Trey Cool
While Nintendo's lawyers are always waiting in the wings for yet another Monster Catching RPG to do what Nintendon’t, I always applaud when a small team looks to improve or radically change up the tired formula. Beehive Studios, with Publisher Team17, has brought us Lumentale: Memories of Trey, a Monster Catching RPG that has big ambitions, and largely lives up to them.
While similarities to Pokémon will always be there, simply as at this point it's simply unavoidable, Lumentale is certainly trying to carve its own path, even if it rarely brings something to the table that hasn't been done countless times before.
You embark on this journey as Trey, a man found in the woods with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. However, given his cybernetic implants, and their serial number, he is given the name Trey. Though, while you can change his name, why would you? It's literally in the title of the game.
He is quickly introduced to Animons, the creatures you'll catch and take into battle with you. You're given the tools needed to catch them, and after a few brief tutorials, you're suddenly a natural and cast out into the bigger world to battle every other Lumen trainer and, hopefully, to find traces of your memory in the process. That, and taking on legendary Animon in the process.
Once you are given the freedom to leave the starting zone, you can choose if you wish to go North to the more advanced nation that believes technology is the future or to the South, who look to the past to plot their step forward. Given how nature is usually the starting zone in most adventures, I took that route first as I felt technology was a good way to follow this path to the past.
Each zone is packed with color, maze-like designs, and a rich history, providing a real sense of place. You have regional disputes and political tensions, encampments to battle for ownership, even if there isn’t anyone to battle YOU once you leave, to towns that have dark secrets that will change drastically once Trey has left his mark. And, as a fellow Lumen trainer, Trey will have privy to new experiences, given the settlement he is representing, hasn't had a Lumen team in quite some time. Expectations are high, and Trey seems up for the challenge.
Now, Trey won't be touring these lands alone as he will start to accumulate companions, starting with Ales, a young boy who initially found him in the forest. Ales, who tries to distance himself from Animons due to some personal trauma, joins Trey as a way to find some peace with his fear of them. For as much as this is a story about Trey learning about his past, it is also about Ales and many of the other characters that you'll encounter.
And of course, Animon are the various creatures you'll find as you walk about. You won't engage in random battles, but actually see them wandering about. Some will be aggressive and chase you, some will flee, but many of them are just passive and ignore you. You can attempt to capture them outside of battles, but the timing was insanely difficult and I chose to just capture them in battle instead. You can; however, damage them outside of battles if they are considerably lower level than you, and reap all the rewards as if an actual battle took place.
As you wander about, some areas will see obstacles in you way, or specific objects that require a certain power or ability to traverse. As you capture certain Animon, you’ll use their abilities to remove boulders or swing across gaps.
To capture Animon, you'll have your Holoken device and various orbs that house the Animon. You'll have different types of orbs for different types of Animon, making the capture process easier depending on the creature. Though, to be fair, I rarely had issues with just using the great ball equivalent, provided their health was low enough.
Combat is generally a four on four affair, with two additional Animon in reserve. Some battles will be between what is on screen, to tougher fights, generally the ones where you are challenging other Lumen, or the various bosses you’ll encounter, to consist of your entire squad. Battles apart from those bouts are generally just against upward to a full four Animon or sometimes just two or three.
Now, the battle system may initially seem to be your standard fare, but Animon don't have a resource that depletes when you use a move. Instead, you have SP and TP. SP is a resource used for your attacks that you'll start out with enough for each Animon to pull off their move during the round. And, as each round has a predetermined turn order, you can plan out how to said SP.
However, it can deplete fairly quickly, especially if you amp up their moves to use more SP, making them stronger. Each round has a set SP amount, but using certain moves or defeating other Animon will charge your TP gauge, which allows you to use any Animon’s ability without using SP. So, basically it provides a freebie follow up. I've had some later fights won because of this mechanic, so while it doesn't sound exciting, it can certainly come in clutch.
Battles will flow by much easier and quicker provided you know and understand your opponent's weaknesses and resistances. Thankfully, you can scan any Animon and it will provide those details for all future battles. That said, using fire against a water type provides the typical outcome you would expect. That said, there are plenty of types that will certainly stump you until you investigate further with a helpful scan. The following types are: Ancient, Anomalous, Aura, Chakra, Data, Demon, Electric, Fire, Geo, Grass, Ice, Virus, and Water. This arrangement provides some new types the genre has never seen before.
Battle animations, menus, and even the vertical health bars, all contribute to a very enjoyable and slick combat system, despite it not really reinventing the wheel. Lumentale doesn't necessarily have anything original to make it stand out, apart from its new types, but it does provide a familiar and comfortable feel that the sum of its borrowed parts still makes for an entertaining experience.
There are also crafting elements that you'll access via fountains that refill your health. While these will appear on the main map, I was disappointed to see that they do not appear on the mini-map, for some bizarre reason. Still, you can craft items, and food that grants buffs during battles. This reminded me of the small camps in one of the more recent Pokemon games where you'd be making sandwiches.
While I might have missed a tutorial prompt for this, I stumbled upon this nonetheless, and am glad I did. As you progress with your team, you'll earn a certain currency that is used to further advance your Animon. When you select them in your menu, and then go into their details, you can apply points into their defense, strength, and more. This allows you to really tailor your team towards standard attacks, defense, or special attack defense, making them far stronger than just the standard leveling provides. Again, I may have just missed the prompt, but I genuinely had no idea this existed until about four hours in. So yah, I had a ton of points to spend.
Trey's quest to find out his memories is through plenty of flashbacks and other events. While his story is generally fine, it took a few hours for Trey to feel interesting and more than just a “yes” man. I wouldn't say I loved the overall story, but did find the world itself to be the stronger part of the game's writing. And given the subtitle, I can expect that Lumentale will see future installments staring new characters.
While you'll have your story in sight to recapture Trey's memories, you'll also have a ton of side quests. While many of these are simply fetch quests, a few of them really enrich the world created here. And, to make it very clear on how to do them, the game does a good job at indicating the areas in the map where you'll need to go.
If I had to make a major criticism, it would be the presentation of its towns, or rather, the transitions of when it tilts the camera to show off the scale and view of these locations. As you move around, it becomes a stuttering slide show as it tilts down or up, and almost made me sick. It only happens in a few locations, especially the very first town, but it's the biggest issue I had in the game and prevented me from exploring those locations to their fullest. I simply couldn't enjoy them, it was that bad of an effect.
The Animon's themselves are extremely well designed, and unlike a certain other Monster Catching game, they don't feel ripped off from existing Pokémon. From tree-covered birds, to lizards with an umbrella exterior, to each of the nicely detailed starters, of which there are around six of them, several designs here are solid. While not all of them are winners, such as a certain duck/chicken that shall not be named, I loved to track down as many as I could, with there being roughly 140 of them.
While I rarely took advantage of it, there is a pocket dimension realm called the Anispace. This is a customizable area that you can place down furniture and other objects that contribute to training your Animon and making them stronger. It’s a neat idea, but I only interacted with for the perks and didn’t look to design anything to detailed.
Throughout the years, there have been plenty of games looking to cash in on the monster grabbing genre, but few really bring the type of personality that Lumentale provides. The mix of 2D and 3D does have some drawbacks, but the world crafted here is one rich with history and charm.
Visually, the sprites and artwork here is great, even if the 3D elements don't always have the same charm. Still, it does have it where it counts, with impressive battlefields, and the nicely detailed Animon, especially those that go really crazy.
With a great soundtrack, and a snappy battle system, LumenTale: Memories of Trey excels as being one of the better Pokémon style games, even if a few edges are rough and a true lack of originality hovers over the experience. Still, if you're looking for this type of game, do to Pokémon feeling a bit stale from year to year, few do it better.
Developer - Beehive Studios.
Publisher - Team17.
Released - May 26th, 2026.
Available On - Nintendo Switch, PC.
Rated - () - Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language.
Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch.
Review Access - A review code for LumenTale: Memories of Trey was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.