[Preview] Coromon – More than a simple Pokémon clone

A title you should definitely keep an eye on…

Coromon clearly takes his inspiration from the most famous titan in the monster catcher genre: Pokémon. Yet Coromon already manages to convince me in this preview that it wants to forge its own path. So you are almost immediately surprised with a number of unique features that are not present in Pokémon. When you start you don’t have a basic trainer, because you can make a trainer yourself. You can choose from a range of hairstyles, hair colors, outfits and more. I personally always like this, since you can make the main character the way you want. You can even change the outfits your doll is wearing, so your main character never looks the same.

During your journey, you also don’t have to worry about having one little monster that has to learn attacks to navigate a terrain. In Pokémon you often had a monster called the “HM-slave”, this one had all the attacks with which you could navigate the terrain. You had to knock down trees, push stones and more. Coromon solves this perfectly by giving you a kind of gauntlet early in the game. You can choose the color of this yourself. In this glove, you can install different features that let you clear different obstacles in the world. Furthermore, this glove has a handy feature called Stink, which you get from a professor early in the game. This feature causes all the monsters to run away into the patch of grass you are in.

During your journey you will encounter many different Coromon, including “Shinies”. There are two different types of Shinies in this game, Potents and Perfects. Both differ in color palettes from the original and both contain unique abilities. For example, a Potent always has slightly better stats than the normal form and a Perfect has much better stats. I myself came across a Potent fairly early on, which I thought was quite special. Since a Shiny in the earlier Pokémon titles was something very special. It’s nice to see a unique twist on this and I’m curious what new twists will be in Coromon when the game is finished.

The combat system is what you’re used to from monster catcher titles. You have your own team of Coromon that you use to take out the enemy Coromon. Sometimes in the wild you will encounter a few monsters at the same time, this is called a “Horde Battle”. This ensures that the thrill of a new encounter is always present. You don’t know whether your next opponent is a new monster, a potent, a perfect or a horde. So I was almost never bored while playing this game. The gameplay ensures that you always have something to do, even besides fighting with your own Coromon team.

Besides this I really enjoyed the beautiful music in Coromon. I have rarely heard such a beautiful soundtrack and I think the composer of this game should be really proud of himself. The music of this game has something magical and therefore fits perfectly with the atmosphere that the game wants to create for its players. This becomes clearer if you include the visual part. The game uses a beautiful, colorful pixel art style that is very nice to look at. Some aspects of the game are even animated, such as some aspects of the world and your monsters in battle.

But you may be wondering, where do you work in Coromon? Since in Pokémon you were mainly concerned with obtaining badges. In this game you have to pass through several big titans with different elements, fight them and finally collect their energy. You are a member of the Titan TaskForce and are tasked with investigating the six different titans in the Velua region. In addition to this main story, you will discover plenty of other stories where you meet interesting characters.

I was already really looking forward to Coromon, but after playing the preview I only got more excited. The game innovates enough on the monster catcher genre and also looks very good. Personally, I think the game has enough to offer to break free from the typical Pokémon clone stereotype. It has enough unique aspects to it to be its own game, which I personally can only appreciate. I’m just looking forward to the full release of Coromon. You too?

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