New developer Lancarse, which is composed of staff that worked on the Shin Megami Tensei series, has revealed its next big “school RPG.” Monark is in development for PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch, and releases on October 14th in Japan. The newest issue of Weekly Famitsu details the story and gameplay.
The protagonist (voiced by Gakuto Kajiwara) joins the True Student Council as its deputy head and to resolve various strange situations in his school. Along with a stuffed rabbit (voiced by Shigeru Chiba), the player can choose from one of four characters to act as a “buddy.” Each buddy has a different route and there are multiple endings to unlock. Shared routes can be skipped when replaying with a different buddy.
The combat system is command-based and has free move turns with “madness” being the core stat. Increased madness offers stronger skills but could make you go berserk and hard to control (along with lashing out at friends). Based on one’s choices, the EGO system will determine the different levels of pride, wrath, gluttony, sloth etc. Like Shin Megami Tensei, you can recruit demons as your underlings while customizing their appearance and voices.
In an interview with Famitsu, it was revealed that there were stories for 100 students and about 40 songs. How this will play out in the main story remains to be seen. Monark will see its debut trailer and background music introduction video debut at 8 PM PST today so stay tuned for more details.
