"There's a lot of Pokemon to meet and different things to try, so take your time and have fun with it!"
Monster Mind is an adult, puzzle-themed Pokémon fan game first released in April 18, 2018 by a Rule 34 artist called Argon Vile. The premise is that an Abra named...well, Abra, has invited the player through a flash game on the internet to test the puzzles they've created for the reward of being able to, ahem, "interact" with them and their friends with a robotic glove.
Notably, while the game at the surface appears to be a puzzle game that rewards the player with an explicit scene upon completion, it actually hides a large story and highly nuanced characters. The game can be played in Safe Mode, which hides all of the nudity and sex scenes, but not conversations about sex, gender, sexuality, and massive dragon dildos.
Gameplay is a spin on the Mastermind board game, starting at the lowest difficulty in which the order of the peg bugs doesn't matter, and then ramping up the difficulties where the exact position must be determined, going from 3-peg, to 4-peg, to 5-peg, and possibly higher. New characters will unlock as the player progresses, and items can be purchased through the game's currency system to affect the gameplay in various ways.
The latest version can be played for free here
on the creator's itch.io page, but fair warning (if it wasn't obvious enough) that it contains NSFW content; 18+ only.
Monster Mind contains examples of:
- Addressing the Player: The characters are very much aware that the player is interacting with them beyond a computer screen, and are quite interested in getting to know you too.
- Adjustable Censorship: You choose to play it in safe mode.
- Behavioral Conditioning: Lucario starts to wonder if they're becoming Pavlovian conditioned to be sexually aroused by logic puzzles.
- Behind the Black: The characters are occasionally surprised by other Pokemon entering the room off camera. To be fair, they're a little distracted by the webcam.
- Character Customization: Despite never being seen in game for obvious reasons, the game actually asks for a lot of information about the player, such as gender and sexuality and changes dialogue throughout accordingly. Notably, every character depending on your choices can be male or female, and can be viewed as the opposite sex after purchasing Abra's digital gender swapping software. Though this is only because of Abra's software, the characters are all a fixed gender in their "real" world.
- Developer's Foresight: When continuing via password the game remembers what name is assigned to it, despite asking you for your name first. If you put in a password that doesn't match the name you entered, Grovyle will tell you it's someone else's password... but address them by a fake name! If you then say you typed in your name wrong and enter the name Grovyle just mentioned, they'll call you out for lying and skip ahead to the tutorial.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: For both routes, the player has to successfully sync their mind up with Abra's by completing a series of three 4-peg or 5-peg puzzles within a limited amount of time. Every time the player fails, Abra brings out a stronger alcohol, and is confronted more and more by her repressed feelings. However, regardless of which ending you choose, Abra ends up much, much happier in the end.
- False Camera Effects:
- Your view of the Pokémon is always confined to the same rectangular box, a webcam pointed at a green screen in Abra's living room. For larger Pokemon like Rhydon and Magnezone, they don't fit entirely in frame, so you're given buttons to adjust the camera's angle to see other parts of them. Rhydon would much appreciate it if you'd focus the camera on their face!
- Lucario kneels on the floor to fit just in frame, but you're still given the option to turn down the camera anyway to focus on their... nether regions. They'll turn it back up to face them a few seconds after you do so.
- Fantastic Arousal: Being abstract monster-thingies, the characters have some interesting reactions to having their more unique anatomy touched.
- Fanservice: This should go without saying. Actually a plot point. Abra made Monster Mind a porn game because she felt perverts would be most likely to be willing to switch worlds with her. You can take offense to this... or embrace it.
- Felony Misdemeanor: Some of the fines Magnezone gives Heracross are a little excessive. Sometimes Heracross can wriggle their way of them with an on the spot excuse.
- G-Rated Drug: You can purchase nail polish remover and hydrogen peroxide to give to the peg bugs. Nail polish remover makes them more frisky and increases their chance of engaging in an Idle Animation, but if they imbibe too much, it gets a little rough. Hydrogen peroxide on the other hand, makes them sleepy and less likely to move around, but too much can be bad for their health.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Acceptable clothing standards seem to be a lot more free in their world. Most qualify as this, though some wear full outfits, and others seem to prefer to go around naked.
- Harder Than Hard: You can buy bonus keys to unlock even more difficult puzzles for 4-peg, 5-peg, and 7-peg difficulties. Or if you don't want to play them, you can still give Heracross the money anyway. They'd appreciate that.
- Have We Met?: If you lose your browser's save data, you can tell Grovyle you've met before to resume where you left off, as long as you have your save code. Grovyle's not the best with names, but they have a remarkable knack for sequences of eighteen alphanumeric characters!
- Headphones Equal Isolation: In college, Abra used to listen to music through headphones all the time, but Grovyle encouraged them to use speakers to invite more conversation.
- Idle Animation: The peg bugs will scurry around while they wait for you to solve the puzzle. Wait... what are those two doing to each other?
- Innocent Innuendo: When Magnezone hears about Sandslash's butt plug, they assume it's some kind of external battery and become very fixated on getting one. They continue to dig themselves deeper, and even suggest sharing it with the other officers during late nights at the prefecture! Poor Magnezone only learns what it really is when their order comes in at Heracross's shop.
- Interface Screw: If you try and tell Sandslash that Abra wanted to switch consciousness with you, Abra will crash the game before they can read it.
- Just One More Round: You're so close to that next rank chance, surely you have time for one more puzzle...
- Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Buizel told their parents that they found a job in the city after graduation. They hadn't yet, but they didn't want to move back to the country and live so isolated again. They didn't want to hurt their parents feelings though, so they lied, and still feel guilty about it even though things worked out fine.
- Multiple Endings: Despite being a puzzle game, this game does have a full ending! Two endings, whether you agree to swap your consciousness with Abra's and live in her world, or reject her, and later convince her that leaving her world wouldn't solve her problems.
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Nintendo Hard: The puzzles can get very tricky, especially at higher peg counts.- The Mini-games also apply, especially against the harder opponents. The creator was unaware for quite some time that there was a glitch after beating Abra in the scale mini-game because no one but him was able to beat them at it.
- Mythology Gag: Many of the characters make reference to events that happened in argon's previous works, like his comics and Heracross's Brick Break. Though they cannot be part of the same continuity as argon's previous works were male/male, and some of them are female here.
- Monster Roommate: Well, pocket monster roommates. The game takes place in Abra's house and several characters seem to live there, while others just come in and out. Regardless, it's a very busy house, with interesting accommodations made for characters that are decidedly not human.
- Oh, Crap!: Heracross's reaction when Magnezone says they have nothing to worry about, unless they're distributing illegal firearms, narcotics, or sexual paraphernalia.—Wait, what was that third one?
- Refuge in Audacity: Sandslash's idea of clothing? A butt plug and a ball gag. Abra does not approve.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The pegs from a normal Master Mind game have been replaced by adorable little insects called peg bugs.
- Running Gag: "I'm just really into necks."
- Say My Name: Heracross in particular has a tendency to yell out the players name when they're nervous or excited. They'll even stretch out the syyyyyllaaaaaableeeeees!
- Shmuck Bait: The mystery boxes at the store could contain anything, you know. Only one way to find out!
- Slice of Life: The game very much has this feel, with the characters describing their experiences with life after college, navigating jobs, relationships and the adult world.
- The Reveal: That Abra designed the game to entice a human that would be willing to switch their consciousness with hers.
- The Spock: Abra. Extremely intelligent, but not so emotionally understanding.
- Video Game Caring Potential:
- It's very easy to get attached to the characters, especially after hearing some of their life struggles.
- How the player feels about Abra may decide which ending they choose, if they don't think becoming human would solve her depression. Alternatively, the player may elect to swap with her because they believe she'd be happier with a human brain, or empathize with her situation and want to help.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- You can repeatedly click on Heracross's crackers in the shop, much to his dismay.
- You usually have one "cathartic" response in between mini-game rounds, and they can get pretty mean. You can actually tell Abra to go fuck themself after a snarky remark.
- Wham Line: "Isn't Abra a girl?" Maybe someone should've been more careful to fill Lucario in.
- What the Hell, Hero?: If you can explain the situation without revealing Abra's secret Sandslash will call out Abra for holding it against you for not wanting to do something you were uncomfortable with.
