Monster Sanctuary – Switch – ntower

In addition to the Pokemon series, many owners have already participated in Monster Madness. YO-KAI WATCH, Spectrobes or Digimon – all of which share the passion of traveling together with loving creatures. It’s no surprise that indie developers are also trying their hand at this genre and creating their own worlds with new creatures with new ventures. The Monster Sanctuary is moving in a comparable direction, combining the well-known monster collecting feel with elements like Metrodvania, activating the breath of fresh air. In our game test you can find out if the unusual combination makes sense or doesn’t really fit together.

Capture, Training and Fight Monsters – Very few are associated with the classic game of games that often plays a tactical role in their lives. In terms of their basics, they all work almost identically: you catch local monsters, make a connection with them, and travel to the unexplored game world with all sorts of inventions. The area separated from the wheat soup is often due to the focus of the respective games. Breaking down as many creatures as possible or allowing them to compete with each other depends on each subject and leads to completely different experiences, despite having basically the same principle. Although these differences are sometimes only noticeable on closer inspection, the Monster Sanctuary stands alone simply because of its two-dimensional perspective.

This view shares the basic similarity that a larger world still needs to be explored, even if the genre is far from normal. In this dimension, the structure of a classic Metrodwania offshoot is obvious, where all areas are seamlessly connected and there is no room for traditional level selection screens. In general, improvements or additional new skills define progress – this is true to a certain extent, but overall seems only coincidental. Double jump allows you to reach high places without question, but power ups like this are only a small part of the real idea. As the title suggests, monsters are at the center of action and play an important role in the game world. Each creature (occasionally) has many powers that reveal secrets that provide a significant benefit when explored and remain hidden.

It is important to emphasize that not every monster has individual powers. Often the skills overlap in a particular way and can usually be identified at first glance. The feathered creatures keep you in the air for a short moment, and the fiery monsters burn the dendrils with their heat – just the look tells you what skill you will handle. If you think now that you can use all your skills at once, I have to deceive you, because only one guy in the game world can support you. Fortunately, switching between your friends with the shoulder button is quick and without boring menu navigation, so the flow of the game is never interrupted. Rewards are often somewhat unsatisfactory due to this optional nature, as many treasures and secret breasts are tied to the abilities of monsters.

After all, the game can not always assume that you will catch every monster available, so, in one sense, useless items can be bought or found elsewhere, and occasionally put in hidden boxes. Because of this, you may find the secrets over and over again, but not reach them because a monster is missing, so keep that in mind. At first it may not seem sad – after all, going back to the old areas to get to the bottom of lost secrets is kind of a trademark. Unfortunately, the Monster Sanctuary does not indicate almost any information on the map, and in the end does not say that you may have missed something, which is why retreating means returning to the already explored area to find the missing items, along with the poor. Not fun or useful.

Fight in detail

The heart of the game is the turn-based combat system where you face a group of up to three monsters at once or fight against other characters. With a team of six allies in total, you can flexibly change the order of your team during the war. Pay particular attention to the opponent’s basic weaknesses, which can be read at any time under the “Enemy Info” tab. Similarly, each attack has a specific property, for example, fire, water, air or, more simply, neutral damage. The right choice of the right attack should always be considered and combined with the right timing because special attacks are tied to the power supply and they lose their effectiveness and penetrating power if overused.

As such, you should resort to a regular standard attack, the strength of which depends on the tools selected. It is possible to equip all the monsters with equipment that will improve simple attributes or provide useful level bonuses. The skill tree is equally important for each creature to open new special attacks or strengthen the respective monster. However, unlike other roll-flaming games, one level does not improve your monster’s power, but gives you skill points, which are used in the skill tree. What makes the game particularly well understood here is that the newly captured monsters do not have to train hard to unlock personal abilities first. When captured, each creature has the amount of skill points that are generally available from the respective level and can be adapted immediately based on the fight. This is also necessary because grinding may get a little more late in the game, artificially extending 20 hours of game time.

Conflicts with other coaches in particular prove this fact anew every time, and often act as a stop sign telling you to grind. Nevertheless, they bring the necessary genres to otherwise monotonous fighting, because wild monsters never represent a serious challenge and the game usually demands only exceptional circumstances. One of these exceptions is champions – very strong, rare monsters that act as boss fights, so talk and impress with their high endurance. Although they present a pleasant challenge, the attraction here is more in catching the creature. Basically, “catching” in relation to Monster Sanctuary is not entirely accurate. If you perform particularly well in a fight, you will have the opportunity to eventually get the eggs of the killed creatures. You can easily stuff them into the item list and add them to your team instantly.

The simplicity of this process is an example and shows what the greatest strength of the game is: the simplicity of the game. It only takes a few test battles to get into action, and the difficult game is never complicated, so you can head back to Monster Sanctuary at any time. In-depth information can only be found in the monster book, where all the animals are listed with interesting reports and give you information about their strengths and weaknesses. Although the plot may seem relatively inefficient and loose at first glance, the cart is quite elaborate. In detail, this means that there are many custom backgrounds hidden to the game world that you have to uncover yourself – or ignore them. The common thread has the simple goal of becoming a respected monster keeper, which does not elevate the plot unnecessarily, and thanks to more game games for getting into the game faster

In terms of graphics, Monster Sanctuary is based on the pixel look, which is now familiar and makes little mistake. Individual systems stand out from each other with monsters charming animations and vivid settings. At this point it depends on the taste, but I would have liked a little more unusual places. Dark caves and abandoned ruins abound in other sports, so a little more courage for new things would not go wrong. It looks similarly pale in color to the soundtrack, which supports the action, but never really enhances it. Fights against champions or other coaches do not have the appropriate energy and sound a bit relaxed. The composer feels very comfortable with the pieces of music that underline the atmosphere in the atmosphere, and more than once I had the idea that this behavior unfortunately reflects a little more of the wonderful moments.