An excellent monster-catcher that combines fun Metroidvania-esque exploration mechanics with surprisingly strong and deep tactical turn-based combat. Despite its clear inspiration, the constant, challenging squad-based battles and the emphasis on using buffs and debuffs to your advantage brings to mind Shin Megami Tensei. The monsters are well-balanced and all fun to use, and the game regularly encourages you to experiment when putting together your dream team. It isn't for the faint of heart, as later battles can ramp up in difficulty quick - this may bother some people, as depending on their playstyle it can become too hard. However, I personally loved the way the game didn't seem content with just letting you grind to win, or blindly slap a team together.

As someone who personally fell out of Pokemon largely due to its leniency and its simple combat no longer appealing to me, playing a monster collecting game where you fight a villain squad who actually causes you to struggle and sweat trying to beat them instead of them going down in maybe 2 hits max is immediately very refreshing and scratched my itch.

The game also has tons of extra content as well. The story is simple but gets the job done and is plenty charming. There's a lot for everyone, but if you are a diehard for "smart", challenging turn-based RPG gameplay and tactics, and want loads of great content with a monster-collecting mechanic, this is definitely your game.