Stardew Valley is the golden child of farming sims. Inspired by Nintendo’s Harvest Moon, it’s gone on to sell more than 20 million copies since 2016 and kicked off a torrent of imitators on PC. Why haven’t we had that moment for the monster-taming genre? Pokémon clones are abundant, but none have had a sliver of Stardew Valley’s success, yet alone Pokémon’s. If there’s a formula for reimagining classic Japanese series as modern indies, monster tamers haven’t found it.
“An RPG where [players] can create their own adventure based on the characters they know is of course appealing,” say Jochem and Marcel, the indie developers behind this year’s Coromon. The challenge for indies is, “Players would often rather stay with what they know than trying out new games,” they say.
There have been some modestly successful Pokémon clones like MMO Temtem, which made headlines last year when it reached 500,000 copies sold in one month on Steam Early Access. Coromon passed 100,000 sales on PC and Mac, and the Nintendo Switch version has undoubtedly added to that. Yet that’s just a fraction of Pokémon Sword & Shield’s 24.5 million.
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SUNDOWNER
Wipe out a cult with one bullet in CHILDREN OF THE SUN
KENWAY AHEAD
Smooth sailing and pearly whites in ASSASSIN'S CREED IV BLACK FLAG
COUNTER INTUITIVE
PICK & POKE your way through this gorgeous tabletop roguelite
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Whatever happened to MULTI-GPU setups?
MICROPHONES
A good microphone can be the difference between a professional sounding triumph, or a crackly, tinny disaster
BORING PLATFORMER
In a good way! The superb drilling of PEPPER GRINDER is sublimely chaotic
MEIER'S BASTARDISATION
MILLENNIA attempts a spirited but messy coup to Civ's throne
LOOSE MORALS
BROKEN ROADS: a cerebral narrative adventure
CROWN WARS: THE BLACK PRINCE
Tactical medieval combat with a gory edge
NO REST FOR THE WICKED
One of the smartest Soulslikes I've played in a long time