Dark Pokémon
Monster Crown: Sin Eater is one of those games that I knew nothing about when I was asked to review it. I vaguely was aware of the first game coming out a few years ago but I never actually played it so I can’t say if this is really a sequel. What I do know is that it’s pretty much a dark version of Pokémon, the adult version if you will. That being said MC: Sin Eater takes place in an island nation ruled by Lord Taishakuten (don’t ask me how to pronounce this, I just called him Lord T) and his superbeing homies who are known as the Heavenly Kings. Players will take control of Asur, a simple farm boy who sees his brother decapitated by Lord T’s minion. An insect woman who its heavily implied gets a sexual thrill from murder.
Despite MC: Sin Eater being mostly about collecting cute-ish monsters the plot of this game is dark and grim. After Asur’s brother is murdered he leaves on quest for revenge, I mean like immediately after. Much to this games credit though the subject matter is handled very well. Sin Eater has some cool world building ideas but I was turned off by the non-linear nature of the game. There were a few parts, mostly at the very beginning where I was lost as to what to do next.
MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $24.99
But as you’d expect from a monster collecting game, Sin Eater has an impressive array of diverse monsters. There are roughly about 200 base type which can be found in the world in different variations. But where this game goes the extra mile is the incredibly deep breeding and even cross breeding system in place. When players choose to bred two monsters, they will get a new version which will inherit stats from its parents. I found myself going down a rabbit hole with the breeding and trying to max out stats much like I did with the breeding system in Ark. There is also a fusion system in place that allows players to get monsters that they can’t from breeding.
Combat is going to feel familiar to anyone who has played a Poke or Digimon game. Players will choose from attacks and debuffs and trade moves in turn-based combat. Of course, there is various attributes to the monsters and players can swap them out to make the best matchup, there is an impressive amount abilities and monster interactions in the combat as well. One of my favorite things of the combat is the ability to crown attacks. As players fight, they will build up a meter that once full will allow them to augment attacks that are more powerful or have extra effects. There are even special transformations that can come from max meter in the same style of Digimon games or Mega-Evolutions from the latest Pokémon games. These moves make boss battles more engaging as players will have to balance when to use these powerful abilities.
While the combat is without a doubt the highlight of the package here, I felt like the game suffered from trying to be this freeform, open RPG that is the new hotness. Much like Breath of the Wild, Sin Eater plops players into the world and gives them little to no real direction other than “get revenge”. I spent so much time in the first area just wandering around and leveling up because I didn’t know where I was supposed to go next. It certainly helped that I thoroughly enjoyed the art style and the Game Boy Color era colors the game was evoking. But as great as I think the actual world of Sin Eater looked, I really felt like the monster designs were hit or miss. There were a few standouts but most of them felt like retreads; hell, even some of their names just felt like someone put a handful of letters in a bag and dumped ‘em out and whatever it spelled won.
Monster Crown: Sin Eater nails the feeling of a more mature and darker, Pokémon game. With its story of revenge for a brother slain it comes out you hard and fast with an evil faction that feels genuinely terrifying instead of just a cartoon threat. The overall story is hit or miss and the overall freeform nature of the game wasn’t really for me, but if you are someone who loves less handholding in your games, well come get revenge with Asur.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
