Going from Nexomon: Extinction to the original can feel a bit lacking in features, but this port could be a sign of a promising future for the series
I played Nexomon: Extinction and kept my expectations low: it was a mobile game basically, and those do very little to capture my interests. However, the catch em’ all genre is home to a relatively select amount of games. Most of them happen to be Pokémon, and they are all Nintendo. I don’t have a Nintendo console to get my Mon fix, so I figured Nexomon would be a nice reprieve from the withdrawals. Safe to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Fresh designs, humor a plenty, it didn’t take itself seriously and that was such a good part of it. So learning about the port for One, I had to get back into my Nexotrappin’.
Nexomon One starts off with your MC leaving home and stumbling upon your friend Ellie and her 4th wall-breaking robot Atlas. You bump into shady looking characters and get into a Nexomom battle, selecting your starter in the process. A very, very douchey guy called the Nexolord comes to visit your parents, and pretty much threatens you. He’s very clearly the bad guy, and the game usually avoids any subtleties with things like this. Atlas becomes your companion, as you journey the lands investigating the Nexolord because he’s very obviously up to no good. You take on the Nexomon equivalent of gym leaders, called Overseers. They each have their quirks, but it seems for the most part people do not like the Nexolord and his oppressive Overseers, but they also have accepted the fact that they are too powerful and stay complacent. You journey to each land, challenging the Overseer to hopefully get some details on the Nexolord’s scheme, and find yourself embroiled in a plot to bring about untold destruction to the world.
Pokémon lately has become…disturbingly easy. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever felt significantly challenged in a Pokémon game. Early parts of Red and Blue had some challenge to them, but back then everything was new so I didn’t know what to expect. You can easily steamroll vast portions of the game with overleveled Pokémon. Nexomon doesn’t play by this rule, a full varied party is essential. Each type has two weaknesses and two strengths. Interestingly enough, types are not resistant to themselves. So if your Mineral Types are wiped out and your opponent swaps a Fire Type in, go ahead and use your Fire Type, you’ll deal normal amounts of damage.
Weaknesses are a whole different ball game. As much as I enjoy making cool single or dual type lineups in Pokémon, it’s just a very bad idea here. You will severely disadvantage yourself. Don’t think a big level gap will save you either as attacks hit heavy in this game. Even being 10+ levels above enemy Nexomon, they can easily do massive amounts of damage and be fatal if they catch your weakness. You’ll find yourself swapping often especially because annoyingly enough, swapping IN a Nexomon gives them a free turn, which your enemies capitalize on as often as you do.
I think this game does a great job at making most, if not all Nexomon viable for use. There is no EV/IV tracking like a madman. No nature’s to breed or farm for, and no breeding in moves. They are how they are. A level 20 Nexomon caught and a level 20 raised will be identical. As they evolve, they gain SP for moves, but some of the basic ones can still be useful. Another component that is extremely vital to success is status effects. Status-inflicting attacks are highly misleading in their descriptions because it shows the attack accuracy as very low, but it is actually referencing the status effect chance to land. Confuse is OP, and unlike Pokémon you don’t occasionally make attacks during confusion. Here, you just keep slapping the shit out of yourself over and over. It’s deadly. Poison and Burn are similar, but unlike Confusion, at least you can fight back. Bound and Paralysis are basically the same, and they work wonders for catching weaker Nexomon.
From all who played Nexomon One previously on mobile devices, they gave me the impression that it was harder than Extinction. I found it to be the other way around. Extinction really beat the crap out of me at times and I was forced to grind and grind. One, on the other hand, coddled me with levels. In a few hours I went from level 80s, to Reborn Nexomon back at level 5, and back to Reborn Level 99. It was way too easy to do it, and honestly the lack of difficulty is my biggest complaint. The humor was there as well, but you can tell the sequel really went hard with it. There was plenty of laughs and sarcasm in One and looks like fans wanted more.
Nexomon is a solid Pokémon competitor, especially in a time where Monster Rancher is non-existent, Digimon is slowly building back up, and everything in between seems to fade into the crowd. It’s a great choice for those who want to see a different style of creatures, and who find Pokémon lacking the challenge and difficulty.
-Game Info- Nexomon Genre: Monster Catching/Adventure/RPG Developer: Vewo Interactive Publisher: Pqube Release Date: 7/10/2020 | 9/17/2021 Platforms: PS4/PS5, XB1/XBS S|X, NSW, PC -GamerDad Info- Completed On: 10/13/2021 Played On: PS5 Time Played: ~70 Hours Rating: 6.75/10
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