Coromon

by Camrin Santchi
reviewed on PC
Taming the beasts
Monster taming RPGs are a niche sub-genre of Role-Playing Games where instead of your character levelling up and doing the fighting, they collect creatures of some kind that will help them along their journey. This is the subgenre that one of the most well known RPGs in the world, Pokemon, is made up of, so it's likely one of the first monster taming RPGs that comes to mind for even non-Nintendo gamers.
Ever since Pokemon’s shift to 3D back in 2013 some fans have expressed a desire to return to the sprites of yore, preferring the way Pokemon used to look pre-3D. Enter Coromon, a recent release from TRAGsoft that began development all the way back in 2014, and appears to be exactly the refresher the genre needs, particularly since to many people Pokemon has had an embargo on this subgenre.
In Coromon, players take the role of a young researcher starting at Lux Solis, an organization dedicated to the study of the land’s 114 Coromon. Players quickly are given the task of gathering a mysterious energy known as Titan Essence that can be found from the incredibly powerful Coromon known fittingly enough as Titans.
Fan made fun
The gameplay in Coromon immediately demonstrates that TRAGsoft has learned a lot about monster taming RPGs, including the in-game implementation of some things that Pokemon fans have either been clamouring for or creating for themselves. From multiple save slots to selectable difficulty it almost feels like Coromon is intentionally learning from the fans of other monster taming RPGs. This is notable thanks to the inclusion of some fan-made rules of Pokemon, known as Nuzlocke rulesets. Put simply, these can include not being able to use healing items in battle, only being able to catch one 'mon in each route of the map or having a 'permadeath' feature so that any party member that’s KO'd in a fight is released. The difficulty can be changed at any time and can even be customized to only have specific effects, so gamers can pick and choose in order to better craft their experience.
Beyond the surprisingly flexible customization options, Coromon plays pretty simply, catching the monsters along the routes in Capsules that are spun like three-pronged boomerangs and engaging in 1 on 1 battles with both wild 'mons and other battle researchers to accrue experience. There are also Milestones, which allow researchers to 'level' as well, though the only thing it seems to effect are getting rewarded with items at every level, compared to the stat gains of the monsters once they accrue enough EXP. Along with normal EXP, Coromon also gain 'potential' as they fight, which can be used to actually give upgrades to your preferred stats, rather than the normal stat gains that can seem almost random at usual level ups. There are three tiers of 'potential' in Coromon, with increasing scales of rarity. Standard is the most common, then Potent, and finally Perfect. Fortunately these Coromon actually appear differently when you encounter them, not only by being a different colour but by having 'Potent' or 'Perfect' appearing once they're encountered in the wild, making sure that players don't struggle to figure out the potential of their Coromon and have to capture almost all of them in hopes of finding those with better stat gains.
Ear piercing
The sound design is tragically a bit middling. There's nothing wrong with the music, it adds to the atmosphere and doesn't take away focus from the pixel art style. However, something to note is the cries of the Coromon - some are garbled, some genuinely sound pretty good, and oddly some are their names, in similar fashion to say Pikachu's cry of its name in Pokemon games being a bit jarring compared to the more animalistic sounds that other monsters will make.
Beyond that though, Coromon is a game that takes clear inspiration but is assuringly not just an attempt at a cash grab. Coromon is clearly a passion project - one that is attempting to revitalize this subgenre of RPGs with knowledge gleaned from being fans of the genre and seeing what other fans have done. From self-imposed challenges to requests for additional quality of life updates, it is done remarkably well. This reviewer recommends Coromon to anyone that is even marginally interested in the monster tamer genre, since it breathes new life and offers a clear showing of passion from the developers. It’s a game made by fans, for fans.
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8.3
fun score
Pros
A pleasant refresher to a sub-genre, made by fans
Cons
Sound design is a bit odd at times, EXP curve can sometimes feel slow