Nintendo Switch Review Code Provided by Studio Aurum
Publisher Soedesco and developer Studio Aurum have finally released their monster collection and battle game Monster Crown to the masses. I say finally released because it has been on Steam early access for about a year. This is the official release and after my playthrough, I can say I had a great time re-living my Gameboy days playing Pokémon red. However, numerous glitches and long load times hampered my experience.
Story
Monster Crown follows a young monster tamer in a top-down pixel-art RPG. Players will experience the semi-open world of Crown Island. In this world, monsters and humans live side-by-side sometimes in cooperation and sometimes at odds. Your journey takes you to different environments and cities to fight other tamers, some who are considered villains and others who will help you along your journey. The story isn’t particularly engaging as most of it takes place via on-screen text. There are a few art pieces that act to expand the story, but they don’t add much to the overall experience.
As you progress, you will uncover a nefarious plot that could mean the end of Crown Island. Your choices will have some effect on the outcome of the story, but I can’t speak to how much of a difference your decisions will impact the story. With this being the case, players could save at certain points and make different decisions to see the different story outcomes. Players can save their progress at any time which is a great feature.
There are certainly dark elements to the story, most that you wouldn’t see in a traditional monster hunting game and it’s a stark difference that needs to be noted. Overall, I didn’t feel the story was that engaging especially with some of the dialogue choices that felt a little cheesy and lighthearted only to be followed by dark moments. I feel a story for this type of game doesn’t have to be that engaging if the gameplay is solid. The story unfolds over the course of 20-30 hours, depending on playstyle, extra side quests, and how complete you want your monster catalog to be.
Gameplay
At the start of the game, you will have some limited customization options that include a choice between a male and female character, and some hairstyle choices. The hairstyles can be changed by returning to your room at the home farm, but gender cannot be changed. The goal of Monster Crown is to travel the world, battle monsters, and offer them pacts to join your team. You aren’t capturing monsters so much as you are getting them to agree to join you in your journey to recruit as many as possible. You will start out with one of a few monsters based on a short in-game personality test. Players will be busy with 200 base monsters and numerous options to breed and combine monsters that can yield different hybrids.
As you battle with other monsters tamed by NPCs in the game, you will enter a battle mode where each monster has certain attacks and that will drain the monster’s hit point bar triggering another monster on the roster to jump in its place that is, if you or your opponent have one available. You can also run from certain random encounters as a way to heal your monsters and get back in the fight. There are certain types of monsters denoted on screen that are more effective or outmatched depending on what type the player is facing. Once the opposing monster is injured you can offer them a pact to see if they want to join your team. They will either agree and join your team or decline and keep fighting you. I liked the feature that your main monster will follow you on screen and you can feed it, or have it scout certain areas for more powerful monsters so you don’t get stuck fighting anything that is way too overpowered. I also liked that I could see monsters on screen as opposed to getting a random encounter. It made avoiding unnecessary battles much easier than blind, random encounters. There is also a run toggle button that should be default but it makes traversing the world especially early on much easier.
The gameplay was very familiar and nostalgic for me as a big original Pokémon fan, and I felt right at home. There are some issues with how monsters are added to your roster though. As you continue to make agreements with monsters, you can only hold eight at a time and the others are accessible all the way back at the family farm. This issue isn’t alleviated until later in the game when you gain a stork companion that can fly to other parts of the map, and you can also swap your monsters out in this sequence. Despite some odd difficulty spikes, I enjoyed the gameplay and anyone who has played a monster hunting game like this in the past will feel right at home.
Audio and Visuals
Monster Crown utilizes a pixel art style, top-down perspective. Players will explore deserts, forests, cities, towns, and caves on their journey through the world. There are day and night sequences with rain and other weather effects. While I like the graphic style of the game, it’s very similar to early Pokémon games. I would have liked some variation and difference between the graphics style but that’s more of personal preference.
The audio in the game is also reminiscent of early NES and Pokémon games. There are a few variations of the overall sounds and music that players will experience but it’s consistent across the game. The audio is fine, but it doesn’t do anything to really stand out.
Replayability
Monster Crown does have some decent offerings when it comes to replayability. Your decisions will affect the outcomes of the story and with the save feature it’s easy to save at certain points and make different decisions. While I didn’t go back and try any of these I will likely go back and give it another shot as the game gets patched. It’s also likely that players won’t collect or see all the monsters and combinations so there’s reason to continue playing if you want a complete collection.
What Could Be Better
I’ve touched on it earlier in the review but there are a fair number of glitches both in gameplay and visuals that need to be addressed. There were times when my character would get stuck, or the battle mode would freeze or take way too long to load for a game like this. The overall loading times were long too. I would have liked it if there were more attack options for the monsters. At many points during the game, I felt as though I was using the same attacks all the time because that’s all that was available to me. There were also some graphical issues and transition problems with the camera. Finally, I noticed some lines and flashing on the screen during my playthrough at various points throughout the game. I’m hopeful that the developers will work on these issues because it hampered an otherwise enjoyable experience.
Verdict
Fans of Pokémon and other old-school monster hunting games will likely enjoy Monster Crown. However, I’m not sure it has the staying power to hold their attention through an entire playthrough. There is a fun game here hampered by some glitches and bugs that need to be addressed. The game doesn’t quite feel ready for prime time but with a few patches, I could see this title doing quite well. Monster Crown is currently available on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and PS4.
