Monster Tale’s innovative combination of Metroidvania and monster raising works beautifully.
I was able to check out the Monster Tale demo that was set up at E3 last week, and with the Majesco booth tucked away from the main show floor not many people got a chance to learn what DreamRift’s Monster Tale is about and more importantly, how it plays. That’s where I come in – while crowds were fawning over the newest Call of Duty, Gears of War, etc., I’m bringing you all impressions of a game that seriously has potential to be the sleeper hit of the year for both casual and hardcore gamers alike. Read on for some detailed impressions from this aging hardcore gamer.
Some Background on the Game
For those that have no idea what Monster Tale is about, it is the first game from the DreamRift development studio, formed by the lead developers behind Henry Hatsworth. These guys came up with a very innovative mash of two gaming genres: platformer and puzzle, and it worked quite well. They’ve decided to combine two gaming genre types as well with Monster Tale, combining Metroidvania-style gameplay on the top screen and monster “raising” on the bottom screen.
The game follows a young girl named Ellie, who suddenly finds herself in a different world. Not too long after arriving on this world, she finds a mysterious egg and it hatches right in front of her. Out pops an adorable monster, who decides to follow Ellie, thinking maybe she is its mother. She cares for the little guy and decides to name him Chomp. As they travel on, he continues to evolve based on how Ellie raises him. It may sound like a standard monster raising storyline, but it’s cute, effective, and simply works well.
What’s Metroidvania?
Monster Tale’s gameplay is very similar to “Metroidvania”, a gameplay style that is more of an adventure game than a platformer as you travel all over a huge 2D world and find new items that allow you to reach new areas. For example, in Metroid, you could find jump boots that would allow you to reach a new platform and unlock another area of a dungeon. The Castlevania series has evolved to this style as well starting with the beloved Symphony of the Night, and is now a franchise staple on the DS. From my time with the Monster Tale E3 demo, it appears that Monster Tale follows this gameplay style well and fans of both Metroid and Castlevania will be able to understand and enjoy Monster Tale very quickly.
The Monster
The most significant gameplay feature that Monster Tale introduces that I have probably never seen before is an actual pet companion with such depth. The game is almost more about the monster than Ellie, as the monster earns experience, levels up, learns new traits and abilities, and even evolves into various new forms. In contrast to that, it doesn’t seem like Ellie levels up at all, so it’s interesting to see that while you have direct control over Ellie, it’s the monster progression that will ultimately carry you through the game. I don’t know what else to say except that it plays wonderfully. The monster seemingly has its own unique AI where it will attack enemies when it can, but you can still call on it to perform specific special attacks. As it levels up, it learns new interesting attacks unique to its evolution type, such as forming a shield, performing a charge attack, etc.
At first I thought that the monster abilities would be pretty simple, but of the half dozen or so I got to experience in the demo, I was actually quite surprised. While the game looks family friendly, the gameplay is very much classic old-school gameplay goodness. Each of the 30 monster evolution types learns several different abilities, and you are able to map each ability to one of the face buttons of the DS. To activate an ability, you just have to hold the L button down and then hit one of the buttons. For example, I can have Ellie melee combo an enemy, send him flying, then hit L and tap the X button to send Chomp barreling towards the enemy for even more damage. Or when a monster is launching an attack at me, I can hit L and tap the Y button to have Chomp draw a shield. While it’s been probably something like 15 years or so since I’ve last played Duck Tales on the original Nintendo, playing this game did give me certain vibes of that old-school Capcom classic with Scrooge McDuck using his cane as a pogo stick.
The two screens for the monster raising aspect of the game is also quite well done. While the top screen is all about the action, the bottom screen functions as Chomp’s “home”. Here, Chomp can rest and relax to rebuild his meter or interact with various items that Ellie comes across. Many of the items I came across had various interesting properties. The first item I found was a cookie, and when I dropped it into Chomp’s home, he studied it for a while before devouring it and gained experience points and stats. Then I found a soccer ball and let him check it out. After investigating it, Chomp kicked the ball and it started bouncing all over both screens, knocking out any enemies I came across on the top screen. Treasure chests were the most enjoyable to find, since Chomp would spend time unlocking the chests and all sorts of new goodies would pop out that he would further interact with.
The First Boss
At the end of the demo, I encountered the first boss: another child who had his own monster that was much bigger than Chomp. The child seems surprised that Ellie treats her monster with love while this kid seems to be enslaving his. You can’t help but feel bad for the kid’s mistreated monster, until the kid declares that he will take Ellie’s monster for himself as well. Then it’s on like Donkey Kong son!
The enemy monster started laying eggs and the eggs would hatch out little smaller monsters that started shooting projectiles my way. Fortunately, Chomp was able to fly up and knock them out while I focused on attacking the boss. The monster also started breathing fire, but Chomp started playing with a soccer ball on bottom screen and kicked it up to do some good damage to the boss.All in all, through a combination of melee attacks, Ellie’s trusty bracelet blaster, and Chomp watching out for her, we were able to take down the boss, and sadly, the demo ended at that point.
For Fans of Henry Hatsworth
Fans of Henry Hatsworth would expect these guys behind Monster Tale to have learned a thing or two from their initial game, and I have to say that so far, this is taking the good of Hatsworth and reducing the bad. Henry Hatsworth’s combo/juggle system returns, allowing Ellie to juggle enemies in the air with melee attacks for more drops. Interesting character design and amusing dialogue return. Having beaten Henry Hatsworth myself, I have to say that Hatsworth’s major issues were the locked rooms where you got stuck in an area and enemies just poured in from both sides, and the major jump in difficulty in the later worlds. In my extensive time with the demo, I didn’t come across any sort of locked rooms at all, at least, not any that forced you to be stuck in an area the size of the DS screen. That’s definitely a plus in my book! So far, the game has also been easy enough that it hasn’t been frustrating and it’s simply just enjoyable to play. I think that the change from puzzle to monster raising makes for a much smoother gameplay experience as well – the focus is now really on the top screen, and not having to worry about switching your focus to the bottom screen to prevent monster blocks from attacking you is quite a relief.
Parting Impressions
If the demo is a good indication of the full game, this is looking to be a day 1 purchase for me. As an old school gamer that isn’t so crazy about puzzle games, Henry Hatsworth’s unique combination of platformer and puzzler was good but not exactly what I was looking for. Yet with the core Hatsworth team’s sophomore effort of Metroidvania and monster raising, it’s fantastic. The combination of a charming story, memorable characters, and refined gameplay design position Monster Tale to not only be better than Henry Hatsworth, but quite possibly the best DS game release this year. Hopefully we learn more about this game in the months to come!
