Coromon on Nintendo Switch a Delightful Experience

For the past week or so, I’ve been running through the delightful world of Coromon, and while some aspects of the game are probably things I wouldn’t do, it’s exciting to see a franchise attempt to carve out its own space within the genre. While on the service it might look like a carbon copy of a Pokemon game with a few minor things changed, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Right off the top, players are treated to a new experience – difficulty modes! While playing Pokemon with specific rules has always been fun, these rules have never been official. In Coromon, they can be, with permadeath and more making your adventure that much harder. But this is only the beginning of things that are different, making Coromon a unique title in an overpopulated genre!

The game’s stamina meter is probably one of the most important changes from typical monster hunting experiences. Stronger moves require more stamina, weaker moves take less. Should you run out, you’ll need to rest to regain half your stamina, but at the cost of losing your turn. There is a bit more strategy in this system, and while moves have unlimited uses – unlike the restricting PP in Pokemon – your stamina does need to recharge. I actually enjoy this system as it makes battles just a bit more competitive, even when over levelled.

Levelling up is also different. In Pokemon, the initial stats and nature of your Pokemon would determine how their stats would level up over time. In Coromon, you earn three stat points to assign as you like. While rookie monster hunter players might not enjoy this system as it can be a big daunting – do I upgrade attack or special attacks?! – I think this feature takes the chance out of the equation and allows you to ‘create’ the Coromon you want!

One of the things I really appreciate about Coromon is that you aren’t simply walking from A to B the whole adventure. There are a ton of puzzles to be solved along the way, making this an adventure game as much as an RPG game. If you’ve played a Zelda game, you might have a little bit of an idea of what kind of puzzles you will be solving throughout.

While there are a few things I am not a fan of in Coromon – monster designs are nice, but with no history with them I don’t care that much – the overall experience is top notch. It’s a game I would recommend to anyone!