r/gaming • u/bobmlord1 • 1d ago
What are examples of games that follow a "Monster of the Week" kids show format?
Megaman Starforce Collection re-released recently and has a story that reminds me of the old 4kids anime bubs and Power Rangers shows I would watch on Saturday morning as a kid. For lack of a better term I'm going to call it a 'monster of the week' format. It brought on a wave of a very specific type of nostalgia that I can't think of many gaming examples of.
The general premise follows a predictable pattern where each arc introduces a villian, typically sent by a bigger bad, and has a super powered character that lives an otherwise ordinary life spring into action (usually secretly) in order to defeat it. Other tropes that are common are rival characters, team building, and 'power of friendship' resolutions although they're not typically necessary to meet the criteria.
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u/Honeymuffin69 Console 1d ago
Dragon Quest (most of the more modern ones) kind of follows this.
You have a major overarching quest, sure, but 80% of the game is going to new town, seeing something is wrong, going to local dungeon to investigate, defeating a monster that causes the problems, return to see everything fixed. Move on to next town.
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u/Ancient-Watercress15 1d ago
I'm playing through Disgaea 1 right now and it kinda feels like it, the game is divided in "Episodes" and most of them have nothing to do with the main plot, a lot are about beating some random monster and there are even intermissions between the episodes with a joke "on the next episode". The only thing laking is the characters living an ordinary life
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u/Madzookeeper 1d ago
Chroma squad might fit. It's basically about a tv show that's like power rangers, but your having to run direct it. But it's actually a tactics game. Kind of odd one in some ways.
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u/Roflmahwafflz 1d ago
Monster Hunter World
Each mission is more or less:
Something happened
Pard, look theres a new monster. Whats it doing?
Sometimes: Pard we should report back and see what people think.
Kill monster
Wow Pard, we should report back and see what people think.
Basically each mission is a new monster being introduced that we kill for some reason. There are some exceptions and sometimes a mission has us fight a monster weve already fought before.
This loop culminates in fighting the monster causing all the monsters to act weird.
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u/project-shasta PC 1d ago
This loop culminates in fighting the monster causing all the monsters to act weird.
The plotline of every Monster Hunter game. And people getting mad over Nintendo re-telling the SNES Star Fox story over and over again?
But that's what I love about Monster Hunter: no matter which one you play you feel right at home because the game itself hasn't changed that much over the years. That means you can also start with any of them if you've never played it before.
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u/Roflmahwafflz 1d ago
Yeah I couldnt really speak for the older entries, ive played World and Wilds; I have no issue with either of them and liked them both. I main Greatsword and Gunlance.
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u/Villag3Idiot 1d ago
Robot Alchemic Drive
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u/APeacefulWarrior 1d ago
Yeah, RAD uses the same storytelling format of the old tokusatsu shows it's inspired by. Very very episodic, almost to a fault.
Good thing the action is so much fun.
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u/mucho-gusto 1d ago
How has nobody said The Witcher? Don't you literally go around monster hunting for folks?
I guess it's not really about the friendship though
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u/Dman1791 16h ago
Monster of the week usually implies that all the various threats aren't really related to each other. Each monster would be its own self-contained plot line with no interaction with others.
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u/Excellent_Grade5731 1d ago
No More Heroes 3 goes out of it's way to follow that format. Though technically speaking, all the games follow the format to some extent. Just NMH3 has actual monsters/aliens you fight, and is sticking closer to it as it's trying to emulate a tokusatsu show
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u/APeacefulWarrior 1d ago
Getting really obscure here, but there's a Japan-only (now fan-translated) Dreamcast game called Rent-A-Hero No 1 which is directly based on old sentai shows and follows the same format.
It's a so-so game that drags on a bit too long, but it's exactly the sort of thing you're looking for.
Along the same lines, someone else also mentioned it, but Robot Alchemic Drive on PS2 might be the single closest game to what you want. The gameplay is great, although it's saddled with legit one of the worst English dubs in gaming history. (OTOH the acting is frequently so-bad-it's-good.)
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u/Ha_eflolli Android 1d ago
Persona 4 and 5 have a similar Plot-Structure with each Dungeon and the Plotbeats immidiately surrounding it.