Spectrobes: Origins is an action role-playing game that pits you and
your team of powerful spectrobes against a dark force that devours
whole galaxies. It marks the first time that the series has made the
leap from handheld to console and features a healthy variety of
spectrobes and a promising battle system, but its core mechanics never
mature enough to create a truly gripping adventure. It's also quite
repetitive and beset by numerous annoying faults that make this a
charming but unrefined button masher.
The plot is unexciting and predictable with flat characters and
obvious twists, but it provides a sufficient backdrop that is nicely
accentuated by spectrobes: creatures that fight alongside human
masters. You're cast as Rallen and Jeena who are spectrobe masters.
They are also members of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol, which is an
organization dedicated to the eradication of vicious krawl monsters
roaming the universe. After being sucked through a portal to the planet
Wyterra, you must save the world from the krawl.
Similar to other monster-battling games, you'll lead a team of
spectrobe creatures that span various elemental properties and types,
such as fire and flying, to best foes and access new areas. Spectrobes
awakened from fossils begin in child form and are easily managed via a
virtual incubator room, where you feed them items you've collected to
increase their health or experience. You can also evolve them to
combat-ready adult form or train them via attack dummies, but
otherwise, your interaction is fairly limited. Once on the field, child
spectrobes are handy for unlocking doors and fetching items, and
they're especially useful for solving puzzles as you explore open
environments and robust temple ruins. These brainteasers are easy for
the most party, but they're specifically tailored to each temple, so
they at least keep the exploration vaguely interesting.
The real-time battle system is fast-paced and, at times, it's also fun.
Combat actively incorporates the motion technology of the controllers
in a refreshing twist where a simple swing of the remote commands your
adult spectrobe to attack, while a tilt of the nunchuk dodges with your
character. Spectrobes also employ devastating special attacks you
initiate by holding the remote and nunchuk in a set pose, which is
mildly entertaining. You can also perform basic combos by attacking the
same monster with both a spectrobe and your character. Elemental
attributes provide some depth by encouraging you to capitalize on a
krawl's weakness, such as a plant-type krawl's susceptibility to fire.
Weapon variety continues this theme and boasts several weapon types for
your character--such as swords and axes that have elemental
attributes--but these features are undermined by easy foes and dull
button mashing. You'll also encounter some targeting difficulty when
backed into corners or crowded because the camera swings and bounces
the reticle, which reduces most boss battles to annoying tests of luck
rather than skill. Spectrobe AI also irritates because the creatures
will occasionally get caught on environmental objects or stand there as
you're being thrashed, forcing you to reissue attack commands.
The tedious gameplay is worsened by the fact that you have to
engage in excessive experience grinding. This additional leveling is
needed to keep your full adult spectrobe team competitive with the
krawl, who make significant level leaps, and because of the general
difficulty in designing a well-balanced team that spans elemental
types. Exacerbating this problem is a complete lack of spectrobe skill
customization, because there's no way to tailor creatures to suit your
play style or strategy. There's also little reward for leveling your
spectrobes past a certain point, which makes grinding for experience
even more of a chore later on.
A few minigames offer some fun, even though they're limited in
scope. For example, one in which you excavate fossils determines the
level of your spectrobes based on how carefully and quickly you free
them from ancient rock. You can also resurrect spectrobes in a
simplistic minigame by swinging the remote to mimic a brief musical
tune. Spectrobes: Origins also boasts a two-player cooperative feature,
which lets you instantly switch a friend into or out of the action.
Your partner is limited to controlling your spectrobes instead of his
or her own team, which works, but is a little disappointing. You'll
also encounter additional camera oddities during co-op, because the
camera closely follows your character but frequently obscures or
abandons your partner.
The game's brightly colored and open areas are visually
appealing and feature sun-scorching deserts and crystal-clear flowing
streams. However, jagged edges appear on the otherwise smoothly
detailed environmental objects and character models. There's a healthy
variety of spectrobes, and child spectrobes are adorably designed and
modeled after animals, though some--including flying onions and pink
bunny slippers--are a bit zanier. Adult spectrobe design is
sufficiently intimidating, and they are all accompanied by flamboyant
attack effects, though those occasionally cause slowdown. The musical
backdrop is quite soothing and subtle and appropriately matches
exploration locales and soft ambient noises, such as rushing water, but
it is slightly marred by a cheesy rock battle theme and grating attack
cries.
You can complete the main story in around 25 hours, and this
includes a fair amount of time spent leveling various spectrobes in
your quest to design the ultimate team. The game does make use of some
minor backtracking and sports very few side quests, though there are
several unlockable bonus missions and a new side story rewarded upon
completion. Spectrobes: Origins has a decent, if extremely primitive,
foundation with fast-paced combat, two-player co-op, and a cute
excavating minigame, but it fails to evolve into a more compelling and
sophisticated monster battler.
The Good
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Fast-paced combat with neat motion controls
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Open, aesthetically pleasing environments
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Good variety of creatures to control.
The Bad
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Primitive gameplay
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Combat gets repetitive
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Lacks compelling creature customization.
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