“Date ni Gametsui wake ja ne” roughly translated means “I’m not greedy for nothing!” The Japan-only “girls'” version of Master of the Monster Lair/Dungeon Maker. If you are thinking of trying this game there are three things you need to know.
1. It has the exact same gameplay, monsters, items and quests as MoML but different characters and motivations.
2. There is absolutely nothing “girly” about it.
3. There’s a game-breaking bug that makes it impossible to finish the blacksmith’s route. It also makes it impossible to progress past level 18 of the bonus dungeon, thus preventing you from ever truly “finishing” the game. I wish I’d known that before investing at least 20 hours of my life into this game.
Story & Characters
The town of Reinbald is said to bring happiness to all those who stumble across it. Hugo, a wandering dungeon maker, drops in one day and is roped into the service of the mayor. Monsters are threatening the peace of the town so Hugo’s job is to trap, plunder and kill them by creating elaborate traps in the form of dungeons.
Despite what the title says, Hugo is not greedy at all. He’s a professional, he’s confident in his skills and he charges what his services are worth. The two cardinal rules of self-employment and freelancing are 1) Never do favors for friends/family and 2) Never work for free. Hugo sticks to the rules and even when he softens slightly from his initial abrasive attitude he still charges a fair price for the job done.
On top of that, unlike the lead characters of other GAE games (Adventures to Go, My World My Way, probably others), Hugo has the decency to wonder if he’s doing the right thing by killing all those sentient monsters. He even gives bosses a chance to GTFO kindly move out of the way before attacking them when they refuse. My respect for Hugo went a long way towards helping me finish this game, which could be dry and repetitive at the best of times.
As for the other townspeople, refer to the wallpaper below.
Those two absurdly cute dogs at the bottom are Hugo’s travel companions instead of Kate and the blob as in MoML. I named them Gash and Gabby. Gash gains stats by devouring monster parts and Gabby is your regular mage girl who will lay absolute waste to bosses, especially once she gets the Drain spell.
From left to right, there’s the mayor’s sniveling butler who just wants to be useful to her. Sorry, it’s been like a month since I last played this so I’ve forgotten their names. The lady with the blue hair is the bloodthirsty mayor who wants all monsters dead, no quarter given. I hate her. The next two guys are the same guy – Glen the blacksmith in his young and old forms. He switches between them when he gets stressed. The little red-haired girl and her brother Linus next to her run the furniture shop. The blond guy with glasses runs the magic shop and has a creepy obsession with the cat girl next to him. Then there’s Hugo, our hero. The last guy is also the white mouse at the bottom, the perky vegetable seller.
The character designs are nice, aren’t they? Unfortunately that’s all these characters have going for them. You’re supposed to pursue their routes and get their endings by doing quests for them, but they’re all either duller than dishwater or sicker than a truck full of AIDS.
Take the creepily servile butler, for example. Maybe I’m supposed to sympathize with his unnatural devotion to his abusive boss, maybe I’m supposed to cheer for him, I dunno. All I know is that his cringing, whining scenes filled me with the urge to call an Abuse Hotline. Same with blondie and his sick fixation on the obviously underage loli cat girl who does not welcome his attentions or reciprocate his affections. I didn’t know whether to call PETA or To Catch A Predator! The blacksmith is the only one who seems sort of normal, but sadly his is the only route you can’t finish due the aforementioned game-breaking bug.
Why did I finish this game, then? I told you, I liked Hugo. I liked my pets too. And while I will never be a fan of the gameplay, it did grow on me somewhat after the first few levels.
Gameplay
If you don’t speak Japanese, you can use an MotML FAQ to play this game with no problems at all. It’s the exact same game. If you haven’t played it, it’s simple. You go into a cave made of solid rock. You use Dungeon Points (DP) to dig holes in the rock. You hollow out rooms and fill them with furniture and accessories that attract monsters. For example, fountains attract otters, farms attract monster carrots and pubs attract goblins. It all makes perfect sense.
So you fill the cave with things monsters like and then punish them for liking them by killing them, stealing their money and eating their flesh for delicious stat boosts. When you run out of DP to dig and monsters to massacre you retire for the day and return the next day to repeat the process. Get enough monsters of the right type on one floor and a boss appears. Kill the boss to open the way to the next floor where the process starts all over again.
See the problem? You have to perform the same two or three actions every single day for the 100-200 game “days” it will take you to finish. Then you add the following problems:
- A tiny number of DP especially in the beginning, limiting how much you can get done
- Not that much money, especially in the beginning, limiting how quickly your dungeon can grow
- Palette swaps up the wazoo, making grinding boring. It’s worse because I’ve played other GAE games and they all use the same monsters
- You have to arrange rooms just so to guarantee a monster drop from the monster you want
- Even then the monster will drop something, but it might not be the item you want. Ask me how many zombies I had to fight to get just one Performer’s Ring. Go on, ask.
That isn’t even half of it. Long story short, the gameplay can be very dull and very frustrating, which is why I gave up on MotML so quickly the first time I played it. I was determined to tough things out this time round though, and somehow I managed to get into a kind of groove. The same kind of groove you get into in, say, puzzle games, or Harvest Moons, where you’re just doing the same thing over and over again and yet it’s kind of fun. I think the key to enjoying this game is to give it at least 2 or three levels to grow on you and to play it in small, manageable doses.
“‘Boy’s love?’ With you?! You’d have to kill me first!”
“Girl’s Type”?!
When you think of the “girl’s” version of any game, you might expect features designed to appeal to what video game designers (90% of whom are male) think female gamers want. A female main character. Pastel colors. Cute critters. Dumbed-down gameplay. Romance. Angst. Bishies. More romance, more angst, more bishies.
Yeah, well. Not this “girl’s” game. Apart from the cute dogs and the admittedly good-looking bishies, there is absolutely nothing in this game that justifies the label. The only romance is the borderline-illegal one between man and cat. The colors are normal. The gameplay is the same as for the original. There’s no angst, no romance and barely any sentiment at all even when you finish a pair’s route. Of course people with XX chromosomes like a good game just as much as those with XY chromosones do, and excessive pandering to either gender is just plain silly but then… why bother with the “Girl’s Type” label at all? Another boneheaded idea from the guys at Idea Factory. I do so love them (completely serious).
Final thoughts
For anyone who wants to play Date ni Gametsui wake ja ne
If it’s the character designs, download pictures and just look at them.
If it’s the gameplay, it’s exactly the same as for MotML so you’re better off getting that instead. If you’ve already played that and want to check out the differences in story, you’ll need to be able to read Japanese. Not that much, but at least a year or two of study because there’s no furigana. Even if you do clear that hurdle, a bug will prevent Laboratories from appearing in the shops at level 18, which will stop you from finishing the game properly.
And if you’re playing it for the “girlishness” there’s nothing girlish about this at all. I’ll be honest that I liked Hugo for all his rudeness and ended up quite enjoying myself, but not enough to push this game strongly. Give it a miss unless you’re really bored.
