Comparison

Monomals vs Bleak Sword

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Monomals

Embark on a musical adventure by fishing for unique creatures that help you compose original music. Explore vibrant underwater worlds, battle rivals, and share your creations with a global community.

Highlights
  • Catch unique Monomals
  • Compose music in MonoMaker
  • Explore 28 oceanic courses
  • Compete in music charts
  • Share music creations online
  • Console-quality graphics
Features
Read full description

There's a big music contest going on amongst the world's best animal DJs! Armed with a big fishing rod and a plug, go fishing in deep waters to help the DJs catch all of the Monomals™, and create your very own music in the MonoMaker™! CATCH • Choose your favourite animal DJ: Retro Rabbit, Funky Frog, Techno Tiger, Rocky Rhino or MC Scratch • Explore 28 beautiful oceanic courses full of hazards and challenges • Prepare for Arena Battles and catch tons of Monomals • Discover dozens of collectibles and power-ups • Incredible console-quality graphics COMPOSE • Use the Monomals in the MonoMaker to create your own music • Listen to your own music in your self-created playlist during your fishing adventures • Switch instantly between music genres and listen to different styles of your music • Create and use Monomal stamps for instant results! • Literally unlimited hours of music making! COMPETE • Compete in the offline Hot 99 chart and go platinum! • Rate or be rated - share your music creations online for others to download! • Join weekly online contests and become the best musician! -------- The following applies when you make and share your music to the online charts: • Please be respectful of the copyright of others and do not make and share songs that violate another party's copyright. We may remove songs if we believe they violate copyrights. • Please know that there is a possibility that we will use your song to promote Monomals on our social media channels.

About

Bleak Sword

Embark on a dark fantasy adventure across cursed diorama battlefields. Battle creatures through nine chapters, lifting a legendary curse by upgrading your hero with magic and items. Challenge yourself further in Arena Mode with unlockable achievements.

Highlights
  • Diorama battlefields
  • Nine tense chapters
  • Powerful magic invocation
  • Item discovery
  • Character leveling and stat upgrades
  • Arena Mode
  • Unlockable achievements
Features
Read full description

Developed by more8bit Bleak Sword is a dark fantasy action game tasking players to struggle across compact, cursed diorama battlefields. Through nine tense chapters, heroes must lift the curse of the legendary Bleak Sword by striking down all manner of creatures in every forest, swamp, castle, and dungeon on their journey. Invoke powerful magic, uncover helpful items, and level up your character to upgrade your stats before facing down menacing guardians. Once the curse has been lifted the challenging Arena Mode and thirty unlockable achievements await even the most accomplished warrior. Bleak Sword is designed to be able to play it easily with elegant controls allowing heroes to roll, parry, attack and counter-attack using basic movements on gamepads and touch controls. Scored by award-winning composer Jim Guthrie with sound by famed designer Joonas Turner.

Screenshots

Monomals4 screens
Bleak Sword4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Monomals at free against Bleak Sword's paid. Monomals also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 8 months). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Monomals holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3.5K and 899 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of Monomals's written reviews are positive against 80% of Bleak Sword's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Monomals ships an update every 3 months, Bleak Sword every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Monomals versus Bleak Sword: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMonomalsBleak Sword
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3.5K ratings) — better4.5 (899 ratings)
Positive reviews76.4% of reviews79.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.5K — better899
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 8 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TViPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV
Requires iOS13.513.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size925 MB467 MB
Age rating9+12+
DeveloperPICOMYDevolver Digital, Inc.

Customer experience

Monomals

All ratings3,490 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral3.7%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews225 reviews
Positive76.4%
Neutral8.0%
Negative15.6%

Bleak Sword

All ratings899 ratings
Positive87.9%
Neutral3.6%
Negative8.6%
Written reviews552 reviews
Positive79.9%
Neutral7.4%
Negative12.7%

User reviews

Monomals

From 3.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great game
  • 🎨 Gorgeous graphics
  • 🎶 Awesome music
  • 🕹️ Fun and engaging gameplay
  • 🎮 Smooth controls

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔍 Challenging and frustrating at times
  • 🎶 Music creation tool is too complex
  • 🔍 Progression issues (unable to revisit older levels)

Bleak Sword

From 899 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth and responsive controls
  • 👍 Satisfying combat mechanics
  • 🎨 Unique and atmospheric pixel art style
  • 🕹️ Challenging but fair gameplay
  • 🕰️ Suitable for short play sessions

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional save data loss issues
  • 🔍 Difficulty in tracking character on screen
  • 🤕 Overly punishing difficulty curve
  • 🧠 Lack of progression and upgrade systems
  • 🔍 Blurry visuals on some devices

Bugs and requests

Monomals

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes at specific levels/bosses
  • Glitches that prevent progression
  • Issues with saving/loading custom music
  • Control problems (unresponsive, fling issues)

Requested features

5 requests
  • More levels and content
  • Improved music creation tools (more instruments, layering, automation)
  • Better save/progress system
  • Difficulty options (easy mode)
  • Controller support improvements

Bleak Sword

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Controls becoming unresponsive after app switch
  • Inconsistent blocking mechanics

Requested features

5 requests
  • Landscape mode support for tablets
  • Ability to skip credits after first completion
  • More enemy and boss variety
  • Customizable controls
  • Expanded story and lore

In-app purchases

None

Monomals

No in-app purchases

None

Bleak Sword

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Monomals free?
Monomals is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Bleak Sword free?
Bleak Sword is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Monomals or Bleak Sword?
Monomals is rated higher. Monomals averages 4.7 out of 5 from 3.5K ratings, while Bleak Sword averages 4.5 from 899 ratings.
Do Monomals or Bleak Sword have ads?
Neither Monomals nor Bleak Sword shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Monomals or Bleak Sword?
Monomals ships an update every 3 months, and Bleak Sword every 8 months. Most recently, Monomals was updated on October 1, 2026 and Bleak Sword on September 20, 2026.

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