Monster Sanctuary

« While clearly inspired by other similar titles, Monster Sanctuary takes that inspiration and runs with it, carving out its own spot in the gaming world. I can't wait to see how things flourish in the future! »

« A great mix of a platformer, RPG and monster catching game Monster Sanctuary has so much depth and content to keep you busy for a long time. Feels like a great RPG from the 16-bit era, a ton of cool monsters to hatch, to aid you on your quest. »

« An interesting mix of well-known details that manages to offer a familiar taste and yet be extremely fun. As you can imagine Monster Sanctuary doesn't have anything particularly new to offer, but it's a fun metroidvania with all kinds of pocket monsters that's also pretty deep. »

« Monster Sanctuary is a clever entry in the Monster Catcher genre, it naturally combines a deep battle system with Metroidvania elements with the lore of the game to create quite a special 2D pixel art indie title. »

« This is a fun, little adventure that combines Metroidvania and Pokémon in a way we weren’t expecting. If that concept sounds good to you, give it a try. »

« Monster Sanctuary is a charming take on the monster raising formula, albeit not without its faults. The combat's ranking system betrays the gameplay's nuances - discouraging high concept strategies or support tactics in favour of brute force - and the Metroidvania level design is marred in being broken up by methodical puzzles and turn based battles. In spite of this, Monster Sanctuary is an addictive RPG that is hard to put down. Monster hatching is an incredibly simple process, every single monster has its own skill tree, and combat has been balanced enough so that just about any team can get through the main game in the hands of savvy players. Monster Sanctuary is a diamond in the rough if there ever was one. »

« An expansive and content-packed game, Monster Sanctuary would be easy to criticise as a grind if we didn't find that said grinding was never really necessary to enjoy it. It's a difficult one to review because a lot of what this reviewer personally found a little boring is exactly what's going to appeal to its core audience of number-crunching statisticians. While Monster Sanctuary's is a little plain at the outset, the right people will find it one of their favourite games of the year. It's a total timesink, but that's a term that implies said time is being wasted, when it really isn't. Every fight is pushing your team forward, and the potential for maximising the efficiency and power of your squad is seemingly infinite. It can feel more like organising a spreadsheet than playing a game at times, but it's impossible to deny that it's an accomplished game with a lot to offer - and that's without even taking it online to battle other players. If you like min-maxing, feel free to add a point or two to the score below. »

« Monster Sanctuary is a game that feels satisfying and rewarding. When you earn more skill points, get a new monster, or find a new Explore Ability, it opens up more of a sufficiently large world to explore. But this is also a challenging game that requires you to experiment with teams, learn how to build combos, and invest a lot of time battling wild monsters to make sure you have the special abilities, evolutionary items, and experience you need to survive. »

« 9 Gameplay: Highly addictive, Simple, flows well, lots of strategy turn based combat, and some puzzles. Pokemon puzzle platformer rpg with skilltree. 10 music and sound: music is really well done for each dungeon and 6 Graphics: SNES type sprite graphics not the greatest. Just interesting to see what happens next and what skills you can add to your monsters. Not super linear you can figure things out on your own. Well thought out easy to pick up and play »

« this is a really good game the combat is good the exploring is good its all good hasjhshaajabszhzhdhsdnsdjsjsjshdhdhshshssananjajsjsm sorry just had to get to the character count »

« Like a 3rd graders first attempt at a game. Battle gone wrong? No pause exit type of deal, restart the game or let the veereryyyy grindy battle end and try again. »

« Yes it is a good game, but the most annoying thing to me will be the repititive gameplay, inspite has a lot of different monsters, they uses almost the same atack moves. But in general, is a good game. »

« For years, I've seen Monster Sanctuary recommended to me as "Pokémon, but with everything done right that it gets wrong." Which was a good enough reason for me to play it, but not get around to it until now. I have to say that that description falls well short of what this little gem has to offer. It starts with the same idea, but the 3-on-3 battles, the unique skill trees for each monster, the fact that every single monster is completely viable throughout the game, the Metroidvania exploration, and the much deeper combat make it a very different beast than Poké-clones like Coromon and Nexomon. To all the critics who complained that the game is too hard, they're probably trying to play it like Pokémon, just focusing on damage and damage type advantages. That will get you through the early game, but no further. After that, you need to think about team composition and synergy; you can't just dummy or bully your way through, though there is an easier difficulty level (and a harder one). There's also a ton of replay value, with several challenge modes. I will say that presentation could be better. The small damage preview bars are handy but hard to see and not always accurate. The monster designs are an inconsistent hodgepodge. And some of the music is great, but some of the music you'll be hearing the most often, like the standard combat music, is really dull. Exploration could also be smoother; swapping between multiple monsters for movement options can get tedious. Overall, a really great game that I wish I'd looked into earlier. I recommend it for any RPG fans, not just people looking for a better Pokémon. »

« Starts very strong but gets tedious at the end. Too many layers were added making the later battles take forever. Difficulty curve gets obscene during the last bosses. Only a few monsters are viable during these battles so if you don't use guides to build your team you're going to have a bad time. Great concept but gets ruined by the tryhards. Don't waste your time on this one. »

« Anyone who loves monster battling / collecting games is sure to enjoy this one. The gameplay is challenging, without ever really feeling unfair. The story didn't feel too long or too short. Monsters have enough variety that there's plenty of replay value, and there are even built-in modes such as a randomizer to add further enjoyment. The only complaints I have are minor. Music and story, while decent, weren't anything to write home about. And once you've got the best gear towards the later parts of the game, exploring for treasure starts to feel pointless, which is a shame in a metroidvania style game. »

« Cuando Pokemon y castlevania tuvieron un hijo, este fue el resultado: un juego que aúna la dinámica de captura de monstruos, entrenamiento y evolución de Pokemon, con mecánicas de exploración tipo metroidvania de la vertiente castlevaniana. Basicamente la exploración del mundo es un metroid, como ya he indicado, donde la mayoria de nuevas habilidades las conseguimos capturando monstruos. Cada monstruo viene con una habilidad de campo que podremos usar una vez lo tengamos en nuestro equipo, permitiendonos desde iluminar habitaciones oscuras a activar diversos interruptores o desplazarnos libremente en el agua. El combate y entrenamiento tipo pokemon necesita más explicación ya que es muy diferente a la saga de Gamefreak. Luchas con tres de tus monstruos a la vez que ocupan tres posiciones (vanguardia, central y retaguardia), y la estrategia y dificultad de los combates esta MUY por encima de pokemon, especialmente si haces todos los retos opcionales contra los entrenadores y los entrenadores legendarios. No basta con tener el máximo nivel, si no que necesitas una estrategia y combinación adecuada de monstruos para ganar, obligandote a variar entre los de tu equipo. Por suerte, subir niveles no es un problema ya que puedes habilitar el nivel de los monstruos salvajes a un nivel próximo al tuyo, además de que cualquier monstruo capturado siempre esta solo un par de niveles por debajo del monstruo de menor nivel de tu equipo. Además, las habilidades que vamos desbloqueando en todos los monstruos se pueden resetear fácilmente para volver a distribuir los puntos en sus arboles de habilidades en cualquier momento. No es un juego perfecto, algunos combates pueden volverse repetitivos (especialmente al final del juego cuando todos los monstruos son de alto nivel) y los picos de dificultad pueden tirar para atrás. Pero sin duda, logra sorprendentemente bien fusionar ambos géneros tan dispares. »