Coromon, the tried: a Pokémon-like with a retro flavor
Collect them all
The game's strong narrative imprint will put us in the shoes of a young hero intent on saving the Velua region and the harmony between humans and coromon from the evil plans of a secret society. Within this classic cliché of the genre there are secondary plots and sub plots that enhance TRAGsoft's desire to create a mature story capable of involving fans. Going to look for those that are some pillars of the genre, but also offering darker shades to the plot. It is in this perspective that the choice of inserting numerous puzzles in the game is placed to break the continuity and repetitiveness intrinsic to the genre. We are not faced with the articulated puzzles seen in some graphic adventures, but certainly with intriguing choices, able to lead the way to possible new future paths for the genre. Still in terms of production choices, the introduction of greater control over the game is interesting.First of all the difficulty of the title, which can be set by the player, which foresees the choice between easy, difficult and extreme. Secondly, the strong role-playing component with regard to coromons. The monsters will be customizable through the possibility of improving the statistics once a certain amount of XP has been achieved. What may seem banal is instead an important possibility offered to the player, often requested, and just as often ignored. Coromon wants to leave ample room for personalization of the experience both in the strategies and in the squad building and in the aesthetics of the protagonist. This last possibility is one of the nails on which the development team wanted to hit strongly: your character can be customized to the point of being able to take him to the solarium to tan.
Coromon, however, is also continuity with the genre of belonging, respecting some key canons. One above all the combat system, turn-based of course. The planning of the moves, the careful choice of team members and the use of tools, necessarily pass from a classic turn-based system that allows you to juggle everything with the necessary calm. Continuity in these cases is necessary, but we must emphasize how puzzles and the game world really interesting to explore and full of small details and mysteries, in our test, are a great way to balance the turn-based battles that in some situations can suffer from a certain repetitiveness and heaviness.
The interesting junction in terms of gameplay is constituted by the Titans. Inside Coromon there will be some boss battles inserted just to offer a substantial level of challenge to the player. Here, to win, it will be necessary to demonstrate that you have understood and mastered all the characteristics and possibilities offered by the title and by the captive monsters.
Two other fundamental elements offered by Coromon, on which we want to focus, are the artistic style and the environmental variety. The first is unmistakable: a retro pixel art, reminiscent of the first Pokémon, but also titles like Stardrew Valley. What makes this choice particularly pleasing to the eye is the desire of the development team to differentiate the various areas with a stylistic coherence that also includes some trappings such as snowfall, partial lighting of street lamps in the night sections, etc. This is obviously linked to the excellent environmental variety. Velua offers numerous well-characterized environments, each with its own peculiarities and characteristic elements. What makes the landscape enjoyable is not only the coherence, as mentioned above, but also the harmony of the various environments. The transition between the various scenarios is well done and emphasizes a structured world building and thought a priori from macro to micro. What may sound obvious to you is not, in fact creating this genre of classic rpg involves a considerable difficulty in the structure of the world building that often leads to sections with watertight compartments.
Our brief test of Coromon has given us one of the most interesting Pokémonlike in recent years. Velua seems to be a region rich and full of mysteries to be discovered, as well as being a very well structured and harmonious region in the passage from scenario to scenario. Coromon does not aim for a bestiary, but its 120 monsters make up together with the puzzles and the plot, an excellent mix that well characterizes the work. Ultimately, the demo left us curious to understand if we are actually dealing with a product as mature as it seems.
