Somewhere above the ocean is Bestiary, a city (actually an island with city-like aspects) that's known for gravitating monsters from all over the world. Although littered with crime and decay, many find it preferable compared to their past experiences within human society.
This form of peace is shaken up once a lumbering old man, named Zyguss, finds himself inside the city (asleep in an alleyway dumpster), with no memories of how he got here or much of his own life. After beating up a nearby police officer who decided to relentlessly harass him instead of helping, he ends up earning the ire of the citizens due to having an outfit reminiscent of superheroes from years ago, not to mention the city's police force & government starts going after him as a result. On top of that, treasures with unusual properties become the focal point for anyone trying to get rich, and strange assimilating creatures have been appearing recently.
Monstro City is a Wii-game quietly released at the end of the console's lifetime. It's writing, music, & gameplay takes inspiration from various mediums, such as cartoons, TV-shows, comics & manga. Fights are depicted as, and entire parts of the story are labeled as "seasons" with individual "episodes" as levels.
Monstro City contains the following titles:
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Season 1: Exponential Racket
- Beat the Fuzz
- 1) Masked Man (Awakening): Dazed, amnesiac, and very likely mentally-ill, "Mr. Dregs" awakens from an alley dumpster as a troublesome police officer appears in the area.
- 2) Galactica Fuzz (Sudoku Division): Because of yesterday's incident with a police officer, a wandering & lost "Mr. Dregs" finds himself being relentlessly pursued by the lower division of the Galactica Fuzz.
- 3) Boneheads (Fight Back): The chaos brought on by the Galactica Fuzz attracts Artificial Beasts to the Bonehead family's house.
- Life Slicers
- 1) Saturday-Alien Face: What should've been a normal trip to the grocery store turns sour when a particularly strange alien decides to bully "Mr. Dregs" for no real reason.
- 2) Monday-Skeleton Head: Helping the Bonehead family deal with belligerent ghosts in a diner goes awry, as a skull-face foe comes in desiring revenge.
- 3) Wednesday-Mummy Arms: Against their will, Leslie has "Mr. Dregs" take Cauldron to Trashheap High School, unaware of the upcoming wrath of a highly disgruntled bus driver.
- 4) Friday-Demon Mouth: In a building that used to be a church, "Mr. Dregs" & the Bonehead family find an ancient demon named Klydus jammed inside a bottle.
- Jobseekers
- 1) Ebony Strawberry: An enigmatic fishman decides to employ Zyguss with several jobs, including one that requires him to kill a particularly strange group of Artificial Beasts. Meanwhile, a strange "starman" is stalking him.
- 2) Ivory Ice Cream: Discussing about certain relevant topics while fighting against the Artificial Beasts, Zyguss considers another option in regards to the "starman".
- Death Family Tree
- 1) Quietus Therapy: "Mr. Dregs" learns about the "specialized therapists" the Bonehead family has.
- 2) Quietus Curse: Investigating these so-called therapists leads to providing light on a curse the family is under.
- 3) Quietus Leech: The origins of the curse is revealed.
- Iron-Painted Treasures
- 1) January Drought: Learning about the existence of special artifacts that can make one incredibly wealthy, "Mr. Dregs" goes out of his way to find them so he doesn't have to rely on the Bonehead family.
- 2) April Shower: Despite knowing what he needs to do to gain incredible wealth, Zyguss becomes conflicted.
- Dream State Divisor
- 1) Imploding Head Symptom: The night before he and the Boneheads go out to eat, "Mr. Dregs" has a strange dream as the result of a food coma.
- The Chefs
- 1) Scramblin' Ramblin' Cooks: A trip to a local restaurant leads to Zyguss & the Bonehead family to learn about an ongoing conspiracy.
- 2) Bleedin' Castle: Sartori wishes to serve Zyguss to unknowing customers, so he tries to get him isolated.
- 3) Weatherin' Resort: Realizing the potential of Zyguss' powers, Capricciosa tries to get him to work at his restaurant.
- 4) Drownin' Scraper: While Zyguss fights against Flippers' henchmen, Flippers attempts to convince the old man to work with them to accomplish a lofty goal.
- 5) Parasites: Reflecting on his current role in society, Zyguss is given an ultimatum.
Season 2: Factorial Black Noise
- Cruel Summer Break
- Bank Account
- Strange Delivery
- Sudden Intruder
- Gathering of Wandering Spirits
- Little Bottle Village
- Lab Works
- Little Frogger
- Mist
- Crash Box Invaders
- Book Manic
Monstro City includes examples of the following tropes:
- Acrofatic: A number of charcters are notably overweight, yet still move around just fine regardless.
- After the End: Implied. Many characters tend to talk about humans in the past tense, and besides Zyguss (maybe), there's no actual humans around. The ending of Season 1 shows that nearly every first-world country has completely vanished somehow, yet the United States still exist.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Parodied. While there are aliens doing bad things, most of them are ineffectual and petty at best. Others are literally just minding their own business. And while there's some working for the Galactica Fuzz, it's heavily implied they were forced into doing so and aren't working with them out of their own will.
- The only one that can truly qualify (as of Season 1) is Oddsack, who, unlike the other antagonists in the Life Slicers arc, mostly harasses Zyguss as part of his "job" & for his own amusement. Even then, he's still tame compared to most depictions.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's established relatively early on that a "curse" or "disease" is spreading around, inflicting a strange ailment for over 24 hours, giving them an ability if they survive the ordeal. However, some characters (i.e. Klydus, the Bonehead family, the Chefs) seemingly have these abilities long before the current setting. Even more complicated is that Sartori seems to have multiple.
- Amnesiac Hero: Zyguss appeared in the city while having some form of amnesia, unable to remember most of his life, while sometimes losing a few memories in recent times. It's also revealed that, because of his memory issues, there's no real way for him to actually recall anything, only learning about his past from context clues and other characters.
- Anti-Hero: Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs", sort of. Many of the things he does is mainly out of his own interest and need for self-preservation, though this is mostly because many citizens will either harass or attempt to kill him based on factors that, while understandable, he has little to no control over. Even without that, he's cynical, blatantly despises the police (which is a good thing given the setting), will casually work with literal criminals if it benefits him, has trouble communicating how he feels along with having terrible social skills, and is much more comfortable being alone.
- Arc Symbol: DNA strands.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Dregs' strange mask makes him look like a stereotypical thief or goon. Fitting for someone who doesn't care about working with criminals for money, and is hiding their identity even when not wearing his superhero outfit.
- Badass Family: Each member of the Boneheads are surprisingly tough despite appearances, and have esoteric powers that makes it easier to defend themselves. Including their extended family.
- Big Fancy Castle: Where Sartori lives.
- Body Horror: Whatever "infects" people inflicts them with an ailment for over 24 hours before giving them their abilities. This ranges from small fevers & extra teeth to skin crumbled like paper & mismatched body parts. Some are deadly enough that it can straight-up kill the infected. Even after the process is done, the effects can be permanent for some.
- Eddy Scatterbrain is some kind of undead humanoid based off of the Tarman zombie. His skull is freely exposed, parts of his body appear to be drooping, and, after getting inflicted by the "virus/curse", has a right hand in place of his left one.
- Carnival of Killers: After Zyguss' little scuffle last season (in which he was more or less forced into killed a decoy of the city's ruler), the Galactica Fuzz decides to put a huge bounty over his head, attracting the attention of members of the police force and monster citizens.
- Chef of Iron: The Chefs are hidden individuals who provide food, resources, and other materials to the citizens. They have powerful abilities & are typically respected (except Sartori). They actively work against the government, as their enigmatic ruler hardly provides for Bestiary, to the point where the reason why the City isn't completely inhabitable is because Chefs often deploy certain citizens to fix & clean it themselves.
- City of Adventure: Bestiary.
- Close-Knit Community: Bestiary, despite the different types of monsters as citizens & general state, is this, to the point where there seems to be entire systems based around supporting each other. In part due to the bigotry many have previously suffered from humanity in the past and the Great Offscreen War involving first world countries wiping each other out & attempting to bring the monsters down with them. There's also their near-collective hatred for their government and the police.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Pretty much everyone, including people like Zyguss.
- Barring a few exceptions, nearly everyone has committed a crime at some point.
- Very few bat an eye when Zyguss wakes up in an alleyway dumpster, because sleeping in trash is common enough that there's an entire service around it.
- The Bonehead family. Although they're nice enough to take the main character in, neighbors tend to see them as incredibly insane, even by the City's usual standards.
- You would think the random items delivered to doorsteps would be used to carry drugs inside, but they're actually the drugs themselves, and many citizens above the age of 20 tend to consume them in place of food.
- The Comically Serious: Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs", who tries to remain serious even with all the craziness he deals with on a regular basis.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: For the most part, citizens will remain calm and collected even when something like a fight breaks out or Artificial Beasts are nearby.
- Contagious Powers: Recently, something described as a virus or curse has been spreading throughout the City, inflicting them with some kind of ailment for around 24 hours before giving them some kind of power named after a piece of literature. Provided it doesn't just kill them. It later turns out Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs" is unwittingly the source of this. It really started spreading during his fight against the Galactica Fuzz, and later, his interactions with other citizens. In The Chefs arc, the titular three "chefs" want to take advantage of this, each in their own ways.
- Cop Hater: When "fighting" regular citizens who want to pick a fight with him, Zyguss tends to avoid any actual combat due to just finding them annoying at worst. Police officers, on the other hand...
- A good amount of the first arc is establishing his hatred for the police force.
- Darker and Edgier: Season 2, compared to the first. Although not completely above the mostly light-hearted atmosphere Season 1 had, it's noticeably grimer in tone, and the stranger elements start being used for horror. Many antagonists, including other monsters, are much more destructive & murderous, to the point of not caring if they harm or kill other members of their City in the process. Upon realizing this, citizens begin gradually losing trust in each other.
- Deconstruction: The story examines how superheroes would be in real-life. A huge reason why many monsters are weary or straight-up hostile towards Zyguss is due to them seeing superheroes as glorified police officers with powers (which the majority in the past were), especially since it's unknown if he's been working for the law enforcement. Some refer to Zyguss as just another police officer rather than a superhero. Humanity abandoned the concept years ago, mostly because they simply weren't all that different from regular cops (or potentially worse), and expensive to keep around with all the destruction. The way they were used within society either slowed down or straight-up prevented any real social growth.
- As a combination of his own flaws, condition, and the environment around him, Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs" hardly acts as a superhero. Though not to the point where he's a relentless villain, he'd rather just keep to himself. He very capable, but doesn't feel like he realistically could (or should) resolve every situation, especially with how most monsters currently feel about him. As such, much of what he does is centered around his own self-interest, and is even okay with working with shady people for the sake of preservation.
- Double-Meaning Title: "Monstro" is obviously another word for "monster", which can be used for someone who's seen as immoral, such as a criminal. The full title can also be read as a play on "monstrosity".
- Didn't Think This Through: When the police was forcibly established, IDs were made for the citizens so they can be arrested. Except you need to be considered a human to have an ID, meaning most monsters could just walk right out of jail with no issue. It also probably didn't help that most monsters were labeled as "criminals" for the most basic actions or cultural differences, which only seemed to make them more near-unanimously hated than they already were.
- Eldritch Abomination: Artificial Beasts are mutated things that each look and fight strange, and have the capability to assimilate aspects of the environment or victims into themselves. They're capable of replacing even the most basic of lifeforms with themselves. And as the name implies, are entirely man-made, and not by accident.
- Eldritch Location: Downplayed with the homes. Besides the possibility of being haunted, they're not dangerous. However, the strange architecture, furniture, and the contextless events that can happen inside makes them come across as unnatural.
- Played straight with the Library. Although it appears to be normal, going too far in shows that it's seemingly endless. Being too loud while deep enough will either inflict you with an unknown yet dangerous illness or gruesomely warp your body into the shape a book. There's also the fact that it houses pieces of literature considered dangerous, such as a book that infamously has it's messaged misunderstood, to the point of causing the readers to go commit violent acts that most monsters would look down on.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: There's various types of monsters, superheroes, treasures with arcane properties, abominable creatures, ghosts & haunted places, and aliens.
- Genre Roulette: A mixture of superhero, urban fantasy, crime, thriller, mystery, and slice-of-life genres. Each arc is also meant to be reminiscent of different tropes in TV shows & cartoons.
- Season 1
- Beat the Fuzz: Hot Pursuit
- Life Slicers: Slice of Life
- Jobseekers: Courier
- Death Family Tree: Tangled Family Tree
- Iron-Painted Treasures: Heist Episode
- Dream State Divisor: Dream Episode
- The Chefs: Cooking Stories, Gangster Fiction, and eventually, Conspiracy Thriller
- Season 1
- Harmless Villain: Other than looking like a plushie you'd get from a store, Klydus just doesn't seem all that dangerous. His body is squishy enough that neither he or anyone he attacks can actually get hurt, and his Toon Physics ability isn't used to its highest potential because of his low creativity & intellect. While he can be powerful, most of this comes from his backstory (apparently).
- Hate Sink: Oddsack, so far the only one that plays the Aliens Are Bastards trope straight. The citizens antagonize Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs" due to his outfit, as it reminded them of their charming history with superheroes & humanity. On the other hand, Oddsack seemingly had no real reason to relentlessly harass & bully Dregs, even when you take his esoteric job into account.
- Haunted House: Surprisingly commonplace. The Halloween Hackers managed to make a living out of curing haunted houses and other areas, lest their haunting status could "spread". They're usually sold to poor or desperate citizens.
- Humans Are Bastards: Though the individual reasons are varied, this is overall why the majority of monsters decide to move to Bestiary.
- Other than the police being...itself, the entire establishment seems to have been forcefully integrated in the City. And certain details suggest that it was likely based of from the United States. It's later revealed that most police officers (besides the aliens that were forced into being one) are Artificial Beasts, meaning their behavior and actions are likely based on how those used to be.
- Improbable Weapon User: Zyguss' main ability allows him to not only weaponize everyday objects, but also "level" them up, turning them into various weapons and objects.
- Loser Protagonist: Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs. He's neurotic, almost perpetually unhappy, and acts completely serious & solitary even in his "civilian" form due to simply having no real understanding of a regular social life. The story starts off with him waking up in an alleyway dumpster with no memory, and nearly gets killed by a nearby police officer because he asked for help. Then ends up earning the ire of the citizens for wearing a superhero outfit that he has no control if it appears or not, even as he was beating up a violent police officer in front of a group of them. Even when he does gain allies, they still make fun of him for being so intense all the time, while villains tend to look down on him for not appearing as a significant threat to them.
- MacGuffin: The tiular Iron-Painted Treasures have strange properties that involves money and the "value" of objects, such as a gem attracting the most valuable thing in the area and absorbing it to add value to itself. By bringing all of them together, they end up fusing back into their original form, and give whoever brought them together a "blessing" that gives them money relative to the status of whoever they kill. Good for money-making but not exactly best if you're trying to lay low. Zyguss learns this the hard way in The Chefs arc.
- Monster of the Week: The Life Slicers arc is centered around this, with Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs" encountering a single antagonist for each episode.
- Multiversal Conqueror: Klydus tries to become this after nearly being defeated by Zyguss, by escaping into a portal that suddenly appeared. Zyguss just pulls him out and slaps the shit out of him for even trying.
- Mysterious Employer: During the Jobseekers arc, "Mr. Dregs" decides to perform various jobs employed by someone named Iceberg, such as random deliveries and killing Artificial Beasts. This later turns out to be Flippers, one of Monstro City's Chefs. They often have to have hidden identities so they won't be hunted down by the City's government.
- Not a Mask: A variant. Zyguss wears a mask that's a part of his cowl. The thing is, his civilian identity also has that mask. And it seems to be a part of his body.
- Old Superhero: Downplayed with Zyguss. While his exact skill years ago is unknown for obvious reasons, and he never actually acknowledges himself as a superhero, he seems somewhat insecure with being as old as he is. Especially once he learns that humanity had long since abandoned superheroes years ago, leaving him to wonder what purpose he even serves in the present.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Because of the nature of the abilities his foes have, Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs" usually has to find unconventional means to defend himself or resolve the situation. This is especially highlighted during the Life Slicers arc.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Because of his rather distinct appearance, most characters have to actively pretend that "Mr. Dregs" and Zyguss are two different people.
- Quirky Household: There's only three members seen thus far, but the Bonehead family is considered In-Universe to be very odd, even by the City's standards. Leslie is overall airheaded & obsesses over horror media to the point of regularly committing theft over it, while Hatchet is borderline insane & has grown an addiction to smoking pure air, and they both make up the Halloween Hackers. Their adopted daughter, Cauldron, is overall level-headed besides the fact that she goes out of her way to beat up bullies at her school, which her parents actively encourage.
- The Reveal: Season 1 has the revelation that nearly every first-world country having vanished via unknown means, including the United States. Despite this, an Artificial Beast meant to act as a decoy for the new President exists, and had been directing the police force (who are also Artificial Beasts). Said decoy is the one Flippers had Zyguss kill without the latter knowing beforehand, which Flippers uses to pressure the latter into joining him into rebelling against the City's government (who very likely know the decoy's suddenly dead).
- Rock–Paper–Scissors: Popular in the city, for some reason, to the point where there's even a whole fighting tournament centered around it, which you can die in if you're not careful.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: The powers the main cast use are named after pieces of literature.
- Zyguss: Ladybird
- Leslie Bonehead: Ferocious Beastnote
- Hatchet Bonehead: Oh, Susannah
- Cauldron Bonehead: Chrysanthemum
- Eddy Scatterbrain: Mirror Crack'd Side
- Oddsack: The Sneaker
- Klydus: Revenge Are Us
- Duan: Mag School Bus
- Gacrux: Rocketship Galileo
- Epigraph Bonehead: The Overlook/Before The Play
- Sartori: I Don't Wear Polka Dots
- Neal: Maskerade
- Jack: Frost Bite
- Flippers: Lost Paradise
- Tatami: Eccentric
- Mizuya: Ogata
- Capricciosa: For Loves
- Chef Gusher: Sam & Samantha
- Zyguss: Ladybird
- Smuggling with Dolls: A variant. During the Jobseekers arc, Dregs decides to become a Courier, having to deliver seemingly random items to certain people. One would think the drugs are hidden inside these objects, but it's actually the objects themselves.
- Straight Gay: Many citizens are either gay or bisexual regardless of their appearance. While some do act flamboyantly, it's due to their natural eccentricities rather than their sexuality.
- Stout Strength: Characters who seem to be portly and out-of-shape tend to be some of the most physically strongest.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: While Leslie is okay with bring him in after everything, and is overall one of the few characters actively kind to to him, "Mr. Dregs" often finds himself secretly annoyed with how airheaded & kooky Leslie is. Meanwhile, Hatchet & Cauldron wouldn't exactly shed a tear if Dregs were to die on the spot.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Believe it or not, Zyguss has trouble using his powers properly the more aroused he gets. While no one (so far) takes advantage of this, it's moreso certain situations that cause this, and he considers it to be a confusing experience.
- Weirdness Magnet: Against his will, Zyguss/"Mr. Dregs" seems to encounter strange things within the City more than other characters, mainly in the form of monsters with curse/disease-induced powers & Artificial Beasts.
