While it's hard to compare Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner to Pokemon, the newly-released Atlus title brings a number of features from Nintendo's classic RPG over to Sony's PSP. Thankfully for players, the game does more than copy and paste and brings a serious, anime-style tale that unfolds through the interesting management of monsters raised by the in-game characters.
Monster Kingdom initially details the ongoing adventures of Vice, who spends his time tracking down a specific winged Abomination (the most powerful of monsters who control other monsters) that killed his mother. Spending his time as hunter, making money by carrying out monster hunting tasks, Vice has the unique ability to utilize monsters with being trained as a jewel summoner. With only a monster jewel left to him by his mother at his helm, he eventually becomes mixed in with a quest that involves a lot more than just him.
Shortly into the game, Vice unwilling joins The Order, a sort of university that houses and trains jewel summoners. There Vice can partner up with two more comrades of the player's choosing, allowing parties of up to three monsters at one time. While each character comes equipped with a default monster, players can capture more monsters through the use of jewel shards and keep up to nine monsters on hand at one time.
The monsters in Monster Kingdom each have an elemental characteristic, with which players have to match up with an appropriate shard to capture when weakened. For example, a baby Kirin is a thunder monster and can only be captured through the use of a thunder shard. Not only do the elements demand specific shards to capture, but they also detail the strengths and weaknesses of each monster – an ice type monster isn't going to like a fire-based attack too much.
Since three party members can tow three monsters each, ultimately, your party consists of nine monsters when you enter battle. The catch, however, is the fact the monsters' souls are bound with the character that controls them. When a monster takes damage, the controller feels the pain too. The strategy of what monster to use becomes even more crucial through this system as merely changing a monster doesn't bring a character's hit points back up to max.
Article comments
1 - ProfEssays
Screenshots makes me think that this game leaves much to be desired.