Fervir Games’ Creature Keeper puts a real-time spin on the monster-catching game. Read our review to discover why issues overshadow its promise.
The many frailties in the Pokemon formula have long meant there’s an opening for others to try and better it, and hey, even if some monster-catching games just felt like an old-school Pokemon game, that would also be a success of sorts. Creature Keeper attempts to be both things and achieves a mixed set of results.
Firstly, it looks adorable. Like a juiced Game Boy Advance top-down RPG full of vibrant life and a lovely selection of creatures to keep-er. The world is large and full of explorable goodies, too, so you get to see plenty of it. Oh, and the music is lovely too. Full of cheer and joy with a throwback flavor.
But looks (and sounds) aren’t everything; Creature Keeper’s developer, Fervir Games, clearly understood that and has attempted to build a feature-rich twist on a ‘winning formula.’ This is a story-driven game set in the land of Thera, where a mysterious illness is spreading. You are placed in the role of the one destined to solve this mystery, and that just so happens to involve building a bestiary and collecting a legion of critters, taking care of them, and having them fight alongside you in real-time battles.
Creature Keeper Review: Fighting and Farming
Creature Keeper throws in some farming care for your creatures, which offers an alternative way to boost their stats and break up the exploration and combat. The game offers a fair bit of relatively relaxed play options. It’s a godsend at times when the game’s weaker aspects frustrate.
The frustrations lie in the combat. Given the simplicity of the combat in the market leader of this sub-genre, you’d be wondering how it could possibly be made worse, and the answer, in this case, is the ambition to try something else and having it not quite work. As mentioned earlier, combat is handled in real-time rather than in a turn-based fashion as your protagonist character joins the creatures in battle and dictates where they need to be. It’s a good idea, and joining your Critters of War in battle always seems like it should be a hoot.
Unfortunately, the implementation of it in Creature Keeper is handled in a messy manner. Sure, you’re supposed to have missed attacks and feel underpowered at times, but the peaks and troughs of that experience are way too high here. The concept of playing a direct part in battle becomes increasingly redundant as your creatures grow in stature, and you are left pretty much the same as you started, save for a health boost.
The combat does at least seem fixable, though. A few tweaks here and there could help resettle the balance. It may not end up being a world-beater in that department, but competence would do wonders for the rest of the game.
While we’re on a down beat, Creature Keeper has bugs beyond the ones you might catch in the field. Again, these are fixable issues, but when they even slightly block progress, it adds to the frustration.
This is unfortunate because I do think there’s a decent monster-catching RPG here. The story is pretty solid, and the creatures are varied enough to make the collecting compelling (that’s one thing you cannot fail at in this sub-genre). Combat is a key part of the game, so its erratic nature, coupled with the technical hitches, means it’s difficult to forgive and forget when the game lets you down. Hopefully, there’s a brighter future ahead for Creature Keeper. The developers have already been addressing some of the issues, so it’s already looking promising.
Score 5/10 – Average
Developer: Fervir Games
Publisher: Graffiti Games
Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
Creature Keeper copy was purchased by the review author.
Creature Keeper is available now on Nintendo Switch and PC.
