Full Disclosure: A copy of Aethermon: Collect was provided by the publisher for review
Introduction
I vividly remember the summer of 1999. I was 8 years old, my grandparents were taking me and my sister on a weeks long road trip across Manitoba, and down to South Dakota to attend a family reunion. At the outset, my mom gave us $100 each in spending money. At the first stop, I spent half my cash on Pokémon Red, and throughout the tip, the other half on triple A batteries for my Game Boy pocket. I don’t even remember why I wanted Pokémon, I just saw Charizard on the cover and felt inexplicably drawn to it (oh geez, a 8-year-old drawn to a fire breathing dragon, who would have guessed it.)
That summer, was my introduction to Pokémon. With dozens of hours in the back seat of my grandparent’s Toyota Corolla, I immersed myself into the world of Pokémon. And right from the outset, I was hooked. Charmander and I spend endless afternoons crawling through the world. With no friends to confer with, or strategy guides to consult, my experience with Pokémon was entirely trial and error. I remember levelling up a Pikachu to level 48, trying to make it evolve. Grinding against monsters half it’s level, the elation every time it levelled up, the anticipation, hoping against hope that this time, THIS TIME will be the level at which Pikachu evolves, only to have my hopes dashed as the battle screen gave way to the over world sprite, time and time again (for those who don’t know, Pikachu requires a special item to evolve).
What I’m trying to say is, I have sincere nostalgia for the olden days of Pokémon. So when I saw the art for Aethermon: Collect, I couldn’t help but be attracted to it. The kids in the forest, with magical mons by their side, I was ready to submerge myself into another adventure.
How to Play
Aethermon: Collect is a fast set collection game. All the cards are laid out on a grid, then players take a turn moving the acrylic group marker up and down the rows and columns of cards, collecting the one monster you choose to stop on. Around and Around the game goes until either all players cannot collect an Aethermon in succession, or in the cooperative version, any one player fails to collect an Aethermon on their turn.
Each Aethermon has a value, and many belong to families. Your score at the end of the game is simply the sum of the Aethermon you collect, with a bonus being applied if you managed to collect all the monsters in a single family.
A 4 player cooperative setup
Review
As I mentioned in the introduction, what pulled me into Aethermon: Collect was the art direction. The cover of the two pals, their robot and dog in the forest, ready for a grand adventure, had me sold from the start. The promotional images of the Aethermon themselves on Aethermon Studios website had me absolutely hooked on this franchise.
Aethermon: Collect itself comes in a small box, about as wide as a smart phone, a touch more than half as long, but deep enough to hold the 74 cards with room to spare. It’s travel sized for your convenience!
Everything in Aethermon: Collect is composed of these 60 mm square cards. From the 48 Aethermon cards (6 monsters of 8 elemental families), to the 12 artefacts, to the 14 cards that comprise the ‘rule book’. While I appreciate the convenience of portable size, I strongly dislike shuffling square cards. Furthermore, I harbour significant discontent towards the rules being put onto 14 double-sided cards. It would be far preferable if the rules were presented in a compact booklet instead.
Aethermon: Collect features both a cooperative mode, and a competitive mode, both play modes feature players moving a shared pawn along a grid of cards. In the competitive mode, players are given 2 artefacts, which they can use to break the rules and give themselves a surprise advantage. Players are trying to collect Aethermon and accrue the most points. If you happen to collect all the Aethermon of a family, their points are doubled. It feels painfully straightforward, where the only interesting thing that happens is when someone uses their artefact, and the winner is just the one who used their artefact most effectively.
The Co-op game feels less like a game, and more of a puzzle. Kind of like a Sudoku; the optimal path could be deduced before the first turn is ever taken. Depending on how strongly other people inject their input on other player’s turn, this could be a major problem. However, if you’re not of the min-max persuasion, then there are some fun moments to be had as the game slowly whittles down the choices available to you. You’ll have moments where you’ll take Matchka, which allows Bigfoot to take Fizzig, finishing that family, then Otter flies to the far side of the board to get Wahblaze, then Bear can collect Eleplant which is right next to it. It never makes you feel clever, but there is joy in finding the happy accident moments where everyone managed to get what they wanted.
Whether you play competitive or cooperative, the gameplay is lighting quick and straightforward. I would have no hesitation to introduce this game to my nieces, or use it as a quick casual game to kick off game night, maybe while waiting for others to arrive. Maintaining the grid of cards can be a bit of a challenge, though. If some cards get knocked askew, it can be tricky to know if they’re in one column or the other, which is a major gameplay consideration. I did see in the crowdfunding notes that they’re making a playmat available, but I’m not sure how that will be combined with the box. As with all crowdfunding projects, we’ll need to wait and see.
The Aethermon themselves should be the star of the show. They have dynamic poses, each one has a short biography on the back, and the character designs are top-notch. Their elements mean nothing in the gameplay of Aethermon: Collect, they’re just a way to shrink the deck for the 2 and 3 player game, which is kind of disappointing, honestly. It’s obvious that a lot of work and love and talent went into designing each of these creatures, which then to have them relegated to being functionally nothing but numbers and set collection bonuses, I’m left wanting so much more.
A lot of my negative feelings come from my own heightened sense of anticipation. I wanted so much more than Aethermon: Collect itself is supposed to be. On its own, Aethermon: Collect feels like a missed opportunity. I’m left praying that Aethermon: Collect is just an introduction to a franchise, an amuse bouche to whet the appetites before the real products start to roll out. And I know there is more on the horizon! The game includes a teaser card, promising a Rougelike RPG coming soon, with more details on the Aethermon website, and I’m so eagerly anticipating whatever comes next for Aethermon. I adore the art direction Aethermon Studios has established, and I will eagerly snap up whatever comes next.
