Sequel Bait: Spectrobes

Recently, I discussed the success of Palworld and its impact on the genre of monster-collecting RPGs. That got me thinking back on some of the other forgotten games within the genre. One of my personal favorites as a youth was the Spectrobes series. So I thought I’d dive back into this dead series and discuss some of my hopes if a true sequel was ever announced.

If you’ve never heard of Spectrobes, it was a series of action RPGs developed by the Japanese studio Jupiter and published by Disney Interactive Studios. The first two games were released on the Nintendo DS while the final game Spectrobes: Origins released on the Wii in 2009. The major selling point of the series was its excavation mechanics. In order to acquire new creatures, you must restore their fossilized remains and wake them up yourself. The game utilized the DS touchscreen and microphone to provide this sense of immersion, though in practice the mechanic often provides more of a headache than anything else.

Another key aspect of the gameplay was the process of raising your Spectrobes. Similar to the Digimon series, Spectrobes needed to be cared for, fed, and given persistent attention in order to level up and evolve into their adult forms. The Spectrobe designs are my favorite thing about the series. They have a distinct visual style that combines the best aspects of both Pokémon and Digimon while still standing on their own.

The main story for the games follows a planetary police officer named Rallen and his partner Jeena as they battle against an alien species known as the Krawl who threatens to devour the galaxy. Spectrobes are the only natural predators of the Krawl and by traversing through various planets the team hopes to find enough to beat back the Krawl and preserve humanity.

Though the Spectrobes series sold well enough to garner two sequels it was often held back by repetitive and somewhat awkward gameplay. The first game has extremely poor combat and other half-baked features that give it a lack of identity. However, the sequels certainly helped to remedy these aspects. The last two games are where the series starts to develop its true potential with new features like ship customization, weapon variety, as well as ultimate and shadow Spectrobes.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t enough to satisfy the competitive market at the time. Disney Interactive focused a majority of its resources on developing Disney Infinity during the toys-to-life craze and the resulting failure would cause the closure of Infinity in 2016. According to a retrospective blog written by Avery Barker, the only way Spectrobes would return at this point is if another studio purchased the rights. On the off chance that ever occurs, I hope the developers take some of these ideas from a fellow fan.

The most obvious inclusion for a new game would be a variety of new creatures to collect along with some old returning favorites. However, the game must keep the same visual styling and terminology as the first games. Spectrobes Origins changed the original type names from Corona, Flash, and Aurora to things like Fire and Water. While this did allow for the introduction of two new types in Sky and Earth it makes the game too similar to Pokémon. Seeing as our core concept is already derivative enough, It’s important to me that a unique identity is preserved here however minute the details may seem.

Story wise I think a soft reboot would make sense. The conflict between humans and Krawl has been explored enough in the original three games that we need something new. I’m envisioning two possible directions. One could be a low-stakes storyline. Perhaps you play as a research assistant whose task is to gather and uncover fossils to populate a new museum, akin to Jurassic Park. Along your quest, you’ll have to contend with various thieves or rival groups who seek to use the fossils for personal gain. Additionally, this version could implement some management simulator aspects as you could help to design the museum and specific environments for your specimens.

The second option could be a return to the grand epic stories, but set in a different time period from the original series with brand new characters. A new threat has arrived in the galaxy and our heroes must stop it while traveling to various environments and locales, for example. I’d like to see an expansion of the world that features more civilizations and unique cultures. The previous games featured planet-hopping, but often the new environments were somewhat barren with little to explore and interact with beyond combat encounters.

In terms of gameplay, it needs to be deeper as a whole. I liked how Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals gave players the ability to directly control Spectrobes, but with each only having one basic attack string and an ultimate, battles became stale quickly. Give each Spectrobe more in-depth move sets that can be customized with new skills unlocked as your Spectrobes progress. This is a system that is a standard for most other monster-collecting RPGs and it’s something sorely lacking from the series.

The main hero should also be highly customizable with various weapon options and gear. It would be interesting if you could also scavenge gear off of the enemies you defeat like in Monster Hunter. Another interesting option would be to allow players to craft armor sets using Spectrobe fossils in order to bestow your character with special resistances or attacks. This would provide incentives to collect multiple fossils from the same species.

I’m not entirely sure how to handle excavation, without the DS touch screen or Wii motion controls to lean on for precise controls it becomes more difficult to implement in a way that feels satisfying. It’s a core aspect of what makes the game unique so I don’t want to axe it. Relegating it to a poorly optimized mini-game seems like a cop-out as well. The best thing I can think of is to simply make the overworld environment itself destructible and malleable as is the case with a game such as Minecraft. It would certainly be fun to delve into caves directly collecting all manner of minerals, items, and fossils.

These are certainly ambitious asks, but if Disney remains the publisher I’m sure they can spare a large budget for what could potentially be a fantastic action RPG. Though the future still looks bleak for the Spectrobes series, I’m holding out hope that one day we may finally get a monster-collecting RPG that can fulfill these wishes while also building upon them in exciting ways.