Apple Quest Monsters DX

Fun in Pommeland

Hello, you’re reading the ‘Let Me Talk to You About’ feature of this newsletter, dedicated to talking about media that interests me. I decided to keep things short and simple for this month’s edition by talking about something that while unconventional is also fairly short and simple. This introduction to the article is itself something new I’m toying with.

---

I’m not the only one and nowhere near the first to make a fake video game project. In fact I found an entire video on the subject of media taking the form of fake video games, and Apple Quest Monsters DX was among those featured. Written as a guidebook for a fake monster collector RPG on the Gameboy Color, it tells its story almost entirely through the flavor text of monsters.

Because of this format you don’t get to directly see any scenes, almost all the dialogue can be found in the book’s brief intermission section, and there’s no information given on the player character who clearly does exist. You’re reading a guidebook for a game you don’t own, this is a secondhand experience of the narrative.

Don’t mistake the indirect delivery of story for the absence of one however, the goal of reaching the Holy Orchard is made quite clear. The habitats of the monsters and boss battle help visualize the different sections of the game.

Though I am finding the unusual format makes it a little difficult to discuss the overall story without immediately giving certain things away. There is one detail I only noticed on a second read that added greatly to my understanding of what was going on.

What’s easier to talk about is how funny the book is. The monster designs are often comedic, like a beetle rolling a snowball. And the descriptions will usually get out a sensible chuckle or two. Each monster takes up just one page, so the pace goes smoothly, each turn of the page letting you see a new fun monster.

And as a monster collector, you can make a team of the monsters you encounter. The guide gives the basic rules for constructing a team, but then points out that since the game isn’t real you could just ignore it. I played along with the rules, my end game team for my latest playthrough was Green Lion, Snowman Beetle, and Frog Stack.

Fake game projects like this are also fun to me when you take some time to really play along with imagining the game. Yes the game doesn’t exist but Boogie Church’s boss battle theme is a stand out on the OST and I kept listening to it on Youtube for days after finishing the game, absolutely true story you can listen to it here.

As a side note: the creator, splendidland, was responsible for designing several characters in Deltarune Chapter 2, and starting off the ‘don’t talk to me or my son ever again’ meme. That’s quite the resume.

For those interested, you can buy a PDF of the book on itch.io at this link. Physical copies are sadly not available at this time. When they do become available I’d certainly like to get one, if I can create the space in my bookshelves for it.