The first thing I noticed watching Monster Fantasy is how much its combat looks like Monster Hunter Wilds, down to the animations on a few of the skills. It comes from Jotoyo Games, a 20-person studio in China, and it is headed to PC as a cozy spin on monster hunting, pairing that hunting with a farming-heavy life sim. Monster Hunter has long been one of our go-to co-op series, and Monster Fantasy is chasing that same style of hunting in a slower, build-and-tend form. The studio says pre-alpha footage already pulled over a million views on Bilibili earlier this year, and today is the first proper look at the full thing.
Monster Fantasy splits the experience into two modes that run more or less independently. You can lean all the way into hunting, or skip the combat entirely to gather, craft, build homes, and settle into slower activities like fishing, cooking, and potion making, similarly in the vein of Fantasy Life i. Either path can move the story forward and both work solo or in online co-op. Founder Allan Xai says the goal is to “break down the barrier between action games and cozy games” so players of different ages and skill levels can each find their own way in.
In the campaign, you build a custom hero and travel the Kingdom of Eldoras with NPC companions, hunting creatures that range from a Nine-Tailed Fox to a Griffon to a Fire Dragon. Beaten monsters don’t have to stay enemies, since you can tame them as pets that age over time, evolve new abilities, and in some cases can be ridden into combat. Day, night, and weather all change how creatures behave, so Jotoyo is framing hunts as something you scout before you commit. You can also recruit villagers to fight alongside you, though the pitch is upfront that not every villager is cut out for battle.
Combat is built around four classes, with the Warrior, Mage, Archer, and Swordsman each bringing their own weapons and playstyle. Skills are tied to weapons rather than locked to a class, which is a very Monster Hunter way of doing it, and a single character can eventually unlock every skill in the game. The Archer handles range, the Warrior leans on heavy gear and careful guarding, the Mage builds out customizable spells, and the Swordsman plays fast and light. You can switch classes on the fly by swapping weapons, which is a bit like Final Fantasy XIV, and should open up some interesting gameplay strategies.
There’s no release date yet, and Monster Fantasy is currently raising money on Kickstarter to get there, with a Steam page already up for wishlisting. If a co-op hunting game with a cozy, farm-it-up second half sounds like your thing, both pages are live now.
