Monster Crown is a brand new adventure game under development at Studio Aurum and is being published by SOEDESCO. SOEDESCO is a well-known publisher that has published some pretty decent titles in the previous years however their new project is unlike any of them before since the game Monster Crown is all about taming monsters and using them in battles. We were given a chance to test out Monster Crown ahead of its release. This is our preview of Monster Crown in which we explore the dark Crown Island and try to tame the toughest of the monsters the island has ever seen.
Monster Crown feels heavily inspired by Pokemon games of the Gameboy era however the game features its own unique identity and feel. You will find plenty of similarities between the two titles in terms of gameplay and mechanics but eventually, both of the games are unique in their own way. The narrative-driven story is text-based, complete with its own little cutscenes. Initially, I tried playing with an Xbox One controller connected to my PC but it was only accepting a few of the buttons so I had to resort to playing the game with the keyboard. The game features an extremely simple control scheme so it is really easy to get acquainted with the controls and play the game just as it is meant to be played. The game begins with introducing you to the world of Monsters and the history of Crown Island as your dad details everything to you. It is then followed by a short tutorial where you are introduced to the game world before you are let loose to explore the Crown Island on your own while following the game’s story.
Everything from the game’s visuals to sound to its gameplay style, everything screams nostalgia. The retro visuals and soundtrack are amazing and it feels like you are playing a Gameboy game on a PC. Even the control scheme is simple enough just like the classic games. The main star of Monster Crown is the Monsters which are the Pokemon equivalent from the game it takes its inspiration from. These Monsters are your protectors and you form pacts with them to have them in your party. These Monsters are of different types. These types include Vicious, Relentless, Brute, Will, Unstable, and more. Each of these types is stronger against certain types and weak against certain types so you will need to tame a diverse variety of these Monsters so that you can quickly change to the one that is more powerful against the other one.
These Monsters come with various types of Attacks and each of these attacks also represent a particular type. Even if the Monster is not of a particular type, you can make it learn an attack of the opposite type to make it powerful against the Monsters who are weaker to that type of attack. This gives you great freedom of using the same Monsters against a variety of Monsters. As you spend time with these Monsters, they will become more powerful and the more you use them in battle, the more XP they earn and the more powerful you become. Making your Monsters more powerful is the only way to progress in the main story of the game because key locations are locked behind boss battles and you can only win if you have a Monster that is at least 4 or 5 levels higher than the boss. As far as my game went, I could only clear the initial boss after my main Monster was at least 7 levels above it.
To tame more Monsters, you must have a Monster Pact with you that will allow you to form pacts with the monsters. The more pacts you have, the more monsters you can tame for your party. These pacts are similar to the Pokeballs of the Pokemon world. In Monster Crown, you first battle the Monsters you want to have in your party and then you offer them a pact and if the Monster is inspired by you, they will accept the pact and join your party. Once a Monster has joined your party, it will start earning XP and level up like your Party Leader and other Monsters. Every time you earn XP in the game, it is divided among all of the Monsters in your party unless you turn XP sharing off in the settings menu.
The fights with these Monsters are extremely similar to any of the Pokemon fights. You must choose a Monster that has a type advantage over the other and if you do not have any type advantage Monster, you can use a Monster that has a move of the type that has an advantage over the other Monster. Unlike Pokemon, Monsters in Monster Crown come looking for you and this is the whole idea of them being Monsters. Your Monster is there to protect you from Monsters but this also poses the problem that in some cases, you do not time to heal your Monsters to full health by feeding them. You can however use a different Pokemon in your next battle and send the current one in your Party so that it can rest. However, I did not notice their health coming back to full even after resting. Feeding them random pumpkins, however, did the trick.
If the fight seems too much for you to handle, you can always run away from the fights. While exploring Crown Island, your party leader will follow you around. You will find plenty of NPCs walking around you as well. You can interact with these NPCs and they will give you viable information about the world around you and how you can use different things and items in the world to your advantage. While the game follows a narrative story, certain areas will not be available to you right from the start of the game and you will only be able to access them after you’ve beaten a boss or your Monster has reached a certain level to clear out the areas. While the general gameplay and concept are pretty decent, I found the whole grinding thing a little too unnecessary especially for the very first boss of the game. There is not much to explore and fight in the starting area so you are left with a hectic task of leveling up your Monster with lots of grinding.
Monster Crown is certainly a massive nostalgic ride back to the early 90s and early 2000s and I enjoyed the time I spent in the game. The mechanics are fun and the Monster designs are pretty good. The Crown Island feels pretty lively with all the NPCs you found roaming around and the general idea of taking care of your Monsters is also pretty cute. The game is currently under development so I am sure that the gameplay will be even more refined for the final release and the developer might add or remove certain features from the game. I would appreciate it if the grinding for level factor goes down a bit. In its current form, I really liked Monster Crown and for someone who has played Pokemon back on the Gameboy, Monster Crown is a must-play title just because of all the nostalgia it brings with it. The Early Access release of Monster Crown is slated for July 31, 2020, and you can add the game to your wishlist right now.
