Coromon Preview

There are a lot of games like Pokémon out there, many of which have tried to get a fraction of the game's success, and Coromon is the latest attempt at it (if the -mon suffix didn't make that obvious). Setting a boundary here, however, I am not going to continue mentioning Pokémon throughout the entire preview, as that would be a disservice; Coromon's worth doesn't derive from how similar or not it is to Pokémon, but rather how it does on its own. Although I will be avoiding mentioning Pokémon throughout the preview, I will do so only when necessary comparisons are present.

Coromon's preview starts with the protagonist asleep, as the mother walks into the room and wakes them up because the alarm hadn't. She mentions that it is their first day working at Lux Solis (Light/Shine of the Sun), and finally as the protagonist wakes up, we get to control them, allowing us to enter a customisation menu with numerous options. You can choose a selection from:

• Six skin tones
• Four sets of clothes with six different colour variants
• Six styles of glasses (including one without any)
• 25 hairstyles
• 17 facial hair variants
• 14 hair colours (including exotic colours)
• 21 hats

After an extensive character creation menu (which I loved), you can continue to change your character by interacting with some items. Interacting with a mirror will allow you to change your hair, facial hair, and hair colour; interacting with the wardrobe will allow you to change your clothes, glasses, and hats. Alternatively, you can enter the menu at any given point to change from any of the clothes available in your inventory, such as removing your hat and glasses. Lastly, it's worth noting that you can also change your character's name in the settings.

Customisation is very in-depth in the game, including things that you barely see on your character, such as choosing between three gauntlets that only differ visually with a tiny change of colour. The customisation also ranges into difficulty settings, as the game has four different ones: 

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Insane

Each of the difficulties is meant to increase accessibility or challenge within the game, with the Hard and Insane difficulties being too menacing even for me to try on my first run. Meanwhile, the Easy difficulty offers a lot of perks that are sure to make the game a breeze to complete. 

The controls can feel a bit uncomfortable on the keyboard and mouse setup, as I believe you're supposed to play Coromon with a controller instead. That said, it isn't unfeasible nor impossible to play with the mouse and keyboard, or only either keyboard or mouse; clicking on the screen and dragging the cursor moves the character as if the game was built for mobile.

It's worth noting that Coromon rewards exploration, even as early as the sequence in which you're in the house before the tutorial. Interacting with the protagonist's bedside table will reward 500 gold, giving you a nice headstart. The exploration continues throughout the preview, as certain trees are placed in ways in which you can squeeze into them, allowing you to find hidden paths. This was a lot of fun, as trying to check for any hidden areas, knowing they existed, proved to be a very delightful experience.

Finally, after dealing with all of the nitty-gritty (and a couple of lines of dialogue and introduction), you get to take a personality test that asks you five questions and decides which of the three starters would be a better match for you based on your personality. This, however, is only a suggestion, as you can choose any of the three without a problem. In this game, you'll get to choose between a fire type named Toruga, a water type named Nibblegar, and an ice type named Cubzero.

Once you've made your selection, you will enter an example battle in which you learn how the combat system works. As a typical turn-based creature collector, you choose among four abilities to deal the damage, and the first attacker is dictated by the Speed stat of both Coromon. 

Every Coromon can level up in two different ways, both of which raise through battling: the normal type of level increases your Coromon's stats by a flat amount, and Potential level allows you to select which of the stats go up. If your Coromon is dying too quickly, you can level up Defense three times or choose to level up a balance of Defense and Speed. It's worth noting that the six different stats are the most common ones: HP, Attack, Sp. Attack, Speed, Defense, and Sp. Defense.

 

It's not racist naming every minotaur-like creature Asterius, right?

The lack of need for a slave Coromon is replaced instead by the aforementioned glove that you get, which will get several abilities throughout the run that allows you to interact with the world much like Cut and Strength in Pokémon.

Lastly, the game has a lot of stuff to do, more than just going from place to place completing your main quest, as the overworld slowly gives you different sidequests. These can include fighting Coromon, catching and trading Coromon, or even something silly like a quiz battle against a professor. While you progress through the game, you get Milestones and Promotion bonuses which work as 'achievements'; they include raising a Coromon to a certain level, discovering Coromon, or catching one of the three "variants" present throughout the game, among others. These offer rewards and overall more playtime, as collecting them is extremely satisfying and delightful, albeit I'm a bit disappointed at the small amount of Milestones and Promotions there are available at the moment.

Although my preview time with Coromon was short (I was only able to experience the title until level 25), I cannot wait to see what else the game has in store for its full release, which Coromon out there I need to capture, and what areas await me. Shine bright, trainer!