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Monster Sanctuary
Monster taming meets metroidvania. Collect, train and battle monsters in a lovely side-scroller pixel world.
What players say
Steam review score and the most-helpful voices, which may include critical ones. Data as of 2026-05-20.
What reviewers agree on
85 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“A pretty good game, solid gameplay. [b][ GRAPHICS ][/b] Beautiful, I love a good pixel game. [b][ STORY ][/b] Clearly not the focus of the game. It's simple and straightforward. But that's why I like it, it doesn't try…”
“Monster Sanctuary was a surprise hidden gem for me. I'm not a huge fan of turn based RPG's or monster collector game, but somehow this one was just pure magic for me, and is honestly one of my favorite games of all…”
“Fun and unique monster battler. Didn't like the puzzles but I generally don't like puzzles anyway.”
18 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“A pretty good game, solid gameplay. [b][ GRAPHICS ][/b] Beautiful, I love a good pixel game. [b][ STORY ][/b] Clearly not the focus of the game. It's simple and straightforward. But that's why I like it, it doesn't try…”
“I'm not into the monster collector genre by any means, but this turn-based rpg awakened a longing in me for a more simpler, relaxing time when you could enjoy your game slowly and take in it's atmosphere. This is what I…”
“Team customization is quite nice and varied paths for how you want to build our your Monster Team. The story isn't particularly strong but the simplicity itself is quite charming. Sprites animation has a ton of charm…”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“Picked it up on Steam sale just to write this and support the devs. I have over 60hrs on switch. The best monster tamer I've played love the monsters and their field abilities some don't feel like a road block just…”
“An awesome creature collector with each monster having their own skill trees, a story that is easy enough for casuals on normal difficulty and plenty of (very) challenging endgame content that will test your…”
“Personally, I love the game and think it is completely worth the price, if you like gathering new monsters and like to grind and level them up. The game isn't hard too hard to start imo. but there are some stuff that…”
8 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I'm not into the monster collector genre by any means, but this turn-based rpg awakened a longing in me for a more simpler, relaxing time when you could enjoy your game slowly and take in it's atmosphere. This is what I…”
“If you like strategy turn-based monster catching RPGs like Pokemon and Digimon then this game is definitely worth a try. Everything is great from the art-style to story and the music. The only thing that I dislike is…”
“Absolutely amazing monster catching Metroidvania, with variety of monsters and a great battling system. Story is interesting enough, and there are many hefty side quests that can get you very cool items. Only gripe I…”
7 of the 104 reviews raise this.
“I'm not into the monster collector genre by any means, but this turn-based rpg awakened a longing in me for a more simpler, relaxing time when you could enjoy your game slowly and take in it's atmosphere. This is what I…”
“If you like strategy turn-based monster catching RPGs like Pokemon and Digimon then this game is definitely worth a try. Everything is great from the art-style to story and the music. The only thing that I dislike is…”
“Wanna be the very best, the best that ever was? Well, you're looking in the wrong place. This is [b]not[/b]; I repeat, [i][b]NOT[/b][/i] a Pokemon clone. Far from it! Monster Sanctuary does what Nintendon't. - Gameplay…”
20 of the 104 reviews raise this · 11 of them still recommend the game.
“If you're looking for an approachable rpg or a fun metroidvania, this is not it. The metroidvania elements are lackluster with most situations being a simple 'lock' that you need to rub one of your monsters on as a…”
“In a nutshell: tedious, excruciatingly long, dullest possible dialogues, all about the incessant monster fights. This game does not care about: - telling a compelling story (language learning apps have better dialogues)…”
“Fun and unique monster battler. Didn't like the puzzles but I generally don't like puzzles anyway.”
11 of the 104 reviews raise this · 9 of them still recommend the game.
“Picked it up on Steam sale just to write this and support the devs. I have over 60hrs on switch. The best monster tamer I've played love the monsters and their field abilities some don't feel like a road block just…”
“Absolutely amazing monster catching Metroidvania, with variety of monsters and a great battling system. Story is interesting enough, and there are many hefty side quests that can get you very cool items. Only gripe I…”
“Fun game with a good battle system. Nice story and a good worldbuilding. Maybe sometimes the time you need to gain experience for your monsters is a bit too much, but it could simply be my fault for building an…”
9 of the 104 reviews raise this · 6 of them still recommend the game.
“If you're looking for an approachable rpg or a fun metroidvania, this is not it. The metroidvania elements are lackluster with most situations being a simple 'lock' that you need to rub one of your monsters on as a…”
“Monster Sanctuary was a surprise hidden gem for me. I'm not a huge fan of turn based RPG's or monster collector game, but somehow this one was just pure magic for me, and is honestly one of my favorite games of all…”
“An awesome creature collector with each monster having their own skill trees, a story that is easy enough for casuals on normal difficulty and plenty of (very) challenging endgame content that will test your…”
7 of the 104 reviews raise this · 5 of them still recommend the game.
“In a nutshell: tedious, excruciatingly long, dullest possible dialogues, all about the incessant monster fights. This game does not care about: - telling a compelling story (language learning apps have better dialogues)…”
“game feels complicated in a way that's exhausting to my brain. it feels like it's expecting me to internalize huge skill trees for all 6 of my monsters, plus equipment, plus food buffs for each of them, and make an…”
“I like the pixel art and creature designs a lot. However, the world - especially at the start - feels empty. When it comes to the main mechanic of the game, I especially enjoy that the creatures in the active party are…”
7 of the 104 reviews raise this · 3 of them still recommend the game.
“In a nutshell: tedious, excruciatingly long, dullest possible dialogues, all about the incessant monster fights. This game does not care about: - telling a compelling story (language learning apps have better dialogues)…”
“game feels complicated in a way that's exhausting to my brain. it feels like it's expecting me to internalize huge skill trees for all 6 of my monsters, plus equipment, plus food buffs for each of them, and make an…”
“weapons, accessories, food, it all too much. I hit a point where I need to grind, and it's just not worth it”
Counted across 104 English reviews, sampled to match this game's 91.5% positive rating · as of 2026-05-20
“Do you like Pokemon because of monster collecting? Great! But that’s where the similarities stop. As another review said, you will get frustrated if you expect Monster Sanctuary to be a Pokemon clone. This game relies HEAVILY on strategies/team synergies. If you’re new to this…”
— a player, Steam review · 37 hrs played“Monster Sanctuary's serviceable but not flashy presentation and occasionally strange creature designs I think make a lot of people write it off without too much thought, but I can't stress this next part enough: it probably has the best gameplay of any creature collection game…”
— a player, Steam review · 52 hrs played“good game but im playing on permadeath and this practice duel assured me 2-3 times that IN PERMADEATH mode, this is just practice, we wont kill eachother, even going as far to say it goes without saying. Then proceeded to kill one of my monsters, i gotta recommend the game but…”
— a player, Steam review · 9 hrs playedPlayer activity
Monthly average concurrent players. Live count fetched 2026-07-11 10:16 UTC · history via SteamCharts.
Achievement stats
Global completion rates across all Steam players — a data view of how far people actually get. Source: Steam official stats · as of 2026-07-25.
Price tracking
US-region pricing (USD), sampled twice daily by our own tracker since 2026-07-11. Steam prices vary by region — always confirm your local price on Steam.
Regional prices at last sample, in local currency — Steam sets each region's price independently.
Cheapest → most expensive, converted to USD at ECB reference rates (2026-07-24). Relative comparison only.
Latest official news
Developer announcements via the Steam news API — links go to the original posts. More across all games on the news hub.
Monster Sanctuary Update 2.2 out now
Monster Keepers! Thank you for still playing and enjoying Monster Sanctuary! As we have promised end of 2025, we are releasing a small update for Monster Sanctuary on Steam today to fix bugs that have
❗Update Required
We want to let you know about an important update.A recently identified security vulnerability with Unity has been spotted, and while there is currently no evidence of impact on users, we’re taking al
Aethermancer Launch Celebration - Monster Sanctuary Giveaway!
Monster Keepers!Our second game, Aethermancer, released onto Steam Early Access yesterday - so, to celebrate the release we are hosting a giveaway for our Monster Sanctuary community. Monster Sanctuar
Aethermancer Release Date Announcement and BRAND NEW TRAILER
Become the Aethermancer on SEPTEMBER 23rd!Monster Taming meets Roguelite - We are releasing into Steam Early Access!Watch the Trailer here: Here is a little overview of what you can expect the Early A
Holiday Giveaway
Monster Keepers! We're hosting holiday giveaways on TwitterX and Bluesky! Win Plushies, Limited run physical editions of Monster Sanctuary or a Monster Journal! https://x.com/moi_rai_/status/187117268
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Screenshots
Official Steam store screenshots — click any shot to enlarge.
Facts & details
From the Steam store record, snapshot 2026-05-20.
| Genres | Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Strategy |
| Player tags | Creature Collector · Pixel Graphics · Metroidvania · Turn-Based Tactics · Singleplayer · Turn-Based Combat · Exploration · Fantasy · Adventure · JRPG · RPG · 2D (SteamSpy community voting) |
| Features | Single-player · Multi-player · PvP · Online PvP · Steam Achievements · Full controller support · Steam Trading Cards · Steam Cloud |
| Languages | English, French, German, Spanish - Spain, Russian, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil |
| Controller | Full support |
| Achievements | 41 |
| Estimated owners | 500,000 – 1,000,000 (SteamSpy) |
| Official site | https://monster-sanctuary.com |
Minimum system requirements (PC)
Minimum: OS *: Windows 7 Processor: Dual-Core, 2.0 GHz Memory: 2 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB, Radeon HD 4870 512 MB DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 1 GB available space Sound Card: Windows Compatible Sound Card