REVIEW: Nexomon: Extinction


Title	Nexomon: Extinction
Developer	VEWO Interactive
Publisher	PQube Games
Release Date	August 28th, 2020
Genre	RPG
Platform	Switch, Steam, PS4, XBox One (Soon)
Age Rating	E10
Official Website

A little while back I played Pokémon Sword for a review on the site. This was my first foray into the monster collecting genre in years. I had quite a bit of fun with the game, so when I saw PQube was publishing Nexomon: Extinction I thought I would give this one a go as well. I was really drawn in by the great creatures designs and animations. Let’s see if this one plays as well as it looks.

The story follows a young Nexomon tamer as he sets out on a quest to save his very world from destruction. The largest and most powerful Tyrant Nexomon fight for control over humans and Nexomon alike. Can this young man bring balance to this world and save everyone from extinction? Only time will tell!

Like most games of this type the story here is a pretty basic affair, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact the off-the-wall humor and over-the-top situations found here make most of this game very entertaining. The game is filled with a lot of interesting characters, and Coco is the greatest sidekick ever! He’s constantly making smart ass jokes and breaking the fourth wall, and I couldn’t help but laugh at his antics most of the time. The ending section of this dragged on for much longer than it should’ve, and that is really my only real issue. Developers need to realize that sometimes less really is more.

Graphically Nexomon: Extinction is fantastic. The world is bright and colorful with tons of different area types for players to explore. These include haunted forests, lava filled caves, floating islands and much more. The Nexomon themselves look great as well. I really loved the amount of detail that went into each one, and the battle animations are quite nice as well. I really loved the designs of the dragon types like Voltaic and Tarragon

While the graphics in this one stand out, the sound department is pretty basic. The music in the game is decent, but nothing really stood out to me. Some folks will likely enjoy the soundtrack here more than I did, and that’s great. I think I just expected a bit more out of it. The sound effects get the job done, but there is nothing unique about them either. The game contains no voice acting.

Gameplay here is pretty much what you would expect. The maps are top down and the world is pretty open right from the start. This is something I really enjoyed since I could travel to a bunch of different areas right off the bat and begin catching Nexomon. Just look for areas with shaking bushes to find random Nexomon to battle. Players will encounter random trainers along they way that will challenge you to a battle. These battles pay out a great deal of coins and EXP. You will be able to challenge these trainers again after a certain amount of time has passed and they will get more powerful Nexomon as you level up. It used to be the same in the Pokémon games, but this has been removed in more recent entries in the franchise.

Various NPCs around the world will offer you a ton of side quests. These are mostly just simple fetch quests, but they will net you some great rewards. These include various whistles which up your rate of encountering certain types of Nexomon, Greed Wallets which net you more coins per battle and much more. You will find there are plenty of secrets to be found around the world and that kept me exploring for quite a few hours before I completed this one.

Battling Nexomon was just like any other game of this type. Battles are turn based and you will want to have creatures of opposing element to the one you’re facing. You can carry up to six Nexomon at a time, and just like old school Pokémon games only those that participate in battle will gain EXP. Nexomon will level as you gain EXP and gain new abilities. They will of course evolve into more powerful forms at certain points as well. Catching Nexomon however is a much different affair. There are specific traps for each type that will make catching them easier but you will have to carry some food items as well. Feeding one their favorite food item will greatly increase your chances of success. The game will let you know what your chances are of catching each one, so it’s easy to plan accordingly.

All in all I have to say I had a good time with Nexomon: Extinction. The colorful world and amazing creatures really sucked me into the game. I loved exploring the world and found the lore to be quite interesting as well. I think this one does drag on a bit longer than it should at the end, but I can say that players will certainly get their money’s worth at the $19.99 price tag. I spent about 40 hours with this bad boy and I only caught around 120 of the over 300 Nexomon found in the game. If you like other games in this genre, picking this one up is a no brainer. Fans of older style Pokémon games should be all over this one. If you’re new to these types of game at this price point I still think this is a good one to jump in on.