There’s no question when you’re making games that innovation is important, especially when you’re working to one-up a well-known series that essentially defined an entire subgenre of its own. In the world of monster training, while there have been quite a few franchises created over the years, there’s no doubt that the most widely recognized remains Pokemon. Since its initial outing way back on the Game Boy, not only has the menagerie of its many creatures grown, the ways of developing them has also continued to evolve as well. 

It’s clear that Sin Eater absolutely had that particular feature in its crosshairs, determined to take it even further. Not only will you be able to build your creatures up, unlocking new abilities as they go, you’ll also have the ability to cross-breed them, transform them with special elements, and even fuse them together. With all of these systems in place, there are apparently well over 1000 creatures to discover, which is an undeniably impressive feat, and features some great and creative artwork to go with many of these varied creations. In combat there are also a few tweaks like the synergy bar that help to differentiate from the norm that are also nice, though being new they can also take some beats to get used to.

Backing that side of the equation up are some other elements that help to put some distance between this and Nintendo’s flagship series. Rather than the story being simply aspirational, there’s a darker thread here as you’re taking on the pretty oppressive and downright scary people in charge who kidnapped and made an example of your brother. That change in the subgenre’s traditional motivations is paired with what feels like a more hands-off approach to the adventure you’ll undertake, eschewing the normal straight line path through a prescribed sequence of towns and letting you chart your own journey. Of course, a side effect of that can be feeling rudderless at times, but depending on your preference that could be a big plus. Credit to the developers for making something quite different from the norm, the question is whether that’s a good match for the audience who is used to things being a certain way.