Just complete the whole game and spend more time with it and you will realise how much it's not balanced. Sadly but this is the truth and it's my opinion.

I'm sure in the end people will just talk about how Pokemon Manamon is.
LOL, sorry, I couldn't help myself. 

The game is awesome! I just completed it. I actually like the game more for the story and exploration than the combat system. Combat was okay, but the true fun was wandering around finding items and solving the few puzzles. Since I've played it, there's not much reason to play again.

As for the Pokemon clone comment, who cares! Mainstream game companies don't consider or care about blind people. I'd rather have a fully accessible clone of a popular mainstream game that I can play than no access at all.

Hi.
At ethin and others who said the game is unbalanced, I haven't tryed the game out that much yet, just played the demo a bit.
Could you tell me what in the game is unbalanced?
Greetings Moritz.

OK, here are my thoughts, you asked for them so if you don't like them, I'm sorry.

I have tried all of VG Storm's games and didn't find a single one I liked enough to pay the price they are asking for them. $5 to $10 at them most would have been more appropriate in my humble opinion.

Hi.
Well, a games worth is not based on how long a dev has been working on the game, the Duke Nukem devs were rich people by this point if this model would be the valid one.
Greetings Moritz.

Okay, a lot to say here. and some of you might not like it.
First and foremost I think Manamon is fantastic compared with most of the audio games on the market today. That said, it quite obviously wouldn't be so fantastic when compared to today's multimillion dollar mainstream masterpieces... but it tries pretty damn hard which earns mega browny points in my book.
I had largely dismissed and abandoned the audio games scene a long time ago, because I was sick of paying $30 for a game I could finish in an afternoon, or a game that had been done ten times before (within the audio games scene... I think clones of mainstream titles are amazing).
So I moved on to struggling through mainstream games as I successfully did with Ocarina of time (and as it happens that scored me some news coverage).
The VGStorm rpgs bring something new to the table; content.
All the flashy expensive sound work in some titles will do absolutely nothing for me if the trade-off is that I can finish them in one sitting.
Paladin, for example, sacrifices a good bit of audio "dressing" for a lot of content. Not everybody's cup of tea, but it did the trick for me. Manamon packs even more content into a game that doesn't sacrifice on the  audio so much, and so obviously it's more expensive; fine by me, still within the price of a mainstream title. A Hero's call is expected to have exemplary sound quality, full voice acting and a lot of content; but it had to be kickstarted in order to make it possible (how in the world is that a surprise?).

but to everyone who simply demands nothing less than multimillion dollar quality from small-time devs and expects to pay next to nothing for it I have one thing to say. I'd like to see you try and pull that off by yourself.
and I'm not saying for a minute that I don't expect or hope to see growth in this industry. but it'll never happen if devs can't catch a break for an honest effort.
To the balance issues, I've never really seen this explained well. What balance issues does Manamon suffer from that Pokemon doesn't? Plenty of "do not use" creatures, but Pokemon does the same thing.

gotta agree with post 14, while balance is questionable and I wish the online portion was easier to get working, I've had and still am having a tonne of fun with Manamon.  really hoping for a sequel

Hmm, you know, I feel kinda like replay value and time-to-completion are different enough that I can't really judge games based on the latter. Like, I read an interview with a Sega developer regarding 3d rereleases of classic games, and during the interview, the dev gave the interviewer a copy of 3d Streets of Rage, and by the end of the interview, the interviewer was at the final level. Speed-runs of the original Super Mario Bros are very short.
But nowadays, games can't capture what made 5-60 minute games popular, and now they have to measure playtime in dozens or hundreds of hours as a selling point. Then people rush through them on release weekend anyway.
So I don't even know how to feel about all this.
Also, agree that the bar really needs to not fall far below Manamon, hence forth. Keeping release dates in mind, Audio Games are a good 20 years behind, and that's only if we count VGStorm. And, playing mainstream games 20 years ago? I think that's being generous.
Also yes Manamon is awesome and I am jealous of the talent that brought it into being.

I must admit, I'm quite astounded at the negativity surrounding this game, and couldn't agree more with Trajectory's comments, even though I'm not nearly as serious a gamer now as I used to be. On the other hand, want to know why I'm not a serious gamer any more? Precisely because the art of audio game making seems to be focused so much more on quick fixes/short and sweet time wasters, text-based games, and online open world design, rather than depth, plot development, and quality of content combined with the power of audio design. Sure, Manamon was a Pokemon clone. Sure, the plot is sort of shallow. But you know what? The game makes up for that by being engaging, and taking you through quite a journey indeed! All that while designed by a small team, and still providing many hours of intrigue, excitement, suspense, and general enjoyment. More to the point, this game contributes to a very, very small pile of such games in this particular style, and I will take it, and its preset but clearly defined story over an aimless, make it up as you go online open world sort of rig any day. Call me old-fashioned, but I can never enjoy small, five-minute games, text adventures, or online multiplayer games in the way that I enjoyed the hours and hours of watching and helping my dad play through all the classic single-player survival horror games, solving puzzles, figuring out the stories... And Manamon offered me a chance to do all of those things, but do them by myself. Here's hoping there's more where that came from in the future.

I really appreciate how people gave this an injection of positivity. The title was "Let's talk about why it's amazing!" not "Let's complain". Seriously, this is one of the best honest attempts I've seen at making an immersive audiogame. The fact that it was made by a small team with nowhere near the budget, and can still even compare itself to Pokémon in any way is a god send for us. As a fully blind dude for only 5 years, and when my last game experiences were Halo Reach and Skyrim; I consider myself extremely god damn lucky to have it this good. Especially considering I thought I was stuck with tedious browser games with a half cocked story and no real depth. I was able to play and beat Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Manamon has given me far more joy than those games ever did because I thought I would never have that again. I for one am incredibly grateful and say thanks VG; you guys kick ass. Let me help somehow. Much love and good night.

I actually feel as though I have the programming knowhow to make a sizeable RPG like this. The trouble is I seem to come up short when it comes to motivation, and I lack knowhow in areas like sound design and music critique.
Hmm, maybe I'll just take one year off after college, commit myself to a game development endeavour, and then just move on with my life being known as a one hit wonder among this community.
Another problem is that unrealistic expectations serve as a big turn-off. Expectations like a life-long (or indefinite) commitment to continuously add new content after release (something that has never happened before, and never happened in mainstream before DLC became possible).