You can also set a bunch of difficulty options from the beginning, such as limiting your healing at Trainer Hubs or enforcing “Nuzlocke” rules. “Shiny” creatures also have an actual purpose, with alternate colours on Coromon indicating higher Potential and making shiny-hunting a worthwhile activity. The insufferably opaque Individual Value system is replaced with “Potential”, which can be altered with the “Potentiflator” mechanic. Foul-typed attacks deal extra damage to Water-types, but there are no Foul-typed Coromon). The type chart is simpler, with depth provided through the addition of types that are only assigned to Skills rather than individual creatures (eg. Dated elements from Pokémon have been streamlined or removed. However, with the slew of quality-of-life improvements and unique gameplay mechanics, Coromon truly sets itself apart as an iteration rather than a photocopy. The developers have not attempted to hide their source of inspiration, often inserting tongue-in-cheek references to the multi-million dollar franchise. Now, we’ll obviously have to address the Rhynobuz in the room: it’s clear that Coromon takes almost every single one of its cues from the Pokémon series, from its design through to its core gameplay. While I appreciate the less child-friendly tone some of these designs are going for, they occasionally lean a bit too hard into the eldritch abyss for my taste.
Other evolutions are simply horrific – sure, Seraphace (the haunted angel Coromon) is creepy, but its evolution Grimmask is literal nightmare fuel. As enthusiastic as I was for my sweet little Nibblegar to finally morph into a hulking Megalobite, I was NOT prepared for its Ring-Fit-Adventure-dragon levels of buffness. Some of these evolutions feel like a natural progression, while others can be quite extreme. The three starters are suitably babyish until they evolve into more powerful forms.
You’ll find yourself rounding up Buzzlet and Swurmy for villagers, and there’s an incredibly memorable segment where you’re transformed into the adorable ghost-typed Purrgy. The cuter monsters are particularly charming, and feature heavily outside of battle in the early game. The Coromon themselves are the stars of the show, and for the most part, their designs hold up well. While I don’t mind a bit of classic, mindless, cathartic level grinding, it was a bit frustrating to encounter difficulty spikes purely driven by level imbalances.
I found my team woefully underlevelled each time I reached a new boss encounter, necessitating some lengthy grinding sessions in nearby dungeons. Particularly intense boss battles require both intimate knowledge of the turn-based battling mechanics as well as a strong and well-kitted out team. These require SP to use, meaning you’ll need to rest for a turn to regenerate SP if you run out – this system, along with some interesting status effects and unique Skill abilities, leads to a compelling battle system based around resource management. You’ll collect Spinners which allow you to capture wild Coromon once you’ve weakened them with various damage-dealing Skills. The battle system is turn-based, with you pitting one of your party of six Coromon up against the opponent. It feels a little jarring to return to random encounters after RPGs in more recent years have largely spurned them, but thankfully the encounter rate is low enough so as not to annoy. Battles with wild Coromon are initiated randomly when walking through grass in the overworld or through dungeons, while battles with other trainers are initiated by walking into their line of sight.
0 kommentar(er)
