honestgamer's Master of the Monster Lair review

This game looks like shovel-ware.

(This is why I shouldn't be allowed to tell jokes.)

Seriously though, this game probably would have slipped under my radar if not for this review. It looks like something that will be right up my alley. I do have a question though about the combat -- you mention that your slime companion can learn things from your enemies. Is this a passive thing that the player has no control over or is it like blue magic from the Final Fantasy series or what? Also, were you actually able to get an English version before its official release date?

The review was from a review build that Atlus USA sent us, yes. So it matched what you'll find if you pick it up in stores next week.

As far as the slime learning spells goes, the way it works is that you do have control but you can only possess one skill at a time. So for example, you might find yourself battling a lot of monsters that use a flame bomb attack. Occasionally, a screen will come up after the battle asking if you want to take on that attribute. Usually, that means abandoning some other skill that you may or may not find useful.

Basically, there are four body parts: head (which determines which skill you can have), body (what armor you can wear), legs (how fast you are) and arms (what weapons you can equip). You'll see your stats with your current setup and the stats for the 'upgrade,' and you can decide if it's worth making the switch.

That's actually a pretty interesting system, I thought. Stupid players can screw themselves over temporarily, but if they do it's pretty easy to get up to where you were before within a few battles... if your dungeon doesn't totally suck.