Monster Crown: Sin Eater - Gotta catch them all!

From the very start, it is evident what inspired the developers for this game - a global phenomenon called Pokémon!

Monster Crown: Sin Eater is a sequel to the game Monster Crown from 2021. In this sequel, you take on the role of a young farmer named Asura, whose brother Dyeus is one of the most renowned Monster Tamers in Crown Nation. After Dyeus returns home after years of absence, he spends an evening with his brother sitting by the campfire reminiscing about old memories. However, in the morning, the Royal Inquisitors appear, arrest Dyeus, and take him to prison on suspicion of treason. Asura decides to help his brother, and with their mother's blessing (and all their savings), he sets off on a quest to find his brother, his own revelation, on a journey that will change the fate of the entire kingdom.

Soon you will have the opportunity to buy your first Pokem... I mean, monster. You have a choice of 5 completely different types, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Honestly, there is no wrong choice: although my choice was Hooclaw, The little sadist - I quickly found much stronger monsters, so Hooclaw remained locked away somewhere in a cage.
With larger monsters, you will also be able to ride, which will be the only way to cross the sea and reach distant islands.

Just like in Pokémon, you move through an open world here, but with the difference that there are no random encounters - all monsters move on the map, and you can choose to attack them or avoid them. If you come into their line of sight, if they assess that they are stronger than you, they will attack you. Otherwise, they will flee at full speed.
You will be able to set traps to distract (or attract) their attention, so you can sneak past them or prepare a trap for a monster you don't have yet.

When you attack or are attacked, the battle takes place in a standard turn-based format. Each monster has resistance and weakness to one of the five elements, and each of them has a list of possible attacks, as well as a number of how many of each they can perform during battle, to prevent spamming the same move in longer fights. You can have 8 monsters + yourself in your team, meaning a total of nine team members, and you can switch them out as you wish.
With each move, you fill synergy, and when it reaches 100%, you have the option to transform the monster into a stronger version, with stronger attacks and better resistances to elements. After the battle, synergy resets to zero, and the monster returns to its previous form.

Of course, during battle, you will be able to try to recruit the enemy to your side, but now in a slightly unusual way - you will offer them a contract. Sometimes they will just laugh at your offer, so you will first have to, as they say, rough them up, and when they see that the devil is in the details, they will quickly change their minds. Since you can offer contracts to everyone except the main bosses, you will quickly have a horde of minions helping you fight against former masters.

With about two hundred basic types, you will be able to breed new ones and cross existing ones, leading to around a thousand different monsters.
Breeding - you select two individuals and combine them, resulting in an egg - which you carry with you, and after some time it will hatch, and the baby will have traits from both parents.
Fusion - you select two individuals and combine them, but in this case, you lose them, and the newly created individual has the physical traits of both individuals and their average level and a random combination of their moves.
You will also be able to play with gene manipulation and plan in detail what you want your creation to have, or force them to relearn all the moves.

This is also the most fun part of the game because you can literally combine any creatures you want, and the appearance of the combined monsters is sometimes hilarious.

You will slowly add monsters to your team until you discover which combinations suit you best to conquer most enemies more easily.
The map is open to you, and you can choose the order in which you will conquer regions and which bosses you will attack first. You will also find other Monster Tamers who will challenge you to a duel, which will be very useful to get to know your team's abilities better, and you will earn rewards. Just don't run away from the fight because you will lose half of your money, and sometimes even all items.

The 8-bit graphics are brilliantly done, with quality contrasts between colors that give depth and phenomenal attack animations. The monsters are detailed, and when you encounter some of the combined creatures, you will easily discern their origins.
The soundtrack is top-notch and draws inspiration from various retro titles, each settlement has its classic theme, and the energetic background during battles keeps you on edge.

The story is excellent and extensive, the dialogues are interesting but occasionally overly detailed, especially the conversations with the bosses - sometimes you will be surprised by the direction the story takes because you didn't expect certain twists, and some missions you won't be able to complete if you choose a specific storyline - which is bad news for all of you who want to complete all missions and catch every single monster. The map isn't large, but each region has large cave mazes where you will sometimes move disoriented trying to figure out where to go next.
However, I believe that the price of €24.99 is not too high for an excellent 20+ hours spent finishing the story and many more hours until you complete your Pokedex. That is, your collection of monsters.

Nintendo Switch copy of the game for review purposes provided by the publisher Studio Aurum.