"Pokemon this game is not. But in some respects, that’s a good thing."

In a world where Pokemon is the top monster-raising simulator (this genre of games may or may not be official), most of the other choices available go unnoticed. Games like Dragon Quest Monsters, Jade Cocoon, and Monster Rancher never get a second look from most people, which is a shame. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is actually the fourth games in the DQM series (the third, Gameboy Advance title never making it to the US) so if you're a fan of the Dragon Quest games, you may have spent some time with the two Gameboy Color iterations. The core gameplay remains roughly the same, but being on the DS means just about everything else got a major overhaul – most of those changes for the better.

Obviously the first thing you'll notice is how nice the game looks. Joker makes good use of the DS's capabilities, and all of your favorite Dragon Quest beasties make a great transition into the third dimension. It makes the world seem more alive, whereas in previous games everything was barren and empty. This is also partially due to the fact that random encounters have been done away with. All monsters now appear on the field screen, a much welcome change. No longer do you have to wander hoping to run into that certain monster. Most monsters appear in roughly designated spots on the game's 6 main islands, so you know exactly where to look when you need that one extra Golem for your boss-level monster.

Another awesome feature is the ability to guide your monsters along your own path when breeding. Now when you decide to synthesize two of your monsters together, you get a choice of (usually) 3 new monsters to choose from, and you can see what those three are before taking the plunge. To get higher rank guys, you'll still need to follow certain breeding paths, but now there are much more options for getting the lower-level monsters that will take you through the majority of the game. The skill system here has changed a bit too. Similar to Dragon Quest VIII, each wild monster gets two skills. As they level up, they'll gain skill points, which you can use to level up those skills. So for example, a Healslime will have the skill ‘Heal'. As you put skill points into ‘Heal' you'll steadily learn better healing spells. When you breed, you can take a combination of 3 of these skills form both parents and give them to the child, who will sometimes also get his own unique skills you can choose. The drawback is that the skill points you put into the parents' skills with be cut in half after breeding, so you don't want to start breeding randomly without thinking about what skills you're going to need.

The last really awesome upgrade Joker has over the last games is the way you acquire new monsters. Previously you had to throw meat at the wild monsters and hope for the best after you had knocked them out. Now, you get an option called scout in which all of your monsters take a turn attacking the target. With each hit, a percentage gauge will go up depending on the damage dealt. After all of your monsters launch their attacks; you'll get a chance equal to the total percentage to catch the monster. For weaker monsters, you'll approach 100% almost ever time, but as you start trying to recruit tougher guys, you'll have a tougher time if your team isn't up to par. It's a much welcome change over the previous games.

Joker isn't without its problems though. The game tried to inject a story into your breeding adventure, but it seems fairly out of place and most of it is just a fetch quest making you travel to all the islands. If the game remained as a fetch quest and then the proceeding tournament, this wouldn't be much of a complaint – but after said tournament you're suddenly thrust into a quest to save the world. Huh? The other thing that the game doesn't handle very well is travel. There's no sort of quick jump to get to all the islands you've been to. In the beginning of the game this isn't a problem, but once you get to the final islands, you'll often need to travel through 1 or 2 of the earlier ones to get to the later ones, something that becomes pretty tedious when you're going back and forth trying to scout certain monsters to breed.

The thing that will probably turn people off about this game most is what it's about – and that's breeding new monsters. There's really no central goal to work towards like there is in the Pokemon games. You'll spend about 80% of your time with this game catching, raising and breeding new monsters. It's not something for everyone, and it remains very true to the Dragon Quest games. Obsessive monster raisers will gobble this stuff up, spending hours trying to get the perfect team with the perfect set of skills. Everyone else will probably find themselves bored with the game after completing the story, which will probably only take around 20 hours or so. Regardless of that fact, if you find yourself the type to gravitate towards these monster breeding simulators or have a soft spot for Dragon Quest, Joker is a game worth checking out.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/08

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