Monster Tale

Monster Tale was created by DreamRift, basically the guys who made the Henry Hatsworth's game that combined platforming on the top screen, with a puzzle game on the bottom. While it was praised for combining the two, many felt it was to much of a multitask game. Taking what they learned from that game, DreamRift then created Monster Tale, a Metroidvania game with a twist.

The twist being that the main character Ellie, has a pet monster. See, Ellie is a child who discovers an object that transports her to a different world. In this world, she discovers an egg that hatches. Which turns out to be a monster and clings itself to Ellie. Seeing how the monster likes to eat things, Ellie names the monster Chomp and off they go traveling this world to find a way back.

So basically, it's a Metroidvania game with a pet monster. Chomp has the ability to travel back and forth between the two screens. The bottom screen acts as Chomp's realm, a safe zone if you will, and the top is where the game is played. On the top screen, Chomp pretty much serves as a helper to Ellie. Floating around while staying close to Ellie, Chomp can attacks enemies and flip switches that Elle can't. But while on the top screen, Chomp will gradually loose its health. To replenish it, you must send Chomp to the bottom screen to heal it up.

While Chomp will gain experience by defeating enemies on the top screen, most of his EXP gaining will be done on the bottom. Every so often, when you beat an enemy, items will drop from them and fall onto the bottom screen. These items vary from food, books and toys. So while Chomp is on the bottom screen, you can assign Chomp to interact with one of the items by simply pressing said item. Even without the use of the stylus. Food and books raises Chomp's stats and toys get thrown onto the top screen and usually attack random areas. Of course interacting with an item takes some time, so an empty bar will appear on said item and once the bar is full, Chomp will receive some EXP out of it.

Leveling up Chomp will allow it to gain more skills that it can use on the top screen for Ellie. These range for offensive and defensive types of skills. Not only can Chomp level up, it can also change its form. Each form has its own strengths and weakness', mostly in the form of stats. You can unlock different forms by generally defeating monsters and leveling Chomp up depending on the current form it's using. Think of it like a branching system. You start of with one, which is capable of unlocking two others, those two others can unlock another two and so forth. So to unlock different forms, you must stay on the branching one until you move on. Just like leveling up, most forms will give Chomp for skills, or just permanently increase its stats.

While all of this sounds neat, in terms of gameplay, it never became all that practical. Using attack skills can help out, but each skill decreases Chomp's life bar, which means more time for Chomp to stay on the bottom screen. And when it comes to stats, I never really noticed anything. Most of the time, I just wanted to unlock more of Chomp's forms simply because I could, not because I thought I needed some sort of projectile attack from Chomp. This is mostly because Ellie is more then capable of holding her own.

Much like any other Metroidvania style of game, Ellie will get her own upgrades to better travel the world. It starts of slow, first you get a short range gun, then you get the ability to punch. Eventually, you'll be able to roll, wall jump, dash and more advance attacks to use. You get them pretty much by traveling the world and finding rooms that let her gain the abilities. If you really wanted, you probably could keep Chomp at the bottom screen the entire game and just let Ellie do her thing for the majority of it.

Of course, the bottom screen doesn't always act as a safe haven for Chomp, as some enemies can travel between both screens, or somehow leave an item there, that over time, can attack Ellie. So it's up to Chomp to take care of them before it's too late. This becomes even more apparent when you enter a boss battle. For the most part, their simple; Watch the patterns and figure out the best way to attack them. But eventually, they throw objects to the bottom screen that Chomp must deal with. It's at these parts that managing both screens can be quiet hectic. Fortunately though, it never becomes as hectic as the Henry Hatsworth game.

The only real downside comes from the actual traversal. It isn't much of a problem at first, generally, you'll be able to pretty much discover a lot of a certain zone. But by the late game, you'll enter a new zone, find a switch and then travel to a whole other zone, back to the first one, then discover a new zone, and then head to the second zone. It's tedious and feels like the game was only delaying the inevitable. The only reason I can see why this would be OK is because of Chomp. That little monster loves to eat whatever it wants, and it has a vast array of different forms, that I think they did this so you could continue feeding Chomp and unlocking more if its forms.

It's an interesting take on the style of gameplay. I never really liked going back and forth in Metroid or Castlevania all that much, and when I did, I generally just ran past all the enemies. But I found myself having more of a reason to attack everything because of that little critter. I wanted items to feed Chomp, and to save up for boss battles. Eventually though, my patience ran out and I just averted to running past enemies until I reached my next objective. Though rather reluctantly.

DreamRift has created a game with a unique twist on the two screen of the DS. They were pretty much aware that creating a metroidvania style of game with a heavy focus on using the touch screen would be too much. Instead, they were able to create a means to get past that with Chomp. While some may be taken back with the kid vibe in the game, what you're left with is a solid game that incorporates the DS screens in a unique fashion. Normally, when you think of a unique game for the DS, it always combines not just the bottom screen, but also the touch ability to its repertoire. Which usually means a heavier focus on the touch aspect. But for DreamRift, they were able to skip that part, and still create a unique experience.