Creature Keeper Review (Hubber)
The "Mixed" reviews and comment section made me really nervous, but I have been looking forward to this game for a while, so I went ahead and decided to check it out anyway. I'm really glad I did. The version I played was from a day after launch, and I encountered one bug where I got stuck behind a save point. Since it auto-saves when you're in the vicinity, all I had to do was reload and it was fine.
I'm at a point in my life where I like when there are deep mechanics, but I'm also fine with simple ones. This game seems to have some of both, and seems not to penalize you if you choose not to go crazy deep into the stats. maybe it takes a few more hits or something, but you're not going to be unable to progress.
I think the farm system is really neat - it's a great way to keep an influx of items and power up your team all at once. Plus it gets harder later into the game, so it's less of a steep learning curve.
I really like the "Pokedex" in this game too - it's not just about catching one of each monster - much like in legends arceus you have a few different objectives for each monster. Each of those objectives grants you a skill point for the monster species that you can spend on a "Skill Tree" for that species. I put that in quotes since they're mostly all the same. You have a starting node then a path that makes your main character and party stronger as a whole, a path that makes you stronger against that particular monster species, and a path to a hat you can decorate your monsters with (surprisingly helpful if you're fighting a species you have on your team).
Another review was complaining about how catching a monster involves feeding it until it likes you. Last time I checked, that's how most real life animals get tamed. I like it way better than beating my potential team member to within an inch of it's life. Plus, some of the skill points require you to interact with wild members of a species enough times for them to give you bonus items. Pretty nice if you ask me.
Overall, I like this game a lot. The graphics are great, the systems are interesting, the dialogue is pretty funny at times. I love the monster designs. I don't love the sword still, but the three other weapons I have feel good. There are what I'm assuming is 20-ish weapons in the game judging by the empty inventory spaces. I agree that the first couple scenes of the game aren't the most well-executed, but I feel like it gets there, so check this out!