Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure

"A very fun little game."

When I picked this game up I wasn’t sure what to expect. On the one hand, some people had been saying that it was a very fun game that surpassed the original. On the other hand, some people were saying that it was too much like the original and seemed like just a rehash. So how was it?

Gameplay: 9

As far as I’m concerned a game is made or broken by how fun and/or addicting its gameplay is. This game shines very brightly in this area. Monster breeding works much the same as it did in the first game; you go to the Starry Shrine to pair monsters level ten or over with each other to make a new, stronger monster. This time you can see what monster will result as you scroll through the list of your monsters when you’re choosing your second one, an additional feature that I found very helpful. Like before, the new monster will have a plus sign followed by a number after its name, which gives you a rough figure of how strong it’ll be. Once again, any monster can be raised to learn any skill in the game, giving you an insane amount of customization.

Next is how the game worlds work. No longer will you be entering traveler’s gates that lead to randomly generated dungeon-areas; instead you will get a combination of both story worlds, which are always the same and are central to the game’s plot, and unidentified key worlds that randomly generate a world map and a few dungeons and towns. The story worlds do well to distinguish this game from the first one; they make this game feel a bit more like the main series Dragon Warrior games. The randomly generated worlds are great for finding exotic monster types and for finding rare items. Although sometimes finding a world you need can be quite a hassle, but once you do it is worth it.

Graphics: 7

These are not bad for the Gameboy Color, although they aren’t astounding either. The abilities do have their own unique animations, and each monster has its own sprite, which is quite an accomplishment. However, after playing Dragon Warrior III I was spoiled somewhat by that games monster animations and very detailed town and dungeon graphics. Still though, Dragon Warrior Monsters II does do well in this area, and with so many monsters it’s not too surprising that they were unable to work in monster animations in battle. Also, I suppose the creators decided that it was worth sacrificing some graphical ability in order to make this game compatible with the original Gameboy. Decent, but nothing special.

Music: 9

In one word: catchy. This music is great for a portable game, but then again the quality of Dragon Warrior music never seems to fail to impress me. There are a variety of overworld themes for the various magic key worlds you will be going to, and each one sets a different mood. The music in the town of Great Log is nice, and the dungeon music is done well too. Perhaps best of all, the Starry Shrine theme from the first game has made its way back into this one, which is a very catchy tune.

Story: 7

Not very deep or anything, but then again a game like this doesn’t really need a deep story. Basically you are a young girl named Tara whose family is moving to Great Log to set up a monster farm. Once you get there you and your brother will run into Warabou, a plant spirit, and Prince Kameha. Trouble ensues, and young Tara ends up having to go on a mission to find an item that will save Great Log from disaster. The story is definitely stronger overall than the first game thanks to having set story worlds. Not a game to play just for the story, but no one should really be playing this sub-genre of role-playing games just for the story in the first place. It gets the job done, and that’s what is important.

Overall: 8

The only thing little about this game is the cartridge; if you want to breed a great team like I wanted to then you are going to end up putting fifty, sixty, or even more hours into it. There are also a variety of multiplayer options, so if you know anyone else who has this game there are a lot of other things that you will be able to do with this game. Overall a very fun game, with a ton of stuff to do; the flaws in this game aren’t very important, and they shouldn’t be enough to make anyone not like this game. It was a very hard decision between an eight or a nine for this game; in the end I decided to balance the different areas of the game equally and give it an eight. Even though I would weight gameplay more heavily than the rest of the aspects, someone reading this review might not agree that that is the most important thing, so I wanted to give a review balanced towards all tastes.

This game is different enough from the first one to be worth the look even if you’re someone who put a lot of hours into the first one; the hordes of new monsters(including an all new water family) as well as the magic key worlds are worth checking out. I say buy it if you are a fan of either monster collecting games or Dragon Warrior games. It only costs thirty bucks and very few places rent out Gameboy Color games in the first place, so you really don’t have much to lose.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/21/02, Updated 04/21/02