Dragon Quest Monsters

Spinoff games Dragon Quest Monsters File:DQM.jpg Developer(s) TOSE Publisher(s) ^JP Enix
^NA Enix/Eidos Interactive
Designer(s) Yuji Horii Series Dragon Quest Monsters Platform(s) Game Boy Color, mobile phones Release date(s) ^JP September 25, 1998
^NA December 31, 1999
^EU 1999
Genre(s) Console role-playing game Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer Rating(s) ELSPA: 3+
ESRB: E (Everyone)
Media 16 megabit Game Boy Color cartridge, backwards compatible with Game Boy

Dragon Quest Monsters (Dragon Warrior Monsters when brought to the states) is a spinoff game in the Dragon Quest series.

Whereas most game in the series focus on the adventures of a Hero rising up against the forces of darkness, DWM is the much smaller-scale story of a little boy and girl, Terry and Milayou, the heroes of Dragon Quest VI, when they were just small children. It opens with Milayou's kidnapping by an evil creature called Warubou, after which another called Watabou appears, explains the situation, and starts Terry off on his quest to rescue his sister.

DWM took the monster-recruitment elements of Dragon Quest V and expanded upon them, also borrowing a few mechanics from the Pokemon series, setting the standards for what would become the "Dragon Quest Monsters series." The basic concept is that Terry, as a young boy still too weak to fight for himself, must enlist the help of various creatures to act in his stead. Collected monsters level up and grow like a character in a main-series Dragon Quest game might. As he progresses, he is able to add more and stronger monsters to his collection, which stands in for usual Dragon Quest power escalation elements such as steadily strengthening spells.

It generally makes quite good use of DQ staples already in place, such as character growth through battling, Travel Gates, the Monster Arena, Tiny Medals, and general progression.

Breeding is one of the game's most complicated and involving aspects, and one of the player's primary motivations for continuing to play even after having seen the ending.

Story

In the days before Dragon Quest VI, when Terry and Milayou were just children, a strange monster appeared one night and snatched Milayou away. Soon after, another monster, similar to the kidnapper, appeared and told Terry his sister was kidnapped by the evil Warubou. He informs Terry that his name is Watabou and must accompany him to the Kingdom of GreatTree. After his arrival, Terry met the King and received Slib the slime, his first monster to train. If Terry wins the Monster Trainer's Starry Night Tournament, he will be granted a wish. So Terry sets out with his team to explore the many monster dungeons to win the tournament and rescue his sister.

Gameplay

Breeding

After beating Class F in the Arena, the player can breed monsters if they are at level 10 or above at the Shrine of Starry Night, which is taken care of by the current Master Monster Tamer. Breeding requires one male and one female monster. The result of the breeding will be an egg, containing a level 1 monster which has characteristics of both parents, including skills and stats. The egg can then be left in the monster farm or hatched, which costs a small fee. The monster born will have a plus number next to it, the number generally signifying the greatness of the monster's stats, the higher being the better. It costs more money to hatch a monster with a higher plus number than one with no plus number. Also, the number beside the plus multiplied by two is added to the limit for the maximum level for the monster.

Genders

Once the Egg Evaluator is available for use, eggs can have the gender of the monster they're containing checked and changed. Both requires a small fee which is paid to the Egg Evaluator. The fee increases depending on the monster's plus number.

Monster Farm

A storage place for your monsters, where they can be picked up or dropped off. There is an option to put monsters at the farm to sleep, which allows them to maintain their wilderness level but not grow in level. There can be 19 awake and 19 asleep monsters at any one time.

Leveling up

Just like in most RPGs, monsters are able to gain EXP (Experience Points) and level up. Each monsters' requirements for EXP to level up varies, depending on their plus number or even what monster family they belong to. When they level up, they gain stats and sometimes skills. All monsters can carry a maximum of eight skills; if a monster can gain more than eight skills you have the option of replacing old skills with new ones.

Teleportals

The player moves around to other worlds through warp gates, called teleportals in-game, which are located underneath the throne room. To access these gates, the player needs to defeat a class ranking. There are a certain number of areas in a world and at the last one, the player needs to defeat a boss. Other gates are hidden throughout Great Tree, such as one in the library that is only accessible after befriending over 100 different monsters.

Bosses

Players of other games in the Dragon Warrior series will recognize many of the bosses and boss levels. Examples include the Golem guarding the town of Mercado and the Dragon holding Princess Lora captive (both from the original Dragon Warrior). Some bosses in the game offer to join the player's party automatically, some have to be won over with meat, and some will not join at all.

Arena Battles

In this game the player goes through ranks that consists of three different battles that must be won before the player can advance to the next ranking. Each rank provides harder challenges: the higher the rank, the harder the monsters. The battles you able to start at are from Rank G and go to Rank D and later in the game you are able to go from Rank C to Rank A and then Rank S. These battles open up gates for the character to explore and are necessary to progress through the story.

Tiny Medals

These medals are scattered throughout different worlds and are randomly picked up. In the game, there is a man who collects these medals and will give certain items for how many the player gives to him.

Foreign Masters

While in other worlds, the player can encounter other trainers that they can battle with. There are different types that will give or do something for the player if they beat them:

Priest - Will heal the player

Bard - Will give the player medicine that will raise the monsters' weakest stats.

Merchant - Will give the player assorted items (such as Sirloins)

Soldier - Will give the player random items

Wizard - Will transport the player to the last portal in the gate, or twenty levels down if the gate is more then 20 levels

Traveler - Will give the player two random items, just like the soldier