- Exceptional gameplay and design
- Creative monster collection and exploration
- Innovative, deep combat system
- Weak story and characters
- Underwhelming monster fusion
- Frequent crashes and bugs
Emotions
Players felt satisfied by the game's high overall quality, including its engaging story, well-designed combat system, and strategic depth, particularly with the unique fusion and sticker mechanics. The game's beautiful visuals, excellent soundtrack, and charming monster designs also contributed significantly to a positive and fulfilling experience, often being perceived as a superior alternative to other games in the genre.
Excitement stemmed from the game's innovative mechanics, such as the fusion system and unique type interactions, which offered strategic depth and replayability. Players were also thrilled by the engaging storyline, captivating soundtrack, and the overall high quality of the game, often expressing it as a new favorite or a significant improvement over genre competitors.
Frustration arose from various quality-of-life issues, including slow battle speed, clunky UI, and poor inventory management. Players also experienced annoyance with vague quest guidance, repetitive late-game grind, and technical problems like crashes and janky movement, which hindered the overall enjoyment and flow of the game.
Joy was primarily derived from the game's fun and addictive gameplay, charming art style, and excellent music, especially the fusion themes. Players also found delight in the engaging characters, well-crafted story, and the overall positive and nostalgic experience the game provided, often highlighting its ability to evoke strong emotional connections.
Disappointment was frequently linked to the game's repetitive late-game content, perceived shallow mechanics, and unfulfilling story or ending. Players also expressed dissatisfaction with inconsistent monster designs, limited quality-of-life features, and the game not meeting high expectations set by its initial promise or comparisons to other titles.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 89% · Negative 11%. Score: 11 / 100
Positives:
- Players overwhelmingly praise the game's core gameplay, finding it fun, engaging, and well-optimized. They highlight its deep and innovative combat mechanics, captivating story, excellent soundtrack, and overall high quality, often noting its refreshing take on the genre.
- The game's monster collection aspect is highly lauded, with players appreciating the unique, creative, and varied designs of the creatures. The open-world exploration to find and collect these monsters is also a significant highlight, making the experience rewarding.
- Many reviewers, especially fans of the Pokémon series, consider this game a superior alternative. They commend its innovations, quality-of-life improvements, and deeper mechanics that address common frustrations found in traditional monster-catching games, while still evoking a nostalgic feel.
- The combat system is a standout feature, lauded for its depth, strategic possibilities, and innovative mechanics. Players particularly appreciate the unique elemental interactions, which go beyond simple damage multipliers to include buffs, debuffs, and status changes, making battles dynamic and engaging.
- The game's soundtrack receives immense praise, described as incredible, memorable, and a major highlight. Players particularly enjoy the vocal tracks during fusion and battles, finding the music atmospheric, catchy, and enhancing the overall experience.
Negatives:
- The story and characters are frequently criticized for being bland, unengaging, and poorly written. Dialogue options often feel meaningless, and character development is perceived as shallow, leading to a lack of emotional investment.
- The monster fusion mechanic is largely seen as underwhelming, with many fusion designs being described as ugly, uninspired, or 'derpy'. The system itself is criticized for being limited, grindy, and not offering meaningful strategic depth.
- Combat is widely described as slow, clunky, and repetitive, with lengthy, unskippable animations. Players desire quality-of-life features like battle speed-up options and auto-battle to alleviate the tedium.
- Many players found the overall game experience, especially in the mid to late game and post-game, to be repetitive, tedious, and ultimately boring. This includes the story, combat, and general gameplay loop, leading to a lack of motivation to finish or continue playing.
- Map traversal is a significant pain point, with players finding the open world dull, movement slow, and fast travel points too sparse. Platforming and general controls are often described as clunky, frustrating, and unintuitive.
Gameplay:
- The game's core combat revolves around a unique monster fusion system, allowing players to combine two monsters for new forms, stats, and moves. This is complemented by a deep, chemistry-based type interaction system that applies status effects and buffs/debuffs instead of simple damage multipliers, and a consistent 2v2 double battle format with an Action Point (AP) system. The combat also features separate health bars for the player character and their monsters, adding a layer of strategic depth.
- The game introduces a fresh take on monster collection where players 'record' monsters onto cassette tapes and then transform into them for battle, rather than summoning them. This system is tied to exploration, as certain recorded monsters grant abilities needed to traverse the open world. The game also features 'bootleg' monsters, which are rare, type-variant versions similar to 'shinies' in other games, encouraging extensive collection and hunting.
- The game offers an open-world experience with Metroidvania-style progression, where new areas become accessible as players acquire specific monster abilities. It features a non-linear quest system with a main story and numerous side quests, providing a substantial and engaging exploration experience filled with secrets and puzzles.
- A key customization feature is the 'sticker' system, where moves and passive abilities are represented as stickers that can be freely swapped between any monster. This allows for deep and flexible monster builds, enabling players to customize each monster's skillset extensively without cost or limitation.
- The game provides extensive difficulty customization options, including adjustable AI intelligence and enemy level scaling, which can be changed at any time. This flexibility allows players to tailor the challenge to their preference and significantly reduces the need for grinding, as monster levels scale with the player's level.
Performance:
- Players frequently experience various technical issues including screen freezing, stuttering in the overworld, occasional crashes, and performance drops during specific attacks or mini-games. Some report physics glitches and visual flickering.
- Many players report excellent performance on the Steam Deck, indicating good optimization for portable play. Some initial launch issues on PC were resolved with updated AMD drivers.
- The game has very low PC system requirements, making it accessible to a wide range of hardware, including older or less powerful computers.
- The game features a consistent and frequent auto-save system, which effectively minimizes any potential loss of progress due to crashes or other issues.
- The game offers essential graphics options, though it lacks specific controls for resource-intensive elements like water physics. Players note that the visual style becomes more acceptable over time.
Recommendations:
- The game is overwhelmingly recommended by players, especially for fans of monster-collecting RPGs like Pokémon, offering a fresh and unique take on the genre. Many consider it a must-play and a strong alternative to established franchises, praising its overall quality and value.
- Players are very eager for more content, including sequels and DLC, indicating strong satisfaction with the current game and a desire for the series to continue. Many express willingness to purchase future releases at full price.
- Some players suggest using console commands or combat acceleration mods to mitigate the perceived grind, especially when aiming for full achievement completion. This indicates that the grind can be a deterrent for some.
Miscellaneous:
- Player experiences with game length and completion vary, with some finding the main story around 20-30 hours and post-game content extending it significantly. Many players are motivated to achieve 100% completion, indicating engaging content beyond the main narrative.
- There is a strong desire among players for future content, including sequels, more DLC, and continuous updates. Specific suggestions include expanding the map, adding new monsters, and more evolutions, indicating a wish for the game's universe to grow.
- The game receives praise for its overall presentation, including its pixel art, graphics, and unique art style. Players appreciate the well-designed world, interesting setting, and pleasant atmosphere, noting its distinct visual and thematic identity.
- Players appreciate the ongoing developer support through updates and community interaction. The inclusion of official cheat console support is also noted as a positive feature, allowing players to customize their experience and reduce grinding.
- Feedback on monster design is mixed. While some players find the designs great, imaginative, and varied, others express disappointment, finding many monsters not good-looking or thoughtfully designed.
