Pokemon has been the standard for monster-catching games ever since its debut, as the cute and player-friendly world of Pokemon has held many players. Its style of game is not one that many companies these days would try to emulate, or at least that was true before the arrival of games like Temtem and the darker themed monster catcher Monster Crown. While it is still technically in early access, Monster Crown already has several distinguishing characteristics.
The main draw of Monster Crown is found both in its similarities and differences to older Pokemon titles. The pixel art style is highly reminiscent of Pokemon Gold/Silver, but the game’s story takes a darker edge than where Pokemon goes. Monsters are captured using contracts exchanging power for shelter, rather than caught with containers, and themes of creature abuse present at the fringes of Pokemon are more prominent here. Of course, Monster Crown is still in Early Access, but much of its identity seems to already be established.
While there are many aspects that still desperately need to be ironed out, it should be noted that Monster Crown is already a hit on Steam. Its battles are notably more difficult than in Pokemon, with a more demanding, albeit more cryptic, typing system that players must master. The real draw for many players has been the breeding between Monsters, which leads to tons of unique combinations. Drawing the most power from Monsters seems to be the theme of Monster Crown‘s latest update, which adds three features: NET breeding, a Move Learner, and inter-player trading.
The NET breeding system allows players to breed one of their Monsters with a NET egg generated randomly. Essentially, the NET egg is a random amalgamation of traits and stats gathered from the player base at large, forging a mystery parent. This can be compared somewhat to Monster Rancher‘s CD monster spawning feature, except here no CD is required, and half of the new Monster is based on the players’ own efforts.
Meanwhile, the Moves Learner allows players to change which moves their Monsters know, allowing for a single Monster to have more versatility. This becomes important as certain moves are necessary to fight the evil sorcerers the players will fight later in the story. The unforgiving nature of the combat and world definitely seems to cross into the story more than it does in Pokemon stories. Of course, the combat system probably still needs to be tweaked before perfection, but the Moves Learner should assuage some frustration with it.
Lastly, the inter-player trading is exactly what it says: players can now trade Monsters with each other, instead of only with NPCs. This seems like a no-brainer, but better implemented now than never. Only time and further features will tell how Monster Crown stacks up against other monster collecting games. With Temtem no longer coming to PS4 and Xbox One, it’s clear the market for such games outside of Pokemon still isn’t huge. Maybe that will change soon with more games in the genre.
Monster Crown is available for PC in Early Access.
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