The monster tamer genre has it’s few, well known staples: Pokémon, Palworld, Digimon, Persona, Temtem, and the like, it’s very easy to miss some, especially if they aren’t an established franchise. While there are smaller ones, with devout fans like Monster Sanctuary, we also get a game like Monster Crown that isn’t shy with its Pokemon inspired themes and style. However, there are many things that truly sets it apart.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater, sequel to 2021’s Monster Crown: Red King, is a top-down, 2D Monster Taming RPG that is heavily inspired by Pokemon, much like its predecessor. However, what sets it apart is its darker story, branching dialogue and decisions that impacts the outcome of the game and story, an open world with optional dungeons to traverse, a non-linear narrative, and an incredibly complex and in-depth monster breeding and fusion system. 

Asur the Monster Tamer

You take control of Asur, who lives on a farm with his mom and sister. He is suddenly woken up by his older brother who seems to be determined to make him into a monster tamer, just like him. Due to tragic circumstances, Asur decides to journey the lands of Crown Nation in order to take down the rule of Lord Taishakuten and his Holy Order.

The world of Monster Crown is divided by the Law and maintained by the Four Heavenly Kings, their Beastman Inquisitors, the human citizens, and monsters. The monsters tamed in this world are not your friends or pets. They are very much like animals, ones that we tame by creating a pact between ourselves and them, in order to serve a purpose. However, much like animals, some are also abused, experimented upon or consumed. It isn’t a happy world. 

Asur will even need to align himself (or not) with factions in order to achieve his goals. But don’t think that these decisions will be simple. This is a much darker story than what you may be used to in this genre, and the story and lore of Monster Crown is something that threw me off, in a very good way.

The Monster Box

Speaking of things that took me by surprise, the monsters in Monster Crown look so cool and varied with more than 1000 well drawn and unique monster sprites. At first glance of the menu and battles, it very much looks like Pokemon of old, however most of the similarities end there. 

Battles

In terms of battles, Sin Eater is a turn based battle between monsters. Asur can hold eight monsters on him at a time and you can switch between them. Much like most games of this genre, there are several “elemental” types that play against each other. Asur is not exempt from battle as he has a set of abilities he can also perform against his enemies. The monsters he fights are not stupid. Monster Crown: Sin Eater can be difficult or even overwhelming as most enemies will have multiple types of abilities that they will use against you. Also, since this is an open world game, you can easily enter an area or zone where the enemies will be much stronger than you are. Fleeing is definitely a viable option.

Luckily, there are three difficulty options to choose from. None of the difficulty choices will affect the outcome of the game, nor the monsters that will appear in the wild. The difficulty options only affects how smart the monsters will be in using the abilities they have against you; as well as how many resources you’ll find in the world, and the cost of breeding and fusions. The game states that the true form of Monster Crown: Sin Eater is its most difficult option. Which, I’m not going to lie, is something I am too scared to do. I found that the “normal” difficulty already provided quite a challenge. While I may not be a tactical genius, nor do I have the patience for it, I am a huge fan of RPG games, and the “Give me a Challenge” difficulty is definitely all I’m good for.

Your Roster

As previously mentioned, Monster Crown: Sin Eater has five types: Will, Brute, Malicious, Unstable, and Relentless, with each one effective against each other in this order. Asur can hold eight monsters a time and any monster that is captured beyond that is automatically sent to a large box. You can also acquire more monsters through trading with other NPCs, received as quest rewards, or purchased from Monster Shops.

Some monsters can also transform into something new if they are introduced to new elements. It’s sort of an evolution as this doesn’t happen naturally through levelling. Transformation of monsters not only increases their overall stats, but some can even grow in size allowing you to mount them.

Lastly, Monster Crown boasts an in-depth breeding and Fusion system. I will not attempt to describe it in detail as it’s not something I delved much into. However, in short, breeding allows you to keep the “parent” monsters, creating a an egg that takes time to hatch. Meanwhile, Fusion is instant but consumes the “parent” monsters to create a new one. You can even edit its genome allowing you further customization of your new monster’s growth. This is a dream come true for true monster collectors and breeding experts will find much to chew on in Sin Eater as there are over 1000 hand-crafted monster sprites.

Monsters are not the only ones that can fight. Asur himself is initially equipped with a gun. As you progress the story, he’ll also gain the ability to learn certain monster abilities. While your monsters will be doing most of the heavy lifting, Asur’s abilities may be the only thing that are keeping you from a game over during difficult encounters, especially in the higher difficulties. The really neat thing about Asur is that he also gains Trainer levels. This is what makes monsters you’ve made a pact with stronger than the ones you find in the wild. He’ll also gain Trainer Perks such as increasing the amount of currency you gain or even damaging enemies if you start an encounter while mounted!

The Crown Nation

The world of Monster Crown is perhaps my favourite part of the game. The art style, colours and structure are wonderful to traverse. While there are many obvious assets being reused, they are varied enough that each province, city, and dungeon looks different. It’s unfortunate that the Four Heavenly King’s towers are perhaps the most similar looking between each other, each one looking like a library within a tower, with only some slight variations.

Regardless, The Crown Nation, an open world, is wonderful to traverse. It’s separated into four main provinces that are interconnected by the Meru Spire in the middle. After completing the early part of the game – starting in the Windy Province – most of the world is open to traverse. You’ll also learn abilities that will open up more areas, such as swimming or breaking down boulders blocking your way. 

As mentioned, monsters are encountered on the field, not through random battles. Based on their type, monsters will behave differently on the field. Some will chase, stalk, or run away from you. They also have different diet type that you can take advantage of by utilizing bait. In using bait, you can get a horde of enemies to go where you want them to, in order to attack them or more easily avoid them. One quality of life improvement that I would like with this bait system would be a separate bait menu I can easily access while traversing the world. Otherwise, it’s an invaluable system if you find yourself getting overwhelmed by enemies chasing you while you are on the brink of defeat. 

The game doesn’t hold your hand. It is important to speak to everyone and pay attention. Since it is an open world with varying levels of enemies, dangers and obstacles, you could find yourself not only lost, but also overwhelmed by the enemies around you if you find yourself tackling an area you are not ready for.

Lastly, the BGM and SFX in Monster Crown: Sin Eater absolutely scratches that retro RPG itch for me. Traversing the world sounds great, the battles attack animations and SFX look and sound great, and the eerie dark moments sound ominous. Everything about the presentation of the game is executed well. Oh, did I forget to mention? There’s also a day and night cycle in the game that drastically changes the way the world looks. I LOVE how bright and colourful the world looks in the morning as the white clouds are perfectly reflected on the water’s surface. At night, the lights within the cities turn on, flickering in the night as the stars replaces the clouds on the water. 

If I had one thing I could change with the world it would be improving how easily I can access the world map. It’s a small inconvenience, but the map is slightly buried under menus, requiring more button presses than I would like. There are many buttons underutilized on the Dualsense controller, and improving this quality of life feature would go a long way. 

Sin Eater

It’s always nice to see an IP within a genre that’s difficult to stand out it. While it may never reach the heights of giants like Pokemon, Digimon, etc, it’s important that there are fresh experiences. It’s wonderful when one can take heavy inspirations from these giants as well, while truly making them their own. Monster Crown: Sin Eater deserves a place in the hearts of gamers who love the monster taming, RPG genre. It’s a beautiful, yet dark and dangerous world. Teeming with monsters and people struggling under the weight of evil, fans of the genre should experience the world of Monster Crown: Sin Eater.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater was reviewed on PS5. Gamer Social Club would like to thank the devs and the publisher for the code.

Monster Crown: Sin Eater launched on 30 April 2026 and is currently available on PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.