Monster Crown

Review

Starting a new game, you’ll be able to name your character (up to eleven characters long) and your sex (He, She or They). You can also choose how your character will look and the colour of your character. After deciding who you are, you will find yourself eight years in the past, camping with your Dad. He explains that while it’s fun camping in the wild, it can be a very dangerous place. Luckily for you though, you’re both close to home and you have your friendly monster, Teedon. However, your Dad reminds you that these lands belong to the monsters, so you must be extra careful. Have a monster to protect you and a map to find your way in case you get lost.

The difference between humans and monsters are that monsters don’t care for humans and they do their own things. But humans, being the resourceful creatures that they are, discovered that when certain divine symbols are printed on scrolls, it allows monsters and man to form a pact that would benefit both parties. This meant that man and monster could travel and face a variety of challenges while they grew strong, and the strength of the monsters would offer protection. Some decided to seek more power over everything else, but the price for such power was far more than most would be happy to pay.

From here you wake from sleeping and find yourself in your room; your Mum is downstairs telling you that your father wants to see you outside. You will be shown how the game works, the monster battles and how to catch them for your own needs. Your father has some tasks for you to complete: clear the field and feed Teedon, find a Primigon so you can plough the fields. After which your father announces that he has a surprise for you - a comic in your room. On the back is a personality quiz; if you answer and mail in the questions, you’ll win your very own monster. Once you have your own monsters and have spent a little time levelling them up, your father will send you out in to the big bad world on a mission to deliver gifts to the King to show your good will. 

While on your travels you’ll visit towns; there’ll be obstacles along the way and you’ll have to battle monsters. When a battle commences the monster will appear on the right of the screen along with the type of monster they are. You can then choose a monster from your party to do battle. Once you’ve made your decision, you enter the battle screen; on the left is your monster, with the Name, Level and Health, and in the centre of the screen are the options for your monster.

The options are Attack, Switch, Offer and Escape.  Selecting Attack will give you the attack options for your monster. Switch will allow you to switch to another monster in your party. Escape will let you run away with your tail between your legs should you be getting your botty spanked. Offer will allow you to make a Pact with the enemy monster if you have a Pact form (you can find these or buy them from sellers in towns). Weakening a monster and then offering a pact may give you better odds of them accepting; you won’t always be able to get a monster to join your party.  

You can have eight monsters in your party at any one time, although should you collect more than eight then they’ll be sent back to your parent's farm. In towns you call on the Rooster Courier Service where you can take a Storklift ride and have your monsters delivered to you so that you can swap out the monsters in your party.

In the settings there’s options for Resolution (Small, Medium, Large and Full), Volume, HUD (Clock, Inventory, Party), Button Map, Party Experience and Soft Reset.

The game is in Early Access currently and so far I’ve had fun playing the game. I had one small problem while playing the game, but it was sorted quickly.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!