Monster Sanctuary (2020)

something about pokemon inspired games, the "problem" with pokemon that everyone feels like they need to fix is that it's too easy. to that end, hard is mostly what this game is at it's core and all it really tries to be.

It's a pokemon game only in that it has monster taming and turn based battles, but the similarities are small enough that honestly it doesn't even need the comparison. it's a metroodivania, barely, and a turn based team battle game with heavy emphasis on strategy and preparation. you cannot strong arm your way through even random battles here. you are going to have to be managing your strategy, for better or worse. the whole game frames around the battles. the world is a side scroller with gates that can be opened and obstacles traversed using the monsters you collect so you're going to have to collect a lot of them. not just for this, the battles require a deep synergy of buffs, debuffs, healing, choice of gear to alter your stats in order to play to your situation and needs, and elemental and attack type vulnerability targeting. if you don't do ALL of this, you will lose.

you will need to be searching the world for new monsters to add to your team. you'll have to beat them well because they only drop eggs if beaten skillfully. every monster can learn an array of attack types and elements, buffing and debuffing moves, healing methods and you will need to plan out how to use them all to win. there is no slacking off here. and this is all the game has. there is a story and it's not the worst but it's only there to serve the premise. if you like strategic turn based combat that doesn't let you slack off, you'll love it. if you want to relax and have a chill monster taming adventure, play pokemon afterall.

Monster Sanctuary is a new retro RPG that brings the retro nostalgia of the glory days to a modern console generation. It takes bits and boops of the SNES classics and combines them in a low key version of the classic formula. There is a lot to like in the way Monster Sanctuary is built, and the nostalgia it provides just enough dopamine to entertain fans of the history. Unfortunately, memories are most of what it brings to the table and not much way in the refreshment elements.

There are certain gameplay elements that you might not expect to mesh together, but end up making a surprising amount of sense after the fact. Both Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow are similar in the fact that they are also Metroidvanias where you collect abilities from monsters to make progress and improve your characters skill set. Pokemon games have hidden Machine moves that allow you to reach previously inaccessible areas as well. Monster Sanctuary, from Moi Rai Games builds on that by making your Monster Keeper who not only gets artifacts that augment their abilities, but uses their monsters to explore.

I like Monster Sanctuary for what it tries to accomplish but I just wish I liked the execution as much as the main concept. I could see the attempt to culminate into a better cohesive experience, but instead each different ingredient feels incomplete or misses the mark of what makes each of the mixed genres it pulls from so compelling as partial ingredients ultimately making up an okay dish, not an exceptional one for your Xbox.

It's cute and artsy but becomes boring too fast and too soon. Every room feels basic and with 2/3 fights per room. Every fights feels the same ->

1. See what are their weaknesess

2. Place monsters in correct order (supports front, dmg dealers back)

3. Focus with each one the ones that they counter (Unless there is one that is stronger or buffing, then focus that one first)

Also story goes super slow and it's not interesting at all.

I'm a big sucker for monster taming games and the whole metroidvania setup, so I was very excited to finally make time for Monster Sanctuary. I enjoyed my time with it, but it just didn't quite deliver well enough in any one area to become a favorite.

The exploration is just ok. There are plenty of exploration abilities and hidden areas, but none of the zones really excited me and the platforming is mediocre. A large part of the excitement in Metroidvanias is the danger that goes along with the exploration. With battles being turn based and platforming a bit of an after thought, the tension just isn't there. Exploration also requires some sort of aesthetic appeal or excitement about the nature of the zone, and neither of those really existed. The zones were standard video game fare of caves, frost zone, lava zone, etc. and the artwork just wasn't strong enough to get me excited.

I enjoyed the monster designs. They're a bit more on the Dragon Warrior Monsters part of the spectrum than Pokemon, which I consider a positive. It seemed to me that just about every monster was viable and could fill a roll in the 3v3 battles, which I greatly appreciate. I'm always disappointed when a monster I like is strictly outclassed or just too weak to use in a monster taming game. Each monster also has a large ability tree (you'll get 40 points to spend on it by the end) and one of two possible "shifts" allowing for a lot of customization in what rolls your monsters fill and how they fill those rolls. I actually think this was a bit too much, and would have preferred smaller, more meaningful choices.

The story exists.

Finally, combat. Normal battles are 3v3, keeper battles are 6v6 with 3 out on the field at a time. The battles revolve around the combo meter -- the more 'hits' (includes healing, buffs and debuffs) that you've done on your turn, the more damage the next hit does. There's not much strategy around it other than saving your biggest hitter for last, but it's a wrinkle I suppose. There are, of course, elemental weaknesses and resistances, though it's been expanded so that some monsters are strong or weak to all physical, magical, or debuffing skills. Most of combat really happens before the battle even starts -- you'll want to, and arguably need to, build a synergistic team. For example, you can make a team with a monster that applies buffs while healing, a monster that heals while buffing, and a monster that gets stronger for every buff on it. Tied to my complain with the skill trees, I think this goes a bit further than it should -- allowing too many synergies to stack makes game balance almost impossible, and frequently ends up restricting player choice in the end. Regardless, all of the aspects around combat are competently done, which puts this on the upper end of monster tamers.

In the end, the game was a bunch of pretty decent ideas done alright. Good enough to spend time on, but I don't really see myself revisiting it in the future.

Tried this game on the recommendation of a friend due to its similarities to pokémon, with the exception of having a better "capture" system and combat. He was definitely not wrong.

I really liked the pixel art, although most creatures have just a couple animations, they all look well done, and the character movement was really good.

The story was a very generic afair, with some very obvious foreshadowings. The meat of the game was for sure the combat, which is by far the best take on pokémon combat I've seen. Each monster has its own tech tree, and due to the maximum level you are incentivized to focus on a couple skills and splash a bit of some others. There are also several kinds of playstyle the game lets you try, such as pure damage, combo attacks and DoTs.

The best part is that you can save your team compositions (you can have up to 6 monsters in your team, with 3 fighting at the same time), and it saves that monster's current skill. That means that you can respec a monster and save it on a different slot, and the game will change the skills depending on the team you load up, which saves having repeated monsters on you pocket.