I'm looking at some eshop games to buy; can anyone give any feedback on these?
Crown Trick
Earthlock
Grimvalor
Marco & the Galaxy Dragon
Monster Sanctuary
Rogue Heroes
I played Earthlock and Monster Sanctuary.
Earthlock is alright. It’s kind of got mid vibes and doesn’t do anything unique as far as turn-based jrpgs go. I would say it looks and plays like a PS1 rpg, but it’s super short. The thing that I remember the most was the way you level up characters was pretty enjoyable- you place cards on a grid for stat bonuses and skills, so your team is moderately customizable. I maxed everyone out before the final battle without any grinding though. Apparently this game got a really massive free update that changed everything about it, to the point where it became a completely different game. It was really terrible & broken before afaik, but now it’s just a decent, by-the-numbers little time waster. It ends pretty anticlimacticly too, like it’s setting up a sequel, but I believe the developer changed course and the next game in the Earthlock universe turned out to be an island survival / cozy farming game or something lol.
Monster Sanctuary otoh is a real hidden gem. I don’t want to just say it’s better than Pokemon, because that’s such a low bar that literally any monster taming rpg clears these days, but it’s also better than most Metroidvanias. Because that’s what it is- a perfectly executed hybrid of monster taming rpgs and Metroidvanias. If you like both these genres you will be in heaven playing this game. It really looks and feels like a long-lost GBA game that would’ve been one of the system’s best.
You get a team of 6 monsters, but only 3 can fight at a time, and unlike Pokemon that has a lot of filler monsters there is nothing like that here. Even monsters that evolve are still useful in their base forms as evolutions tend to be more like form or role changes that give you different skill trees. Every single monster I came across seemed like they would be useful in some way or part of a certain team, and there’s over 100 of them (and there are light and dark forms of each ones as well, with different stats and unique passives). The team building in it is so damn satisfying. The turn-based battles revolve alot around buffing and debuffing, and there are a huge number of different ones that can interact with each other, and some monsters are able to stack some of the same buffs/debuffs for massive effects. There are elemental strengths/weaknesses sure but they’re not as important as in Pokemon. Overall just a really fun and meaty battle system to dig into.
And the Metroidvania part of it is really well-done too. The usual moves you get that let you explore more of the map come from your monsters. Breaking walls, hovering, swimming, etc. All your monsters are available to use not just your battling team, so there’s no swapping HM slaves like in Pokemon. Exploring is fun and easy, with some tricky platforming and puzzles off the beaten path. The music is also surprisingly great- lots of chill ear worms while running around alongside energetic battle tracks.
It’s been one of the indie game highlights for me in recent years. I am definitely keeping an eye on the developer’s upcoming game Aethermancer, which is more of a rougelike take on monster taming, as these guys really understand what makes the genre addictive.