Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker

"4th game in the series and looking better then ever!"

Dragon Quest is a very well known and respected rpg series in japan. From it's easy to play fundamentals to its classic story, it's easy to see to see that this series is super popular in the land of the rising sun. Dragon Quest in the states hasn't been quite as popular, nut it never stopped it from coming.

Dragon Quest Monster: Joker is the 4th game in the Monster series of the Dragon Quest lineup. Your goal in this game as in with all the other DQM game is to collect, breed and raise your team of monsters to defeat your rivals.

Gameplay:
This is the meat of Dragon Quest Monster Joker (DQMJ). It involves you into exploring the game world and collecting and raising different monsters. You got over 200 monsters to collect. The number is just a few short of DQM1 and over 100 in DQM2. Although the number may disappoint long time fans this by no means calls this game to be too short.

You start with your choose 1 of 3 monsters to pick from. Then your off to win at the big tournament and follow a plot line. To get more monsters into your team you'll have to scout for them. This is a departure from the earlier games. Instead of throwing meat to the group of enemies and hoping the last one alive joins your party, you actually have to impress that monster to join by having your team use a turn to hit that monster for a percent and hope it likes you. I found this system to be quite good. One thing that makes this method better is you don't have to keep buying meat and using up inventory.

There is breeding in DQMJ just like its prequels. Unlike the older version this one has gone through some changes. One thing to note is no more sexes. Thats right, your monster has polarities, + and -. It is essentially still breeding although its called synthesize. There is also +- version too. To actually "breed" in the game you have to have the 2 monsters at least at lvl 10 and 1 being + and the other a -. The monster with +- can take either spot but you can't breed 2 +- version. Once the "breeding" is done your given your new monster right away.

Every time you "breed" the new monster is added a +# after its name. This is to show how many generations that monster is in the family. The higher the number, the more down the line its been, the more quicker it's stats raise per level and skills it can have.As you "breed" the new offspring gets to have up to 3 different move sets from its parents that you get to pick. For getting the ultimate team will take lots of time and "breeding" to achieve. Since each generation you pick different skills, down the line you'll have your self a truly unique pet.

Also don't forget to level up your monsters too. And to do that you need to engage monsters on the field. One thing new to this game is no more random battles. This makes avoiding battles easier or easier to get into battles too. The battles them self are traditional turn base battles like the Dragon Quest series. Battle system is very easy to get into yet difficult to master. Perfect for just about anyone.

There is wireless and WiFi play here too. The wireless features consist the usual trade monsters with a friend and battle with them too. WiFi is a new feature to the DQM series. One thing that is unfortunate is no online player vs. player matches. This can be a bummer for many people including friends separated from long distances. The WiFI feature that is there however is quite engaging. There is essentially 4 different modes: Regional, Regional SP, Global and Global SP. All these modes consist of uploading a team of 3 monsters as your team to the network. Depending on stats, lvls, ect., your then given your position in rank to all the other peoples teams. After the upload, you'll then download 5 different teams for you to bout 1 after the other, all AI of course. For each match you win you'll also win different items, monsters and more. See if you can beat all 5 each day. For just logging in you get an item or monster as well(one per day).

Regional and Global you can upload any monster while SP modes of both has certain criteria for your team to be entered there. For example the first week of release, the Regional SP rule was only Rank F monsters. As of the game release the Global modes are not yet open until Spring of 2008.

Graphics:
Unlike the former games of the series this game is in full 3D and it look very impressive. Probably one of the few games to look this good on the DS. The engine is a modified one from Dragon Quest 8. Everything moves smoothly and graphics are top notch for the system. Only few things that would make it better are minor things just as very blocky sea and clouds. But after playing with the game for a bit you'll dismiss it just as quickly.

Story:
As with any monster breeding game, the story isn't too deep as to not distract from the game itself. What is there however will keep you interested as you'll want to know what happens next. The story can be beaten within 20 hours or so. You can get a quicker run through on the second play since you'll know where everything is at.

Replay:
As mentioned in the story section, you'll beat the game in 20 hours or so. This is slightly shorter then any normal RPG but the story isn't the focus here. The gameplay is what will keep this game in your system for a long time. Getting the best team, the overall gameplay of breeding, finding call 200+ monsters, battling friends and trying to get 1st place on those so incredibly power tough top rankers on WiFi, you got yourself easy over 300+ hours of play here.

Final Words:
If you any kind of person that loves rpg or collecting monsters, there's not much reason to not like this game. From its easy to play gameplay, its 3 on 3 battles, exploring, battling friends and ranking online not to mention 300+ hours of game play, it be a shame to not give Dragon Quest Monster: Joker a try.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/13/07

Game Release: Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (US, 11/06/07)