Developer: LABS Works
Publisher: Dangen Entertainment
Platforms: NS, PC, PS4, XBO
Price: $20
Version Played: Switch
Astalon: Tears of the Earth is a very interesting Metroidvania. It might look like the spiritual successor to an old Falcom game, like Legacy of the Wizard or Knightmare, but it's something more like Symphony of the Night but with a lot of NES game influence. It has a lot of Mega Man style platforming, Zelda-like key hunting, and a sort of Metroid-like way of not telling you things sometimes. It’s a great combination of elements that makes for a pretty fresh take on the Metroidvania.
The biggest thing that sets Astalon apart from the average Metroidvania is that you play as a party of characters. You start with a Mage, Rogue, and Warrior. Each character has unique abilities, so you constantly have to switch between them to progress. For example, only the Rogue can wall jump, so she's the only one who can reach higher platforms. You can't switch characters with the press of a button until the latter half of the game, though. You have to go to a bonfire (save room) to switch. A lot of Astalon’s gameplay revolves around simply opening paths for the rest of your characters to be able to access new areas. I thought that maybe the game would lose something when I got the ability to switch characters on the fly, but it ended up feeling more like the developers were free to do even more interesting and challenging things with the level design then.
Astalon is also more about finding keys and hitting switches to open paths than it is about gaining new abilities to reach new areas. Each character only gets a couple of new abilities throughout the game. Most items you get are either keys or map markers. Astalon feels very old-school in that way. It reminds me a lot of older Zelda games, where simply finding keys, maps, and compasses was a huge part of the game.
The other major aspect that sets Astalon apart is how the game handles death. When you die in Astalon, you go all the way back to the tower's entrance. When you save at a bonfire, you're only saving your character's progress and not your location. Bonfires also don't refill your HP, and there are very few health drops in the game, so you will die a lot. But dying isn't completely a bad thing because when you die, you get to buy upgrades. Not double jumps or weapons, though. It's more like HP upgrades, map markers, or magic that attracts money to you like a magnet. You can also buy 3 cutscenes that reveal a lot about the story. That’s kind of a weird way to do that, but the story is good.
Going all the way back to the beginning of the game isn't as bad as it might sound. Unlike in a Castlevania, where it's all about getting to the next save point, Astalon is all about opening shortcuts, portals, and elevator stops, so you don't have to go through the whole tower to get back to where you died. And just in case anyone is wondering, you don’t lose your money or equipment when you die, so you don’t have to do a corpse run. It’s not that kind of game.
I wouldn’t call Astalon a story-driven game, but I found the world it builds a lot more interesting than most indie Metroidvanias I've played. Astalon takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where demon-infested towers pop out of the ground, like tears from the earth. The idea is that the planet is trying to rid itself of the evil inside. These towers are ruled by giant demons called Gorgons, who are literally giant demon statues. These Gorgons are worshipped by cultists and gain strength from human sacrifices. If they gain enough power, they can leave their towers and attack the few human villages still left in this world. Our 3 heroes are going to this tower because the Gorgons have poisoned their village’s water supply. It’s a grim and tragic world full of potential for more games down the line.
I think Astalon does a pretty good job in mimicking the look of an NES game. Some of the sprites are probably closer to SNES quality in detail, especially in the backgrounds, but the color palette is spot on. Although, the way nearly everything in each area is the same color isn't very exciting to look at sometimes. The designs and animations of the playable characters definitely remind me of NES games like Mega Man and Castlevania. Or maybe something in between, like Kid Dracula, is a better comparison. It’s kind of weird that the story is so dark and the game's art style is so goofy and cute, but it works.
Performance on the Switch isn't too hot. The game aims for 60fps, but it usually hovers somewhere in the 50s and often drops into the 40s. It often gets noticeably choppy, even in rooms with no enemies around. The game also seemed to get buggier the further I got into it. My characters sometimes kept doing the ladder climbing animation instead of getting off, sometimes I'd clip halfway through platforms, my game clock reset at some point, and there seems to be a bug that skips screens, like the original version of Link's Awakening, if you go from one screen to another while jumping and attacking. There's also a block throwing mechanic later in the game and I never figured out if the blocks were supposed to stick to walls or not. That mechanic seems buggy whichever way it's supposed to work!
I really liked the soundtrack in this game. There's a lot of very Mega Man and Castlevania-like fast-paced hard rock songs in there I really liked. There’s also a few moody and haunting tunes I thought were really good, like “Dark Serenity” and “Threads of Fate”. It’s quite varied, but it all fits the 80s NES style of the game perfectly. One of the creators, Matt Kap, composed the whole thing and even did a non-chiptune version, which is even better than what's in the game. You can find both versions on Spotify.
Astalon is one of the best indie Metroidvanias I've played in a while. I love the party system, I was very intrigued by its lore, and I think the platforming-heavy, key finding, and switch pushing style of level design makes the game feel different from most games in the genre. I can't wait to see what's next for this series. It'll probably be a long time before we get a sequel, since their next big game will be Castle in the Darkness 2, but I know they already announced a small Game Boy style prequel called Astalon: The Crystal Sword, and I'm really looking forward to that.
Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: NS, PC
Price: $60
Version Played: PC
I loved the first Monster Hunter Stories, but maybe it was a bit too ambitious for the 3DS. I don’t think it reached its full potential on that platform. Monster Hunter Stories 2; however, feels like it accomplishes everything the first game set out to do and more. It has more monsters, an improved battle system, online co-op, and much more content than the first game. MHS2 is bigger and better than MHS1 in every way.
The main plot in MHS2 is still very generic. It's like a Monster Hunter story meets a shonen anime. It takes place 4 years after the first game, but your old character is nowhere to be seen. Instead of a dark mist turning monsters into superpowered Apex monsters, we have a pink light coming out of the ground making them more aggressive. Your character is the grandchild of the legendary monster rider who was briefly mentioned in the first game, Red. And of course, you get to raise a mythical monster who might have enough power to destroy the world, the super cute baby Rathalos, Ratha. It sure is a Monster Hunter story. There’s still a lot of good storytelling in the game, though. Like the first game, MHS2 is very Dragon Quest-like in how it ties the main plot to what's going on in the towns you visit through the quests you do there.
I think a big part of why I liked the story so much better than the first game’s is the voice acting. There’s full English voice acting this time. No Monster Hunter language and none of that one sound per text bubble stuff either. It really helps get the personalities of the characters across. It also makes it much easier to follow along than reading in English while people make sounds in the Monster Hunter language.
The way the game pairs you up with a new NPC in each town also helps you feel more connected to the story. It makes everything feel more personal when you’re helping your friends. Also, your character is still mute and Navirou needs someone to talk to. You can’t control these NPCs, but they are a huge help. They fight, heal, buff, and even team up with you for devastating Kinship attacks. You’ll meet both new friends and characters from the first game along the way. I love having these characters with me, but it sucks that you can't control them because they don't always do the smartest things in battle.
I think the biggest improvement is in the battle system, though. MHS2 still uses that rock-paper-scissors style system from the first game, but the monsters aren’t doing complicated attack patterns anymore. Well, most of them aren’t. They get crazy in the post-game. In MHS2, monsters stick to one attack type depending on their state or stance. For example, a monster might do strong attacks in their regular state, do speed attacks while enraged, and do technical attacks while flying. There really isn’t a way to know what kind of attack a monster will do in each state until it actually attacks, but I like this much better than the flowchart-like mess monsters did in the first game. This makes battles more about reacting rather than guesswork or memorization.
You can also switch weapons in the middle of a fight now. This adds a new layer of depth to battles. Every monster part has a different weapon weakness, so you're constantly switching between the 3 weapon types to maximize your damage. You can't do this in regular MH, but it makes you think about what weapon does the most damage to each part, which is totally a MH thing.
Another nice feature they’ve added is the Quick Finish option, which allows you to win battles you out-level in 1 turn. If you out-level a monster that you’ve already fought, and is not a boss or quest target, you can just hold down ZL and ZR and automatically win. You still get XP and loot too. I didn’t get too many chances to use this during the story, but I did use it to farm some monsters in the post-game.
Catching Monsties still works the same as it did in MHS1, you find eggs in monster dens and hatch the eggs at the stables in town. The dens are all made from the same pieces put together in different ways, so they do feel a bit repetitive, but they’re mostly small and easy to go in and out of, so I never got bored of them. I think they’re actually better than the first game’s because they’re a bit more complex and have more places where you can use your Monstie’s traversal abilities (AKA HMs) to get treasure chests. They’ve also added a new permanent type of den called Everdens. They really aren’t too different from regular dens except for the fact that they don’t despawn from the map after you leave them and they have Bottle Caps inside. Bottle Caps are the currency used to buy hairstyles, costumes, and a bunch of other items from a special Feyline in towns.
Everything about the stables has gotten some kind of upgrade. You can hatch all your eggs at the same time, you get more expedition slots, and the Rite of Channeling is a lot more flexible. In MHS1, you had to line up genes to transfer them. For example, if a monster had a gene in the top right corner of its gene grid, it could only be passed to another monster in that same slot. MHS2's Rite of Channeling lets you transfer genes to any slot, upgrade genes by channeling duplicates, and it has items that will unlock gene slots. It's a huge upgrade from MHS1.
I think the whole process of building the perfect Monstie takes too long, though. Some genes have to be unlocked through leveling, so you have to level up a Monstie just to channel one of its genes, and then it's gone forever. That's a lot of work compared to Pokemon S&S, where I can get a Pokemon to level 100, give it perfect IVs and EVs, and put all the moves I want on it within minutes using items you get from just playing the game. There are no XP items in MHS2. You just have to put the Monsties in your party and let them soak XP or send them on expeditions to level up. This is the main reason I fell off this game so hard after spending some time with the post-game. This is way too time consuming.
This game has a ton of post-game content too. Like in regular Monster Hunter games, you unlock High Rank after finishing the story and you’re encouraged to keep playing for gear and the challenge of fighting tougher monsters. There’s also High Rank quests on the quest board, HR online co-op quest dens, HR dens all over the world, and a new area full of nothing but High Rank monsters called the Elder Lair. Guess what you’ll find at the end of it. You’re also free to choose any of your buddies from the story to tag along with you. There’s a ton of stuff to do after you’re done with the story. Do you really want to do this stuff, though? It’s not like you’ll be able to put these Monsties in MonstéHun Home and carry them over to Monster Hunter Stories 3. I guess if you really love the grindy loop of Monster Hunter in turn-based RPG form, you’ll enjoy this, but I tapped out after about 10 hours of it. There’s also the whole online PVP aspect of the game, which I barely touched.
Monster Hunter Stories 2 is no technical marvel, but I think it has a really nice art style. The hand painted textures on the environments go great with the cel shaded characters. Both the hunting areas and towns are a lot bigger and much more detailed than in the first game too. I especially love the design of Rutoh Village, a Wyverian village surrounded by forests, which looks like something out of LotR. The draw distance of the grass is probably the biggest eyesore. You can literally see it pop in about 20ft in front of your character. The Switch version’s framerate is also not so great. It ranges from around 20 to 40fps depending on where you are. Framerate is not a huge issue in an RPG like this, but it would have been nice if it was locked at 30. The game runs really well on PC, though. I was able to get 60fps at 1080p at max settings with no issues.
I think MHS2’s soundtrack is pretty good too. There’s lots of great songs in it, it’s all orchestral, and of course, the audio quality is a huge improvement over the 3DS game. I don’t like it as much as the first game’s soundtrack, though. I kept listening for something as good as “Very Suspicious” (Manelger's Laboratory), but I never heard anything quite that awesome. Navirou’s annoyingness aside, I thought the voice acting was pretty good. I already had a voice in my head for every character from the first game and I never thought anyone’s voice was weird or off in any way except for Navirou. He really sounded like Chopper from One Piece in the first game, but sounds totally different in this game. He sounds pretty much the same in Japanese, but I wasn’t going to play in Japanese.
I think this game is great. I had a lot of fun with it. It fixes nearly every problem with the first game and it has a ton of content with even more DLC on the way. You really can’t go wrong with this game if you’re into Monster Hunter or monster raising RPGs in general. Even with the framerate all over the place on Switch, I think it’s worth playing on either platform.
Developer: Marvelous
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: 3DS, iOS, Android
Price: $40 on 3DS, $20 on mobile
Version Played: 3DS
Have you ever wanted to ride a Khezu? No? Okay, how about a Rathalos? Of course you have! In Monster Hunter Stories, you can befriend and ride on over 100 Monster Hunter Monsters, or as they call them in the game, Monsties. I think MonstéHuns would have been a better name, but whatever. MHS is a traditional, turn-based RPG, and even though it shares many things in common with the main Monster Hunter games, it's a very different type of game.
In Monster Hunter Stories, you play as a Rider, not a Hunter. You still do plenty of hunting, though. Riders have special stones on their bracelets which allow them to befriend monsters. These Riders are not supposed to leave their village, so they're rare and very strange and scary to the people in this world who are used to killing monsters, not keeping them as pets. The story follows your character as they travel the world fighting monsters. Some of which are possessed by a dark mist called the "Black Blight", which makes them even more dangerous. It basically makes them Apex monsters from MH Rise. Sounds like a Monster Hunter story alright. This game is called Monster Hunter Stories, but it's definitely not worth playing for the story.
Monster Hunter Stories is very much a Monster Hunter game in RPG form. This is a game about doing quests, killing monsters, crafting gear, and the challenge of fighting all the different monsters. Unlike the main MH games; though, MHS takes place in a huge connected world, like most other RPGs. You actually travel from town to town on foot (or riding on your Monstie) and don’t just pick a town to go to from a map menu. Each town has something going on that ties it into the overarching story about the Black Blight and a bunch of quests you can do in the surrounding areas. The structure of the game feels like a mix of Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter. Two things that go together like peanut butter and chocolate.
Unlike in other monster raising RPGs, you can’t catch the monsters you fight in MHS. The monster catching mechanic in MHS is inspired by those terrible egg carrying quests in the main MH games. In MHS, eggs come from Monster Dens, which are basically tiny dungeons. You go inside these dens through cave entrances that spawn by rocks, walls, and mountains all over the world. Each area in the world has its own set of dens and you get a random map every time you go into a den. The dens themselves are not randomly generated. At the end of a den, you’ll find a nest full of monster eggs and maybe a monster to fight. After you get your egg, you carry it out. Thankfully, you don't have to carry it all the way back through the den, just out of the nest room. The kind of monster in the egg is a mystery until you hatch it back in town. It's kind of like a capsule toy (AKA gashapon). Most of these dens are not very interesting, and you see the same ones over and over, but they're really small, so I never got tired of them. It's actually kind of addicting to go in them in search of rare monsters.
You don’t gotta catch ‘em all, but Monsties are the most important element in the game. They do the most damage in battles and are the key to getting around the world. Each Monstie has its own unique set of skills, elemental properties, and attack preferences. For example, Lagiacrus is an electric type who prefers power attacks and can swim in bodies of water around the world. These traversal abilities are a lot like HMs in Pokemon, but they aren't taught to monsters, they come with them. They're usually optional, but there are places where they're required to progress. Since you can’t just teach these moves to any Monstie, it's a good idea to have a well-balanced team with you so you can get to everything in an area. Otherwise, you risk having to go back to town to get the monster with the ability you need. In practice, this system just made me carry around a bunch of monsters I didn't like and never used in battle. There’s a reason why they got rid of HMs in Pokemon. I loved flying around on a Rathalos and surfing on a Lagiacrus, though!
I have to give Monster Hunter Stories credit for how it implements MH things like breaking parts, weapons-specific moves, and knockdowns into a turn-based RPG, but the rock-paper-scissors-like attack type triangle kind of ruins the battle system. All your normal attacks, along with some spells, are either Power, Technical, or Speed type, and sometimes, you and the enemy monster will attack at the same time in a “head to head” sequence. If a monster beats your type, you take more damage, but if you beat theirs, you take less damage. Every monster has unique attack patterns with different ways they can switch into other patterns in the middle of a fight. For example, a monster might do 2 speed moves and then a power move, but it might switch to technical moves only for 3 turns after doing a fire breath attack that doesn’t have a type at all. There’s just no way I can remember the attack patterns for over 100 monsters! I felt like I should've been taking notes. This makes battles feel like a guessing game. Especially when fighting bosses for the first time. I get that they're trying to make it like MH, but this battle system is more frustrating than fun.
It takes guts to make a 3D RPG with huge wide open areas and free roaming monsters on 3DS. I admire Marvelous’ courage. They did a better job than Square-Enix did with Dragon Quest VIII. The 3DS just isn’t the system to make this kind of game on, though. This game suffers from all the problems common in 3D games on 3DS. There’s lots of pop-in, very low resolution textures, and the framerate is terrible. The art style is pretty cute, at least. The animations are also really well done. They really nail the look of Monster Hunter’s animations. Everything from attacks to gathering looks spot on.
I love the music in this game. It's mostly original stuff, but there's also some nice remixes of classic MH themes. I especially liked "Very Suspicious", the music that plays in Manelger's laboratory. The game cuts off the music when you're out in the wild, though. I guess it's trying to be like MH, but it's a weird thing to do in an RPG. I also enjoyed all the familiar Monster Hunter sound effects. There is quite a bit of voice acting in the game, but it’s all done in the Monster Hunter language, and there’s no option for English or Japanese, so nobody can understand it.
Aside from the battle system and limitations of the 3DS, I really enjoyed this game. I had fun seeing how Monster Hunter translates into an RPG. I also loved seeing this world from a new perspective. We don’t get to see things like the Hunter’s Guild in the main games. It’s a shame this never came out on Switch because with Monster Hunter Stories 2 already out, it’s hard to recommend this to anyone but the hardcore Monster Hunter fans who just want to see what this game is like.
