
Atlus Master of the Monster Lair
A great dungeon-building concept in a small RPG.
Pros
- Interesting dungeon mechanics, being able to customise your lair is a unique and thought-provoking gimmick
Cons
- Completely forgettable story and characters, overly simple combat gets old way too quickly, repetitive gameplay hinders overall package
Bottom Line
Master of Monster Lair's dungeon building is fun at first, but the charm never quite sticks.
-
Price
TBA (AUD)
Master of Monster Lair puts a great dungeon-building concept into a small RPG, making this DS title a true thinking man's game. However, the repetitive nature of building levels and killing wave after wave of monsters will get old after a while. It's a unique game, but one that may be too niche for too many people.
Being a fan of many Atlus games, it was hard to put my finger on exactly what I liked and disliked about Master of Monster Lair. In this game, you assume the role of a young boy unwittingly drafted into the kingdom's monster elimination squad after inadvertently unearthing a magical talking shovel. After accepting your new duty, the shovel teaches you how to trap the dangerous monsters roaming the land in dungeons that you build and design.
This, to say the least, is one of the strangest premises I've heard in an RPG yet.
At least Master of Monster Lair incorporates several incentives into developing your dungeon skills, with various ways to increase your abilities. I liked being able to trap and defeat so many kinds of monsters, which in turn allowed me to use their remains to cook foods that buffed my HP, magical skills, and other stats. As your proficiency with shovelling out dungeons grows, you'll gain access to more types of rooms that you use to catch bigger prey. While the concept is a bit of a noggin-scratcher at first, Master of Monster Lair is paced so that you'll never get in over your head too early on.
Despite the game's originality, everything from the story (which is told via unbearably long paragraphs of scripted text) to the slightly cliched character archetypes may prevent even hardcore RPG fans from getting too invested in it. Personally, I got tired of building up my characters' skills and attributes when I was repeating the same build-fight-sleep cycle day in and day out. Moreover, my dungeons, no matter how intricate they got, eventually became a headache for me to maintain.
Don't get me wrong, Master of Monster Lair is a decent game that's worth picking up, but it's nowhere near as entertaining a week down the road as it is during the first few hours.
Brand Post

Most Popular Reviews
- 1 Dell U3223QE review: A winning debut for an IPS Black monitor
- 2 HP Spectre x360 16 review: The right 2-in-1 at the wrong time
- 3 GeForce Now review: You bring the games, Nvidia streams the hardware
- 4 Asus ProArt PA279CV monitor review: The go-to for content creators on a budget
- 5 Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 (2022) review: The pinnacle of design
Latest News Articles
- Fortnite returns to the iPhone (sort of) courtesy Xbox Cloud Gaming
- This real-life “aimbot” uses a physical mouse to cheat at shooting games
- Bethesda’s classic Elder Scrolls games arrive on Steam—for free
- We tested 22 different RPGs on the Steam Deck
- Steam Deck’s first major update adds a lock screen, Windows 11 support
Resources
Macworld
What's new, plus best mac-related tips
and tricks

Business Centre
The latest business news, reviews, features and whitepapers

Videos
Watch our video news and reviews from around the world

Guides
Comprehensive buying guides, features, and step-by-step articles

PCW Evaluation Team
Pedro Peixoto
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Set up is effortless.
Cate Bacon
Aruba Instant On AP11D

The strength of the Aruba Instant On AP11D is that the design and feature set support the modern, flexible, and mobile way of working.
Dr Prabigya Shiwakoti
Aruba Instant On AP11D

Aruba backs the AP11D up with a two-year warranty and 24/7 phone support.
Tom Pope
Dynabook Portégé X30L-G

Ultimately this laptop has achieved everything I would hope for in a laptop for work, while fitting that into a form factor and weight that is remarkable.
Tom Sellers
MSI P65

This smart laptop was enjoyable to use and great to work on – creating content was super simple.
Lolita Wang
MSI GT76

It really doesn’t get more “gaming laptop” than this.
Featured Content
- 25 Essential Party Games On PC And Console To Play With Family And Friends
- Mesh Wi-Fi vs Traditional Routers: Which is better?
- Top 10 best Android and Apple phones for under $600
- Everything you need to know about Smart TVs
- What's the difference between an Intel Core i3, i5 and i7?
- Laser vs. inkjet printers: which is better?