Cool Art and Style, Mediocre Gameplay

One of the Vita games for PS+ this month. I've spent about an hour with it and was pretty enamored with the art and sound design. Very cartoony with a healthy pinch of animated violence. The bus crash came out of nowhere and was gleefully harsh.

Unfortunately, the puzzle design is a distilled version of what I dislike about adventure games. Pick up all the things. Use all the things on all the people. The timing based platform-ish elements of the gameplay also feel like they just slow down the adventure game grind of using all the things on all the people.

Anyone else checked this out? Thoughts?

I started playing this two nights ago and I like most of it but I hate how the game punishes you for messing up. The puzzles are actually okay once you realize the clues are in the environment and in the character's thoughts but if you think something is wrong you either go back two steps or you have to redo the whole level, at least in the parts that I have failed, and it is just frustrating. It's too bad too because I think it is a real charming game.

Charming is the right word for this, but the difficulty gets frustratingly brutal near the end. Also, I think the last stage broke for me since it had a level title (Stage 18) but I couldn't do anything.

Also, I can't find a whole lot of information about the developers, but it seems like they are from Latin America.

I also like the visuals, but I will be harsher on the gameplay. It sucks. The moving around avoiding being seen thing is okay at first, but once you realize that not only is that basically the ONLY mechanic but it's one you will have to deal with constantly, it becomes a chore rather than anything entertaining. The puzzles range from ridiculously easy to completely unreasonable with very few in the sweet spot, and...well...that's the whole game. They came up with a cool aesthetic, but really dropped the ball when it came to making the game part. It's relatively easy, so it's not completely unpleasant (since the level transitions are fun and provide a nice reward for finishing a level) but I am glad I did not pay for this one.

If you're reading this and are considering BUYING Monsterbag, don't. It's worth downloading off PS Plus just for the visual style, though.

The game parts of Monsterbag are terrible. The idea of stealthing around not being seen is neat, and would be okay if the game wasn't so horrible at determining whether you were seen or not. I can't count how many times I've gotten seen when I shouldn't have, because the game lags out and thinks I moved at an incorrect time. I really dislike the gameplay because it's so shitty about detecting when you've been killed, but I'm so close to beating it I don't want to quit. The game is charming but ultimately it's just a buggy mess.