Is there a God inside me?

Adore is set in a mystical fantasy world that lost its gods long ago. As Lukha, a Worshipper, you are a follower of the old ways and the old gods. To facilitate this role, you are inhabited by the spirit of Draknar, the fallen god of creatures, and together you set off to various dungeons to collect creatures and restore Draknar's power. 

The lore of the game is not something super revolutionary or very creative; it uses a lot of a well-known formula, portraying good and evil, an ancient god who corrupts himself, and now the good god who is weakened needs the protagonist to defeat evil. Despite the already-beaten presentation, the game manages to convey the story in a way that amuses the player. 

Much of the story is passed through cutscenes or quick dialogs during the game, when you go to pick up a mission with an NPC or when you progress and have some trigger that leads to the dialogs of the story, but nothing that takes up much of the player's time; they are always brief and direct, with simple dialogs. 



And now talking about the gameplay style, it is remarkable the combination that the game made; it is difficult not to relate the fact that you capture these monsters with the biggest franchise of this theme, Pokémon, but in a different way. Instead of turns where you give commands, in Adore you control a group of up to four monsters, which you send to corresponding battles against wild creatures in various dungeons in an isometric style.

As an Adoree, you summon your monsters while dodging and moving out of the way of attacks, adding an element that is often not considered in other monster-taming titles: your own health, meaning that in addition to your monsters' HP, you must worry about your character's life, which can take damage from enemies on the map. 



Of course, capturing monsters to add to your party is an important part of the game, and Adore accomplishes this in an unusual way, for better or worse. To capture a monster, you need a Gaterdrik Particle, which is randomly available in different dungeons and also provides some kind of statistical benefits, such as a permanent health or stamina boost.

And I saw this as a negative part of the game. Don't get me wrong, the idea is good, but the upgrades are very repetitive. Several times I always received the same upgrades of more HP for the worshiper or movement speed. They are useful upgrades, but in more than 10 maps I saw 2 variations of this. 

Little Monster... Cuddly? 

I went into the game with a certain negativity at first, and while I thought the idea of combining camera and gameplay with capturing monsters was cool, I believed it would be a little troublesome to manage them all and still worry about my character's health, but I was wrong. 

The gameplay of the game is very simple and easy to learn; there are really no major difficulties where you have to persist a lot against some enemy or boss. Of course, there is a challenge, and sometimes dying is expected, but nothing that gets to be frustrating like a soul-like game. 

And still talking about the gameplay, the fact that there are several types of monsters with different attacks and powers is, in my opinion, the strongest point of the game, because although many of the pets are a little dull, the fact that there is this variety of attacks and functions ends up being what allows you to assemble your team and make several combos, bringing fun to the game. 



So let's talk about the monsters. They're clearly not meant to be cute, but they're also not bold in the sense of what you might see in something like Monster Hunter. They're just a bit bland. The isometric view doesn't help much, since you spend most of the time with a top-down view of the creatures, you can tell they're not very distinctive, kind of generic, and lacking identity. 

The difficulty curve of the game did not seem abrupt at all. You can see that the game is making it difficult to advance as new enemies begin to appear with stronger powers and statuses, but it is nothing that will cause you problems and that you need to change your strategy in order to deal with. Besides that, it takes you a while to realize the increase in difficulty. I faced two bosses practically in sequence, and I hardly saw any difference besides their aesthetics and attack. 



The way the quests are presented is also a bit bland, making you move in a triangular motion around the shrine area to continuously fulfill quests and boss battles for the NPCs you share a base with. As I said, the core gameplay is fun. It's just the framework that surrounds it that occasionally produces a bit of tedium.

Outside of the monsters and core gameplay, there are many ways to influence the fight against the monsters with their monster synergies, where you combine elements of them to discover new abilities, cooking techniques,  traits, and The game does a good job of introducing you to these concepts, with the first few hours of gameplay acting as an easy-to-understand tutorial. 

This bug is a little weird 

Well, like all works with similar styles, they have good visual and sound production, which is responsible for creating the atmosphere that immerses the player in the world of the game and also for generating the visual identity that is usually very characteristic, and now we will talk about these factors in Adore. 

Let's start by talking about the environment and the game universe, where we can notice a certain repetition. The colors adopted can be quite subtle, and the scenarios seem to have elements that have already been used. Perhaps it can be said that there is a lack of imagination beyond what has already been shown. 

This does not necessarily imply that the game is ugly or that the designs are bad. It can be said that it strives for a specific kind of brightness and charm, elements that are frequent in games that involve bonding with creatures. The characteristic visual identity, which is typical of such games, is perhaps a little lacking here. 



One feature that, in my opinion, could be improved is the cutscenes. The character models could be given a bit more attention in terms of their design, and their animation could perhaps be improved to look more natural. This could greatly improve the visual experience.

Regarding the scenes, there is no music or voice acting, being replaced by noises, roars, and environmental sounds that would be from the characters and monsters in the scene. I believe the intention was to convey a certain realism, but some people may find that this choice creates a somewhat peculiar atmosphere, especially in longer scenes where these sounds are repeated in a loop.

In addition, it is important to remember that in the cutscenes, there are also images and illustrations in addition to the animations of the 3D models. These representations are quite attractive and highlight the visual identity of the game. This distinctive aesthetic harmonizes very well with the game's proposal. 



However, in the sound part, the game manages to hit well; the track is very lively and pleasant to listen to, and it brings an air of personality to the game because I don't remember seeing in any similar game a more lively track, and that doesn't make me want to take and listen to my own songs while playing. 

Overall, Adore brings with it an intriguing idea, although a certain lack of uniqueness can be perceived. By seeking a unique combination of mechanics from different genres, the game presents innovative elements, although it does not fully exploit the most prominent conceptions of dungeon exploration and monster-taming games, which could further enrich the experience. 

For this review, Adore was played via PC through Steam.

We would like to thank QUByte Interactive for providing the access key to the game and making this review possible.