Dragon Warrior Monsters

"A Better Game Than Pokemon!"

Control: 10/10
Anyone who has played an RPG before will immediately be used to the controls here. And if you haven't, then they are easy to learn. Walk around, talk to people by pressing A. By going to your menu, you can look at the stats of your party. In battle, the combat is all turn based, and uses menus.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are really nice. The characters are well detailed, and, if you are playing on a GBC, the colors also look good. The spell animation is also a nice touch, and should please your eye. And of course the monsters, as usual, are drawn by Akira Toriyama, and all are well made and look pretty cool.

Music & Sound: 10/10
The music is excellent in this game. If you've played any other Dragon Warrior game, you'll immediately recognize a good number of the tunes, including the famous Dragon Warrior Main Theme. Even if you haven't, then you will most likely enjoy the songs immensely. There are a great deal of different songs throughout the game.
The sound effects are nice as well. They include some that have been in every Dragon Warrior game so far, and they still sound decent. The spells sound like you would expect them to, Blaze sounding like a fireball, White Air sounding like a rush of icy wind, etc. It was great when they put in the music including on the last floor before you fight the boss in each gate.

Story: 10/10
As with most of the monster catching games, the main draw is the gameplay, not the story, but even this is done fairly decently in this game. The game takes place a time before Dragon Quest 6 (which, unfortunately, was never released in America). Two of the characters from that game, Terry and his older sister Mileyu, are small children, peacefully sleeping. Suddenly, a strange creature named Warubou appears, snatching Mileyu and disappearing with her. Shortly after, an almost identical monster named Watabou appears, and offers to take Terry to his kingdom to look for his sister. Once there, Terry is given the task to become a Monster Master, and represent the Kingdom of Great Tree in the upcoming Starry Night tournament. The winner of this tournament is granted a wish, and it seems like the only way to rescue Milayu! You control Terry as he tries to fulfill his goal of becoming the strongest Monster Master.

Game play: 10/10
This game is very fun, and very addicting. If you've ever played Pokemon, you know just how addicting this game is. In your quest, you journey through many different ''Traveler's Gates''. These lead to different lands, and different monsters can be found in each one. In addition, each one has a boss. The great feature of these gates is the fact that the land inside is randomly generated each time you enter. That means that every time you want to return to a gate, you will have to re-explore it, often finding new treasures along the way.

You catch monsters in this game by feeding them pieces of meat, the better and more meat you give a monster, the more chance you have for it to join you. However, catching is not the only way to get new monsters. The main focus of the game is breeding. Any two monsters of the opposite sex can be bred to create a new monster. Once two monsters mate, they leave your group permanently. However, the new monster that was born will be able to learn the skills and obtain the powers that both parents had. In addition, the strongest and rarest monsters can only be found through breeding. There are dozens of different monster combinations, so its always fun breeding to see what you get.

After making your party sufficiently strong enough, you may choose to fight in the coliseum. In the coliseum, you are pitted against other groups of monsters. Unfortunately, you do not have direct control over your team. This is where personalities come in. Each monster has its own personality. These can be changed either by reading expensive books, or constantly giving your monster certain commands. The personality of your monster determines what actions they will take when not being directly controlled by you. If you are able to win at the coliseum, your reward is the appearance of new Traveler's Gates, which means more areas to explore, and new monsters to catch.

Aside from being a great monster catching game, this game will also appeal to fans of the Dragon Warrior series. People who have played other games in the series will no doubt recognize many of the monsters in the game. In addition, there are many in jokes in different parts of the game. Many of the boss fights, for example, are taken from situations from the other DW games. No doubt DW players will recognize battling a Golem guarding a city, or fighting the 5-headed Orochi.

Replay: High
This is one of those games that you never get bored of. Even after you beat the game, its not over! New secrets and areas only become available after beating it. This insures the fact that you won't stop playing as soon as you beat it. In addition, if any of your friends also own the game, you will have the added incentive of making your party stronger than theirs. Like Pokemon, you can battle your friends team via a link cable but winning the battle you can keep one of their best monsters. Trying to breed and raise the strongest monsters available is just so addicting, you will be playing this one for a long time.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/14/03, Updated 07/14/03