Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure

"Tedious. VERY Tedious."

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 is to the original Dragon Warrior Monsters as Pokemon Gold and Silver are to Red and Blue: New setting, new story, new monsters, same game play. It's little more than last year's present in new wrapping paper - and it disappoints similarly.

Visual Presentation: The game was released in 2001 for a then dying platform, and the visuals reflect that.

Akira Toriyama did his job with the battle sprites, and although the static in-battle figures are nicely detailed and colorful, they are still static. The Japanese version of the Dragon Warrior III remake was released prior to Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, but features animated attacks and spells. Why doesn't this game feature the same animations? I may be nitpicking, but this is still an objectionable oversight on Enix's part. They did include attack animations for spells and techniques (i.e., flames for a fire attack), but the battles seem incomplete with static sprites.

The over world sprites are nothing special, and some of the generic character are quite disproportionate. The background itself in the over world seems to be little more than a (repetitive) drawing by a marginally experienced MS Paint user, and can be somewhat repulsive (specifically the sorry excuses for trees) at times. There is no excuse for such a poorly drawn over world.

Overall, Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 is will never be mistaken for eye candy. The visuals get a 3.5 out of 10.

Controls: Well, it's a turn based, menu driven RPG. The controls really can't get very difficult or disorienting, once you get used to Enix's somewhat counterintuitive menu navigation system. That does cost it some, however.

Overall: 7.5 out of 10.

Sound: The Game Boy and Game Boy Color will never be known for their amazing sound capabilities. Enix did what it could with the limited technology, and produced music that matched the mood of the events. The sound effects aren't exactly good, but Enix only had so much to work with.

Overall, the sounds get a 6 out of 10.

Game Play: Normally, the Game play is the selling point of a Dragon Warrior/Quest game. Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 is the exception to that. It is tedious and frustrating, even by RPG standards. The battles are more like chores than anything, and quickly become dreadful. The story is hardly worth mentioning. The Monster Collection/Storage/Breeding system is frustrating. Most of the worlds one can travel to are generic, boring, and confusing. The dungeons remind me more of mazes than anything else.

In battle, you have control of one to three monsters (Obviously, the more the better). In most battles, you can give them orders to target a specific foe with a certain attack, or use a number of supporting spells. You can also use items or try to flee (always a bad idea). This form of battle isn't bad, but it is a bit slow paced. You can also order them to be aggressive, supporting, or a mix the two. This leaves the specific action up to the monster's personality, and the general order type influences the monster's personality. Normally, this isn't a problem. However, in the highly important tournament battles, you can not direct your monsters OR use items. While you can get through the lower levels with brute force, the more difficult tournament levels require a balanced team with personalities consistent with their roles. For those who don't plan ahead, it can downright frustrating. And without much warning, it's hard to realize that you have to plan ahead.

The story still should be mentioned, even if only to highlight its poor quality. Your mission, as the Monster Master of GreatLog, is to find a suitable plug for the hole that has sprung in GreatLog, causing it to sink. I'm not kidding. Outside of that, there's not really much to do. You have a rival with one of the most shallow personalities I've ever seen.

Like the original Dragon Warrior Monsters, monsters are recruited by enticing them with meat and then making the monster of choice the last to fall in battle. This can be infuriatingly unsuccessful early on, although the success rate gets better as you gain access to better meat. However, there is much work to be done between the capture of a monster and actually using it. Although your new pet likes you, it doesn't respect you. All wild monsters have a certain Wildness rating, which affects how likely they are to obey you. It can be reduced by bribing them with more meat. While realistic, this system just adds more tedium to an already tedious game. Once you capture a monster, you will likely send it back to your farm (or send a current party monster in its place). After a time, the farm gets full. However, the farm's capacity is far too low, and results in the dismissal of too many monsters, which you may need for breeding.

As for the breeding system, it too is frustrating. Getting the monsters you need is hard, but determining which ones you need is little more than dumb luck. Breeding a top level monster requires hours of finding the right monsters, training them, breeding them, and sometimes repeating the process multiple times. All in all, its not really worth the effort, because your shiny new god-monster still needs to be leveled up and have the right personality.

The monster worlds are accessed by approaching a gate with a Magic Key, and using it. The story worlds are fine, but the other worlds are not. They contain monsters of various families and degrees of strength, which are largely impossible to determine from the name of the key. The worlds are also very generic. They contain a castle/town, a 'mini-boss', a boss, and a dungeon. All of them.

The dungeons in Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 are more like mazes. Daedalus himself would be proud of some. There's really no direction or clear path for most of the dungeons, which leaves you walking around in circles.

Overall, the game play is tedious, frustrating, and confusing. It gets a mere 3 out of 10.

This game is probably hard to find these days.

Don't waste your time looking for it.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/06