Vicious monsters

From Dragon Quest Wiki
A pair of vicious slimes from Dragon Quest XI.

Vicious monsters (強モンスター) are a recurring type of monster in the Dragon Quest series, introduced in Dragon Quest XI. They are stronger and more aggressive versions of the monsters that are faced early in the game, possessing higher attributes than their original counterparts and often having the ability to perform deadlier abilities and spells, as well.[1]Defeating them awards higher amounts of experience and gold, and they will occasionally drop better items, as well.

This is explained as the monsters being influenced by the power of a Demon Lord or another form of evil. Vicious monsters are usually distinguished visually from normal ones by their glowing red eyes and their bodies appearing darker.

Appearances[edit]

Dragon Quest X[edit]

Vicious monsters were retroactively added after the release of XI starting with Version 5.0 in the game's version of Nadiria, or the Dark World. Some vicious monsters are powerful enough to defeat even the highest level parties.

Dragon Quest XI[edit]

Vicious monsters begin appearing throughout the world of Erdrea during the second act of the game, when Mordegon acquires the power of the Luminary and destroys Yggdrasil. In 3D versions of the game, they can be recognized by their red eyes or in the case of some monsters without eyes, their mouths or bodies will glow red, as well. In the Nintendo 3DS version, the outlines of vicious monsters will glow red. However, in the 2D mode of the game, vicious monsters still look the same as their normal counterparts.

In the postgame, vicious monsters will appear inside of Drustan's Labyrinth instead as they can no longer be encountered throughout Erdrea. There are also many more monsters that receive vicious counterparts that can be faced. The vicious monsters originally encountered in the second act will have higher attributes when faced in the postgame and sometimes have even stronger attacks in their repertoire.

It is worth noting that if a player missed out on the bestiary entry of a regular version of an enemy, one can simply defeat their vicious or malicious version and they will automatically receive the entry of the normal version, too. This is due to the fact that certain monsters can no longer be encountered in their original locations as the story progresses. In this way, no monster entry is permanently missable.

See also[edit]

Gallery[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Merchant at the Emerald Coast: "Ever since the World Tree fell from the sky, things have gone from bad to worse. The monsters round here have got a lot nastier, for a start. Take just now—I was standing round minding my own business when this rabid, wild-eyed slime jumped out at me! I ran for it and ended up here. If you see any beasties with flaming red eyes, you'd best run for it too. They hit a lot harder than they used to."