"The 3D Pokemon game I've always wanted... almost."

Pokemon-like games have never really diminished in popularity; there is always something coming out, in one shape or another, that uses a similar concept or the concept is used within a game of a larger scope. There is no denying... raising little critters and watching them grow is immensely fun for some reason. Dragon Quest Monsters is a spin-off of the DQ series, that could be considered a Dragon Quest version of Pokemon. It's not new though, as it appeared on Gameboy and PlayStation quite some years ago. DQM Joker is the new DS entry, and is the very first to be totally 3D, something Pokemon has yet to do. In this regards, DQM Joker is like the 3D Pokemon game fans have always wanted... except that DQM isn't quite as good.

Typical world destroyer driven by.... what?

Just like most games of this genre, DQM doesn't really have any compelling storyline driving the quest. The nameless hero is the son of a scientist who has been studying monsters, and who starts acting suspicious as the Monster Scout Challenge begins. This challenge is held every couple of years, and only the best monster scouts can participate. The hero's father forces him to participate this year, so you'll have to start recruiting monsters and train them for the big battle. Before getting there though, you must explore the five islands Green Bays is made of to gather ten Darkonium Crystals, the requirement for the challenge.

The only secondary characters present in the game are Solitaire, a girl who acts as your rival, Incarnus, a mysterious and powerful beast that joins your team, and Dr Snap, who handles the competition. They only get involved in rare occasions, making the plot feel like an excuse. You'll spend hours wandering around islands looking for monsters, with no signs of the storyline. The only goal of the game is to find the darkonium crystals, and between the introduction and the conclusion, there is nothing happening. It only picks up at the very end, but in a very predictable way. I think we're all tired of the bad guy who turns crazy and wants to destroy the world for no comprehensible reason.

Hundreds of monsters to catch, no joke.

Storyline aside, because in reality it doesn't really matter to this type of game, you'll have a lot to do before getting to the end. Much like Pokemon, you get to choose a starter monster from three, then start looking around for more monsters. DQM allows you to have three monsters at a time on the battlefield, three more as substitutes that can be switched, and up to a hundred in storage. The battles are old-school turn-based, with nothing very entertaining about them. Apart from skills each of your monsters can learn, and tactics that can be assigned to them, it's as traditional as it gets. A "Fight" option allows you to let the AI play instead of having to select orders, making it a bit less tedious considering the number of battles the game contains.

To catch new monsters, you simply "scout" them with the current monsters in your team. If the wild monster is impressed by your team's strength, it might join you. As you can see, the concept is extremely basic and formulaic, but it still works. Where it steps apart however is that your monsters don't evolve based on their level, but they do have more powerful forms. You're the one deciding what your monster turns into by synthetising two monsters together. The synthesis system is rather complex and based on your monster's family (Dragon, Demon, Beast, etc) and rank (E being lowest, S-X being highest), but one simplistic way to put it is that two powerful monsters will result in an even more powerful one. The downside of synthetising is that you'll loose the two monsters used to obtain the new one. Also, instead of having genders, your monsters each have a different charge (positive, negative or neutral), and only monsters of opposite charges can be synthetised together. This makes the system interesting, but also frustrating when you spend so much time training a monster only to realize you can't synthetise it because it's not the right charge.

With more or less two hundred monsters, there are countless of possibilities for synthesis, and that's hours of play if you're into that sort of things. The synthetised monsters keep the stats and skills of previous monsters, so by synthetising monsters a lot, you can end up with really unique monsters stats-wise, something immensely appealing for online play. The only fault is that synthetised monsters end back up at Level 1, so you have to train them all over again, regardless of the two previous monsters being at very high levels. This becomes an annoyance when you're very far into the game, as the enemies are more powerful and you're left with monsters at very low levels. Obviously it's possible to go back to previous islands to train, but when you're far into something, it's always a drawback to head back to a previous spot. And that's the game's main flaw; there is way too much grinding. 90% of the game is training and synthetising monsters -- it's almost all the game is about.

Countless critters, yet lifeless land...

The other 10% is wandering around the islands, opening treasure chests, and well, that's it. It's disappointing that there are only five very small islands to explore, islands that you can finish exploring in 4 or 5 minutes. Obviously, they're filled with monsters, so it will take longer with all the battling, but the main quest isn't really any longer then ten to fifteen hours. Then again, if you're a completionist and want to get every single monster, you might spend an extra 100 hours on the quest. This makes for an endless replay value, added to the online mode. It's just too bad the main quest feels a bit bland, with not much to do beside walking and battling. Often it feels as if there is a little something missing from the adventure, a little something that would have made it more engrossing, or at the least more compelling. There are a couple of dungeons with simple puzzles, but the exploration definitely lacks a spark of shine. As it is, DQM feels a bit dull at times. The world you are exploring doesn't feel as interactive as the one of Pokemon; it just feels like a lifeless version of it. The game fails at providing an immersive world to explore. That is what it should be about.

World of graphic wonders, almost.

Graphically, it's one of the best looking 3D games on DS so far. The character models have an excellent cel-shaded look, the monsters look phenomenal and are full of little details, and the islands offer an impressive draw distance. You'll probably encounter some inconsistencies though, like characters that pop out in front of you or blatantly disappear. Some areas also lack some more texture work and the overall world you advance through looks drab at times, perhaps the design could have been worked on a bit, but overall the game is beautiful 3D, technically speaking. Creativity is another thing. Speaking of it, there are only five different character models for NPCs, which are re-used for over 50 characters, so all the NPCs in the game look the same although they are different persons. That's fine in 2D games, but in 3D games that's kind of awkward. On the other hand, the music in the game is entertaining and catchy at times, but the track only consists of four or five different tunes, which isn't enough for a game of that scope. The same music is overheard on all islands, during all battles, and rarely varies. It gets a tad repetitive, no matter how good. Playing the game on mute might be an option you'll consider.

All in all, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker is an excellent game for Pokemon fans. It's a little bit monotonous, has a lot of grinding, and its world feels bland and barren, but it's still a great game if you're into monster raising. It could last you weeks, or even months, unless you get tired of the monotony. If you get really into it though, it's an extremely addictive game that is worthy of any hardcore RPG fan's game collection.


Breakdown

Presentation A good looking game, but with an almost absent storyline. The menus look extremely dull, but are easy to navigate through with the pad or stylus (as is the whole game). 7/10

Gameplay More or less a Pokemon clone, but with a personality of its own, DQ flavored. The quest is rather monotonous and grinding is omnipresent, the islands are a bit empty and lifeless, but fans of the genre will see a great game in it. 7/10

Graphics Some of the best 3D on the system, especially the monsters, but a few sharp edges and irregularities here and there. 8/10

Music/Sounds Good music, but too redundant. Only a few different tracks. 6/10

Replay Value The main quest is short, but there is a lot to come back to. A huge library of monsters and skills to complete, hundreds of monster synthetising possibilities, and online battles. 9/10

Overall 7.5

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/08, Updated 07/31/08

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