Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

I still can't decide whether Monster Tale was meant to be a title resembling Metroid, Mega Man or Monster Rancher. The exploration is very Metroid, but the game play feels like Mega Man, and then the monster raising feels like a simpler take on Monster Rancher. The winner of these three is Mega Man because it's the part the game does right.

The story of Monster Tale follows a girl named Ellie that finds a bracelet that takes her away to another world. The bracelet gives her the ability to fire blasts of energy like Mega Man and soon after she finds a mysterious egg. The egg hatches into a strange monster that follows Ellie around which she names Chomp. She promises to return it to it's mother as she searches for a way home. What she finds out next is that five other children from her world are here and enslaving the monsters. So Ellie and Chomp must work together to remove these children from power.

The graphics are very reminiscent of Henry Hatsworth style. Each character sprite is detailed beautifully and the animation is superb. Everything from taking damage to sliding down walls is appropriately animated. It is the kind of vibrancy a title aimed at children really needs and could easily be on the same pedestal as Kirby in this category.

The combat in Monster Tale progressively feels like a Mega Man game and eventually it evolves into the Mega Man X series when wall climbing comes into play. Generic enemies tend to not fight back much and generally will let Ellie blast them away with her Bracelet Blaster. The cool looking melee strikes Ellie can perform tend to be much weaker and have a lot of upgrading to be had before it's an effective killing move. Sicking Chomp on enemies is an option albeit a slower one. Like a Metroid title Ellie will constantly gain new abilities for her bracelet that grant her combat and movement abilities.

The monster evolution system works by collecting random drops from enemies and letting Chomp eat them on the bottom screen. He'll eat everything from food to Frisbees. Some of these items create effects on the top screen to help Ellie like a circling Frisbee shield around her. Everything consumed will give Chomp experience in different categories that furthers his evolution into a beast that for example prefers the cold over flames. Experience doesn't stock up, only experience gained during one form will work towards the next form unlock.

One of the hugest problems is one of it's main features, monster evolution. It becomes irrelevant pretty early on. While it is pretty awesome watching your monster evolve into an adult or into different shapes it has little bearing on the main game. As mentioned Ellie gains new powers throughout the journey and all of them improve her combat skills. This combined with the costly but effective upgrades purchasable from the shopkeeper make Ellie a powerhouse. It barely is worth bringing Chomp out of his sanctuary on the DS' bottom screen.

Chomp attacks on a strange three second timer and it's not worth the wait to have him slug at enemies that you could have destroyed in a second. It ends up being more useful to keep him locked away slowly evolving and smashing switches. This defeats the purpose of having him evolve at all.

The other huge problem comes with the game is extension of it's play length by forcing constant backtracking. There is so much backtracking in this game the Metroid series is jealous. Right after opening a new area you'll reach a fork in the road with an obstacle Ellie's powers cannot clear. This will force you down the other path which unlocks an ability that opens up a new path about two or three areas over. Which in turn will lead you to another power up that finally clears the original obstacle. This just repeats throughout the game and kills the exploration vibe you get early on.

It should take most players 10 hours to clear the game. The game has some difficulty to it that compares to an easier Mega Man title. Monster Tale could be a stepping stone to making a series but for that to work game play mechanics would need to be fixed. Where the game is at now it plays out like a lost Mega Man title that got bits of Metroid and Monster Rancher stuck to it during shipment.