Nexomon Review

Publisher = PQube      
Developer = VEWO Interactive
Release date = 17th September 2021
Genre = Role Playing, and Turn Based
Price = £7.99
Difficulty = 4/10
Completion difficulty = 4/10
Completion time = 30-35 hours


Summary

Nexomon is a monster taming game published by PQube, which perfectly illustrates the magic of old-school role-playing games. The core gameplay will have you battling and catching monsters called Nexomon. These battles cleverly implement strategy while still keeping a tranquil feeling. Furthermore, the oscillating music and sumptuous visuals make every area feel unique and vibrant. Each area is home to creative Nexomon designs, and with 300 monsters to fight/catch, finding a team that is tailored to you is a breeze. In conclusion, Nexomon offers a truly immersive experience to those fans of the monster taming genre.


An Engaging Journey

Story
You begin your journey as a young boy/girl living in a cosy town. However, the conflict is established early, setting the stakes for your adventure. Nexomon’s tone is quickly revealed when you meet the Nexolord. The Nexolord is powerful and dangerous. However, you’ll make powerful allies to aid you in battle. Each of your allies' character's development creates intrigue, as this mythical tale slowly unfolds. Nexomon’s story is a highlight of the game because you’ll care about the friends you make. Every character has personality, which is why the high stakes story works so well.

World Design and Visuals
The world of Nexomon feels designed to further immerse you into the story. Every route creates a sense of adventure through splitting paths, beautiful visuals, and unique Nexomon to find. Exploring this immersive world will lead to rewarding moments and new encounters with Nexomon. Furthermore, each route/city you traverse boasts breath-taking visuals. You'll adventure through captivating forests, vibrant volcanoes, exhaustive ice lands, and energetic cities during your adventure. Each area is unique visually and mechanically.

Music
Nexomon's audio is both clean and crisp, further engaging you into its story. Each track feels different from the last. The lush natural songs are beautiful to hear and provide moments of relaxation. In contrast, the game's tension is conveyed through faster paced dramatic music. Nexomon's slightly tacit music is great, because it beautifully conveys the mood of every location, battle, and character.


Artistic and Convivial Gameplay

Battle System
Nexomon's battle system is brimming with personality. The strategic gameplay feels warmly familiar yet still distinct from other monster catching games, (cough) Pokemon (cough). Although taking inspiration from Pokemon, unique attacks, powerful status moves, and a stamina bar completely change how a battle should be approached. The stamina bar limits how long you can use a Nexomon before it must rest a turn. This helped to add an element of strategy to every battle and promoted the idea of building a team of Nexomon. Battling in Nexomon is pure fun and VEWO Interactive did an amazing job making a difficult yet enjoyable experience.

Monster Design
Nexomon’s monsters are hit and miss with quality. Some monsters have heart in their amazing designs. However, others look like an uninspired combination of two objects. Most Nexomon you can see have had time and passion put into them to make them so great, but some of the monsters seem more like filler. Evolving Nexomon is always a treat because nearly every monster’s design improves as it evolves. Unlike Pokemon where a monster evolves from a sheep into a big sheep. In conclusion, with 300+ monsters to battle/catch every player will easily find themselves a team of cool and cute monsters alike.

Animations
Nexomon's animations are unfortunately very inconsistent. Between attacks, most Nexomon will just unnaturally wobble a little. However, attack animations are decent but still feel disconnected from the monsters. Though, some animations are an exception with elegant and lively attacks. In conclusion, Nexomon’s animations work to create excitement most times, yet they lack consistency with the quality they could achieve.


A Innovative Monster Catching Experience

How does Nexomon compare to Pokemon?
Nexomon is like having the charm of a Game Boy advance era Pokemon game mixed with the innovations of a modern-day monster taming game. Many elements reform and improve on core ideas from the Pokemon series: Nexomon’s stamina system polishes the idea of having limited moves, helping to create additional strategy and difficulty to battles; and Nexomon’s monsters are often creative and well-designed creatures, especially compared to Pokémon’s teacup monsters and sheep monster from Sword and Shield. Nexomon is an indie game that beats/expands on Pokemon in many ways. And Nexomon’s sequel is proof that VEWO Interactive knows how to perfect an idea.

How does Nexomon compare to Nexomon Extinction?
Nexomon is like the generation 1 of Pokemon, and Nexomon Extinction is like the generation 2 of Pokemon. Generation 2 improves generation 1, but generation 1 is still worth playing for its story and fun gameplay. Nexomon Extinction similarly improves on ideas found in Nexomon. However, both games tell slightly different stories, and each has different monsters to tame. In my opinion, if you enjoy Nexomon Extinction you’ll enjoy this and vice versa.


Conclusion

Final Analysis
Nexomon is an extraordinarily good monster taming game because it improves on core ideas from other games of its genre: Battling is a strategic blast full of tense moments, because of the stamina system and difficulty; Monster design implements a sense of progression in evolution, and mostly every Nexomon is unique and well-crafted; The story beautifully helps to create urgency in the plot, and you become attached to the characters you meet; and a sense of wonder and tension is often created through the music and visuals. When combined this game has the potential to be one of the best games of its genre.

Is Nexomon a Good Game?
It depends if you like uninspired games then Nexomon isn't for you. Joking aside, Nexomon is a short cry away from being one of the best monster catching games of late. One of my favourite parts of Nexomon is the story. This is because read the lines and you'll find that Nexomon’s story beautifully combines world building, tension, comedy, and intrigue to make characters and a world you care about. This leads into the best part of Nexomon, which consists of the battles and monsters. The monster designs are amazingly well crafted, and the huge quantity of them in the game allowed for unique teams that suited me. And the battles would constantly leave me on the very far edge of my seat, due to the engaging innovative mechanics and tense difficulty of battles. I love Nexomon because the game’s story and battles intertwine creating a truly great and immersive game. I whole-heartedly recommend buying Nexomon at its dirt-cheap price for the plentiful fun content it has.


Nexomon final score = 88/100
Nexomon’s compelling story, winsome graphics, and multiplex battle system makes for an extraordinarily captivating game.

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Nexomon purchase links.

Buy Nexomon for Xbox.
Buy Nexomon for PlayStation.
Buy Nexomon for Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed by Troy Thompson (1/11/21).
Game code provided by PQube for review purposes.