Over the past few decades creature catching, training and battling has been a formula that has ensured Pokémon has stayed a household name amongst gamers, and with exclusivity usually always tied to Nintendo, many were left to wonder if we’d ever see such joys arrive on other household consoles. In recent years that has all changed, and with numerous games arriving and changing the formula up just enough to warrant an unchallenged release, we’re finally able to enjoy such beloved experiences on Xbox. The latest title to take clear inspiration from the beloved aforementioned series is Monster Crown, but does it do enough to justify itself as a unique gaming experience or is this just another clone.
From the very start of the game, Monster Crown almost identically copies that of the Pokémon series of games. Things start off with our protagonist waking up at home in bed before being told by your Mum to head outside to meet with your Dad. At this point it’s the typical introduction to the creatures that roam the land, how you make a pact with them – essentially catching them by way of an agreement to use their power for your safety in return for looking after them, and how you battle with them before being sent off into the wilds. Your first task is to deliver an item to someone specific, before then going on to unravel the dark and shady goings-on across Crown Island and the history of the many threats you’ll meet along the way – so far so Pokémon.
Sadly the story fails to provide anything that feels all too original though, and whilst it’s not a bad game story-wise, what we have here is your typical tyrannical menace loose on the island and your job coming down to little more than raising a party of capable creatures that can take them down. Each location will see you meet new characters and most of your interactions with them come down to little more than short text conversations which are often forgettable comments with the odd interesting character popping up from time to time.
As with any creature battler, quantity is just as important as quality and with 200 base monsters within the game, and all of them capable of being bred and fused together to create the possibility of taking more than 1000 different monsters into battle, there is certainly no concern about variety. With each monster coming complete with their own moves, strengths and weaknesses, Monster Crown is no poor effort and what’s more is the game comes with the option to battle and trade each of these critters online, ensuring there are hours of joy if this is the sort of thing you like to get lost in.
As for the gameplay itself, Monster Crown is a mixed bag effort with some mechanics taking a fair while to come into play. Most of what you will be doing within the game is making pacts with monsters, levelling them up through battle and keeping your party of 8 monsters as combat-ready as possible in order to take on stronger foes. All the usual things are available such as potions to heal injured monsters and shops to buy new pacts from should you be running low and still have some monsters you hope to bring to your team.
As mentioned before monsters come with their own moves which will get stronger as they level up with certain moves often being used repeatedly until you find out which moves are best for your battle at hand, and with little explanation given to which of the 5 available creature types beats what thanks to little explanation, experimenting becomes a necessity. The creatures types themselves don’t give an obvious indication either with Brute, Vicious, Unstable, Relentless and Will the creature types available.
Another gameplay mechanic presents here, which deviates from the usually seen formula is the monster synergy that is applied. This isn’t available right from the start and will take a little progression to get to, but when it finally comes into play it brings a refreshing tone to what is otherwise a mostly copy and paste experience. Monster synergy works by way of combining monsters together to create incredibly powerful moves with boosted stats and side effects varying depending on which ones you put together, with your synergy broken should one of the monsters become defeated, which can be a real match ender when fighting some of the more powerful opponents on the island.
Another major comparison point to the aforementioned series and Monster Crown comes from the visual and audio side of things. Visually the game is played in an 8-bit top-down viewpoint, holding a fixed camera throughout. Keeping a game like this 8-bit in 2022 when you have the power of modern consoles to utilise does seem a bit crazy, especially when the animations are so limited, but for what it attempts, Monster Crown certainly does a great job of raining down the feeling of nostalgia of those old school titles we all grew up with.
As for the audio though, the mind-numbing repetition of 8-bit audio is present here and it’s one that will get stuck in your head and quite possibly cause a headache, however, it does fit in with the style of the game, with battles bringing their own audio whilst traversal has a more mellowed approach to things.
Conclusion
Overall, if you like creature catchers such as Pokémon, Nexomon, Temtem or any other inspired game of the same vein, then Monster Crown is another one that will join that list of options that can not only offer a significant number of monsters to get lost in but also provide a fair few hours of battling, levelling and breeding in a way we have become all too accustomed too over the years. It’s not original, it’s not unique, it’s not the best option out there, but it does offer more of what many players know and love on an Xbox console and for that reason, we’ll take it.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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