Games worth discovering

A Great Pokémon-Inspired Game That Transcends Being a Clone - Coromon First Impressions

3K View2022-07-20

“Who’s that Pokémon?”

I’d always eagerly wait for that question when watching the Pokémon anime as a kid. I’ve always adored Pokémon in all its forms—anime, trading cards, games, everything. I vividly remember playing Pokémon Emerald and collecting every possible legendary Pokémon. This week I got to relive that powerful feeling through Coromon, a Pokémon-inspired mobile game.

Coromon is a free-to-play pixel art monster tamer RPG that features immersive storylines, strategic turn-based combat, challenging puzzles, and 118 unique Coromon to catch. You play a battle researcher for a scientific research company, Lux Solis, and embark on a journey across the region of Velua, hoping to study Coromon. The game is currently only available on Android devices as a demo, with a full version (and an iOS release) planned for the future.

Image Credited to Coromon | TRAGsoft

Given that demo status, it’s no surprise that, compared to most Pokémon games, Coromon’s main storyline isn’t too expansive at the moment. As I explored Velua, I solved puzzles and caught Coromon while collecting Titan Essence, a magical byproduct of an ancient Coromon with immense elemental power. As a Battle Researcher, I needed to collect Titan Essence to study and gain a deeper understanding of Velua’s Titans. Besides that primary goal, the game’s structure is pretty free-rein, with a variety of sidequests to keep you busy alongside the Coromon hunting.

One of Coromon’s primary selling points is the ability to change the game’s difficulty, a feature that is standard in a lot of games but has rarely been offered in a Pokémon title. There are four difficulty settings in Coromon: easy, normal, hard, and insane. Some of the harder modes have restrictions that recall Pokémon’s community-created Nuzlocke challenges, except built into the game. For example, when playing on hard, your Coromon will be released if they’re damaged to the point of fainting in battle. Although the easy and normal modes were smooth and breezy, I definitely loved the added degree of challenge that the more sweat-inducing, rage-filled difficulties provided.

Image Credited to Coromon | TRAGsoft

Like the series it draws inspiration from, Coromon begins with you choosing between one of three adorable creatures to bring along on your journey. You need to catch new Coromon using the game’s version of Pokéballs, called Spinners, and level your roster of monsters to aid your travels. Those monsters are relatively unique; some share a passing resemblance to counterpart Pokémon, but roughly half of the creatures I encountered felt totally different from anything I had seen before in the popular Nintendo franchise.

Beyond the Coromon themselves, you’ll also set off on your quest equipped with a gauntlet, a special tool that allows you to install different modules. One module pushes objects like logs away to clear paths, and areas which normally would be blocked, while another serves as a repellent, making random Coromon attacks less frequent.

The gauntlet is necessary to solve relatively straightforward puzzles that are scattered across the game world. Switching between modules is as easy as two taps, and most of the time you’ll only really need to use the push module. I hope that the full version of the game features some slightly more perplexing puzzles, as well as more functions for the gauntlet.

Coromon maintains a constant sense of surprise throughout the duration of its demo. Every environmental biome I visited contained a unique Coromon I’d never seen before. I never knew what to expect when I stepped into a new city or walked through a patch of hay or grass.

Image Credited to Coromon | TRAGsoft

There’s genuinely so much to do in Coromon, from catching ‘em all to raising your perfect team and even completing the in-game milestones. Of course, a lot of the mechanics and features were inspired by Pokémon, which could explain why I enjoyed the game so much. But the detail and color-popping visuals allow the game to transcend being a blatant duplicate. If this is the craftsmanship of a demo, I can’t imagine how fantastic Coromon will be in its completed version.

I’ve genuinely loved my time with Coromon so far. The game isn’t too difficult to grasp—particularly if you’re familiar with its inspiration—puzzles are easy, and there are always new experiences to discover. I wasn’t outraged by the ways Coromon borrows from Pokémon, in part because these homages clearly come from a place of deep respect, and in part because they were always tweaked to feel more nuanced than a full-on clone. I’m giddy at the prospect of enjoying more of Coromon’s exceptional gameplay in the future. I mean, I have to be the very best like no one ever was, right?

💬 Have you played Coromon? Let us know what you think of it in the comments! Have you ever played a Pokémon game? If yes, what was your first Pokémon game?

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