Just listing some of the major points instead of how I'd normally review. I'd say this was a 3.5⋆ for me. Not really anything mind-blowing, but a solid game on most fronts. Some cool things: The take on “shinies” in Coromon is two-fold: there are three different variants of every Coromon—standard, potent, and perfect. Each form has a different color, as well as better stat improvements when you go up from standard. The simplest explanation is that your Coromon have a “potential” score and this is generally higher with potent and perfect Coromon. As your Coromon grow, they level up number-wise, but also with a second bar that grants 3 stat points that you can allocate as you please each time it levels. With a higher potential, this bar fills faster, so you get points more often. There are Coromon types, but there are also types that apply only to skills (moves/attacks/whatever you want to call them). There are seven types that apply to Coromon themselves (Fire, Water, Electric, Ice, Sand, Normal, and Ghost), and six additional types that apply only to skills (Magic, Foul, Heavy, Air, Poison, Cut). The number of types are pretty limited when you’re used to Pokémon, especially with no dual types, but I still think it’s an interesting system with its own level of complexity. There’s a stamina system, instead of PP. Each skill costs a certain number of stamina points. You can have your Coromon rest at any point during battle to regain half of their stamina, or use items to recover it. This kind of forced me to change my habits that I have from Pokemon where, say, I take out 90% of an enemy’s HP in one hit, so … Just listing some of the major points instead of how I'd normally review. I'd say this was a 3.5⋆ for me. Not really anything mind-blowing, but a solid game on most fronts. Some cool things: The take on “shinies” in Coromon is two-fold: there are three different variants of every Coromon—standard, potent, and perfect. Each form has a different color, as well as better stat improvements when you go up from standard. The simplest explanation is that your Coromon have a “potential” score and this is generally higher with potent and perfect Coromon. As your Coromon grow, they level up number-wise, but also with a second bar that grants 3 stat points that you can allocate as you please each time it levels. With a higher potential, this bar fills faster, so you get points more often. There are Coromon types, but there are also types that apply only to skills (moves/attacks/whatever you want to call them). There are seven types that apply to Coromon themselves (Fire, Water, Electric, Ice, Sand, Normal, and Ghost), and six additional types that apply only to skills (Magic, Foul, Heavy, Air, Poison, Cut). The number of types are pretty limited when you’re used to Pokémon, especially with no dual types, but I still think it’s an interesting system with its own level of complexity. There’s a stamina system, instead of PP. Each skill costs a certain number of stamina points. You can have your Coromon rest at any point during battle to regain half of their stamina, or use items to recover it. This kind of forced me to change my habits that I have from Pokemon where, say, I take out 90% of an enemy’s HP in one hit, so I use a “Normal” attack or something weaker to conserve PP of my Fire/Water/whatever attack to finish them off. In this case, that might be a strong Normal move that uses more stamina, so you might as well just use the Fire attack again. Just a generally tougher monster collector than Pokémon. There aren’t Gyms or a real likeness to them, but there are several “bosses” and they’re solidly difficult if you aren’t prepared. Some normal-ass trainer fights are also pretty tough sometimes, which is pretty refreshing. You don’t really need to GRIND, especially when you find several exp share-type hold items, but you do need to have a pretty strong team throughout. End-game stuff is around level 70. I was not at level 70 and the final battle was rough. Fantastic music throughout the game. Coromon are fully animated in battles, as are the backgrounds, which are beautiful. It’s a really pretty game. Some not-so-cool things: There are double- and triple-battles at random in the wild. You still only get to use one Coromon. This is pretty different from the swarms in Pokémon where they’re all pretty weak. The level might be a bit lower, but generally not drastically. A lot of times it’ll be an evolved and unevolved form together, which is kinda cool, but these fights get tedious. This could be a plus for some people, but most of the dungeons were just really long with annoying and/or tedious puzzles which meant a lot of back and forth hitting switches and sh*t in a game where I was already backtracking to heal a lot (mostly early game to save money), so huge chunks of the game were a bit frustrating. There's not much to the story. There's a simple plot as to why you're saving the world and whatnot but there's zero explanation behind it. There are some fourth wall-breaking moments from some NPCs and the game is pretty funny at times, though. My team (all potent): Volcadon (starter), Kyraptor, Swampa, Purrghast, Toravolt, Glamoth. I know that as the resident cat lady I should love Purrghast the most, but Swampa has my heart. And Glamoth. <3 I KNOW THE PICTURES ARE MESSY AHHHH.A solid monster collector with some refreshing mechanics *
A solid monster collector with some refreshing mechanics *
