Title: Monster Sanctuary
Developer: Moi Rai Games
Publisher: Team 17
Genre: Action, Adventure, RPG, Metroidvania, Platformer
Number of Players: up to 2 players
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: December 08, 2020
Price: $19.99
Ever wondered what a side-scrolling Pokemon game would look like? Wonder no more, as Monster Sanctuary, developed by Moi Rai Games and published by Team 17, has arrived on the Nintendo Switch! Well, it is not exactly a Pokemon game. The game has monster taming mechanics and is of the metroidvania genre, two genres that are not commonly seen together, if at all. Sit tight, and let us review Monster Sanctuary on the Nintendo Switch.
In this game, you play as a rookie Monster Keeper off to prove your worth. You have been entrusted with your family’s Spectral Familiar that has been around since time immemorial. You are tasked to go to a fortress within the Monster Sanctuary, a place where Monster Keepers meet. This acts as the central hub of the game, and from there, you embark on an epic journey to other areas to solve mysteries and intrigues in the world of humans and monsters. Strategic warp points get opened within areas that you explore, which will warp you back to the fortress or to other warp points that you have discovered, making backtracking easier as you progress into the game.
At the start of the game, you choose your character design and then choose one of four starting monsters, the Spectral Familiars. These four are the Spectral Wolf, Spectral Eagle, Spectral Toad, and the Spectral Lion. Each has its own unique abilities and stats, and you choose which one that you think will suit the best to your play style. Since this is the very beginning of the game, it is really kind of hard which one to choose, since you have not started the game yet and you are not sure how the combat or exploration will be, so you will just have to choose the best one that you prefer.
If you are already familiar with the metroidvania genre, this game offers nothing much new. The map is divided into interconnected areas, some are closed off at the beginning, and you progress further by obtaining the skills or weapons or devices that will unlock areas in the game, with the expected backtracking thrown in the mix. In this game, instead of abilities and weapons and devices, you will have to capture monsters. These monsters are what you will use in exploration, as different monsters have different abilities to help you, like those that break hidden walls, activate different elemental orbs, move obstacles, help you reach hard-to-reach platforms, etc. There are also multiple NPCs that will help you along the way. Some will upgrade your abilities, gears, or help you manage your monsters, while some will provide you access to new areas, provide you expositional info, or give you clues in solving puzzles. The developers really cover almost everything that any player would be expecting from a metroidvania game, and by the end of this game, you will satisfied with how you have built your character with the array of monsters that you have collected along the way.
To collect monsters, you will have to defeat them in battle. Battles are turn-based, and you get to command the monsters in your party to attack with various skills, heal, use items, or flee the battle if you need to. You get to choose which three monster to fight against the monsters of the opposing team. Monsters commonly found in the wild (those that are not bound to other Monster Keepers) will always consist of 3 monsters per team. Later on, you will get to battle Champion Monsters (powerful monsters that act as mini-bosses in some areas; defeating these monsters raise your Monster Keeper rank and the higher your rank gets, the more features that you get to unlock in the game) and other Monster Keepers (which, like you, has a party of six monsters). Defeated monsters may drop monster eggs, and these eggs are what you have to hatch and recruit to be part of your party. Not all monsters drop monster eggs, by the way. Each battle is scored when you win it, from 1 to 5 stars, 5 stars being the most excellent. The higher your score is, the better and rarer the loots/eggs that you will get, and the more experience you earn. It depends on how fast you get to defeat all the monsters you face, which is in regular battles, always consist of three monsters. These monsters act on their own (i.e., there is no monster keeper controlling them) are usually within the same level as the monsters that you have in your party if you are visiting an area for the first time.
You can customize the monsters that you collect by equipping them with different weapons and accessories. These gears will affect their stats, like attack power, defense, mana, health, etc., and it is up to you to mix and match different weapons and accessories to give your monsters the best advantage that they can get in battle. The gears can be obtained by finding them inside treasure chests, from monster loots, and from different NPCs across the map. The gears themselves can then be further customized by different materials that you also collect, which can raise their stat-boosting properties.
You will continuously collect monsters throughout your journey, with some possessing the skills that you will be needing to further progress into the game. For those that are required to reach new areas or complete specific quests, NPCs will provide info where to find them. You can also talk to your Familiar and it can provide you additional details about the different quests and sub-quests that you currently have.
As mentioned earlier, aside from the usual battle against monsters in the overworld, you will also encounter other Monster Keepers and some will ask you to duel with them. Dueling will involve all of the six monsters in your party, three as your primary fighters and the others as alternates. If one monster falls, you can choose another one to fight in its stead, until your team either wins or all of your monsters fall. You have to make sure that all of the 6 monsters in your party are all leveled up or consisting of balanced stats and skills for them to have a fighting chance against the opposing team. Newly hatched monsters will be already leveled up close to the level of your most powerful monster with matching skill points that you can spend in unlocking skills, so you don’t have grind much to level them up. You may find some items that can raise levels and provide skill points for your monsters, so you can use it on those that need them (you can only use these items once per monster).
If you need a break from adventuring, there is an NPC that will allow you to battle previously-defeated Champion Monsters to get a higher score. You can also connect online and battle a random player. The matchmaking system is not perfect and it can take a long time to match with another person online, so this is a hit-or-miss feature. The more you win online, the higher your rank becomes, but you have to spend a lot of time to be able to win in the first place, so you have to really grind and level up your team.
Overall, Monster Sanctuary is one enjoyable game. The blending of two genres – monster taming and metroidvania – is surprisingly good and each of them makes the other feel fresh. I was not expecting much about the game, but I really thoroughly enjoyed playing it. The game runs very well on the Nintendo Switch and plays well in both docked and handheld. It is presented in a pixel art style, and the visuals look clean and the visuals look really good. The soundtrack is also good, which features different musical theme for each new area that you visit. Aside from the unskippable cutscenes and the tendency of the game to be grind-heavy especially near the end, this game is really solid and high recommendable. So if you are a fan of either genres, you have to play this game. If you think that the Pokemon games have become stale lately, this game will show you what a fresh new Pokemon could play like if only Game Freak would only try it. I do hope that a metroidvania Pokemon will get released in the future. But in the meantime, Monster Sanctuary is what that game could be, and it is really good.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Excellent, clean-looking pixel art style that make the visuals shine
- Excellent soundtrack that consists of variety of theme music for each of the areas you visit
- Wide customization options
- Wide variety of monsters to collect
- Combat mechanics offer depth and will either reward or punish you depending on your choices during an encounter
- Easy to follow map
- Fast load times, especially when warping from one area to another
- Plays well docked and in handheld
- Very good use of HD Rumble
CONS
- Main character lacks personality and is just there for you to control but doesn’t offer anything new
- Unopened treasure chests are not marked on the map and there is no option to mark them
- Takes a long time to find a match online
- Cutscenes cannot be skipped
- Becomes too grind-heavy in the end
RATING: 4.5/5 Monsters and Masters
No comments:
Post a Comment