Village Monsters has a charming Stardew Valley meets Undertale vibe

(Image credit: Josh Bossie)

Charmingly lo-fi village life game about outcasts and weirdos in a literally broken world? That’s what Village Monsters is. It's a low-key village life game, the kind where you go fishing and plant gardens and make your house nice. You also get to know the "dozens" of monster neighbors, learning their stories and likes and dislikes. The game also has a quirky angle—it is, in and of itself, set inside a forgotten videogame. You can apparently abuse the glitches in the game world to boost your own powers and fix things up. Finally, perhaps most mysteriously, there’s a lot of emphasis on the simulation of the world itself, with “shifting weather patterns, sweeping seasonal changes, and interesting system interactions” as well as emphasis on exploring places outside the monster village. I’ve not played it, but I can’t help but be charmed—many of the few reviews and comments are quite positive. I’ll definitely check it out.

Village Monsters is a single-person project by developer Josh Bossie. It was funded via a modest Kickstarter campaign a few years ago and has been in development ever since, just branching out to major platforms last November. It’s in Early Access development, and receiving regular updates as of this article’s writing. You can check it out (and buy it) on Steam, Itch.io, and GameJolt

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

Latest in RPG
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
A close-up of a scared young girl's face as she stumbles through the woods, a crown of twigs and flowers upon her head.
CD Projekt says it's not using generative AI on The Witcher 4 because it's 'quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership'
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'