“Tame, collect, fight! Assemble an unstoppable team of unique Montabi in this Creature-Collector Roguelike Deckbuilder. Master their awesome abilities, synergize their strategic strengths and save the city in tactical turn-based combat!” – Steam Description

Montabi is a card battling roguelike. In a society where people and mysterious creatures called Montabi co-exist, you play as a trainer whose Montabi gets stolen by the villainous Team X. You start out by selecting your trainer and then you select one of 3 of the random creatures, or Montabi, that you have unlocked. Each Montabi has a deck personal to it, so it’s more card battler than it is creature collector. Using a creature as the vehicle (sometimes literally in Taxipod’s case) is definitely a win though. I normally don’t play card battlers or the deckbuilder genre as a whole, but playing on my obsession with creature collectors really made this a game I could not put down.

---

On the Road

---

Montabi presents you with a pretty standard roguelike road for it’s map. You select your next stage in a “Choose-Your-Own-Adventure” style map but you can see the full path from the start. That way you can plan your route accordingly, maybe you need more shops, maybe you have an extremely strong team and you want to take on Elite Battles. In any case, you can choose your path collecting coins, charms, equipment, supplies, and if you have the right item, you can even tame a Montabi to add to your team.

This path will be the best way to flesh out your deck. You can get equipment that your Montabi can hold. Each Montabi can hold only 1 piece of equipment, like a held item in Pokemon but it can be freely switched if you find a better one. I think as a rule, any equipment is better than no equipment. You can also find Sticker Shops to buy temporary buffs that can change the properties of your cards. For instance, you can add a burn sticker to your attack card so when you attack, you also apply a stack of burn alongside it.

---

Montabi, Montabi, Montabi are the Champions

---

Your trainer and your first Montabi start at level 1. You can increase this after every fight, however. You get 2 level ups for a normal battle and 3 for an Elite Battle. The level cap for both you and your Montabi is 10 so you cannot go beyond that. Every Montabi evolves once at level 5 and again at level 10.

Your trainer can’t evolve but does rank up at level 5 and level 10, which lets them have access to different and usually stronger cards. Every level up you get you can select one card to add to your respective deck, and once you’re level 10 you won’t be able to add any cards except random ones within events.

---

Onto the Battlefield

---

Each fight takes place on a 3×6 grid where, on 3×3 of it, you can place your trainer and Montabi(s), as well as a bench of “reserved” Montabi that you can switch out with certain cards. Typically you can only have 2 Montabi and your trainer at any given time, but there are some items that can alter that. Actions here are performed via cards which should come as no surprise from a game listed as a cardbattler. Each Montabi fights pretty vastly different, some using status effects like bleed, trapping enemy squares with fire, or increasing armor. The combinations and builds you can make can change up your runs in a big way, bleed itself does nothing but a unit takes damage equal to its bleed chance with every move. So, stacking bleed with one Montabi and having another that can use wind to move the enemy around the board forces them to trigger their bleed stacks. The burn stacks don’t cause damage themselves but cause units to take damage equal to their burn stack when hit. I won’t even get into all the cooking related statuses, but you can absolutely use Salty, Sweet, Sour, Spicy as status effects as well.

---

Your opponents upcoming move is clearly communicated and even telegraphed if it’s an attack. If they are buffing themselves or placing traps, you can also mouse over them and read their move in full. Positioning is super important if you’ve played anything like Megaman Battle Network or One Step From Eden, you’d know what I mean.

Now that you have the basics of combat down, the only thing left to do is the boss battles. The bosses each have unique mechanics and can be a real problem if you’re not ready. You can’t heal in between battles so planning your route to a cafe or stacking armor to avoid damage all together is going to be preferable. If your Montabi does happen to go down during a battle it will auto revive in 3 turns, so all isn’t lost. A Montabi revived in this way comes back with a negative card added to its deck, such as weakened or brittle. After you complete your run the Montabi you used and the Trainer you selected gain meta experience which unlocks different Montabi to use, Stickers to add to your cards, or Equipment to hold during your run.

---

• Graphics– It’s such a cute game. The monster design is really well done as the overall aesthetic is something to be applauded.
• Gameplay– Gameplay is alot of fun, I fear that my time with Beastro forever changed me because not only did I enjoy this cardbattler, but I found myself using the Chef Trainer and the food related Montabi the most. The Montabi are extremely unique and you can have a completely different build every run if you want to, or you can force the same kind if that’s your playstyle. The point is, it’s what you make of it and it allows you to play that way.
• Sound– Sound design is really good, the attacks and cards feel punchy and unique. The music is super cute and fits the aesthetic.
• Controls– Controls are pretty simple, it does what it needs to. However sometimes with the UI overlay, as you mouse over things and get more on your screen, you can lose your mouse from time to time.
• Story– Story is cliche but that that isn’t a bad thing. Montabi doesn’t hide its inspirations at all and even leans into them a bit with its own unique twist.