
This game puts a lot more emphasis on buffing your team and debuffing the other team.
_(Beta)-1529054582.png)
There’s even an online mode if you want to try your luck against other players. There are also your standard Monster Keeper – aka Pokémon Trainer -battles, as well as boss-like Champion monsters you can face. Choose the three that you think will be best to take on the opposing team and let the fight commence. You’ll see the monsters frolicking around the world, and upon bumping into one the fight begins. Where Monster Sanctuary deviates from the normal Pokémon formula is that most of the fights are three-on-three encounters. You can carry a whole bunch of monsters, but you always have a team of six that you take into battle.

Much like Pokémon, the battles are all about exploiting elemental weaknesses. You can make it so critical hits apply a buff to a monster, any kind of healing ability also adds a shield, enemies who attack your team get damage reflected back at them, etc. They can learn different moves, have one of their physical traits increased, or have special effects and conditions enabled that can change how you use their skillset. The skill trees for each monster actually go pretty deep. So, yes, instead of catching your monsters in a small ball, you’re beating up their parents and snatching their eggs.
#Wonder boy monster world charmstone upgrade#
You then hatch the egg, give the creature a ridiculous name, and upgrade its skills. This game has you covered.Īfter you’ve been given your first few monsters, you need to fight any others to get a hold of one of their eggs. Chances are that if you’re playing this, you just want to catch and battle monsters. The NPCs are just there to either give you a side quest, spout off exposition, or rattle off gameplay tips like living, breathing tutorials.īut it’s not like most Pokémon games have mind-blowing storylines anyway. Most of the dialogue is more functional than anything else. The main plot is pretty basic and it even devolves into the classic “collect a number of items to save the world” RPG trope. Unfortunately, it’s less Final Fantasy VI and more Final Fantasy I in the narrative department.
#Wonder boy monster world charmstone full#
The soundtrack is full of genuinely fantastic music that’s sure to invoke feelings of nostalgia in fellow 90s JRPG fans.Įven the story of Monster Sanctuary feels more like something from a SNES-era JRPG rather than a Pokémon game. The NPCs and levels themselves aren’t all that exciting, but a lot of the monster designs are delightful to look at. The game is a 2D adventure with graphics that are reminiscent of classic Square Enix games like Secret Of Mana or Chrono Trigger. If you like SNES-era JRPGs, then you’ll likely be charmed by Monster Sanctuary’s art style. Since you’re the protagonist, it’s up to you to stop these guys before some nebulous cataclysmic event unfolds. You start on your adventure to become a world-renowned Keeper, but soon stumble across a group of evil cultists called The Alchemists that practice forbidden forms of science. You, along with three others have been gifted with ancestral Spectral Familiars, which are very powerful, immortal creatures (or this game’s version of your starter Pokémon). You play as a Monster Keeper who’s come from a distinguished family. Monster Sanctuary is about a land where monsters can roam freely. Temtem and Ooblets are recent examples, and you can now add Monster Sanctuary to the list as well. There’s plenty of knock-offs that have tried to cash in on Pokémon’s success, but only a few titles about catching 0ff-brand pocket-monsters have been made with genuine care and passion.

Everyone loves the franchise so dang much that they’re willing to overlook the fact that the entire concept – which of course involves capturing adorable monsters, shoving them into magic balls, and then forcing them all to fight to the death – is a tad insane. To say that Pokémon is popular is about as big of an understatement as you could make.
