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Dragon Quest Monsters

Dragon Quest Monsters is a spin-off series of the Dragon Quest games. Primarily developed by Tose and published by Square Enix, it sets the player in a medieval/fantasy world filled with magic, monsters, and knights. Unlike the original Dragon Quest games, the player's character does not do any of the fighting in battles; the player must instead rely on capturing, breeding, and raising monsters to do the fighting for them. The concept originated from Dragon Quest V (1992). The character and monster designs are by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. The series spans several handheld gaming systems, and each game has received positive reviews from critics. The series' gameplay has been compared to Pokémon.

Games
Dragon Warrior Monsters, the first game in the series, was released for the Game Boy Color in 1998 and in North America and Europe in 2000. The Japanese version was titled Dragon Quest Monsters. It was released with Game Boy Color compatibility despite coming to market before the console itself, but the cartridge was backward-compatible with the original Game Boy as well. Its sequel, Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, was also a cross-system Game Boy Color title. It released in Japan and North America in 2001. There are two versions of Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: ''Cobi's Journey and Tara's Adventure, titled after the playable character of each version. In Japan, these were named Ruka’s Journey and Iru's Adventure, respectively. Each version features slight differences, such as monster appearances. Both Dragon Warrior Monsters and Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 were developed by Tose and published by Enix. Dragon Quest Monsters 1+2, a remake of these two games with updated graphics and interface, was released in 2002 in Japan for the PlayStation. The game is compatible with the i-Mode adapter for the PlayStation, allowing players to upload monsters to the i-Mode cellular phone version, Dragon Quest Monsters i. The two games were remade on the Japanese Nintendo 3DS in 2012 (as Terry's Wonderland 3D) and 2014 (as Iru and Luca's Marvelous Mysterious Key), respectively. The first remade game was ported to smartphones in 2018 for the Japanese market as Terry's Wonderland SP. Finally, the first game was ported to the Nintendo Switch and smartphones in 2019 for the Japanese market as Terry's Wonderland Retro''. Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart is the third game in the series, released in Japan in 2003 for the Game Boy Advance. Developed by Tose, the game was the last Dragon Quest game Enix published before merging with Square. It features Keifer, a prince from Dragon Warrior VII. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker, for the Nintendo DS, was released in Japan in 2006 and was the first in the series to feature 3D graphics. It was brought to North America the next year, and was released in Europe (as well as Australia) in 2008, making it the second game in the series to do so. Initially revealed through the publication Shonen Jump, the game is set around a tournament referred to as the Joker GP. It also features Wi-Fi multiplayer play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service and full 3D movement and battles. Unlike the other games in the series, this game has no random battles. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 was released in Japan on April 28, 2010, and in the United States on September 19, 2011, as revealed at E3 2011. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 was only released in Japan on March 24, 2016. Two cell phone games, Dragon Quest Monsters: Wanted! and Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light, were released in Japan. On December 1, 2023, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince was released for the Nintendo Switch. Tose returned to develop the game. ==Gameplay==
Gameplay
Although each of the games have distinct differences, they all have similar gameplay to the main Dragon Quest series. Players control the main character, but, unlike in Dragon Quest, the main character does not fight. Breeding Breeding monsters has been a large part of the series and is often cited as one of the series' highlights, in part due to being able to create monsters that cannot otherwise be obtained. In the first two games, the player was able to breed two monsters together and create a different monster, usually a combination of its two parents. The parent monsters would disappear after breeding. Caravan Heart changed the system, instead using Monster Hearts to create new monsters. Joker returned to the first system, although the name was changed to Synthesizing. Instead of breeding a male with a female monster, the player must fuse a Plus monster with an Minus monster. However, in the original Japanese version of the game, it remains as normal breeding of genders. ==Reception==
Reception
Each of the games in the Dragon Quest Monsters series has been met with praise by critics. Each game has sold well in Japan. US releases for the first two games brought on comparisons to the Pokémon franchise, another monster-collecting RPG. Each of the games in the series has sold well, particularly in Japan, where the Dragon Quest series has gained immense popularity. In Japan, Dragon Warrior Monsters sold 2.35 million copies. The North American version sold 60,000 copies by April 2000.Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 has sold 1,592,728 copies in Japan. Caravan Heart was a top-seller during the time of its release, with over 538,000 units sold within three months of its release and 593,000 units sold to date. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker sold 593,994 units in the first four days after release in Japan. To date, it has sold over 1.9 million units worldwide. ==Notes==
Source: Wikipedia ↗
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