Lets talk about Attack of The Friday Monsters: A Tokyo Tale brought to you by Level 5 Inc. Where do I begin?
I originally saw this game on the Nintendo e-shop a while back, and it caught my eyes with its charming graphics and adorable characters, yet after further play through that is all that kept my attention.
As the name suggests the monsters attack on Friday. You play a young boy named Sohta whose parents own a laundry shop in a small Tokyo town. The mother asks you to deliver a local neighbor their bag of laundry but tells you to hurry because it is Friday and the monsters come out at night, which seems like an easy enough task right? Well... the thing is Attack of The Friday Monsters does a great job of not really telling you what or where you are supposed to go precisely. There is a map on the bottom screen that you can interact with and there is a small marker that tells you where you are supposed to go, yet when you get there you have no idea if you are actually in the right spot, who to talk to, what building or back alley to walk in, and it can get very confusing!
The game is a good length with 26 Episodes, which is more like 26 missions you have to complete. The problem is that during the game you are able to free roam about 2/3rds of the map and unintentionally you end up starting random episodes. When I first started the game I was only on episode 4, I went exploring and ended up starting episode 11 and 17 and I had no idea why, or what to do, or how to complete it.
During the game you find little specks on the ground called "glim" which are pieces of the monsters that fall into the town. If you collect 7 of the same glim then you collect a playing card for that specific monster. There are 15 cards to collect and you can collect multiple kinds of the same card. After you collect at least 5 cards you are able to start battling your friends in this card game named "Monster Cards." You lay out 5 cards of your choosing. Each card has a different rating or attack number if you will. Once you begin a card battle you will face 5 on 5 and if the card in front of yours a lower number then you win that one. Repeat until all 5 cards have been turned over. If you win the game the loser becomes your servant while you become their boss, and vice-versa if you lose.
I really enjoyed the 3D on this game and the fact that the town is so small and everybody knows everybody made the game much more charming and made me feel very homey. Example: Nome, Alaska!
Even though I really enjoyed the graphics, characters, soundtrack, and dialog, the game does a bad job of pointing you in the right direction and making it very difficult to know when and where to go certain places for certain episodes. Making me walk around the small Tokyo town aimlessly really turned me away from playing this title for multiple hours at a time.
Was it worth the $2.99 on sale I paid for? Absolutely!
Would I pay more for it? Probably not.
Overall: The charming graphics, adorable characters, fun soundtrack, and small town feel make the game a worthy play for the price, yet the confusing 26 episodes made the game feel very clustered, under worked on, and a little rushed. I feel like Level 5 studios wanted to make a small quick fun game but they missed a few of the key marks that could have really turned the game around.
Verdict: I would recommend this game to someone who wants a simple game that they can explore the scenery, play the in game Monster Cards for fun, and just enjoy the graphics. Alternatively for someone who is looking for a deep story, adventure, missions, or any kind of level grinding or character development this just simply isn't your game.
I give this game a 6 out of 10.
Worth playing for fun, but don't expect much more than nice graphics, characters and dialogue.
As always,
Thanks for reading,
- K ///
Daav from NoobFeed writes - Nintendo has announced that both the 3DS and Wii U eShops are on the way out. Though the company preempts the news by saying that downloads will still work "for the foreseeable future," that message also implies that your games will disappear at some point. We've enabled consumption at our fingertips, which companies have gladly used to erode the terms of game ownership. As always, convenience comes at a much higher cost down the road and, well, that time has come
Sale on previous eShop titles continues until February 23rd
+A Link Between Worlds is pretty great, don't know if you knew
+Attack of the Friday Monsters is odd but interesting
+How about that Wii U, huh?
