Always Sometimes Monsters fits right at home in the Devolver Digital family, which seems to boast a similar aesthetic philosophy across its entire library of published games. This is a minimalistic production as far as the visuals are concerned. It looks like something that would have appeared on an 8-bit or 16-bit system, and it goes a long way in establishing an identity for itself. At first glance, you might confuse the game for a role-playing game along the lines of Final Fantasy (that is, back when it was still good). Character design is similar to that from the golden age of Japanese role-playing games, but the illustrations that accompany much of the text-based dialogue give you a better idea of what they actually look like.
The sound design for games like Always Sometimes Monsters is almost never even nearly as minimalist as the visuals. On top of big, bombastic soundtracks, there's usually a full suite of voice actors to transform the writing into pure drama. But this game remains minimalist throughout, letting its gameplay experience tell the story for it. There's a synth-heavy soundtrack accompanying all of your character's trials and tribulations, and a few sound effects reminiscent of the Nintendo era.
