REVIEW: Moero Chronicle Hyper


Title	Moero Chronicle Hyper
Developer	Idea Factory
Publisher	Idea Factory
Release Date	April 25th, 2019
Genre	Dungeon Crawler
Platform	Nintendo Switch
Age Rating	Mature
Official Website

Idea Factory International has finally brought Moero Chronicle to consoles in the West with Moero Chronicle Hyper on the Nintendo Switch. The game had previously been released in Asia on the PlayStation Vita with English subtitles and on Steam back in 2017. This release features a few minor tweaks and upgrades as well as all of the original art from the previous releases. Let’s see if this dungeon crawler with adorable monsters girls is worth it for newcomers, and if folks who played a previous version might want to consider another run.

Moero Chronicle Hyper’s story follows a young man named Io. He has a severe problem talking to women, despite always being close to his childhood friend Lilia. She is one of the many monster girls that live in Monstopia. Their lives will soon be disrupted as Io is basically forced to go out into the other regions and calm down the raging monster girls. The reason for the girls going crazy is not known. Io will have to solve this mystery and bring peace to the land! If he can overcome his fear of women, that is.

While the story here certainly isn’t one of the deepest around, it’s very entertaining. The banter between the characters is fantastic, and seeing all the interactions with the monster girls as you build affection with them is great as well. The girls’ personalities are very much anime tropes, but that doesn’t hurt this one bit. In fact, given the type of story they are telling here, I can only see it as a positive. The writing is pretty good, but there are a few rough patches that could’ve used the love of a good editor. This is not really enough to take anything away from the game, but some may be more put off by this than others.

The gameplay here is a basic first person dungeon crawler. Maps are fairly easy to navigate with few puzzles or traps to be wary of. You will navigate to each region’s ruling monster girl and bring her back to her senses. Well, first you will have to destroy her clothing, then give her a good rubbing!

Moero Chronicle Hyper refers to this as “Bump Scratching.” This is where Io sends his positive energy to the girls by touching them so they can come to their senses. You can do with with either the controller or the Switch’s touch screen. There are four different kinds of touches that can be performed here. A simple touch, rub, poke or a pick. The game gives you detailed instructions on how to do both with either set of controls. The controller actually works very well in this version. In fact I used it most of the time during my 40 hour playthrough and had no issues pleasing the girls. The HD Rumble actually makes this much easier since it rumbles when you get closer to the sweet spots. The only issue I had here was when playing undocked it doesn’t flip the girls vertically during “Bump Scratching.” It would’ve been better since you would’ve gotten the entire girl in the frame without having to scroll to hit her legs.

Ecchi aside there is actually a deep combat system here as well. Each monster girl and enemy has an element. Hitting an enemy’s weakness will do more damage. If you hit their weaknesses with successive attacks it will cause an Aura Combo. This will not only get you some additional damage from Otton’s rage, but you will gain bonus EXP and rub points at the end of the battle.

In addition to the elements each girl has Moe Traits. These are special characteristics that will have an effect on the entire party. There is usually a trigger for these to activate such as having X number of health or if you reach certain number Aura Combo you may get a buff. Some traits will resonate and compliment each other for a bigger effect. For example if you have a party with both Clumsy and Twin Tails, if you HP is below 50% you get a base magic attack increase of 40%. Building an effective party with traits that play off each other will be key to surviving some of the crazy boss battles near the end game.

When you’re not crawling the dungeon, the town is your base of operations. There is a shop where you can buy consumables and equipment to help you on your journey and the inn. The inn is where you and your band of monster girls are living. Here you can build up your intimacy with the girls by either spending rub points you’ve earned in battle or by giving them gifts. When this reaches a certain level you unlock some really cute cutscenes with the girls. If you have found panties along your journey and have at least one heart in intimacy, the girls will allow you to change their costume. Each set of panties will give them a new set of skills, and you can think of these like jobs. Aside from the default outfit there are three sets of additional panties that can found for each girl.

The last thing I would like to discuss is the Egg System. This is a system in which you take some consumable items and the random enemies (H Monsters) that join you after battle and combine them into useful items. These can include equipment, items for use in battle or building materials. You can use the building materials to upgrade the girl’s rooms. The better their room is, the more EXP they will receive when not entering battle. Your relationship will improve with them as well.

Moero Chronicle Hyper is an excellent port. The new features such as auto travel and HD Rumble make the experience even better than before. If you love dungeon crawlers and want to spend some quality time with amazing monster girls, this will be the best 20 bucks you ever spent on the eShop. I highly recommend it.