Re: Manamon, worth playing or not? definitely worth the time!
Well, I wasn't the one making those implications about the word "clone", but I'll address them now that you have.
Let's be realistic here. The sound design in manamon is good. The game was quite stable when first released, and has only gotten better. The game balance is weird in some places, but in general did not require huge tweaks to make it playable. The game was beatable from launch, and has gotten minimally better in some areas thanks to a few in a long list of needed fixes.
But it's a clone. The game story is not that inspired, not really, if you think about it. Stories involving an evil man being evil because evil is evil are a dime a dozen among the teen fanfic set. Stories involving going on a journey to be the very best are ripped straight from pokemon, and probably from other places as well. Game mechanics borrowed from or even copied from pokemon may be tight, interesting and playable, but that doesn't make them inspired.
Some of the manamon themselves are quite well designed, but some...aren't. The very fact that only twenty or thirty of the nearly hundred and sixty manamon are competitively viable speaks to exactly how inspiring the game is. Shop lists are usually quite boring and uninteresting. Equipment isn't fleshed out. You can't teach manamon moves except by equipping them with specific gear, and even that list is very, very short. Manamon are often hamstrung by bad stats, uninspiring/uninteresting movesets or both.
This game is not really original. It is basically dressing up pokemon, putting different names and creatures in it, tweaking the story a bit, and then charging forty bucks for it. Originality is when you take something unique and make it breathe. This game is fun, complex enough to keep interest, addictive and well put together, but original it is not.
Thus, it's a clone even by your definition. When I use the word, I'm not being snide, I'm
just being straightforward. How you take the term is your business, not mine, but even if we use your explanation, manamon qualifies.
Paladin of the Sky wasn't a clone of anything. Busted as it was in some very big ways, it was at least an original concept. The things it borrowed, it borrowed from a distance.
Ditto The Gate. So okay, horror-themed side-scroller borrowing from typical horror tropes. Nothing wrong with that really. It's not a clone of anything.
But Manamon, sadly, borrows far, far too heavily from pokemon to be anything but a pokemon clone.
I said many months ago that the differences between these two games would probably be enough to keep Aaron from being sued by Nintendo. I think that still holds, but I think if Nintendo did get wind of this, they could make a pretty big stink, and the stink alone might be enough to drive the game and even the VG Storm company under even if they couldn't successfully bring any legal action to bear
.
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