Comparisons to one creature-collector in particular are inevitable, but let’s start off by clarifying one very important thing: gone are the poor, long-suffering Pokemon parents who are forced to stand forever in the kitchen, unable to sit or lie down, while their child selfishly sleeps in the only bed — your parents in Monster Crown at last have a place to rest. Right, now we’ve cleared that up: Monster Crown is a turn-based creature-collecting RPG that differentiates itself from others of its kind by its decidedly darker tone and story.While Pokemon, for instance (I’m sorry, I just need one more comparison), will have you battling creatures to add them to your party — cheerfully skating over the part where you have to actually beat them into submission — the bonds between monster and human in Monster Crown are based on the logic of the game’s world: the monsters have to actually gain something by joining you. In Monster Crown, this is achieved by making mutually-helpful pacts. The monsters get to face new challenges and grow stronger by coming with you, while you gain their power and protection. You still have to battle them first — they won’t respect you and accept the pact unless you prove yourself — but the pacts system is a good example of how Monster Crown changes up the usual formula. There’s none of that cheeriness about it; monsters are something to be feared. One of Monster Crown’s greatest strengths is that darker tone. Your character is still a kid, with all the excitement of going on a first real adventure, but you soon notice that the world is a much less forgiving place. Thugs at first seem harmless, with the same bizarre logic as in Pokemon (sorry, one more) where they’re content to decide things by battling creatures, but once you progress a little further into the story, you see that the stakes are much higher. The villain in this game doesn’t want to just steal something and let you on your way; you will be in very real danger if you get between her and her goal. The first town you come to, too, has its own darker undercurrents — I don’t want to spoil anything, so suffice it to say that this world is not a safe place for anyone. While the story did feel a little directionless at first, and it isn’t always clear what you need to do to progress, that darker tone helps to keep the game intriguing. Now, let’s talk gameplay. I did find the battling overwhelming, and that’s not helped by how much information there is on screen, most of which isn’t understandable straightaway, and is hard to differentiate between. As you fight, the battle is narrated by scrolling text along the bottom of the screen. It skates by quickly and, what with the game’s retro art style, the text can be tricky to read. I am still not confident on the types of monsters, either; there’s Will, Brute, Malicious, Unstable, and Relentless, and, for a game that focuses on logic when forming monster pacts, the way each type affects the others doesn’t seem logical, making it hard to remember which type is strong against what — which in turn means you’ll miss out on the nuances of battling. The variety in monsters is one of Monster Crown’s strengths — although the sheer number can make it trickier to remember and identify them — and you’ll definitely be tempted to collect them all. I’m not too sure just yet on how grindy Monster Crown will prove to be, though; you’re unleashed into the world to go where you will, but I found I was too under-levelled against the monsters and the chief I had to beat in the next town — and the stakes are high, since losing against a chief apparently means giving up one of your monsters. As the default option, I had experience sharing on, but what wasn’t clear at first is that this splits the total experience gained amongst all the monsters, which was why my team was so slow to level up. I was battling wild monsters over and over just to try to get close to the level of the monster I had to fight. You can see the wild monsters, so you can dodge them if you want. Thankfully, there isn’t anything like the endless influx of Zubats (okay I lied, one more reference) but this of course means that you don’t level up as quickly. I still don’t feel 100% confident about battling, as the game throws a lot of information at you on the screen. Along with battling, another major part of Monster Crown is the breeding system. I’m a few hours in and have just unlocked this, so I can’t claim to know all about it, but I do think it’ll open up the game in a big way. You get to choose which monsters you want to breed to create just the sort of monster you want on your team, and it looks like you could easily lose a large chunk of time to this. The game features a retro pixel art style. It’s lovely, and just as nostalgic as the music, but it can occasionally cause issues when you can’t tell what you’re looking at, or when you occasionally have trouble deciphering the text. The world is large with an equally sizeable array of monsters to find. Whether the size of the world is justified by its exploration potential isn’t yet clear: exploring doesn’t always feel necessary, and you can often wander for a while without coming across anything. Plus, the map could stand to be a little more readable, and it’s easy to feel quickly lost. Achievements-wise, Monster Crown feels pretty generous, doling out achievements for everything from starting a new game to winning certain battles, although some of the later achievements look to require a fair bit of playtime. Overall, it feels hard to judge Monster Crown by its first hours alone, when it clearly opens up a lot more once you get to grips with breeding. If you’re looking for something perfectly put together, you might find some frustrations in Monster Crown. That being said, if you’re looking for a creature-collector that doesn’t pull any punches, then I’d say Monster Crown would be well worth considering.
Source link
