The monster-taming RPG Coromon wears its Pokémon inspiration on its sleeve and offers that nostalgic classic Pokémon experience reminiscent of the Game Boy days—so much so that it's hard to talk about Coromon without mentioning its obvious inspiration. Exploring the world of Coromon and discovering everything it provides is truly a joy and brings back many fond memories of early Pokémon titles.
Not just a clone
It is easy to look at Coromon and assume it is just a copy of Pokémon, but that is far from true. Coromon strives to combine the classic Pokémon gameplay with modern features, and it succeeds. This is evident in the abundance of customization options: you can choose your difficulty, turn features on and off, and even create the famous Nuzlocke mode seen in Pokémon.
The pixel art of Coromon shines, especially in its monster designs. Each one has a distinct personality to its animation that can be seen both in battle and in the database. The world around you is wonderfully vibrant and even has humorous emojis for the characters and Coromon.
Two game-changing systems to the monster-taming genre are the "potential" system and Titan battles. The potential system allows you to customize your Coromon's strength and is more straightforward to understand than IVs and EVs from Pokémon. Meanwhile, Titan battles replace the gym system and offer a truly challenging boss fight where you can really test your skills.
A few steps short
While there are many praise-worthy features of Coromon, it's not without its flaws. Coromon offers many customization options for combat and gameplay, but it seems to be missing some fundamental features. Namely, certain aspects of the game could be sped up to improve the otherwise slower pace.
Some of the slowest parts of Coromon relate to battles, including the transitions. With so many customization options, an option to speed up battles should be present. Instead, you have to sit through each animation, including your character throwing a spinner to collect your Coromon. After watching the same animation and transition 100 times, you get a bit tired of it.
This brings us to the attack animations themselves. While they look great, they are rather basic—something appears in front of your Coromon or on the enemy Coromon. The Coromon themselves don't actually have any attack animation that showcases their personality, be it in animation or design.
Finally, the game can be a grind, especially when facing the Titans. You can easily reach the first Titan under-leveled and need to grind. The issue is that any wild Coromon you face is such a low level that you hardly gain any experience. With so many options to customize the game, some form of EXP share outside the Lazy Gem, or a way to speed up growth, would certainly be welcomed.
| Pros | Cons |
| Well-designed monsters. | Battles and transitions can be slow. |
| Loads of difficulty and gameplay options. | Attack animations are basic. |
| The potential system is great. | Somewhat of a grind. |
| Titan battles are a thrill. | |
| Nostalgic of classic Pokémon. |
Verdict - Buy
Coromon is a fantastic modern monster-taming game that walks you down memory lane. It's reminiscent of the first Pokémon games with the added bonus of customization options that allow players to tailor the game to their desired playstyle. A few missteps in gameplay pacing and animation don't take away from the thrill of finding new Coromon and becoming the best Research Battler there ever was.
For more information on Coromon, check out How to shiny hunt in Coromon – Potent and Perfect hunting in Coromon and What are Milestones in Coromon, explained on Pro Game Guides.
Justin has been diving into fantasy worlds since he can remember. He is a certified nerd who has a deep love of reading, writing, and hiking. He has been writing since his college days, but specifically in gaming for two years. His favorite games are The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Hollow Knight, Celeste, and Banjo Kazooie.