Game: Monster Sanctuary
Genre: Adventure, RPG
System: Nintendo Switch (also Steam, PS4, PS5 & Xbox One)
Developer|Publisher: Moi Rai Games | Team17
Age Rating: EU 7+ | US Everyone
Price: UK £15.99 | EU €19,99 | US $19.99
Release Date: December 8th 2020
Review code provided with many thanks to Team17
I Wana be the Very Best
I guess we’ll jump to the obvious with Monster Sanctuary first. Yes, it looks like Pokemon. In fact, it’s not the only video game this year to even have a crack at the monster-catching formula. Monster Sanctuary, in short, is monster-catching with a Metroidvania flavour. While it is easy to point and compare it to other games I feel Monster Sanctuary brings some new ideas to the table that might just surprise you, if you’re a fan of turn-based RPGs.
So you might have heard this story before. You are a monster keeper, you start the game picking your gender and pocket monster, sorry I meant familiar. Its a choice between a blue, red, green or yellow one. But rather than making a funny noise this monster actually talks to you, follows you about and even offers handy guidance when you get stuck in the game. Of course, you get to send them into battle to defeat other monsters but we’ll talk about that in a moment.
Your goal of the mission is to become the very best that no one ever was. To do this you travel the land finding high-level monsters increasing your Monster Keeper rank and accumulating several badges, I mean coins, to prove you are the Ultimate Monster Keeper. So the structure and idea of the game does feel a bit familiar but I swear this game does stuff different. Let’s get to it.
Explore the World
The gameplay is a mix between light Metroidvania exploration and spending the majority of your time battling other monsters. The game is 2D and you have a huge map to explore with several areas gated off to you until you locate a specific item to proceed. I particularly liked the solution of this game to swimming in cold water (hint, you need to create special underpants). There are also lots of chests and secrets dotted about which can be accessed using your monsters abilities. The exploring is fun but the vast majority of this game is spend battling monsters. So if you’re not a fan of turn-based RPGs at all, this may not be the Metroidvania for you.
Crunch Those Stats
The main reason to dive into Monster Sanctuary is of course to do battle. You’re able to see wild monsters on levels so encounters are not random and can be avoided if you choose. Most fights tend to be 3 vs 3 monster battles. Before the fight starts you can choose three monsters but check the stats of the enemy monsters as well as your own so you can exploit their weaknesses and take your best into the fight. Battles are turn-based: all the monsters in your party take a turn. They can attack, heal, add buffs to your party as well as many other options. The game features a unique combo system which increases as you attack the enemy and heal your party. As this counter count rises it increases the damage you land on the enemy. It doesn’t take long before the game turns into a crunch the numbers kind of system. The more you exploit weaknesses the more this combo increases but of course, you need to make sure your monsters have enough mana to land special attacks. It’s quite easy to get lost in all of this quite quickly since you can also equip weapons, items and give fruit to your monsters all of which adds perks.
Gotta Hatch Them All
You don’t catch monsters in this game. So no ball throwing at innocent monster’s heads. When you succeed in a wild battle there is a chance the wild monsters will drop an egg. You can then hatch this egg. Name your monster and add them to your party. What I loved is that they are usually levelled up to the same level as your monsters are sitting at currently, meaning you don’t have to grind away to increase their stats. Additionally, when you finish any fight it adds experience to all 6 monsters in your main party even the ones you don’t send into battle. This avoids a lot of tedium allowing you to advance the game rather than constantly backtracking to increase levels. That’s not to say you won’t backtrack at all. I found myself pretty happy to revisit old areas trying to get new monster eggs and just because I actually really dug the battle system in this game. Each of your monsters also has an individual skill tree so you can tailor each critter to your play style and liking.
A Monster of an Adventure
There is nice hefty RPG here to keep you busy for a very long time with the incentive to replay again to try different monster builds. There is also online multiplayer in this game if you want to take the fight to other players. Personally, though I was happy to enjoy this as a single-player experience. I guess the only mild niggle is the retro sprites and environments that don’t feel particularly unique. This didn’t particularly bother me since I was kinda sold on the graphics the moment I saw a monster that looked like a Killer Whale with legs. There is also a lovely soundtrack to accompany you on the adventure. For me, this game was about battling and stopping and starting a lot to check my stats and make sure I had the right gear.
To some, this might be quite a chore. If you’re looking for a simple game to breeze through this probably won’t be for you. But if you want to get lost in something for hours on end Monster Sanctuary has you covered. I’m not the biggest Pokemon fan but this game totally won me over.
Conclusion
Monster Sanctuary was a nice surprise for me. While on the surface it looks familiar to popular monster-catching games Monster Sanctuary feels like a darn decent RPG that I would recommend to any fan of the genre.
It’s Monster Sanctuary’s unique and detailed battle system and generous customisation options that make it stand out from the crowd. I loved exploring the world with my blue wolf I called Stephen and I see myself revisiting it again.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot
