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Meg’s Monster does something different compared to many other turn-based games. Many turn-based games have you control a team of two or more characters that can play various roles in the party, such as offense and support. You’ll control Roy (and in rare cases, Golan) and they are tasked with defending Meg. Meg has no offensive capabilities whereas Roy is a one-monster army, boasting a gargantuan 99,999 HP, so he is never in any danger while in battle. On the other hand, Roy has to protect and play with Meg to keep her emotions in check. If Meg cries, the world ends.

Roy and Golan come across Meg while scavenging for food. In a junkyard, the two find Meg, a small, young girl looking for her mom named Hannah. As Roy and Golan contemplate on whether to eat Meg or not as humans who wander into the monster underworld are swiftly taken care of, she starts crying. Her tears cause the area around them to quake and glow red. The two quickly deduct that Meg must be some form of “harbinger of ruin” and it ends up being in their best interest to help out Meg, while keeping other monsters away from her.

Meg’s Monster is heavily story-based despite having turn-based battles. The narrative focuses mostly on the relationship between Roy, Meg, and Golan. Roy is pretty rude and abrasive, only being coerced into caring for Meg by Golan. Roy would rather spend his days eating “magic tar”, a strange purple substance that only Roy seems to like. Roy soon warms up to Meg and eventually becomes fiercely protective of her. Meg quickly attaches herself to Roy as she is just an impressionable child. In a way, Meg even serves as a paternal figure for Roy as she teaches him many things he never knew about before. Golan is probably the most nuanced out of the trio as it shortly comes to the player’s knowledge that Golan is a double agent. His task is to keep tabs on both Roy and Meg for an unknown assailant, and Golan struggles between his duty and how he genuinely feels about Roy and Meg.

The trio will also come across a wide variety of characters, such as the monster council, a group of four monsters who seem to govern the rules in the underworld. Their job is to uphold the treaty between humans and monsters, so it becomes their job to uphold that rule once they find out Roy is keeping Meg around. While the council seems to have Meg’s best interests in mind, other monsters do not. Roy and Golan will fend off these monsters whenever necessary.

In battles, Roy is the main character to be controlled. He has the option to attack, guard, or play with toys to keep Meg’s mental state up, and a fourth option that pops up from time to time depending on the battle. Roy has a basic punch attack and two more powerful moves that utilize points. Points are accumulated whenever Roy does an action, whether he attacks, guards, or plays with Meg. While Roy himself is never in any danger, any physical damage Roy receives is delivered to Meg via emotional damage, divided by 2, as she hates to see Roy hurt. So if Roy takes a hit that does 40 damage, it will do 20 to Meg. The system is pretty simple overall and as long as you pay attention to the dialogue and patterns in battle, you’ll know when to attack, guard, and heal Meg. Later on, the battles introduce gimmicks to keep combat fresh, such as quick-time events or puzzles.

The music of Meg’s Monster incorporates lots of pianos to maintain a somber feel to it all. Meg’s Monster is grimmer than their previous two games as it talks about plenty of deeper subject matter, such as the relationships between humans and monsters, and the soundtrack does a great job in keeping that tone. There is no voice acting, but every character with dialogue has unique sounds accompanying their words.

The graphics of Meg’s Monster are sprite-based and 2D. The sprites hold a surprising amount of detail to them, especially compared to their previous titles. The backgrounds look especially good with the amount of pixels used. The characters all have unique sprites and you’ll see plenty of settings such as a mysterious field of flowers, caves with glowing mushrooms, and Roy’s once-empty home gradually becoming more filled up as time passes.

Meg’s Monster has more moral concerns than Odencat’s other games. In terms of violence, it is of the turn-based RPG style variety. Canonically, only one character dies in the story, but it is because of their hubris and not of Roy’s actions. Language is a lot more frequent. Most of it is mild, but consists of words such as “crap”, “d*mn”, “h*ll”, “dumb*ss”, and “A-hole”. God’s name is used a few times. Supernatural can get a little confusing. Without going too deep into spoiler territory, there is a field of flowers that plays an important role in how most monsters are created. Toward the end, you have a brief moment where you control Golan, and he contemplates killing Meg while making it look like an accident. If you choose to go through with this action, it will lead to an optional bad end.

Meg’s Monster isn’t a long title, only lasting around 5 to 6 hours, and it is a one-and-done kind of thing. While you do unlock the option to go back to previous points in the story, it is implemented in a strange way. Once you choose, you have to play through the game as normal from that point until the credits to be able to choose again. Even with that mishap, Meg’s Monster is a gripping, bittersweet tale about family, friendship, and the bonds that hold them together. Compared to Odencat’s other games, the darker subject matter leans toward an older audience. Even the most stonewall of people may even shed a tear or two while playing while the rest will be left an emotional mess at the end. Meg's Monster is worth playing if you like story-based video games.