Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Pac-Man Monsters - A Mobile Puzzler RPG!
- screamaid
- Feb 17, 2015
- 3 min read
Developer: Gree, Inc.
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Format: IOS, Android
Pac-Man Monsters is an addictive puzzle based RPG-ish style of game that you can play on the go. It's unique in it's style of turn based combat makes it stand out from the rest, and one of the best mobile games I've played to date. It does have some crippling flaws at times, but on the other hand can be a brilliant game at times.
You have a standard team of five characters, and there are 5 types of monsters / pacs / ghosts. There is the standard tree, fire, and water types, as well as the light and dark types as well. However, in order to start a mission you need a team of six. This is where a prime example of good social implications is utilized. You use the leader of another player's team in your mission to help you out. This means that when you have a balanced team of five with one of each type in it, this sixth teammate can tip the balance into making one type stronger than the rest, which may be useful for going into a level with lots of types weak to the one you just added to your team. You can afterwards become friends with this player and use their monster more after that level.
The combat is unique, simple, in-depth, and addicting. You have a board full of the five element types in the form of blocks. You drag a line across these blocks, destroying them in the process. If you destroy a block of a certain type of element, the teammate of that corresponding element will attack. You can make them attack harder by either destroying more blocks or getting a combo by destroying multiple in a row. You only have 12 steps per line, so you have to judge where to go and what combos to choose. There are also ghosts from the original game who don't allow you to destroy that block. The only way to kill them is to destroy a power pellet beforehand, and then eat them. Also, you have to eat all the blocks in a combo in order for that combo to go away. You can end up with one block you can eat attached to one several you can't. That leads to messes and sloppy attacks.
This is a game where you play through the stages of each level until you beat the "Area Boss". After that you take the spoils of the escapade and use it however before going on to the next level / mission. Spoils include eggs, chips, gold pellets, and other various goods. You can use these things on a variety of stuff.
The main way of upgrading your monster is to essentially sacrifice monsters or eggs you own to give experience to your monster. Most eggs and monsters that you don't use are useless anyways, so this is a great way of making them useful. It feels satisfying to see your monster power up, sometimes multiple levels at a time. The one problem with this also leads into the major flaw of the game.
There are too many insane requirements for doing some things. Sacrificing monsters or eggs also requires chips (the lowest currency). I don't see why the monsters and/or eggs aren't the only requirement. Another example of this would be evolving your monsters. Not only do they require and certain level, but they also require you to have chips and a bunch of super rare "evolution seeds". These are hard to find and make evolving anything almost impossible, which is a real shame.
The game is extremely fun when you've gathered a team that you have a connection with. Get the team you want, and you start feeling the synergy of your team. It's fun to see them grow and fight whenever you have that established connection. Whenever you don't have it though, you might feel that it's a grind to get a team member you actually want. Getting a likable team is everything when it comes to soul.
The aesthetics are great on both ends. The art style is very polished, looks nice, and has a certain charm, despite the lack of true animation. All the different pacs and ghosts look amazing and interesting. The monsters do too, but feel weirdly out of place next to the pacs and ghosts. There's such a large variety that the developers came up with. It's just astounding. The music and sound effect are on point. The sound effects are satisfying and the music is immersive and fun to listen to.
Despite it's flaws, Pac-Man Monsters is an amazing addition the label. It's fun and addicting due to it's simplicity and sense of growth. It's a great mobile game that I'd suggest looking into. I'd probably rank it among my top 5 mobile games.
留言