watching your videos for a while and while I do think at times "There can't be much more that he can cover that hasn't been done to death" but I am pleasantly proven wrong. Keep it up, I love the run-and-gun nature of the videos, short, full of gameplay, fun tidbits of info and perfectly timed for getting to and from work.

I see the amount of areas, environments and characters featured in your gameplay and I just can't believe it's just 4 hours for a playthrough!! At least I know that with my glacial pace caused by speaking to every NPC and checking every corner of every map I can get a couple hours more out of this ^^

A SNES Azure Dreams-esque game that I had never heard of?!?!? Azure Dreams is one of my favorite PS1 games so thank you so much for bringing this game to your channel!

Literally never heard of this game in my life, it does look like it’s of interest to me and given the translation patch it may be something I should be getting on at some point! Now if only I could get more time 😄

Good, good! Embrace the RPG Spectrum! Also, maybe I ought to check this one out! Looks neat!

wow, this looks absolutely fantastic. Landstalker/Alundra visuals with a Grandia-esque soundtrack, and a cheerful simplicity/length that looks like maybe Final Fantasy Mystic Quest done right?

"The soundtrack was by Noriyuke Iwadare, of Lunar and Grandia fame." And Space Invaders '91! ...what? It's a really good soundtrack!

Looks adorable tbh, I dont mind linear games at times, its relaxing

I started watching your channel in 2018 when I was looking for JRPGs and other great games to add to my SNES classics (you have good taste btw) But I find your intro, voice and videos now extremely nostalgic even though it hasn't been that long and also soothing. Thank you. You made my day better.

The combat looks like they wanted to make it less like a RPG and more like a puzzle game. Quite interesting.

Awesome! I've actually never heard about/seen anything about this one. Thanks for putting another on my radar.

Snesdrunk, did you know that there is an Azure Dreams for the Game Boy Color system as well? It is in fact the refined version of the PS1 albeit in the portable format. I'd be happy to see your thoughts about it! :) As for this game? It reminds me of Sega Genesis Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole. Thank you for the video and see you at the next one! :D

03:14 He mentioned Azure Dreams for Playstation. Solid game. Played it a lot when I was a kid! ❤️

Nightmare of Druaga for PS2 improves on this style of game and makes it far more strategic in doing so. Basically, they indicate whether you or other monsters are faster by putting blue glowing indicator under the character who's attack will beat a red character's attack speed-wise. This speed also translates into movement. For instance, if you have red under you and an enemy one square away is sure to move one square toward you, you can attack the square you predict they'll move to and even though all the animation happens at once like these other games, there's a clear order of actions and pecking order...so in that 'attack where you think they'll move' example, it will look like they walked right into your attack and got damaged. But if the player glowed blue and the enemy in red in the same starting positions and the player correctly predicted the enemy's movement, their attack would miss because it technically was in that square before the enemy was. It's really fun and at times can feel like a real time game, but then just not moving at all, you can think about your next strategy. Anyway, Nightmare of Druaga. It's a roguelike and will yell at you damn near 20 minutes for save scumming as punishment. Very fun stuff.

Never heard of this, but it looks amazing. At this point I'm mostly looking for shorter adventures, so this is perfect.

The enemy movement in this, like Azure Dreams, reminds me of rhythm games like Technodancer and Cadence of Hyrule. Even without the metronome, still feels rhythmic. Another cool game I never knew existed.

Woooo snesdrunk and a new chrontendo episide. It is a good day.

This was the first import/fan translation game I ever played. Aeon Genesis used to have an ancient patch, and I think he came back and updated this one. I enjoyed it at the time, but beat it in probably 4-5 hours and was surprised how fast it was over. It some really good ideas and polish, and some weird difficulty spikes. I remember being stuck on the sea slugs for longer than anything else in this game. Great to see it covered. Also nice to see someone mention Azure Dreams as well. I had that one growing up in a time where absolutely no one else did.

Superderek reference brought me here. Loving the retrogaming shared universe

Man, a short, linear, story focused + shiren the wanderer and tactical RPG? That sounds exactly like the perfect game for me! Now only the characters can make or break this and I'll discover playing it. Awesome video as always!

I keep my own “chill-bit” music playlist going on YT, and I must have added atleast HALF of the Monstania OST to it. It’s so good!

Damn, your channel blew up! I’m glad you’re excelling and still working your magic for SNES games/hidden gems. Great work!

I've never heard of this one, but it looks great! The US missed out on a lot of great 16-bit games! It is great that we can finally play some of these games now with translation patches. I don't mind a shorter game if it at least was fun. It is usually when a game lasts like 50+ hours and drags on with too much with lots of gratuitous padding that usually kills my enjoyment.

I would loved this back in the day. It reminds me of Shining Force with Illusion of Gaia graphics.

Dude, this is like FFTA meets The Mystery Dungeon games. So glad you showed this off, right up my street.

4 hours?!?!?! Holy crap, i honestly didn't even know they made RPG's that short. Thats crazy! great vid!

Bascially a rogue-like/mystery dungeon but you're moving multiple party members separate from each other.

Monstania is a game I got anyway I can years ago but still haven't played it. Hearing it's short will get me to try it sooner then later.

The Noriyuki Iwadare soundtrack was the reason I got into this game (because he also did the soundtrack to some of the Langrisser and Growlanser games, but also the Ace Attorney series games) though. I first played this game years ago actually. Amccus (the developers of Super Momotaro Dentetsu and Harvest Moon developed this game btw.

It baffles me how many (commercial) games there are still that I haven't heard of (and I'm almost 40 years old, played my whole life and most of the systems and watched probably thousands of retro game videos on RU-vid). Especially Japan seems like a bottomless source of content.

This is turn-based combat from roguelike games (real roguelikes, not what is being called roguelike today). If you played Rogue, Nethack, Angband, ADOM on PC, very familiar, except 10 times simpler. The only twist is controlling two characters at once.

This should have been released stateside..would have been a nice companion piece to ogre battle...but mechanics wise, sounds more like Vandal Hearts with its pre-determined stuff (although VH had item shops) and enemies moving when you move...*goes to khinsider to browse the soundtrack*

The short length sounds like a positive to me, been so busy with school stuff I haven't had time to play any super long games so some obscure JRPG that's relatively short sounds appealing right about now

Yeah, there are so many interesting games on SNES. And so many still untranslated. Maybe not all of them are worth it, but it would be so nice if we could finally play all those games we tried in our youth but couldn't get into

Thanks for the rec! Game looks really neat!

As a kid that didn't know english at all, I remember playing this one back in the day because for whatever reason, there was a translation to my language of this game. It was incomplete so I remember not being able to finish, but boy I loved that game.

Looks amazing! Can't wait to try it! Thanks so much for reviewing!

Man this dude has been dropping fire for years now! Hope you and Clyde T. Dog are well!

Noriyuki Iwadare also did the soundtracks to a few Ace Attorney games, man's got some pretty solid composing chops for sure

Looks dope! And that song at the end is badass

There is a game called Day of the idea It's JRPG at it's finest It's a rare game I remember I played in Japans over 25 years ago and all I remember is I had fun while playing it

I'll take short and sweet over hundreds of hours of level grinding like a Persona or Final Fantasy game. Your even vocal delivery and smooth editing are a soothing balm.

this channel is an essential historical archive

It's 4AM and SD just posted. Good thing I got up to pee.. 😅

It seems like this is the first SNES/Famicom game on this channel in a while that actually looks fun.

Holy crapola! I haven’t thought about this game in ages. I feel like it could’ve had at least a cult following if it launched in the US/PAL regions. It definitely hits those Shiren/Mysterious Dungeon/Azure Dreams vibes. Thanks for covering it and showing it some love!

Can't say I've heard of this one before. Looks up my alley, so I'll be giving it a shot... any way I can.

Isn't it funny how much more versatile the system could have been if they would have ported stuff like this to the EU and US? It could've changed games as we know it! Thank buddy, nice video!

Never heard of this before but this looks great and definitely like something I'd enjoy. Can't wait to check it out.

This looks reeeeaaaalll good. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Wow, so beautiful graphics!!

Thank you for covering this. So many memories...😂❤👍

The SNES really is an endless treasure trove of great games.

this thingy where enemies move at the same that you must be reminiscent from the rogue-like games

>Noriyuki Iwadare Say no more, I'm sold.

I always enjoy a bit of joking and criticism when it comes to the "Hey. Listen!" tutorial stuff. As for those who say you're scraping the bottom of the barrel, all I can think is they don't realize how massive the SNES library is and now many obscure games there are. And some of those can be quite good. One game I ended up really liking, though it's not really obscure since it's a major license, is the Mazinger game on the system. It's got issues and I wasn't sure about it at first, but it ended up being a lot of fun for me. Monstania looks pretty well made and it is interesting. While I appreciate short games, I can see this one needing a few more hours at least to feel just right. The music did seem very good, as you pointed out. And the box art looks excellent.

Love finding little hidden gems on this channel! Never heard of this game, excited to check it out!

4:07 is a real bop, as the kids would say.

I'm still waiting for my T-shirt that says play it anyway you can

This really does look fun! Thanks for digging it up and sharing

Heh. I thought this type of combat could only be found in some roguelike games or maybe obscure PC RPG titles. It's looks quite simplified, but still fun. I like it. Wonder why it never left Japan. Well, I suppose it does look quite different to the avarage JRPG console title of the era.

Honestly it being that short is a plus in my book. I've come to really like short and sweet experiences.

another one i have to add to the "try" backlog, the music is indeed great

Kudos to you for mimicking Navi instead of using sound bits like everyone else

Though they never finished the password system, so you have to do it in one sitting, I highly recommend giving the snes port of Spellcraft a try. The combat is weird until you understand that is medeval fantasy "punchout". Some won't like it, but it needs the exposure for those who would absolutely love once they got into it. It was only 99% completed, but can be played from start to finish with only some tiny bits of polish unfinished.

This sounds really fun. Thanks for sharing its existence

I'm getting Landstalker meets Spike McFang vibes from the visuals.

Every good game is just too short. Also nice reference to Azure Dreams, one of my favorite rogue likes.

this reminds me a lot of something like Chocobo Dungeons for PS1

I never heard of this game but it looks absolutely beautiful. I gotta get my hands on it now.

Another game I will have to download and fire up ANY WAY I CAN.

dude you do good a well done job keep it up and thx for all the recommendations and games that I never play on my snes

Visually it looks more like Landstalker

Damn, the music really is awesome. Thanks for the heads up

Thanks for this! I'll have to check this one out for sure.

The movement-to-enemy movement thing is kind of like Bushi Seiryuuden, a game by Game Freak that you should cover one day.

well, thanks for the video to acompany my morning coffe, and regarding the game, i have never seen this game and looks amazing thanks for the recomendation

The character sprites look like Final Fantasy Tactics

You know what's weird? I played all the way through Ocarina of Time about thirty times when I was a teenager, and not ONCE did I find Navi annoying. I think I just tuned her out so completely that I just stopped even noticing she was there after a certain point. I actually remember being really surprised to hear people complain about it years later.

Really wish I had time to play all these games!

Shadow run is the most underrated SNES game ever

The simultaneous movement system reminds me of Vandal Hearts II.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. I have a two year old so a four hour playthrough is perfect for me.