Lumentale: Memories of Trey Review — EVOLVE!

Though it wasn’t the first of its kind, it can easily be argued that Pokémon is the most influential creature-collector of all time, to the point where almost the entire genre is defined around the long-running franchise. An unfortunate side effect of this is the fact that fans of the genre are starved of choice: there are not a lot of non-Pokémon creature-collector games out there, and even fewer that can live up to the scale and hype of the newest Nintendo release. While this is a problem that is definitely being addressed more and more in the indie scene lately, it’s still easy to see why genre fans might get excited when a new, promising title gets announced, which is exactly what happened with Lumentale: Memories of Trey.

Lumentale: Memories of Trey is an indie creature collector that both pays homage to classic gameplay mechanics and does its own thing.

Your typical Roshambo of creature-type counters is expanded as the creatures in this game, referred to as Animon, can come with multiple creature types, not only giving them access to several different kinds of attack but also making them vulnerable or resistant to more than one element. Combat is also expanded from one-versus-one to teams of up to four, with two in reserve, battling against each other. The number of different creature types and counters can make things feel a little confusing or complicated at times, but the UI counteracts that confusion by showing you when an attack will be strong or weak against an enemy before you use it, based on information you’ve already collected against that Animon.

The addition of the SP Attack system also gives you, or the enemy team, a free turn as a reward for success in the battle. This can be game-changing for either side, and I’ve lost more than a few boss fights to the enemy triggering one of these attacks.

This extended combat really expands on my favorite aspect of the genre, and one which I think many players would also call their favorite: gathering and leveling up a team of creatures that speak to me personally rather than simply being the most meta options. Being able to battle with four on the field and two in reserve means your favorite monsters are getting screen time even when they aren’t the strongest or best choice for the fight. If one Animon isn’t carrying their weight and, for some reason, the other three can’t do it for them, you can always swap them out for a solid counter. Every fight rewards XP to all six of your equipped Animon as well, so nobody is missing out on leveling.

One of the most important aspects of the genre is the actual designs of the creatures, how cool or cute they are, and generally how well you vibe with them when they’re on the screen. Lumentale: Memories of Trey goes for a more Pokémon-esque design, with fantastical creatures whose designs prioritize cuteness over intimidation. I really like a lot of them, and getting to evolve my favorite Animon was always an incredibly hyped moment. I found myself more drawn to just roaming the open world and leveling up my newest Animon, chasing their evolved forms, than I was to engaging with the other elements of the game.

And there are other elements: a crafting and decoration system rewards you for exploring and gathering recipes, materials, and furniture unlocks, while an overarching story pulls you in as the main character, Trey, tries to rediscover their lost memories. While the characters are great and the story had a lot of hype moments that drew me in, I did feel at times that it took away from my favorite part of these games: just roaming from place to place, collecting creatures, and getting stronger. The story does, however, heavily revolve around winning big Animon tournaments, which is what all the grinding is for. This aspect hooked me more than a lot of other character-driven stories, which isn’t to say they were bad, but a little more open-world kind of game would have won me over more, personally.

There is a lot to love in Lumentale: Memories of Trey. It gets the fundamentals of the genre down right, and even in its weaker areas, in my opinion, the heavier emphasis on story, the game is made better by its great characters and creature designs. If there was anything to really criticize about the game, it would be the presence of bugs and some less-than-perfect communication of its mechanics.

The biggest bugs I faced were the ones that forced me to close the game entirely. In certain sections, the game wouldn’t let me interact with NPCs I needed to interact with to progress, which forced me to close and relaunch the game to get the option back. Other times, trying to assign new stats to my Animon would get me stuck in a menu element that I couldn’t close, which also forced me to restart. Thankfully, the autosave system is pretty generous, so this didn’t put too much strain on my game.

Far less intrusive, I found that the game at times didn’t do a great job of communicating its mechanics. A glossary explaining the use of each attribute would be great because, if present, I couldn’t find it, and it took a bit of guesswork just to figure out which attacks used the Attack attribute for scaling and which used SP Attack. Hitting enemies with attacks they’re weak to flashes “WEAK!” in red letters, and it took me a while to realize that meant they were weak to the attack, not that my attack was weak against them. There are a lot of small but consistent examples of this throughout the game, and I just think a little more effort to explain these concepts clearly would have gone a long way.

All that being said, I love Lumentale: Memories of Trey. And I really mean that: I sank way more time into this game than I expected to, and I plan on continuing to do so after this review is published, determined to unlock all of the Animon in the game and see what cool evolutions await my favorites. If you’re a fan of creature-collector games, Lumentale: Memories of Trey will not disappoint, and I would argue that it even has the potential to compete with genre titans as a new mainstay franchise.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a Steam code for this PC review of Lumentale: Memories of Trey. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Lumentale: Memories of Trey is available on Steam.