Game review
Monster Tamer
3 / 10
- Developer
- Monster Tamer Studio
- Publisher
- Monster Tamer Studio
- Released
- 7 April 2026
- Platforms
- Windows
- Genre
- Creature-Collector RPG
- Monetisation
- One-time purchase plus three separately sold DLC packs offering pre-leveled monsters and permanent stat and experience boosters
- Players
- Single-player
The short version
Monster Tamer sells the familiar shape of a creature-collector RPG — over 100 monsters to capture, train and battle through turn-based combat — but its own storefront undercuts the pitch before a single review does. Three separately priced DLC packs sell pre-leveled Legendary and Myth monsters plus permanent EXP, gold and stat boosters directly, on top of a NZ$21.99 base price, in a single-player game with no other reason those boosts would need to be sold at all.
The audience data backs up the concern rather than contradicting it. Steam lists exactly one review — negative, calling it "not only pay to win, but also pay to play" — and the global achievement curve shows every milestone past the earliest tutorial steps sitting at 0%, consistent with an audience of only a couple of dozen tracked players total. There simply isn't much independent verification here beyond what Valve's own numbers already show, and what they show is not encouraging.
Biggest strengths
- A workable capture-train-battle structure with a stated roster of over 100 creatures to find and evolve
- Turn-based combat built around exploiting elemental weaknesses gives the loop real tactical shape on paper
- Basic Steam feature support — achievements, cloud saves, a play-at-your-own-pace design — is present out of the box
Biggest weaknesses
- Three paid DLC packs sell pre-leveled Legendary and Myth monsters plus permanent EXP, gold and stat boosters directly, a verified pay-to-win structure on top of a NZ$21.99 base price
- An achievement literally named "Time_Gate" confirms a designed waiting mechanic, matching the sole review's specific complaint
- Only English and Traditional Chinese are supported, and the one review on record calls the English translation "the worst I've ever seen"
Who it's for: Nobody, until the monetisation structure changes or a real review corpus emerges. Not recommended in its current state.
Our recommendation: Skip it. A NZ$21.99 single-player RPG selling permanent stat boosters and pre-leveled rare creatures as separate DLC is a pay-to-win structure by any reasonable definition, and the near-total absence of an audience or a positive review record gives no reason to make an exception.
3 / 10
Some reviews come together from dozens of player accounts, achievement curves and patch notes. This one mostly comes together from Monster Tamer's own storefront, because there is almost no audience yet to draw on — and the storefront turns out to say more than most reviews would need to.
A familiar creature-collector shape
The pitch is the genre's standard one, stated plainly: capture, train and battle over 100 unique monsters through turn-based combat, explore forests and dungeons, evolve your team, "join the Monster Tamer community and start your adventure today." Achievement names lean hard on Pokémon-style structure — Badges, an Elite Four, a Squadron system — the familiar skeleton of the genre rather than anything claiming to reinvent it. None of that is inherently a problem; plenty of good creature-collectors work from the same template. The problem is what's sitting next to that template on the store page.
The DLC tells its own story
Monster Tamer's base price is NZ$21.99. Sitting beside it are three separately sold DLC packs, and their own descriptions make the case better than any review could:
- Legendary Partner Pack (NZ$7.39) — "Add 3 unique monsters to your collection! Includes 1 Myth
and 2 Rare monsters at levels 15-20. Skip the hunt and start your adventure with powerful companions."
- Growth Booster Pack (NZ$10.49) — "400,000 freely assignable EXP points, a permanent +50% EXP
Booster... and 40 Dragon Fruits to quickly boost intimacy."
- Champion Partner Pack (NZ$14.75) — a Level 35 Myth monster and a Level 30 Rare monster, plus
"a permanent +2X Monster EXP & Gold & Effort Values Booster."
Buying everything brings the total to roughly NZ$54.62 — more than double the base price — for permanent stat multipliers and pre-leveled rare creatures in a single-player game with no PvP or competitive ladder to justify selling power this directly. That's not an inference from a single angry review; it's a plain reading of what the developer itself is selling. It lines up exactly with the one review currently on the store page, which calls the game "not only pay to win, but also pay to play" and describes "all the good creatures locked behind 0.0001% chance rigged RNG (unless you have deep pockets)." An achievement literally named "Time_Gate" sits in the game's own achievement list, corroborating that reviewer's complaint about being time-gated rather than contradicting it.
What the data says nobody is doing
Steam's global achievement data for Monster Tamer is unusually blunt. The earliest tutorial-tier achievements — a first battle, a first side quest, an "Introductory Trainer" milestone — sit at around 5% each, consistent with a tracked population of roughly twenty players. Every single achievement past that opening tier, including "One Badge," any quest-count milestone above five, and every monster-level or Elite-Four achievement, sits at exactly 0%. That's not a curve showing players quitting partway through a long game — it's a curve showing essentially nobody advancing past the first few minutes at all, on a title with almost no independent review record to explain why. Language support is limited to English and Traditional Chinese, and the one review available specifically flags the English translation as unusually rough, which is at least consistent with a release aimed primarily at a different market and given a light pass for this one.
Final verdict
There isn't much of an audience yet to confirm or deny Monster Tamer's quality as a creature collector, and this review says so plainly rather than pretending otherwise. What is independently verifiable is the storefront itself: a NZ$21.99 single-player RPG selling permanent experience and stat multipliers, plus pre-leveled rare and legendary monsters, as separate paid DLC — a pay-to-win structure confirmed by the developer's own product descriptions, not just by the one negative review sitting next to them. Combined with an achievement curve showing almost no one progressing past the tutorial, there's nothing here to recommend and a specific, documented reason to actively avoid it.
Pros and cons
Pros
- A workable capture-train-battle structure with a stated roster of over 100 creatures to find and evolve
- Turn-based combat built around exploiting elemental weaknesses gives the loop real tactical shape on paper
- Basic Steam feature support — achievements, cloud saves, a play-at-your-own-pace design — is present out of the box
Cons
- Three paid DLC packs sell pre-leveled Legendary and Myth monsters plus permanent EXP, gold and stat boosters directly, a verified pay-to-win structure on top of a NZ$21.99 base price
- An achievement literally named "Time_Gate" confirms a designed waiting mechanic, matching the sole review's specific complaint
- Only English and Traditional Chinese are supported, and the one review on record calls the English translation "the worst I've ever seen"
- Steam's own achievement data shows essentially nobody progressing past the earliest tutorial-tier milestones, with every later achievement at 0%
- A near-zero audience — one review, roughly twenty tracked players — means there is effectively no independent verification beyond Valve's own data
Screenshots
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Monster TamerImage: Monster Tamer Studio via Steam -
Monster TamerImage: Monster Tamer Studio via Steam -
Monster TamerImage: Monster Tamer Studio via Steam -
How the review scores each part of the gameWanderer Editorial -
The essentials at a glanceWanderer Editorial -
The short versionWanderer Editorial