Dawn of the Monsters

This game is what I would label "Simple but effective" and boy is it effective in my opinion. DOTM is a perfect small compact game for any Kaiju fans that want something with a simple formula but attention to details. The playable monsters are perfect with their unique yet simplistic designs that really give off a Showa era feeling for kaiju media. The combat is very fun too with heavy moves that feel heavy and destructive. Megadon was the obvious choice for me as I am a mega Godzilla fan, and I can feel the love with Megadon being this games take on the "Godzilla". Its just a nice sweet little present that will take a few hours of your time for a fun little story with beat-em-up mechanics.

Dont worry too much about the gameplay, because if you are a mega Kaiju fan like me, you will enjoy this game no matter what. Highly praise this and look forward to anything further with this world.

A solid beat'em up with a classic kaiju storyline. Definitely worth a play if you are a fan of either genre.

An enjoyable Beatemup, it was fun when unlocking all the colors and seeing the references
Also i really liked the story and the bits of information that you can unlock

Great gameplay, interesting story, and amazing art. Just an overall great game :)

Tokusatsu themed beat-em ups are quite rare. King of Monsters 2 for the NeoGeo comes to mind, even though that game had very little to offer aside from some nice sprite work and music. Dawn of the Monsters seems to have taken inspiration from that game, but is easy to tell that its developers saw many areas to improve upon and the end result is a very solid beat em up title despite a few flaws.

The story is relatively simple but is interesting nonetheless. Giant monsters (known as Nephilim) have invaded and ravaged earth for nearly three decades and humanity has stablished the Defense Alliance Worldwide Network (DAWN) in an attempt to take earth back from the monster menace. The line of defense is made up of the typical staples of the Tokusatsu genre: Megadon (Fire Kaiju), Ganira (Water Kaiju), Tempest Galahad (Giant Robot), Aegis Prime (Giant Superhero) and Meteor Temujin (Megazord type). Unlike most games in the beat-em up genre, there is a strong focus on the game story which is presented in fully voiced, comic book-like panels and the ocasional animated cutscene.

Visually speaking, the game features solid comic book like visuals, which seem to have taken inspiration from Hellboy. The sense of scale is great and there is a nice variety of stages to explore. Sound wise, the game is hard to rate. The music is definitely fitting to the dramatic vibe the developers were going for, but is not very exciting. Voice work is great however and dual audio (english/japanese) is available. Sound effects are fitting, but you'll want to fiddle with the sound settings since the default level for these is rather low.

Gameplay wise, the game is quite a lot more varied and complex that it lets on at first impression. Characters feature unique special and super moves and differ greatly from each other while focussing on power, speed, defense or range. There are also a handful of advanced techniques such as parrying, last minute dodges and move cancelling for those players that are willing to put in the time to practice them in order to step up their game. And there is also the augmentations, which are basically perks you can equip on your characters in order to increase their base stats, power up their special techniques or add some wacky effects such as turning foes into time bombs. You'll find out that there is plenty of room for experimentation as you to unlock more augmentations in order to come up with your own strategy to use with your favorite character.

The game does feature some rough edges though. The game is divided into regions made up of many missions, so you'll end up fighting on similar looking areas for quite a while. There are some bugs here and there, which depending on your setup may be easily ignored or not. Also, you'll find the game lacks modes to keep playing once you are done with the main campaign, unless you own the DLC which adds extra missions, new game plus modes and an arcade mode (which gives you a faster and more streamlined version of the main campaign). Last but not least, some players may find somewhat odd that this is one of the few beat-em ups where you can't jump (perhaps the developers couldn't find a way it wouldn't look incredibly silly?).

In summary, this is a great beat-em up title and a great tribute to the Tokusatsu genre. If you are a fan of giant monsters and robots, this is an easy purchase. If you are simply looking for a solid beat-em up that differs greatly from the many other great titles in the genre such as Fight'n Rage and SOR4, this one is a solid choice as well. Be sure to try it!

As a fan of the kaiju genre, this game checks all of the boxes. Could not have picked a better first game for my Steam account.

A low budget love letter to the kaiju movies of yesteryear, Dawn of the Monsters does an impressive job of giving off the impression that you're really controlling a hulking monstrosity capable of walking over most buildings. This has you select from one of four different characters. There's Megadon, the not Godzilla lava monster who can buff himself and hits hard; Ganira, a giant crab turtle who specializes in support, offering shields and monster spawns to take the heat off; Ttempest Gallahad, a proper mech that uses ranged weapons and reloads to weaken enemies from a decent distance; and last but not least, Aegis Prime, a man who can turn into a giant power ranger and uses martial arts to fight kaijus. Aegis Prime wound up being my favorite, as all of his moves focus on damage avoidance, and he worked best for single player, but the four characters really are distinct.
Rather than the snappy combat of something like Streets of Rage 4, part of the way DOTM sells the Kaiju fantasy is with slow, deliberate animations. Attacks all have sort sort of wind up, for both you and the monsters, so watching the tells of monsters in your vicinity amd reacting accordingly is key to victory. You can pick up buildings to use as powerful weapons, great when in a pinch, and the game rewards you building up your special attack meter through careful play. The combo system is pretty simple; basically, just hit guys until they die, and don't let the combo meter run out (even basic attacks refill it to max). It's a simpler combat system than in other games, which given the general weight of everyone, is much appreciated.
There are five regiions across the world that you combat kaijus, and each one has a general color pallet the devs use to differentiate them. This is where the low budget is clearest; each area looks fine, but repetition settles in quickly. Still, Tokyo looked cool and walking over buildings that come up to your ankles automatically is fun (the game even keeps track of how many you knock down, a nice touch).
The story is surprisingly involved, telling a human melodrama and developing the scifi world pretty well. It was just interesting enough to keep me invested, although it isn't high art or anything. It doesn't need it be though, because it gives you plenty of reasons to beat the tar out of monsters.
Lastly, there is a meta game of slotting in ability cards. Your rank at the end of a level determines the rarity of the cards you can pick, and if you get duplicates you can always sell them. There are plenty of different abilities to mix and match, allowing for a lot of expression. None of them fundamentally change how a character plays, but it's still fun to tweak your character, and also very easy and forgiving when it comes to trying someone new. Thankfully you don't need to grind excessively; if you use Megadon for five levels but feel like switching to Tempest Gallahad, it's as easy as slotting in whatever cards you want on Tempest. I appreciated this, because often times games with grindy elements like this can rail road you into only using specific characters for maximum efficiency.
There's no denying that the game can be a bit repetitive, but I still had a good time with it. I'm hoping this is the start of a franchise, because I could see a larger budgeted sequel being really fantastic. As it is, this is still a fun time that has surprising depth in its customization and story. Plus, who doesn't love ripping the heads off of horned monsters and bashing their friends with it?