Pokemon-inspired games aren’t hard to come by, and we’ve already seen the successful — and slightly broken — soft launch of Temtem from Crema Games and Humble Bundle. There’s another monster-catcher on the distant horizon, though, and it promises to shake the formula up in some interesting ways.
Kindred Fates from Skymill Studios is a Pokemon-esque open-world monster catcher that’s not short on genre tags or creativity. It rallies against Pokemon’s eternal youthfully optimistic story with darkness, death, and loneliness taking center stage.
Skymill says on the game’s Kickstarter page:
Many of us who grew up with monster battle games hoped that they would mature as we did.
We aim to create a game with thought-provoking storytelling, antagonists with a sympathetic cause, compelling character development, morally ambiguous decisions, and living with the consequences of your actions
In Kindred Fates, you play as a young traveler who sets out to discover the cause of a mysterious fog making the Kinfolk restless. Kinfolk are this world’s Pokemon, and you form bonds with their souls, fight and live together, and grow closer as you journey through the game world.
Kinfolk speak with you and run stores, and they evolve based on paths they choose. Your own choices can strengthen or break your bonds forever.
Battles are real-time affairs, and should your Kinfolk lose, it dies — sort of. It’s soul is released in the form of a blue light. If you reach that light before it fades out, you can revive your friend. If not, they’re lost forever.
Given how Kindred Fates revolves around bonding with your Kinfolk, we can’t imagine that’s a very nice feeling.
There’s still plenty of Pokemon in the makeup here, though. Kinfolk have type strengths and weaknesses, you’ll fight Gym Leaders, and “bonding” with a wild Kinfolk is like capturing it.
Right now, Kindred Fates is planned for a PC release sometime in 2023, but there’s a Nintendo Switch stretch goal as well.
We’re pretty interested in how this one plays out, so stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Kindred Fates news as it comes out of the fog.
