Monster Girl Quest! -Part 3- Review

Title: Monmusu Quest! Shuushou ~Makereba Youjo ni Okasareru~
Original title: もんむすくえすと！終章 ～負ければ妖女に犯される～
Alias: Monster Girl Quest! -Part 3-
Release date: 2013-06-01
English release date: 2013-12-05
Developer: Torotoro Resistance
English publisher: Rogue Translator (as a fan-patch)

The release of an English language patch for “Monster Girl Quest 3” was both a day of great joy and of great sadness. It was a joyful day, because… well, we finally got a chance to read the final part of Luka’s journey. However, with this release “Rogue Translator” who gave us the ability to experience this journey officially retired from visual novel translation scene. RIP

If you have played the previous parts of the game, then you know the schtick. MGQ3 is a visual novel/RPG hybrid with a theme of reverse rape featuring monster girls. Though, admittedly, the girls in the third part are more about eating our protagonist in contrast to raping him. It’s understandable, though, considering the prior events.

Lovecraft approves. *slow clap*

If you remember, the second part of the game ended with the forces of heaven assaulting the Monster Lord’s Castle after Luka decided to side with the Monster Lord rather than with his goddess Ilias. Suffice to say she doesn't take it well. The third part starts exactly where the second one ended. The complicated situation also means that the main monsters that we fight throughout the game are angels and Promestein’s chimeric monsters. It’s not really a bad thing and it makes sense, but as I have already said, majority of these monsters just want to eat or simply kill Luka, rather than subject him to some surprise sex he didn’t know he wanted. Additionally, many of the scenes are not really sexy or hot as both monsters and angels are quite horrifically looking. That’s OK though – there are always people who like vore.

The game also starts with Luka’s loss of his bonded Spirits, which initially smells strongly of the usual RPG mechanic used to bring the protagonist back to level 1 between installments. Luckily, such fears are ungrounded, as our favourite premature ejaculator manages just fine by emulating Spirits in “software mode”. He is still brought down a peg, but that doesn’t curb his determination in the slightest.

If parts 1 and 2 of MGQ can be considered the story of Luka’s coming of age, than part 3 is him doing what is right as an adult. Kid gloves are finally off, as this becomes his crusade against the Heavens. Now everyone knows Ilias for a villainess she is and her cult is crumbling worldwide. During the course of his final journey Luka has to save the kingdoms from the assault of the Celestial host, reclaim the Spirits and finally give Ilias the spanking she so thoroughly deserves.

But before spanking Ilias you will have to spank her generals.

Sadly, I was a bit disappointed with the initial plot progression. Luka mostly just backtracks all of his steps from parts 1 and 2 by revisiting the same locales and freeing them from the oppression of angels. I was also sorely missing anything to do in the visitable locations. Once the angels were vanquished, I could talk to the people residing there, but those conversations presented absolutely nothing new. The previous game had some mini-quests, like an ability to obtain “Hero’s Proof”. Nothing of such sort appears here. There is simply no reason whatsoever to linger once the last angel is gone from a town. You won't miss anything, except maybe for not finding out who wrote your surprisingly accurate biography.

Luka finally revisits the homes of the Spirits and bonds with them anew, but it’s not until the acquisition of Salamander that plot finally kicks into gear. However, when plot does kick into gear, it doesn’t let up. The last third of the game is a veritable badassery incarnate with many heartwarming moments. It’s incredibly rewarding seeing everyone put their differences aside and finally band together. Not to mention that the final battle is an epic epicness worth singing praises about. The game also has an extended epilogue that ties any lose ends and gives insight into the fates of every important and less important character. Many mainstream games could actually learn a thing or two about how to do a proper epilogue from MGQ.

Who could have known that Ilias is a fan of "Castlevania".

The strength of MGQ games has always laid with its characters and the most important of them was Alice - our main heroine. Here she continues being as awesome as always, with an added bonus of being badass despite experiencing some unfortunate changes, courtesy of a certain Goddess. It’s funny in hindsight, but all the disadvantages Ilias saddles our heroes with, actually make them stronger in the long run. As for Ilias, she is a strong and believable villain with a reason she went evil that I can relate with. Despite being the Big Bad, Ilias still provides Evaluations for the lost battles, which was a bit surprising. I almost expected for Alice to step in to do the honours, but Ilias continuing the service does make sense in context.

Sadly, both Promestain and Black Alice are second rate throwaway villains with little charisma. The game has teased us for so long with their supposed importance that when it came to the revelations, they couldn't live up to the hype. It's a good thing that Ilias is being evil enough for all of them.

How much do you want to bet that Alice is hiding from those ghosts?

The game series have been steadily becoming more and more serious with each installment. Dare I say that "Monster Girl Quest" got a "Discworld" treatment. MGQ1 was a self aware parody of the RPG genre with lots of Fourth Wall breaking and also served the part of social satire. The subsequent games got more and more serious over time ant that is not necessarily a good thing. However, I suppose it’s just a natural evolution, as it’s hard to be funny when a planetary level genocide is involved. Still, I think that the game lost something of its identity by discarding majority of the humour and the third part feels a bit… dry, or maybe it’s all that desert and lava messing with me :-)

On the technical side the game still maintains status quo. The art is inconsistent as fuck (though there is a significant improvement since part one), but by this point most players stopped caring about that. We aren't really playing MGQ for the spectacular graphics. On the other hand, voice acting was always a surprising highlight in the series. Despite there being so few voiced scenes, the seiyuu attached to the project are extremely competent. It initially surprised me that I could play MGQ3 for a long time without hitting any voiced scenes. Apparently there are only a few such in the game proper, but majority of the voiced H-scenes were reserved for the epilogue, which was both weird and made way too much sense. Leave the best bits for last or something like that...

All those fight are worth the reward.

It's hard to sum up my feelings about the last part of the trilogy. It's a fitting end to the saga, but it also feels padded with filler material and it lost a large slice of its trademark humour. Sex is still fun, but the variety of monsters is mostly limited to angels and chimeras who are decidedly unsexy. On the other hand, the ending is great, the characters are believable and I didn't see the final plot twist coming at all.

All in all, I might complain, but I still liked MGQ3 a lot and I hope that Torotoro Resistance will create a followup game with Luka's children as the protagonists and, preferably, with a less world shattering storyline. A quest on a more personal level would work fine.

Links of Interest

Visual Novel Database
Official Japanese site
Buy a digital version of the game at DLsite
Download an English language patch; direct link here
Download an English language trial version

Final Verdict: 78%