A New Cozy Game Monsterpatch That Combines Stardew Valley With Pokemon Is A Big Hit

While the world is focusing on the countdown to the release of Pokémon Legends: Z-A in 2025, an indie game called Monsterpatch unexpectedly topped my list of anticipated games of the year. Although I am curious about Pokémon’s latest open-world attempt, Monsterpatch, a traditional Pokémon sequel built with pixel art and innovative mechanisms, does have its own unique charm.

In general, games like Pokémon always find it difficult to get rid of the label of poor imitators. Even the popular work Palworld, its core appeal comes more from the visual impact of Pokémon holding guns than from deep gameplay.

But Monsterpatch is completely different. It caters to players’ desire for classic monster-collecting RPGs, while also being full of farm simulation game gameplay. People can’t help but be attracted by its warm game style and fall into nostalgia. This is probably why it surpassed Hollow Knight: Silksong’s campaign on Kickstarter.

Entering Monsterpatch is like opening up your childhood handheld, and while it may seem like a Pokémon Red/Blue clone on the surface, it has its own unique features when you look deeper.

First, the game allows you to customize your character, so you can freely combine classic looks like Red or Brendan. Second, the dynamic weather system in the game makes every encounter in the grass full of variables. From these aspects, we can clearly see that this game is paying homage to the classic Pokémon games.

But it also has its own charm. The most exciting change comes from its combat mechanism - unlike the traditional 1v1 turn-based battle of Pokémon, Monsterpatch adopts Final Fantasy-style full-member coordinated combat. In the trailer, we can see that area skills such as Leaf Blade can hit all enemy units at the same time. This design forces players to think carefully about attribute restraint and team composition strategies.

What's even more surprising is that the developer of this game will also release two versions like Pokémon games, but the difference is that players do not need to buy both versions. Just choose the version you want to play when starting a save file to experience completely different game content. This design not only retains the fun of collecting dual versions but also avoids the controversy of repeated consumption, which is my favorite innovation.

If the battle system shows its innovation, then the farm simulation gameplay brings unexpected surprises to players. Players can run farming and customizing your hometown in between adventures. This warm design, similar to Stardew Valley, creates a unique rhythm change for this game. Imagine that after you finish the tense battle, you can go back to the farm you built to have a good rest and experience a comfortable farm life. This is simply wonderful.

Although the mention of farming sims will make people think of Stardew Valley, farming is not its main content in Monsterpatch, so it still attracts many players, including me, relying on this point.

Even if the content Monsterpatch has shown us is amazing enough, there are still uncertainties in the development cycle management and QA testing of independent teams. In comparison, Pokémon Legends: Z-A is indeed more reliable, and I am also looking forward to it.

However, I am still optimistic about Monsterpatch and hope to experience different fun in these two games.