Monstania

Monstania is a tactical RPG released for the SNES in 1996 by Pack-In-Video. This game was never released in North America, although fans have translated its ROM. The game is relatively short compared to other games in the genre.

Gameplay
Monstania is a simple tactical RPG. The player can control two characters in battle, switching between them. Characters can attack, defend, use items, heal, or use special techniques unique to each character. Recovering and techniques costs Ability Points (AP), which can be restored with items, standing still for a turn, or having the other character take an action. Every battle is story related and typically ends when either all the monsters are defeated or the characters reach a certain spot on the stage. Some stages require puzzles to be solved and do not have enemies, such as switch pressing or floor cleaning stages.

Setting
Monstania takes place on the fictional continent Monstania. This continent features several different types of topography, including deserts, mountains, and forests. There are islands around Monstania, as well as the Mainland, although the characters never visit the Mainland.

Monstania used to be a home to the fairies, as had the Mainland, but the humans who lived there unknowingly drove them out. Currently, this is happening in Monstania, which is now sinking, a process sped up by Barambat.

Characters

 * Fron is a sixteen year old boy who searches for a fairy he spotted in the beginning of the game. He is a typical RPG protagonist and boyfriend to Tia. Fron wields a sword and shield and most of his techniques are sword related.


 * Tia is also sixteen and is Fron's girlfriend. She acts more cautiously than Fron. She uses a bow in battle and her techniques do a number of things, such as freeze all enemies for a period of time.


 * Chitta appears at first to be a little girl, but is later revealed to be a fairy, a race rarely ever seen by humans. She often speaks like a child, but can sometimes sound very cryptic. In battle, Chitta uses a staff and can cast powerful spells.


 * Tania is the female antagonist of the game and is often seen beside Barambat. Although a powerful sorceress, she often forgets her own spells and can act silly at times. However, she fights for her ideals. She is around twenty years old.


 * Barambat is the main antagonist in Monstania. He acts more professional than Tania does and he is seeking Chitta and the blue stone Fron found near the beginning of the adventure. Fron and his friends encounter Barambat and Tania several times throughout the game.

Story
The story follows Fron and his childhood girlfriend Tia as they journey through their homeland of Monstania. Fron, in search of fairies, meets Chitta, a fairy, while she is being pursued by Tania and Barambat, the game's primary antagonists. While exploring some nearby ruins, the group finds a mysterious blue stone, which seems to be related to Chitta and Tania and Barambat seem to be after it.

Chitta disappears after a few encounters with Tania and Barambat and Fron and Tia visit her grandfather on Pascal Island for clues about the stone, but he does not have any information for them. upon returning, the two meet Marx, Tania's brother. He helps fron and Tia defeat his sister, but is injured. Tia stays behind with him while Fron searches for Chitta.

Fron makes his way to Snowt, a large city on Monstania that always has snow. The town is overrun by berserk spirits and Fron has to fight his way to the castle, where he asks for permission to travel to Diamond Mountain, a sacred place that Chitta has gone to. Tia, worried, reunites with Fron and together they climb Diamond Mountain without permission. At the top, they find Chitta and Barambat, who is revealed to have once been a fairy who turned human to become more powerful and now wishes to cause the sinking of Monstania. Frustrated, Barambat admits that he would rather watch his old home sink than let the humans live there. Chitta and Fron defeat Barambat, who transforms into a grotesque ceature before being sealed in another world. The fairies approach Fron and Tia and inform them that they can no longer live on Monstania because the stone had been broken.