Melting World Online vs Monster Harvest
Melting World Online
Melting World Online is a strategy RPG set in what seems to be an alien world. Featuring a unique old school-look, this game more than makes up for its dated graphics with an in-depth and surprisingly strategic gameplay. Aside from the timed turn-based combat, which is modelled after Fallout games' VATS system and is designed to keep you on your toes, you'll also get to assemble your own team of mechs (along with their mech pilots) to bring into the battlefield.The most intriguing part of the gameplay, however, is how you can customize your mech. Instead of giving you fixed slots to put your weapons and armor in, you get a grided box for each part of your mech, namely the cockpit, left and right arms, the body and left and right legs, where you can attempt to squeeze in as many weapons and armor as you can. After all, the more weapons you have means the more attacking options you'll have, while having more armor means your mech can take a lot more punishment from the enemy before going down.
Melting World Online may not win any prizes when it comes to its nostalgic 90s visuals, but its gameplay is definitely worth a look, especially if you're a huge fan of strategy games.
Monster Harvest
Monster Harvest is a very promising game that features a refreshing blend of monster-collecting and farming simulation. In this game, you grow various “pocket monsters” called Planimals at your farm and bring them to the local rec center to test your mettle or the dungeon to gather special materials. You'll get to develop both your farm and your skills as a Planimal trainer.If you love farming sims and collecting Pokemon - or any other types of pocket monsters really, then Monster Harvest is the game for you! The game features the very interesting premise of turning your crops into battle pets, and how you “slime” them will result in different kinds of pets with varying power. There’s even a roguelite dungeon and a gym for you to test your mettle at and, in the case of the dungeon, gather special resources for upgrades.
The sad thing is Monster Harvest is woefully early access and a work-in-progress. The game still has some pretty massive bugs and pending content (such as the empty-feeling “festival”), though none of them are completely game-breaking. In the worst case, you’ll just have to restart the game, though some players have reported corrupted saved games where all their planimals stored in the pen went missing.
Due to this, I’d not recommend getting the game right now. If you’re really interested, try the free demo and wishlist the game to keep an eye on it. Once the bugs are squashed to a more manageable level and some more features and content are added, then you might want to splurge and grab the game.