Characters are constantly joking about their predicaments, with most of the jabs being directed at Pokémon tropes and conventions. One notable example being a character getting accosted by two villainous team grunts. In Nexomon, she beats the stuffing out of them. And then you have a battle with them once they wake up. In some ways this narrative disconnect can be distracting, but it’s salvaged somewhat by the writing being genuinely entertaining for the most part. Early on you’re joined by Coco, a talking cat, who gives off the vibes of a classic Paper Mario tattle partner, constantly breaking the fourth wall and being a cute goober about it. If you’re here for a serious story that leaves behind the kid-friendly veneer of Pokémon behind you’ll likely be disappointed, but if you want something that’ll give you a chuckle? You might just be in for a good time. Of course the gameplay is what most will be here for, and while I’d typically like to avoid drawing too many comparisons to Pokémon, Nexomon outright encourages it. The elemental types are practically identical, the battle screen is extremely familiar, the monsters have similarly punny names and evolutionary trees, even the overworld graphics are clearly inspired by the DS era of Pokémon games. But in many ways these similarities hinder the game rather than help it, because while it looks like a Pokémon game, in key ways it doesn’t play like one. Take the type effectiveness chart, for example, which frustratingly isn’t easily accessible in-game. The obvious match-ups remain true - water beats fire, water won’t do much against electricity… But what about electric being strong against psychic-types? Or ghost being effective against normal-types? It was inevitable there’d be some differences - wholesale lifting Pokémon’s design document would be taking the imitation a bit too far - but the degree to which the rest of the game encourages that sense of familiarity means you’ll often be second guessing yourself or questioning the game’s decisions. Not that you’re given much time to second guess yourself, as battles fly by at a rapid clip. Once you input your move selection, things will speed along. Gone are the lengthy sentence descriptions for each and every move, replaced by a single line at the bottom of the screen that’s only there for a matter of seconds. This is doubtless a fantastic decision for late-gameplay, once you’re familiar with every move you can effortlessly muscle-memory your way through but early on it leads to a lot of confusion, and once again it’s worsened if you’re expecting Pokémon terminology to be used (rather than “Super Effective” it’s simply “Effective”, for example).
One strength Nexomon undeniably has is its variety of monsters.
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