Starting off I noticed a lot of showing and very little telling which is exactly what I would hope for in an RPG. I love the pixel art and the overall aesthetic, it's very well done, great job with that aspect.
This game has an Omori/Undertale vibe and I really like the theme and art style. Speaking of Undertale, this game also has a 'pacifism' system that lets you ignore monsters and defend against them to recover until they lose interest and leave you alone. Really cool idea, even if it's been done before, it still works.
This game also takes ideas from Pokemon in that you encounter monsters in tall grass. Not an original idea, but like I said before, it works because it's an idea that is easy for people to grasp.
Giving the player periodic Tent locations is another great idea that many RPGs of the past have used and they do it because the player needs a way to recover from battles. Soo many games forget to give the player a free rest site and expect them to use items for everything. Thank you for being generous.
The monster taming system is very easy to understand and I think it's executed well.
The sounds effects are all well picked and quite delightful to a toddler(my 2 year old was interested in this game when the monsters were jumping across the lake for some reason).
There is a lack of animations in many places especially battle skills, but the battle system is nicely balanced with low numbers.
Some monsters don't seem to want to join and never show any interest in the party other than wanting to smash and eat it. I guess this makes sense, but I wasted some time trying to recruit monsters that couldn't be recruited. (At least I haven't figured out how to recruit them yet, if you can get them.) ((It was a cool looking lizard/caterpillar thing.))
The game lets you save anywhere but reminds you to save and gives a free full recover at 'Save Points.' There are plenty of items on the maps and even a key item that reveals the path that you should be taking to the next story progression point. It also shows the way back to the last place you came from, just incase you want to backtrack and grind. This is a really good idea to help people who get lost and become unsure of what to do.
The maps are great, using a wonderful pixel-art tile-set with good use of the color palette. You don't need millions of colors to be impressive and this game shows that. Thumbs up with some of the screen transitions, I really like the whole 'going through a giant log' to switch maps, very creative and well executed.
The battle system is very balanced and well thought out. The last boss fight was perfectly balanced.
There's still room for improvement if you add custom animations, some custom music and sound effects and inject a more compelling storyline that gives the player motive, but regardless Monster is still one of my favorites, thus far in this game jam.
Monster is a very serious contender in this game jam. Good luck to you SmashArtist, I'm very impressed with this game and I know regardless of the outcome of this game jam, you're going to do just fine!