Master of Monsters
Master of Monsters is a turn-based fantasy strategy game in which the player doesn't lead an army of humans into battle, but summons monsters instead. As one of the elemental lords, you occupy the map, gather energy from captured towers, and use it to create new creatures, from goblins and harpies to dragons and demons. The goal is to destroy the opponent's stronghold before they destroy yours, and the path there runs through slowly expanding your influence across a hex map.
Mechanically, this is a strategy game with simple rules and surprising depth. Each unit has its own movement, melee and ranged attacks, and resistance to different damage types, and crucially, it develops into stronger forms through combat experience. This creates the dilemma that defines the game: build many weak creatures quickly, or feed experience to a chosen few? Terrain affects movement and regeneration, towers can be captured and taken over, and since energy is limited, summoning each monster is an investment you can't take back. Battles resolve automatically once you designate an attacker and a target, so all the decision-making happens on the map, in unit positioning, and in the timing of attacks. The game also allows multiplayer matches on a single machine, which made it a popular title for shared evenings at the time of release. Individual maps also differ in the layout of their towers, and with it the whole pace of a match.
On the PC-98, the game looked sober, with a legible map, small unit icons, and brief combat animations, but that very clarity serves it well. The soundtrack consists of simple, catchy melodies in the style of Japanese wargames of the time. Master of Monsters also made it to consoles, where it found a Western audience, and together with other titles from studio SystemSoft it ranks among the foundations of Japanese turn-based strategy. Today it's among the best-aged games the platform produced: the rules can be grasped within a few minutes, a single match takes an hour or two, and the tactical decisions remain engaging.
Game 14 of 28 for NEC PC-98
The same title elsewhere (1)
The game began as a Japanese computer title for the NEC PC-98, where it relied on keyboard and mouse and offered its full Japanese text and menus without compromise. The SEGA Mega Drive conversion had to shift the turn-based strategy's controls onto a gamepad, so selecting units and issuing orders on the hexagonal map is slower and less precise than with a mouse. The Mega Drive version was also localized for western markets, so its text is in English and it's more approachable for players outside Japan. The visual style stays close between versions, so the real difference lies in controls and language rather than the battles themselves.
