Monster Crown: Sin Eater

Game balance is garbage, achievements are bugged, and the developer is a completely insufferable narcissist.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater represents the single largest improvement in a game series I've ever seen. The first game was an absolute mess and I gave it one of the worst reviews I've ever written. I thought there were some promising ideas, though, and I'd read a bit about the developer's struggles while making the game. When I saw the preview for Sin Eater, I was impressed by the apparent improvement, and the demo convinced me that it was the real deal -- a well made Pokemon-style 1v1 combat monster collector with an open world and cool fusion/breeding systems. I picked up the game despite my reservations and had a darn good time. The presentation is great, with a pleasing Game Boy Color inspired palette, a strong stable of monster (each with several forms and breedable color palettes!), and some surprisingly good beeps and boops in the sound track. The storyline was weirdly compelling in a way that reminded me of catching random episodes of some obscure anime late at night in the 90s -- I never felt like I was fully tracking how everything fit together and it could be weirdly edgy at times, but it was cool and got me hyped up all the same. The breeding system allows for you to make completely maxed out monsters by passing down moves from both parents, and selecting half of the stats from each parent. I would have liked a bit more restraint to make monsters feel more distinct, but being able to make whatever you want as powerful as you want has its own charm. I mistook a "secret" end game boss as the boss of the first zone, and ended up breeding super soldiers that could go toe-to-toe with late game threats before ever really getting out into the world. That led to a bit of a weird difficulty curve, to say the least. I thought I'd ruined the game for myself, but I honestly ended up having fun continuing to optimize my party as I haphazardly took on threats across the world. If you like the genre, Monster Crown: Sin Eater is definitely worth giving a shot -- it's such a big step forward for Studio Aurum!

I have conflicted thoughts about this game and therefore my review isnt gonna be as glowing as I thought it'd be. For every (great) strength this game offers, it unbalances itself with an opposing glaring flaw. + the monster collection part is as common as it gets, weaken a monster, use your copyright protected not pokeball onto the monster, catch it, let it rot in your boxes or field it into your team, and level it up, increasing its stats and movepool. where this game differs is in its typing and fusion mechanics. there are 5 types, every single monster has 5 variants for each type, in addition to its base form. several monsters also evolve when given a specific item, and those "evolutions" also have 5 variants + base form. how to change your monster's form? you can temporarily do it in combat by using a resource that you accumulate each turn, or you can either breed two monsters together, to create an egg that will inherit a portion of the stats of each parent, and you'll be able to choose which species (of parent A or B) and color palette AND type the egg will be. by messing around with the types you'll get the monster variants. but the egg will be at level 1. you can also directly fuse both monsters, this will consume them but you'll get a monster carrying the average of the level of both parents (so he'll be efficient in combat potentially immediatly). this is obviously super cool, and if you consider there is about 200 individual monsters (counting everything, including "evolved" forms), then you get a total of around 1200 individual variants (5 variants+ base form per monster, remember). - BUT the problem is that you're encouraged to fiddle with the genome sequence to inherit the best genes of each parent, as you breed or fuse monsters. this is really easy to do (a great thing), only costs some money, and has unlimited use. you won't spend hours like in pokemon trying to get an egg with perfect IV's. the problem is that after some goofing around, you'll eventually develop a "perfect" fusion of each type, and use that fusion into any monster you like to get a perfect model of that monster. so every single monster will have the same identical stats, often times the same moves (as moves ALSO inherit from parents). this removes any and all identity from any monster you hatch or fuse. the base monsters you catch in the while don't suffer from this, as they have defined movesets and stat spreads, but they are significantly weaker than the monsters you'll fuse, and they'll just struggle against some of the HP sponge bosses this game throws at you. so you're kinda forced into just fielding a blob of identically stat monsters into your team, and the only thing that will change is what species they are, and so what they look like. + the visuals are amazing, both the creatures and the environments. music (overworld and battle OST) also really good - BUT the environments themselves are super boring. there are 4 main world region, none of these regions feel or play any differently that the others, besides obviously having different monsters to catch. there is no variation in traversal, there are no puzzles, no jungle with trees to climb, no beach with quicksand you have to get out of, no mountain with high winds blowing you off cliffs, nothing. those are just random examples, but the environments are completly empty, the loot is randomized and respawns, there are no secrets, no puzzles, all the trainers are optional and are also randomized and respawn... massive missed opportunity in the overworld, to make them feel more alive. the dungeons are even worse, besides their looks, they are purely copypasted. only a single dungeon featured any variety (a room with teleporters, you'll know the one when you get there). in contrast, the cities feel lively and unique. + there are some great QOL options (ability to manipulate stats without a huge pain associated to it (even though it went to far in that direction, the fact you can field 8 monsters and not 6 (huge W) the fact each monster can hold 6 moves instead of 4 (huge W), the fact monsters are relatively easy to catch and you don't spend half an hour and 50 hyperballs on Articuno, the fact you SEE the monsters in the world and can choose to engage or avoid them (huge W), etc) - but there are also some obvious misses. i completed the game and afaik, no item or ability exists to allow you to exit a dungeon. you'll HAVE to go back the way you came, every single time. + the story started well enough with a much darker, mature, bloody start than I expected. but then, it gets killed by both the open world (which puts off the pacing completly as its impossible to write a coherent story if you don't know how long the players will spend in the fusion system or other mechanics fooling around) and the, i'd say cosmic nature, grand purpose, "he was chosen" direction of the story, which made identifying with the MC not easy. - all in all, capturing like 95%+ of all monsters, I finished the game in less than 20 hours. the game is cheap so its fine, but most monster collector games usually will run you longer than that. i could have spent ages more experimenting with the fusion system, but there is zero reason to as there is no endgame. oh, and like most of these games, it has shinies, and those appear supposedly with a 1/1000 chance. i found one immediatly, like one hour into the game, and then never found a single one again. I must have encountered several thousands monsters in the process. i know they are supposed to be rare but whats the point of having shinies if you never see a single one? i suspect many players will finish the game without seeing any. just increase those odds. i still recommend it, but its not without flaws.

I have not beaten this game yet but as I am near the end, I want to write my review. Monster Crown: Sin Eater is a sequel to the first Monster Crown game. These are monster catcher rpg's with a heavy focus on breeding and fusing the monsters. In concept the first game was great, unfortunately that game was filled with game ruining bugs that really soured the experience. Luckily Sin Eater largely solves all the issues the first game has. It is extremely polished which in turn really showcases that this game is incredibly solid on a gameplay level. The first thing I noticed is how much more beautiful the graphics of the game are and how good the music is. I find myself exploring the giant zones for hours, not just to find more items and new monsters but also to just see and listen to the world. It is incredibly fun just walking around. The battle system is servicable but fun enough to engage with. It is turn based with pretty standard elemental match up mechanics. Catching monsters is also really fun, there are hundreds of designs and the designs themselves are of high quality. Now on to the biggest selling point of this game: The fusing and the breeding. These two features are both good and bad. For example, it is really fun to experiment with the breeding and fusing to create the ultimate monster with the most broken statline, type, ability and moves imaginable. However, this comes at a cost. Every monster can essentially do anything and be anything. There are no limits. This amount of freedom basically takes most individuality away from the monsters themselves. If you actively engage with the breeding system, the monsters' individuality basically only comes through on the sprites. Now of course to reach this ultimate being you still have to catch various monsters with the right abilities, but once you are building your team, it is hard not to just take 8 of your favourite sprites and breed the best stats and moves onto them immediately. Overal this game is worth it. I haven't had this much fun with a monster catcher rpg in a long while. The first game was hard to recommend but this game went above and beyond to fix all the issues the first one had and make it far better as well. Totally worth it at full price, 1000% worth it on a sale.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater begins as your bog-standard monster tamer, but quickly develops a depth I've rarely seen in this genre. [h1]The Good[/h1] [list][*]Audio and visuals are both reminiscent of classic Pokemon games while still having a modern polish. [*]The world is open and non-linear. Loot drops and enemy tamers respawn after 24 hours in-game, or when you reload a save, allowing you to come back and farm an area or dungeon as much as you like. [*]Enemy monsters visibly wander around in the overworld. No shuffling through tall grass in this game! [*]The breeding and fusion systems are very intuitive. It's easy to breed an entire line of monsters with the best stats you can find, and the exact moves and traits you desire. This even includes type, color palette, and species. [*]Any monster can breed or fuse with any other monster. You don't need to remember "egg groups." [*]You can ride your lead monster to move faster. After getting a certain tamer perk, this also makes wild monsters begin the fight with substantial HP loss. [*]There are many enemies and bosses that you cannot catch, only fight. [*]While the game doesn't hold your hand, consulting your notebook and talking with NPCs will let you piece together some of the more obscure mechanics, like how to catch demons and Lunarians. Good old trial and error also works, provided you save often.[/list] [h1]The Bad[/h1] Honestly, I have few complaints. The dialogue gets a little "dark and edgy" for my taste at times, but that's really it. Some folks will not appreciate the logical conclusion of breeding: creating super monsters with perfect stats. This, admittedly, makes the monsters less unique than they otherwise could be, as your endgame basically boils down to a team of perfect monsters with different sprites. Since there's no incentive to vary stats at all, the role of each monster in your team largely boils down to their type, traits, and move set. That said, as this is entirely a singleplayer game whose only challenges are puzzles, taming, and boss fights, I have a hard time calling this a bad thing. One last thing that some people might find disappointing: most "hybrids" aren't actually hybrids, and the number of monsters that can be transformed with items is also quite low. While there are a number of "absolute fusions" that create a totally new monster, the vast majority of hybrids are an alternate sprite of the regular monsters. Every monster has six sprites: the base sprite, and five hybrids corresponding to the five types. They are often very cool looking, but entirely cosmetic. Pokemon: Infinite Fusion, this game is not. [h1]The Buggy[/h1] I have not encountered a single bug in the entire time I've been playing. The closest thing to one I've seen are the Missingno.-like enemies that sometimes appear near certain boss rooms, but those are actually an intended part of the game. You even get an achievement for encountering them. So uh, yeah. Good game. "Bad stuff" isn't that bad. No bugs. Highly recommend it!

This game came out of nowhere and blew me away dawg. I wrote off Monster Crown (1) because it was, sadly, pretty bad. So i didn't even know a sequel was being made. And more importantly, this sequel - Monster Crown Sin Eater, is awesome and more than makes up for the first game. This is an "adult*" open world, non-linear old school style pokemon-like. And it is epic. It is THE BEST GBA-esque monster catcher you can play. Sin Eater is gorgeous, it's fluid and it's smooth. This game is polished to a shine and runs and plays so much better than its predecessor. The sprites are cute and/or cool. I love the free-form nature of the game, too. It seems to be a totally free open world. I accidentally tamed a Jormugandr looking dude and also accidentally killed one of the main bosses within the first hour or so of playing, that's how free-form this is. I skipped several beginner dungeons and just wandered into one of the elite four and merc'd him and his guard. Now, I will say it's not all sunshine and rainbows. When i said this is an "adult" pokemon game earlier, by that i meant the writing in the game is borderline edgelord in some places. I appreciate that the story is a bit more fleshed out than other monster tamer games, and i appreciate the darker tone. But man. Some of the dialogue has made me cringe. Tone it down for the next one, please. I get it, Main Character, you're big mad - get over it a little. My only other disappointment is the main reason i was ultimately interested in this game. Fusions. I really want a pokemon or pokemon-like game to give me proper fusions. Is that really so hard? We've had pokemon-fuser websites and even fusion heavy romhacks forever. Give me a big budgeted version of that. So many games flirt with the idea but never do it right, and this is just another one that didn't do the idea quite right. My problem with the fusion and breeding system in this game is that it makes everything kind of flat. It's not even fusion, it's more like each pokemon has five other forms and you pick which one to turn it into. But more importantly, this system kind of removes a lot of individuality from each pokemon. There aren't any special moves or stat spreads or pokemon specific anything really - because you can just mash two pokemon together and teach it's pre-determined offspring any move you want. You aren't making a new, unique monster - just unlocking one of the 6 forms of one of the fusion parents. In the next game, let me fuse Pidgey and God and make a truly unique monster that nobody else has. It's the lords year of 2026, we have the technology. But, this game is more than it's faux fusion gimmick, and it's really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. Comeback story of the decade, right here.

This game needs to win some kind of award for "literally the most improved sequel to a game, ever." I'm serious, if you have even the *slightest* interest in the monster-taming genre, stop reading this review and buy the game right now, because it is easily one of the best monster tamers on the platform.

[i]Deliciously[/i] old-school. Gameplay is kind of a cross between SMT and Infinite Fusion (if its mechanics were good and didn't bug out nonstop). Tons of depth in the breeding/hybrid system, kinda game where you can say 'no two runs are alike' and mean it. Can be punishing if that's how you like it, but doesn't skimp on the QoL features for the sake of being hardcore. I get the feeling a lot of creature collectors on Steam are about to be judged against this one.

I really enjoyed this game. I think it has my favorite art style and monster designs of any mon game! I really liked how customizable the monsters are and how you can just keep fusing them to keep your favorites with you and powerful forever.

Lackluster monster tamer. Merging/Breeding mechanics are ok, but still not worth the price.