Crowns: Frostbite

Crowns: Frostbite
Platforms Windows Genres Indie, Action, Adventure, RPG, Open World, Fantasy, Turn-Based Combat Developer Studio Aurum Announcement Date October 16th 2017 Release Date November 3rd 2017

Crowns: Frostbite was a free pre-release demo intended to show off the fusion system of the final game. The demo story, which takes place in a small section of Frost Province, is canon to the overall plot and occurs one year before the events of Monster Crown. It can be downloaded on the official website.

Gameplay

The player (appearing as an unnamed woman) starts the demo with two monsters at level 45, Molkuran and Taupsy. Item inventory consists of 99 Normal Pacts, and party space is completely unrestricted since monster storage is otherwise unavailable. Regular wild spawns include Canite (in a special Frost Province breed palette, which changed in the final game), Frigidile, and Ix. A level 50 Stamlanche can also be obtained as a boss encounter in a cave.

Battles are basically the same as in the final game, but with the addition of Dilla, which can be triggered with the L key to absorb one enemy attack per battle. The Dilla mechanic ultimately did not make it into Monster Crown, though the player's mother still ends up keeping some as pets.

Plot

The player is traveling in northern Frost Province where they can meet June, the older sister of July, from Hewston. June is staying in a cabin owned by Monty in order to test her fusion machine invention, which is aided by the frigid environment. June apparently went missing shortly after the events of the demo and has not been seen since, though her sister holds out hope that she may return one day.

If the boss Stamlanche has been tamed or defeated, the player can also challenge Rodney and his powerful level 60 Gridag in a tamer battle.

???

Stepping on a specific tile will force an encounter with a ghostly canid monster called "???", which automatically flees after a moment. Its appearance is based on a white Jindo dog.

This monster doesn't appear at all in the final game, but stepping on the same tile causes a normal wild Gualop to show up instead; this is likely due to the fact that it used ID #082 in the demo which is Gualop's ID in the final.

Contest

A contest ran alongside the demo which encouraged players to share hybrids that they made using the Twitter hashtag #CrownsFrostBite. The winner, ZaiWolfgang, was drawn randomly and got to design a monster for the final game, which ended up being Hymeraden.

There was also a secret link hidden in the demo itself, which encouraged the finder to email a specific address to receive a prize. The only player who successfully found and responded to the secret link was Dandey Mond, who went on to design the monsters Ghawlin and Alfric.

Artwork

Developer devotedtoneurosis ended up illustrating some of the hybrid submissions from the contest.

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  Canite hybrid

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  Frigidile hybrid

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  Stamlanche hybrid

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  Molkuran hybrid

Obtainable Monsters

Num	Name	Sprite	Type	Color 1	Color 2
027	Canite		Brute	#CFE9AC	#9CB779
060	Taupsy		Malicious	#C3C3C3	#ED1C24
076	Frigidile		Will	#6A886C	#384739
077	Ix		Relentless	#C2E6ED	#CDB349
079	Stamlanche		Will	#ADD6D9	#2BB1B9
080	Molkuran		Unstable	#DB9F71	#9C685C

Other Monsters

Num	Name	Sprite	Type	Color 1	Color 2
081	Gridag		Brute	#8D7452	#60352E
???	???		???	???	???