- John Bush
Game Review #259: Moero Chronicle Hyper (Nintendo Switch)
Reviewer: Jordan M.
Developer: Compile Heart
Publisher: Idea Factory
Category: Visual Novel/Role Playing/Adventure/Dungeon Crawler
Release Date: 4.25.2019
Price: $19.99 (at time of review)
Buy Moero Chronicle Hyper from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
The Panties of Legends
Lotium, the realm of humans, and the realm of monster girls, Monstopia, together form the known world. One day, for unknown reasons, the monster girls suddenly become hostile toward the human race. Powerful warriors poured into Monstopia in an attempt to defeat the Legendary Monster Girl, who according to rumors is attempting to destroy all the humans. Unfortunately, none of them ever came back, and no one knew what became of them. You are Io, who has been ordered by the town's Elder to venture into Monstopia to find out what happened to all the warriors as well as what's happening with the monster girls.
You are also personally interested in finding out what happened to your friend from Monstopia whom you haven't heard from in quite some time. Thankfully, you aren't going alone. Your friend Lilia, who also happens to be a monster girl, is coming along as well. For some reason, Lilia seems to be one of the few unaffected by whatever is causing the hostility in the other girls. You and Lilia as well as others met along the way embark on an adventure to find out just what's fishy in Monstopia and what has happened to our dear friend. Now if only Io could control his own perverted thoughts!
Moero Chronicle Hyper, known in Japan as Genkai Tokki Moero Chronicle, was originally released as Moe Chronicle on the Playstation Vita in 2015 and developed by Compile Heart, which is a subsidiary of Idea Factory. This is the second game in their Genkai Tokki series. The game is now making its way onto Nintendo Switch. This game splits between two different gameplay styles: visual novel and first person grid system dungeon crawler. Your time is spent between being in town chatting with locals, purchasing items at the shop, etc. and exploring different types of dungeons across the world map.
Dungeons & Dragon-Girls
The first person mode is very much a classic grid system dungeon crawler, using your directional pads to look around each direction and then making a choice on which way to move. Your mini map is displayed to your left as you move along, and you can press Y to view the full map. Throughout the dungeons, you will find all kinds of useful items, treasure chests, and other things of interest. Sometimes there will be switches which allow you to open doors and interact with other objects. There will also be traps in certain squares throughout the map which can damage your party. Be careful to take notice of each new area you're walking into.
When entering combat, Io has separate actions than Lilia or the other monster girls do. Io has the power to harness and store his energy. This energy can then be released and given to Lilia or any other monster girl in your party. The more you save your energy, the higher the attack will be. However, your chances of actually hitting your enemy drops down as your stored energy increases. When this happens your monster girl goes into a "calm time" and your character won't be able to do anything for a while so be cautious. Io can also use items and give your party the chance to escape. The actions of the monster girls are pretty much like any classic turn based RPG. "Attack" does your basic melee attack, "Skill" lets you use any powers you have learned, "Defend" puts your character into defensive mode, and "Charm", the one difference, increases your enemy's Desire P and also reduces your calm time.
Along with your regular enemy encounters, you will also run into other monster girls. These confused, human-hating monster girls will have specific spots on their outfit you can attack and break. Each one of these items will need to be broken for the girl to be defeated. As well as possessing regular attacks, monster girls will also have skills called Aura Attacks. Each one of these skills has one of four unique auras: earth, wind, fire, and water. Aura advantages play out like a game of Rock Paper Scissors; fire beats wind, wind beats earth, earth beats water, and water beats fire. Each enemy has its own particular weakness to one of these types of auras.
By attacking these parts of the girls and defeating each spot using aura attacks, you can fill Otton's "excitement gauge". This will look like a heart at the top of your screen with cute, perverted little Otton sitting next to it. Once you max this out, this will cause the "bumping scratch" to activate. If you've played these types of games you can maybe roughly assume what sort of thing is coming next. At this point it’s up to Io to send his positive desire energy to the monster girls in order to help heal their affliction and become their normal selves again. Your time limit will be displayed as the "Gentleman Bonus" on the top right.
At this point it is your job to touch, rub, poke, and pick all over the girl's bodies in order to find their weak point. This causes the "Purify Gauge" to increase. If Otton's excitement reaches the max, a "nude flash" activates allowing you to fill the purify gauge quickly. Each girl has their own unique weak points. Honestly not gonna lie I failed a few of them. I'm a bad rubber. :( When this happens the girls will run away. The game will tell you it will be a while before you encounter them again, but honestly they tend to pop up after a minute or two of running around the same area you saw them in initially. If you are successful, the girl will be cured and will join you on your journey. If your party is already full it’s okay, you can swap them in and out of your party later on if you choose to.
The Glass Pantienagerie
One good thing about this game is during the battles, you don't have to wait for the dialogue or the actions. By pressing A you can speed things along, which really helps if it’s just a random enemy encounter that you aren't particularly worried about losing. You also have the option of switching over to auto battle by using the Y button when it shows the command. Pressing Y a second time will return you back to being in control. You can also press the L trigger to turn off Io's animation, which I am thankful for during random encounters as it helps to speed up the battle process as well. You can also skip the animations in battle by using the R trigger which will speed up the fight even more. Do not think that just because this game is cutesy that means it can't be challenging. If you don't level up your girls and equip them with items, some of the higher powered battles can prove to be pretty rough. Make sure you're equipping and staying stocked up on healing items. One of the worst things that can happen is you're knee deep in a dungeon and find you're all out of goodies.
Synthetic Blends
Throughout the game as you win battles, some of the different enemies will decide to join your party. These will give you what are known as H monsters. You can combine H monsters along with different types of "material pantie" you find throughout dungeons. By giving these items to one of the monster girls, you can hatch new items from eggs. There are five different types of material panties, and depending on which type of pantie you have, it will produce different types of items. T-back panties give you head accessories, Tie panties give you arm accessories, and so on. The higher quality material your pantie is, the higher your success rate at producing the item. Each different monster girl will also have a different effect on your item outcome. Sometimes these items will get special powers randomly added to them as well. Each different monster girl gives her own unique special powers. For example, by mixing a cotton blend tanga with an enemy called Lady Loincloth and one particular girl called Goblin, I produced an Exorcising Charm. Try a ton of different items with different girls and find out what all you can create!
Stuck Inn the Friend Zone
Later on (spoilerish?), your characters will receive the option to stay at the inn in town. When staying at the inn, there are a lot of options Io to choose from. One of these is the ability to enter each one of the monster girls' rooms. While staying at the inn, each girl will have their own respective room. By visiting each individual girl’s room, you can have unique interactions with each of the different girls in your group. You can chat with them, choose to give them gifts, or scratch them by using your Rub P. By doing this, you can build your intimacy level with each girl. If you have girls in rooms that didn't go to a dungeon with you because they aren't in your current party, they can still earn XP while in their rooms as well as earned Rub P. Another ability you have in the inn is by speaking to the innkeeper, you can perform a divination which will allow you to find out the status of your relationship with each different girl. That isn't creepy at all.
Along with giving you the option to add or change your party members, another feature of the inn is the Rebuild option. This will allow you to rebuild or upgrade any of the rooms for each of the individual monster girls in your group. Io can use different building materials as well as "G" (gold) to upgrade each room. This can not only raise the amount of XP earned by a girl who currently isn't a party member, but can also raise your level of intimacy with each girl as well. Materials are given out as presents when producing eggs with the H monsters/material panties. There is also a pictorial book which allows you to check out details about your different monsters and monster girls. Just a little factoid… Lilia's specialty is peeling a baked yam with her mouth. Oh goodness.
The Best Underwear Jokes Are Brief
I am a big fan of anime and JRPGs and such, so I've heard a lot of intros over the years. Ya'll. The. Intro. To. This. Game. Is. BANGING. Like got me hype wanna go run a marathon level banging. So many of the songs are good. I particularly like the theme at the inn. Sort of made me think of a Final Fantasy style beach theme. The voices are all in Japanese, which if you've ever read any of my reviews, you know I usually prefer this as an option. I'm a huge wrestling fan, so I greatly enjoyed the sound Io's character makes every time he stores energy.
To me, he sounds like Big E from The New Day getting ready to do their intro. "Awwwwwwww Monstopia, don't you DARE be sour!" I think visually the game looks great. I was surprised to find out the game was several years old. The girls are all very cute and each has their own unique style, and are animated really nicely. The game looks fine in handheld but I personally prefer it docked as I can see my map easier and everything is still crisp and sharp looking.
Did it Make Me Tear My Panties Off?
Let me be the first to say right now, this game is absolutely not going to be for everyone, and shouldn't be played by anyone under thirteen. Also, if you are willing to play this game handheld in public, you are a much braver individual than myself. That being said, I absolutely enjoyed this game. If you are a fan of overly sexual, tongue in cheek style anime girl games then this is going to be right up your alley. It is as ridiculous as it is entertaining. The monster girls are adorable and there is a large assortment of them to interact with and add to your party.
The game surprisingly has a lot of depth and is more complex than I initially gave it credit for. The girl's voices in the dungeons get a little annoying over time, and the save system is absolutely archaic, but other than that I have few things to complain about with this game. The soundtrack is full of some real bangers. The fact it goes from visual novel style gameplay to Vaporum style grid system dungeon crawler is really neat and something I really enjoyed. The dungeons are surprisingly large and the game offers a nice amount of content to it. For the price point if, you are into these kind of games I would definitely recommend adding this to your digital collection. Just don't play with the kids in the room.
Rating: 9.25/10
Buy Moero Chronicle Hyper from the Nintendo Switch eShop here.
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*Review Code Provided by Idea Factory