Back when I was writing game reviews for The Dallas Morning News in the late 90s, I was designated as the resident Pokémon expert.  This was back during the initial boom, so I was writing Pokémon articles left and right.  I’d like to say that Pokémon helped pay my way through college.  But it also meant that I was reviewing a lot of similar games, too, such as Digimon, Monster Rancher, etc.  So it’s always interesting when I get to review another monster battler.  In LumenTale, Memories of Trey, you play as Trey, a young man who has lost his memory.  A kid finds you passed out in the woods and carries you back to professor’s house.  They decide that to help you get your memories back, you should become a Lumen, who captures and trains monsters (called Animon) to fight and help out people.  And so that’s what you do!  The game is available on Switch and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

In the game, you view things in a top down perspective with 2D pixel sprite characters on 3D backgrounds.  It kind of reminds me of a lot of PS2 games, but it still looks good in a nostalgic way.  In town you can talk to people and gather supplies, and when you are ready, you can venture out into the wild.  When you see an Animon, you can throw out a hologram ball to capture it.  You have to physically aim it and play a timing button press game to increase your chances of capturing it.  If you do catch it, you can use it in battle.

If you run into an Animon you’ll have to battle it.  These play out in typical turn-based fashion.  Because of this, the battles weren’t too engaging for me.  Also they explain some things in tutorials that I somehow forgot or couldn’t pull off in subsequent battles, like scanning monsters for weaknesses or capturing them during a battle.  Outside of battle, you can also customize and decorate a virtual space for your Animon to live and train.  Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting into this one.  The battles were not very engaging and since this game is heavily story-based, it starts off very slow.  But if you really like games like Pokémon and Digimon, you might want to check this one out.

Kid Factor:

LumenTale: Memories of Trey is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol and Tobacco Reference and Mild Fantasy Violence. I didn’t really notice any alcohol or tobacco references, and monsters just run into each other and blast them with magic and they just disappear into sparkles when defeated.  One thing I did notice is that there is quite a bit of light cursing in the text.  Because of this and the high level of reading skill involved and the complexity of the game, I’d say this one is best for older kids.

Tags: Game Reviews