What MONOWAVE is
MONOWAVE is a 2D puzzle platformer about Mono, a newborn Guardian spirit whose job is to protect four Emotions: Anger, Anxiety, Happiness, and Sorrow. The Emotion Shards inside the Prism Tree vanished, scattering the Emotions across the land, and the Prism Tree began to wither, throwing the world into chaos. Mono has to reunite the wayward Emotions and restore harmony. Each of the four Emotions gives you a distinct power. Happiness lets you jump to reach new heights. Sorrow lets you melt down to pass through narrow gaps. Anger gives you wall-jumps to pave a path forward. Anxiety lets you evade threats and navigate difficult terrain with heightened senses. Puzzles are built around switching between these powers and reading what a room needs from you.
Playing it together
You can explore the whole thing solo, or team up with a friend in local two-player co-op. Steam Remote Play Together also lets you play with a friend online, so one of you owns the game and the other joins through Steam. Two-player mode requires at least one controller, so have a pad ready before you start. Beyond movement puzzles, you share emotions with the spirits you meet to change their behavior and open up new routes. The eccentric inhabitants of the world react to your powers, and how you approach them decides whether they end up friend or foe. That makes a second player useful for talking through who to help and which emotion to lead with.
Before you start
Expect four unique worlds, each warped by its ruling Emotion, ranging from foggy jungles to blazing caverns, with a different ecosystem to bring back into balance in each. The story leans into empathy and the complicated ways emotions show up in life, so the tone is heartfelt rather than combat-heavy. Visually it uses a scratch-art style from childhood, giving it a fairytale look, and the world is scored by an original soundtrack. It plays as a casual, relaxing puzzle adventure with a colorful, wholesome feel, so the challenge comes from figuring out the rooms rather than from reflex-heavy action.