And in the end, it all comes down to gameplay. Spectrobes mentality to it all, however, and you're left with the bottom line, which is that Spectrobes is fun to play. The comparison between the franchises isn't direct, but if you're anything like me you'll soon be pulled in by a design that by all means could have been done so much sooner. Disney literally beat Nintendo to the punch, even though we've had a decade of potential in the Big N's monster collection series. What we haven't seen yet as Nintendo fans, however, is a Pokemon branded game on consoles that resembles any of the depth or expansion that a move to the big leagues could do for the series, and that's where Spectrobes comes in. On handhelds Pokemon has become a repetitious offering that –while still undeniably awesome – isn't evolving much from game to game. The age-old philosophy of not judging a book by its cover speaks volumes here though, as this obvious "me too" franchise has trumped just about every recent collection and battle game out there Pokemon included. It's just a bit too "every anime" for its own good. Yes there are some great concepts, the collection aspects are there, and in the end – as you'll see – gameplay and depth win out, but unless you're a eight – 14 year old kid I don't see many people going nuts for the Spectrobes world/style in general. The camera can be a mess when inside labyrinths, the game follows a lot of anime formula style tactics (such as catch phrases for the lead characters), and if I had to give a straight-up "take it" or "leave it" decision on the overall world of Spectrobes it'd be a "leave it" in the end. I've got no problem stating that the bland character designs, obviously kid-directed world, and somewhat sloppy visual offerings in Spectrobes is a downer, and one that could easily keep this from being a hardcore RPG fan's type of game. First off, let's talk style for a minute. The style is obviously aimed at yong anime fans, but its gameplay, polish, and depth are all impressive. On a system with little to no RPG's, Spectrobes is a welcomed addition. Spectrobes is an insanely deep game, filled with more customization and options than most of its target audience will ever fully understand, but amidst the fossil excavation, online connectivity, action-RPG system, well presented story snippets and "gotta catch em all" attitude is a game that surprisingly strong, and one that takes inspiration from just about every major monster battle game out there from Pokemon to Dino King, Monster Rancher and Dragon Quest Monsters. Take a boy and a girl, mix them up in a classic Japanese anime world, give them a cute and cuddly quadruped animal a la Pikachu, and send them on a quest to find and collect monsters. It's impossible to talk about Disney's Spectrobes franchise without bringing up a few obvious inspirations (which Disney itself has mentioned) to the series.
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