Manamon, a Pokemon for the Blind

During the pandemic I started playing some audio games for the blind on my laptop. My favorite one is called Manamon. It’s kind of like Pokemon, a creature collecting game, but made for the blind. There are different creatures called Manamon you can catch, and based on their types they all have different abilities. The types that Manamon are separated into are plant, water, flame, poison, ghost, shadow, electric, earth, air, sound, holy, magic, steel, dragon, undead, ice, standard, and fighting. Some can be more than one type after they transform, so that creates the challenge of remembering what they’re strong or weak against. Just like Pokemon, you train your team and go on a stadium challenge. There are seven stadiums, and you have to receive a key from each one to unlock the Master’s Stadium. Your goal is to become the Manamon master. There are two Manamon games, they both have side stories while you’re on your journey, and the audio cues are pretty great.

There are audio cues for doors, people, items, fire, lasers, walls, etc. Before you start a file on both games, you can listen to what most of the audio cues sound like. There are even different audio cues for when you attack an enemy with a type advantage, type disadvantages, and critical hits. The walls are labeled north, south, east, and west, and they all have different audio cues so you can tell which is which. I’ve learned from experience it’s easier to play with headphones because sometimes it’s hard for me to hear the south wall without them. Listening carefully to the wall tones helped me recognize when there’s a gap in a wall, so I can walk that way. If an item or person is behind you, the audio cue will get lower unless you walk backwards until it goes back to its regular pitch. If there’s a sound cue that’s not shown before you start the game, the game will tell you what you’re hearing when you push enter to interact with it or walk up to it.

I think my favorite audio cue is the one for lasers. Some are on the floor that you have to maneuver around, but there are other lasers that you have to walk through and listen to how often they go off. I would stand in one spot and listen to the pattern a few times, and during the little bit of silence I would run through it. Running through fire is similar, but you have more of an advantage with fire. If it’s not in the middle you’re fine as long as you listen to where it is. The lasers usually stay in one spot, so you have to listen to the pattern. That created quite a challenge for me, but I loved it because I was never able to do anything like that before.

The second game in the Manamon series actually has a music hall where you can go and play 10 rhythm games! If a big battle or an area I had to walk through overwhelmed me at all, I would take a break and go to the music hall for a while. Since I had already played Rhythm Heaven on my DS and Wii, I picked up on them pretty quickly. Another cool feature is if you have to transform some of your sound types, you can do it by getting a score of 80 or higher on one rhythm game. If there ever is a third Manamon game, I would love if they utilized more music gameplay. They even introduced music puzzles, and those were my favorites. The other puzzles involved moving boxes, benches, stones, tables etc., and those stressed me out, but I was always proud of myself for getting them done.

Unfortunately, the first Manamon is not a multiplayer game, but one of my best friends and I would play at the exact same time while on the phone. I would help her with combat, and she would talk me through the puzzles and navigating tricky areas because those are the things I struggled with the most. She also had to help me with some of the Rhythm games, and I had to help her with the music puzzles and rhythm games as well. It is super fun being able to play with someone at the same time, because you may not have the same strengths and weaknesses as each other, but you can help the other person with something they may be struggling with. It’s also a great feeling to have someone else to talk to about a new game that you love! Thankfully, the second game does have online battles. You can battle a friend if you give them the room code you make. I hope that will be a step towards making a game where you can actually team up with friends and go on a new adventure together!

I’ve played both Manamon games twice, but I also like to play RS Games and Quenton C’s Gameroom. Both of those are different platforms with multiplayer games like Uno, shut the box, 1000 miles, Monopoly, Duck Race which is another board game, etc. Those two platforms are 100% accessible for the blind, but sighted people can play too. I love playing those games with my friends, but I’ve learned that I love games like Manamon more than card and board games. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any other story games on my PC that piqued my interest enough to keep playing them.

The only downside to playing games on the PC, for the blind, is that not very many people know about them. As much as I love playing the games I’ve found, I still would rather play mainstream games my sighted friends and family would know about. There are games specifically designed for the blind and I absolutely love that, but I want to play games everyone else likes because I want to be just like my sighted friends and family. Mainstream games seem to be slowly adding accessibility features to their games, and I hope it continues.

You can find a demo, and purchase Manamon HERE

For more information about Blind and Low Vision experience, click HERE