Spectrobes: Origins (Part 1)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

Steam alone lists four digits' worth of 'Mon Games.
Oh, excuse me, "Creature Collectors". (Not all of them
are about using them to fight, so...)

Beyond Pokémon, I consider myself a fan of the ‘Mon genre. It's all about collecting animals and using them for battle – with the where, how and why changing. Game Freak’s beloved franchise sits atop them all – if you follow the leader, you stay behind them. But a lot of single games, and even smaller franchises, went for a slice of that pie – on Steam alone, I can think of tons of ‘Mon games, some of which have made the news for, ahem, reasons. *cough*PalWorld*cough* Franchises include Fossil Fighters or Spectrobes.

In the latter, we find new creatures and add them to our team by unearthing fossils, cleaning them, and reviving the creature inside. Oh, and an alien invasion is involved.

…what? No, I’m not talking about Fossil Fighters. What makes you think that? I’m talking about Spectrobes. This series developed by Genki and published by Disney Interactive Studios takes a more action-RPG approach to ‘Mon battling and collecting, with the franchise’s main character joining their creatures on the field, both in combat and in finding more beasts to add to the team.

(Let’s Play by KillinCat)

Today’s game, Spectrobes: Origins, is the third game in the series despite the name, and was released in North America on August 18th, 2009 for the Wii only. The continuing adventures of Rallen, an officer of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol (NPP), his colleague Jeena who serves as mission control, and their pet Spectrobe Komainu.

Lost in Space

Look at Rallen, acting serious and dorky all at once.
(P.S. The screenshots were taken from this Longplay
by KillinCat. Go check it out!)

The Nanairo System is endangered by an alien species known as the Krawl, who cause devastation everywhere they go. Little is known of them, other than their leader is someone named Krux. This nefarious kind is planning to use portals to spread across the universe, and thus, the Officers are tasked with protecting those portals from the threat. Rallen and Jeena are sent to investigate an anomaly in Sector W. Despite warnings that this anomaly could be dangerous, their superior, Commander Grant, is confident that they can overcome any threat.

Coming through! Don't attack me just yet!

Rallen and Jeena get to Sector W and end up sucked into a portal that shouldn’t have been there, which sends their ship into another area of the universe. Getting home will be difficult; they don’t even know where they are. Their only option? Planet Wyterra, in front of them, from which they receive a distress call. Its population is attacked by Krawl! They pinpoint the source of the signal, and land their ship near it. Thanks to Komainu, the two heroes find the problem: An old temple surrounded by creepy creatures. Rallen tries to call his Spectrobes or his sword through his wrist gadget, the Prizmod; but neither works, forcing the two to run through the horde to reach the temple.

Combat tutorial, a classic. Does make me wonder how this
was available in Wyterra's temple.

Within, they meet Wyterran villagers. They talk with Radese, the village’s elderly chief. Rallen wishes he could help, but his tools are kaput. Radese takes them to a Cosmolink, which is the tool used by Spectrobes Masters across the Kaio System, where they are. He tests Rallen’s abilities in combat in a special chamber, then lets him equip the Cosmolink after he has proven his worth. The new device requires a co-Master, meaning that it recognizes both Rallen and Jeena as capable of using it. (It’s a clever way to make Jeena playable through this story; she was only playable in a few specific segments in the previous Spectrobes game. Here, she’s as much a main character as Rallen, and you can freely switch between them at Save Points.)

While we do get other weapons down the line, I almost
exclusively stick to swords.

This game is an action RPG. Spectrobe Masters are active combatants. You attack with the A button. Your starter sword allows for three-move combos; other weapons can work differently. You can focus your or your creature's attacks on a target by holding down C (on the Nunchuk) and selecting one with the cursor. In combat, you can also use rice balls to heal your character's HP by pressing 1. The control pad controls the camera, and pressing Down can re-focus it behind your character.

Gee, these starter Krawl are so weak, I think the villagers
could have had a chance to beat them on their own!

Your adult Spectrobe fights by your side, and you can either send it at an enemy by a vertical swing of the Wiimote or call it back with a horizontal swipe. When they reach Level 10, they unlock a special move that must first be charged in a gauge by attacking repeatedly, then released by pressing B; you participate by crossing your arms while holding the Wii remote and Nunchuk, letting the attack charge, then releasing it by spreading your arms. Spectrobes have a higher attack stat than their master at the same level, so they're worth trraining. You can switch between Spectrobes using the Z button and the control pad; you can have a team of up to 6 battle creatures.

Following this tutorial, we’re all set to lay waste to the Krawl outside. That’s one threat we easily deal with.

Unearthing the Beasts

Ooh, a green mineral! This one gives a whopping 32 EXP
instead of just 16! WOAW!!

The spatial guests are invited to Haven Village, which is recovering from the attack. After meeting the residents, the two are told to explore the excavation site behind, where they’re likely to find Spectrobe fossils. This opens the second half of the game: Using Child Spectrobes to look for buried stuff.

Child forms can’t fight, but they’re useful during exploration. You can carry up to three at a time. By swinging the Wiimote vertically, your character sends them forward to search an area – if they find a shining spot, an item will come out from that spot. It’ll usually be a mineral, but it can also be a rice ball. However, you can land on a black mineral, which will trigger a Krawl encounter. Your searcher Spectrobe will grab anything it has unearthed – thus, the black mineral battles can’t be skipped so easily.

Big Cube Rock Get!

Sometimes, your searcher will find a fossil in a shining spot. A new fossil will be known as a “mystery pod” when collected, but those containing creatures you've already seen will bear their name so you can quickly discard them if you don’t need them. At the beginning, you don’t have a way to turn a fossil into a living creature, but Jeena quickly builds a machine in the spaceship to break it out of its stone cube, then revive it.

Early game: The bombs and the hammer are awesome!
Late game: ...I'll stick to Scanner + Laser, then Drill.

The excavation process offers multiple tools: A scanner to see the shape of the fossil through the rock (to know where you can first hit), bombs to break large portions of the cube, a hammer to break areas (you first select where to aim using the cursor, then whack with the Wii remote), a laser to break completely through the stone (which can work fast if you have a steady hand), a drill to take away the remains in small areas, and finally a blower to dust away the last 2-3%. There’s a progress percentage on the top right of the screen, while the top left indicates the fossil’s health, which decreases anytime you harm it during the process. The higher HP it has still when you finish, the stronger the Spectrobe will be when revived.

Revival is a shorter mini-game in which you have a sequence of blue and pink notes, and must shake the Wii remote or Nunchuk respectively. The music turns the fossil into a living Spectrobe’s child form. Revived creatures are added to incubators; after which, you can use the same machine to change your battle team (with adult Spectrobes) and research team (with child forms).

One musical awakening, coming right up!
What happens if I play them metal instead?

Better enjoy them while they're cute. They might not look
so cute once they're fully evolved.

Later, you gain an upgrade to the machine, which creates a virtual world in each incubator. Your character can enter that world and feed the colored crystals found during exploration the six Spectrobes within. Those crystals give EXP, so you can level up your critters outside of battle that way. This is also where you evolve your beasts, feeding them Evolve Minerals, which are rarer. A child Spectrobe can be turned into an adult form at Level 5, then transform again into an Evolved form at Level 30 – however, you’ll need Evolve Minerals each time.

The strengths chart goes counter-clockwise. Still not sure why
air beats water, or why plant isn't also strong against water,
but that might be my Pokémon-geared brain talking.

You know how Pokémon has 18 types with a lot of matchups to remember? None of that here. Spectrobes come in only five “properties”: Water, Fire, Plant, Earth, Sky. And the weaknesses are in that specific order: Water is strong against Fire, Fire is strong against Plant, and so on. Basic rock-paper-scissors. These matchups aren’t for duels between Spectrobe Masters, since there's none of that; however, Krawls adapt to their environment and take on properties of their own, giving them a property’s strengths and weaknesses. This five-property system is only in Spectrobes: Origins, as the previous games’ creatures could only have one of THREE properties.

Wyterra, the Ruins, and the Spectrobe Master

Not even that long since the game started and we are
already fighting LV8 minibosses. Looks like the Krawl
really don't want us near the Master's Cave.

Speaking to the villagers, Rallen and Jeena learn about a Spectrobe Master that lived on this planet thirty years prior. They get confirmation from Radese that a cave outside the village was said Master’s home, and that it may contain information on how to evolve Spectrobes, since those in this star system evolve differently from the ones the interstellar guests know. Therefore, their first quest is to get to that cave. Easier said than done, as Krawl have destroyed the bridge leading there. Once those (and a mini-boss) are killed, it’s back to the village to chat with Kotetsu, the local blacksmith, who will build a new bridge.

Kotetsu has a few side-quests to offer, with new weapons as rewards. There aren't many NPCs with relevant info to offer, aside from one pointing out the property barriers found on walls; they can be opened using a child Spectrobe of the same property.

I'm not sure how exactly their little dance opens the way,
but it does and that's all that matters.

Damn, that's a big one. Good thing it skipped leg day,
its center of gravity is whack. It can fall hard.

With the bridge repaired, we go ahead, only to encounter a gigantic Krawl blocking the cave. That thing is large, and its face, its weak point, is too high to be reached; however, by attacking the right limbs, it can be tripped, causing its head to fall low enough to be attacked. This fight teaches the importance of staying at a distance if an enemy is too dangerous. You learn to time your attacks so your Spectrobe isn’t in harm’s way, and that you should call it back if need be. The switch from turn-based to action RPG with your character as an active combat participant opens interesting options, and it makes battles feel different from your average ‘Mon game.

Good thing we won't have to come back here every time
with Spectrobes to evolve them, and Jeena uploads onto
our ship the pedestal's ability so we can access it at any
save point! Is there anything she can't remake?

Past the boss, the heroes venture into the cave and find the Spectrobe Master’s lair, with technology that’s 30 years old. In the computer, they find Lost Memos. Those give you hints regarding stuff you can find around the worlds you’ll explore; new species, or secrets off the beaten path. Further in there is an ancient pedestal, as well as a free fossil and an NPP badge. More mysteries. They take the fossil, which gives them a vision of the Spectrobe Master of Wyterra using the pedestal to evolve his creatures; Jeena takes the pedestal’s data and implements it in the ship's computer so we can, too, access stronger forms. They then find data on the other planets of this system, indicating that the Krawl have attacked all of them; and thus, our heroes need to rescue the populations of those worlds from the onslaught.

We’re told to evolve at least one Fire child into its adult form, since the next world is Doldogo, a lush green forest planet, and the Krawl we’ll encounter there might have become plantlike. It is also the land where Kamtoga, the past Spectrobe Master’s partner, is said to reside.

The commander's behavior is very sus. And we're
a little far for an emergency meeting.

We head off to the next planet. During the trip, Jeena manages to contact the NPP. Their commander is glad to hear from them; however, on hearing that they ended up elsewhere in the universe, Grant mutters to himself about some portal. Looks like he already knew about it… The connection is cut before anything else can be said. The ship lands near a village on Doldogo. They're met with a worrisome sight: The river that goes through the village has turned purple and toxic.

We'll solve this in Part 2.