Monster Sanctuary
If you’ve read my previous reviews, you’ll know that monster taming games are one of our big loves in gaming, but we don’t often get many that live up to our expectations. So when we saw Moi Rai Games’ Monster Sanctuary - we were over the moon. We’ve already enjoyed a few games with monster-taming in them this year, so we had high hopes for another success. But did we find it? Let’s find out!
Monster Sanctuary is an indie game published by Team17, where you must follow in your ancestors’ footsteps as a Monster Keeper. The arrival of unusually powerful monsters has wreaked havoc in the world, and it’s down to you to figure out just what is going on - and save the Sanctuary! You can choose from one of four Spectral Familiars: a lion, a wolf, an eagle or a toad, to embark upon your journey to save the Monster Sanctuary from The Alchemists, the mysterious antagonists who have an obsession with collecting the Spectral Familiars (and creating Champion Monsters). Using your chosen Familiar to take on a variety of monsters and tamers via 3v3 turn-based combat is a lot of fun, and far more in-depth than we are used to seeing with these kinds of games. Each monster has their own type-set, such as Fire or Ice, but can also have a secondary elemental strength. There’s a whole combo system that requires a little more forward-planning, and learning to take advantage of enemy weaknesses was really interesting and fun to play around with what works best.
Turn-based combat usually always follows a fairly similar flow, but the thing we really liked here that stood out from other monster taming games was the combo system. This allowed you to increase your effectiveness, and in turn gain a higher ranking at the end of each battle. The more stars you have when ranked, the better the reward. You may be awarded loot such as eggs from the defeated monster, as well as equipment - so it’s in your best interest to get the best ranking possible for each and every battle you can. After each battle, each member of your party will gain experience to level up - rewarding you with skill points that can be used to upgrade each monster’s stats, as well as unlock cool new abilities and skills. Building the optimum team for battling takes a little bit of trial and error, with it being crucial to have a well balanced team filled with a variety of creatures that can allow for shielding and defence, as well damage and healing. Difficulty spikes fairly soon into the game, so where you may have found battles to be simple to begin with - before long you’ll be struggling.
Done in a gorgeous pixel-art style that works beautifully with the metroidvania layout, with simple yet stunning backdrops and well detailed areas throughout. With around 100 monsters in the world, most of whom can be found residing within the Monster Sanctuary, you can battle these creatures and upon defeat, may be rewarded with an egg. Creature sprites are gorgeous, and surprisingly well-detailed. Getting to see the variations of monsters available, as well as evolved forms for some (which can only be done via certain objects, at the tree in the Monster Sanctuary) is really fascinating. The sound design is really well done too with beautiful, nostalgic tracks that fill the world.
The world of Monster Sanctuary is filled with secrets, with some hidden areas dotted around, waiting to be found. To gain access to each of the hidden areas, you’ll need to be able to use certain skills and abilities to reach these locations and find various treasures hidden within. This makes it very worthwhile to have a varied party, with differing abilities, as well as ensuring that you look everywhere you can to see if you can find any of these locations - and have the means to get there. You can choose which of your monsters can follow behind you within the world, allowing you to utilise their abilities such as clawing through vines to allow access to secret areas, or to use them as a mount to travel faster and jump higher, and more.
With 30+ hours of content, Monster Sanctuary is well worth its’ price of £15.99 on the Xbox Store - you can even play it for free if you’re a member of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (priced at a fab £10.99 per month, or £1 for the first month for new subscribers) - so you can even try it out without the commitment of a full purchase if you’re unsure. Levelling up all of your favourite monsters and rising through the ranks of Monster Keepers is sure to keep you coming back for more.
In the end, we decided to give Monster Sanctuary the Collecting Asylum rating of 9/10.
Have you played Monster Sanctuary yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Team17 for the Monster Sanctuary Xbox review code!
