This article has a talk page!This page details pre-release information and/or media for Monster: Ancient Cline.
Monster: Ancient Cline was announced in February, 2008 as an arcade port of the 2005 PC doujin game Monster. Originally planned as an incremental update of the original game with updated graphics and new characters, its development cycle would end up spanning more than two years with a major graphical and gameplay overhaul.
Development History#
The earliest online information about the arcade version comes from a February, 2008 post in Gigazine writing about its reveal at AOU 2008. The post was light on details, but it described plans to include six additional characters and updated higher-resolution artwork. While there are no in-game screenshots, a before and after comparison of Katze's sprite shows that this version of the game would use higher-res renders of the original game's sprites rather than totally new artwork.
Gigazine also reproduced what appears to be the AOU flier. The front side reuses the original game's key artwork while extending it to add Origa, the first new character to be revealed. The back features the original cast and a description of the game systems.
(Source: GIGAZINE)
More detail was revealed on July 30, 2008, alongside the announcement that Examu would be publishing it that winter for their Windows-based eX-BOARD arcade hardware. This announcement included the first look at the game - six screenshots depicting Katze vs Maya. At this point it includes the previously-advertised higher resolution character sprites, one background from the original game and one new background, and some clearly WIP new UI elements. In addition to screenshots, it includes several new pieces of key art and concept art. It includes two pieces of art from the previous reveal, a clean version of the AOU flier without text and a clean version of Origa's 2D artwork from the flier without the rest of the key art. It also reveals a second new character, Oomizuao, with a render of his 3D model, and shows closeup renders of Katze and Maya.
(Source: Game Watch)
(Source: Dengeki Online)
A Gigazine post from a week later announced plans to rerelease the original game at Comiket 74 (August 15-17, 2008) with a patch to bring it up to date with the arcade version. While a reprint would make it to Comiket, the planned patch never came out as the arcade game increased in scope.
Gigazine also published a copy of the official trailer.
(Source: GIGAZINE)
A work in progress version was exhibited at the 46th Amusement Machine Show in September, 2008. Videos from YouTube user @wx9029 and their alts captured footage of it in action. This version has only four characters (Katze, Maya, Othello and Orju) but features early versions of the new sprites for the first time. It has a rough UI with a design that's starting to resemble the final game.
Katze (1P) vs Othello (2P)
Othello (1P) vs Othello (2P)
Location Test#
Monster: Ancient Cline's one and only public location test was held in February, 2010. This location test ran using a version that's about two months newer than the leaked PC build. Three videos were uploaded by YouTube user @wx8084 showing a few matches.
Oomizuao (1P) vs Siely (2P), Oomizuao (1P) vs Enkaku (2P), Oomizuao (1P) vs Oomizuao (2P), Oomizuao (1P) vs Siely (2P), Oomizuao (1P) vs Katze (2P)
Oomizuao (1P) vs Katze (2P) (continuation of match in the previous video)
Enkaku (1P) vs Enkaku (2P), Enkaku (1P) vs Maya (2P), Enkaku (1P) vs Rail (2P)