So funny enough I picked up this game because a Tik Tok creator that I follow said this would be a rare Switch game...yet every Gamestop I go into has a ton of copies smh. But regardless of that, I have become a recent Dragon Quest fan and wanted to give this game a shot. I mean, a monster collecting game where you play as the antagonist from DQ4?? Sign me up. But honestly the grind and the repetitiveness has gotten so significant for me that I just can't bring myself to play too much more, even if the core gameplay is pretty good.

The story and characters are interesting, especially because your character, Psaro, has such interesting motivations. Different story beats take a left turn due to your character's more evil nature, which makes things super interesting. The combat is also pretty fun, even if it can sometimes feel like you're on autopilot a lot of the time. Synthesizing and fusing monsters is also a lot of fun, though a bit confusing to get the hang of at times.

Its just...damn the grind. Everything about this game tests your patience. The performance is pretty poor, which is baffling as the game is just okay looking and there isn't a lot going on that would normally affect the performance, especially on Switch. The story is so repetitive and honestly uninteresting aside from the left turns it takes occasionally. Go to this circle of Nadiria, solve the problem, rise and repeat. Maybe throw in some colosseum battles here and there too. It just feels like a slog.

Getting good monsters is also a grind. Especially because there will be random difficulty spikes that come out of nowhere. The game does not like giving you good monsters by default, you HAVE to synthesize in order to stand a chance. But then the synthesized monster starts at level 1, which means more grinding is needed in order to get it up to snuff with where you're at in the game. It just frustrates me more than anything, especially these days where my time is more limited.

All-in-all, DQ Monsters The Dark Prince is a solid game at its core, and one that I legit have had fun with. I'm just at the point where the grind and repetitiveness has taken its toll and I need a break. I don't think the game is going to change much in terms of the core mechanics and issues I have with it, so I'm comfortable giving it a final score.

Just to get the stuff many others have said out of the way: Yes the graphics are dated. Yes the performance tanks from time to time (althouh I never experienced any crashes or major stuttering in my playthrough). Yes the story is basic. So why do I give it 4 stars? Simple: It's fun. Very fun.

The monsters' design is as good as ever, the designs of the different worlds is great, with some notable standouts (Hello Circle of Indulgence), and the raising of monsters is very addictive, with so many little things you can always work towards. If you like monster collecting games, this bad boy will suck you right in.

It's probably going to be a long time before I actually finish this game, and this is one of the few instances where that's a good thing in a game. This game is exactly what I wanted it to be, a new excuse to pour hundreds of hours into fusing monsters, and this time I get to fuck around with the DQIV canon, which is my favorite DQ game. The fact that they pulled TOSE out for this is awesome, and having played through the original DQM again not too long ago, you can still feel their influence here.

That is to say that not much has changed, and I'm thankful for that, the formula was already so addictive and fun, all it needed were a few QoL and gimmicks to pull me in. I'm over 30 hours in, and I just became the Manslayer, that just shows where my focus is. I want to collect all of the monsters, and get the best traits for my favorites, that can take a really long time, to some people that will be a major downside. But for me, that's the whole point of these monster RPGs, the grind that comes with team building is so cozy to me. I can shut my brain off after a long day, turn on a podcast, and spend 5 hours building up my Fat Fuck Slime (L). If Pokemon was about the story, then people would treat it with the same reverence that they do with Telefang or some other generic monster RPG.

It's about spending time with the weird fucked-up little guys, and Dragon Quest is FULL of charming little fellas. But if they aren't enough to keep your interest, then this game (and this entire genre tbh) isn't gonna be for you.

definitely seems more aimed at fans of dq4 than people who have liked the previous monsters entries. the plot is threadbare and half-delivered under the assumption that you're already familiar with dq4's plot, and the general progression of the game (as well as (jarringly) all the models, most of the textures, and apparently the renderer) is inherited wholesale from dqmj3 - it's the same enter area -> go to village -> beat up a guy formula. besides staying at 4 slots after jokers 3 bumped us up, monsters' resistances and traits as well as skill trees themselves have been largely homogenized, and we've changed from specific monster sizes to all monsters having a size stat that determines whether they take up 1 or 2 slots (which does mean no more max-slot monsters, yes). and we've lost the rainbow fondude already, and growths are lower so you have to grind seeds to hit stat caps, and there's egg rng, and other changes i mentioned mean that status spamming is strong in pvp (boring), and all the extra budget has gone to voice acting and none to visually differentiating this from the ds titles... while i really love the basic formula behind the dqm games, of them this has been the hardest for me to get through even including the game boy color titles and it's definitely less competitively interesting than any of the joker titles. i'm a bit disappointed

That was the first DQM I've played.
The monster collection of this game is different from other series, like Pokémon for example, as they are more about fusing them instead of capturing, you still can capture them, but the stronger monsters are obtained in fusion (synthese).
The combat aspect of the game is weird you can give them commands, but the game basically wants you to just let them fight, this is better seeing in the arenas, where you literally just set a role for each of your monsters then pray for them to not spam normal attacks, and also in some tougher fights, as they tend to heal and buff in better timing than commanded before the enemy moves. You can trust your monsters for the great majority of the game.
The story is meh but is not bad... something this game does that really is bad, is the "illusion of choice", there are times the protagonist do some choices invalidating the ones you make. Other things intervein and all result in the same outcome... it doesn't matter what you choose the game will do what it wants, you are not rewarded or punished in any way. I know that one is a classic in DQ games but it's specially annoying in this one, for the nature of the protagonist is different.
The soundtrack is classic DQ stuff, although there are some I did not heard before. But great as always.

And for the character design is where I say that, this was the main reason I've played this game... there is a reason why everything graphically related in this game sucks except the characters and monsters... only a legend could make such remarkable and amazing art. Seeing all those familiar creatures and characters, love their designs... that was my homage and my way to remember his work legacy, that is the way he will keep living through our memories, the inspiration and the will to create was already flourished in us fans, and will keep inspiring the new generations.

Thank You and rest in Peace, Akira Toriyama.

Man... I wanted to like this. I really tried. I even played through all of DQ4 shortly before so I'd be able to understand all the little plot references, and... it didn't actually help me any, because the only link between this and DQ4 was awkward plot contrivances. I don't know, maybe it's on me for expecting coherent storytelling from a DQM game. I haven't played the previous entries, maybe it's just not something these spinoffs Do.

Even going off that assumption, though, there was just nothing right with the writing in that one. Toilen could have been a fun character, but pretty much only existed to take part in some contrived, unearned character beats. Rose was about as passive all throughout as her DQ4 incarnation, despite accompanying Psaro on his adventures. As for Psaro... him being a silent protagonist really hurt his characterization, and it really felt like anything he did was only because he had to in order for DQ4 to happen. One of his conversations with the Zenith Dragon was especially egregious. Maybe "I don't want to renounce my monster blood" means "I want to kill all humans" in the dragon language, I don't know. I know the game is technically an AU, but it feels like the writers weren't sure how much they should deviate from the original plot, other than making sure someone else did the worst of Psaro's war crimes so he could still be a sympathetic protagonist. Sadly, that fell flat for me since DQM3 Psaro wasn't enough of a character to elicit any feelings, be it sympathy or otherwise.

The villains... existed, I guess. I kind of wish the game had delved deeper into Psaro's messed up family dynamics. I mean, it ostensibly is about that, but it's hard to take seriously when it seems to be entirely told through Psaro getting his own backstory exposited back at him by random monsters. I love me some Evil Women so Azabel conceptually appealed to me but she only really showed up in one flashback and one fight so... eh.

Moving on to the technical side, the game doesn't look great. Sometimes the art direction makes it work (I do like the color palette of the circles of conquest) but environments overall reminded me a lot of Rune Factory 5: too big, too empty, with too-low-res textures. To be perfectly honest, I don't need everything to be Ultra HD Now With 4K Sephiroth Skin Pores; my main issue here is that despite looking straight out of the WiiU era, the game just doesn't run well. I saw some improvement in the lower echelons after updating the game to the latest patch, but when I got to the upper echelons everything was back to looking like a slideshow. In all fairness, I haven't tried playing the game docked, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect it to run a little smoother than this in handheld mode.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the seasons gimmick. It was neat in theory, but in practice the places only reachable in a specific season were often just... empty. I think a lot of them were egg-spawning spots, but it's kind of a bummer when you get there and there's nothing. At least there's ways to cycle through seasons.

Oh, and there's day 1 DLC that should really have just been part of the game, because of course there is.

I've been overly negative, though, so I'd like to mention the things I did like. One big thing was, thankfully, the monsters! DQ as a game series is consistently full of delightful little guys. I don't know if the comments I've seen saying that the models were just ported from the 3ds entries are true, but despite the textures being a little blurry I really did like the animations and special effects, and this is coming from someone who tends to prefer spritework to 3d models. On the gameplay front, being able to make messed up little creatures was definitely a highlight, though I feel the exp scaling could have been a little more generous to make new monsters easier to catch up to speed. As it is, I made a cannonbrawler with bang virtuoso somewhere in the early mid game and never felt like it was worth swapping it out because it was coasting on its higher level all the way up to the final boss. A lot of these bosses are weak to explosions, huh?

I've also seen people complain about the voice acting, but I thought the actors were quite nice and competent, even if it felt a lot of characters shared VAs. I can live with that, though. I've played a lot of Bethesda games.

For some closing words, I'll say that I hope there's a next entry in the series, and that it's better than this. A franchise having low budget spinoffs is fine, but that one was just rough.

Juego loco pero falta la calandraca

Vale ahora una review seria

Potencialmente el mejor juego de DQM si no tienes en cuenta que la saga de spinoffs es tan grande que cuenta con sus propias cosas clásicas que en este juego han decidido quitar (monstruos que estaban en todos pero este no, algún lugar para farmear monstruos metalicos etc.).
De todas maneras, el juego es muy buena precuela/secuela de las cosas que pasan en el 4 y tiene un montón de mejoras de calidad de vida que le hacían falta al juego desde la primera entrega, el gameplay se siente mas nuevo que nunca y la síntesis no es tan genérica como en los otros juegos.

El medio punto meno es por los tirones de FPS cuando hay lluvia/tormenta/etc y porque es el tercer juego consecutivo que sacan en el que no meten ni una sola canción nueva y simplemente reciclan las que ya estaban en otros juegos.

Por lo general, muy buen punto de inicio en monsters incluso si no has jugado Dragon Quest 4 (aunque te puedes perder un poco en ese caso).

I would never have believed back in 2011 that DQM (Dragon Quest Monsters) was about to exit the United States for an astounding 12 years. How time flies...

Speaking of which, I remember playing Dragon Warrior Monsters 1 & 2 on GBC long before those memories of Joker 2. A novel twist on the classic Dragon Warrior RPG series, but certainly a shameless copy of Pokemon's template. And much to my joy and excitement, it brings and yet maintains its own strengths and novelties to the monster capturing sub-genre.

So here we are - decades later - and treated to a true sequel to Dragon Warrior Monsters 2. While it takes ideas and rules from the Joker series, it displays leanings and references to the originals as well. It combines into a well-rounded package that's a lot of fun to play.

Between monster families, talents, and traits, there are thousands of combinations of monster synergy to offer a limitless wealth of gameplay. That said, the game does not demand it, as it can be mastered with just a decent team - including the post-game. While it requires more strategy and planning than your typical Pokemon title, it still slightly disappoints in the late-game difficulty.

Besides that, the performance is not great. It's better than the recent Pokemon titles, but that's not saying much. Prepare to tough it out when environmental effects attack your poor frame rates. If you survive, you'll have a decently-sized adventure with cool monsters, fun dungeons, a crap story, and battles abound.

Dragon Quest 4 is my favorite DQ, it got me into the series, and while I haven't played much of the DQM games (I played a good chunk of the first one in anticipation), I had a feeling that the format of a Monsters game would take the wind out of the sails of the promise of a retelling DQ4 from Psaro's perspective... which it did. But that's okay, the game is fun fan fiction of DQ4 with lots of interesting wrinkles in the lore of Zenithia, and I did enjoy the fan service given, even if it was all a bit hamfisted. It helps that the core of the game is a satisfying, frictionless gameplay loop of ascending your roster of monsters to newer heights. Don't regret my time at all with this one, even if it wasn't quite what I wanted from the premise.