Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3
Developer(s)	TOSE
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Designer(s)	Yuji Horii
Artist(s)	Akira Toriyama
Composer(s)	Kōichi Sugiyama
Series	Dragon Quest Monsters
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	JP March 24, 2016; JP February 9th, 2017;
Genre(s)	Console role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 (ドラゴンクエストモンスターズジョーカー3) is a 2016 Nintendo 3DS console role-playing game published by Square Enix in Japan. As of now, the game has not been localized for the west. It is the sequel to 2010's Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2.

Like with Joker 2, a revamped version of the game titled Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 Professional was released on February 7th, 2017 in Japan with new monsters and characters returning from the first two games in the series.

Story[edit]

The silver-haired protagonist is on a journey to recover his lost memories, while trying to figure out where a new, dark breed of monsters has originated.

New Features & system alterations[edit]

BREAK Monsters are introduced. They have a dark crystalline appearance to them. They are stated to be "mysterious evil versions of monsters".
The context of monster synthesis has been altered from breeding monsters to raise new offspring to fusing monsters directly, and thus monster polarity has been abolished.
The monster families groupings have been reorganized so that all pallet-swap monsters are within the same family.
The element system has been overhauled, with Frizz spells and Flame Breath attacks being merged into a single Fire element along with the same for Crack spells and Chilly Breath for an Ice element, similar to the mainline series post-Dragon Quest IX. Similarly all debuff spells have been grouped together into a single Debilitation element. As a result the Ultra Crafty traits have been reorganized as well, such as Frizz and Fire Breath's separate penetrating traits being merged into Ultra Crafty Frizzer.

The Sizz spells have been wholly separated from the Fire element to be the new Light element spells.

In battle, there is a new "Strategy" command available. Selecting this command offers six different options, such as "Accumulate Tension" or "Use Special Skills". If Tension is accumulated, the attack will be more powerful, and the Scout Gauge will rise more easily.
The weapons system has been abolished and replaced with accessories that raise stats or give additional traits. By handing over materials like shrubs and ores to the accessory shop, accessories are created that offer various effects. Each accessory can have a maximum of three effects.
The Monster Wrangler can now ride around on several different kinds of monsters, using them for transportation.

On-screen encounters now take the relationship of monster families in to account, with the prey species of a given family now fleeing if the player is riding a member of that family.