DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince Reviews

Game can be summed up in 2 words: Minimal effort Assets, music, sound effects are all from PS2 era games of the same IP. (or older) You are scaled to incredibly tiny levels to make the environment seem bigger... 3 inch baseboard is more than waist high. Huge, unintersting maps. Tons of creatures to collect... that are all very samey. "Plot", and I use that term very loosely, make no sense, and is exceedingly weak. Your dialog choices are always ignored. "No, I don't want you to fundamentally change who I am by removing my monster heritage" "So you are going to wake up a great evil destroy the world? I must kill you now!" WTF... how the F'k did you get from "No, leave me be" to "destroy the planet"? The side characters are dumb AF and make no sense why the MC would allow them anywhere near him. Incredibly grindy. Captured monsters are dramatically weaker than raised ones. Raised ones get half the skill points of each parent... which means each parent needs to be leveled a lot for optimal skill points for the new creation... that has the be leveled from 1... repeat 541 times. Joyless cashgrab.

Pretty great game! And highly recommend if you want to get into the Monsters franchise. I'm somewhat new to Dragon Quest but I did play Joker & Joker 2 before this one and it is MILES better than those two due to how expansive the fusion system is and less busy the menus are when it comes to fusion (no scepters or plus/minus monsters). Gameplay can also be sped up to a faster pace too. Story is fine but definietly play Dragon Quest IV before playing this game since its kind of a prequel/midquel to that game.

Fun, but undercooked. Not really much of an endgame to talk about. I recommend it, but only on a sale and if you're REALLY itching for DQM gameplay (but a weak story).

A lot of fun if you love DQ and have played DQ4, but still really feels/looks/performs like a switch game. Torneko shows up for a second so I have no choice but to recommend it though.

As of writing I have finished all content in the game, with the exception of 100%'ing the monsterpedia. My playtime is around 50 hours. I really can't recommend this unless you adore dragon quest or the dqm series. The games performance and graphical fidelity are poor, and the paper-thin story and lifeless way it's presented only highlight this fact. The battle and creature collecting gameplay is fun, but the difficulty spikes a bit artificially towards the late game unless you grind, especially the superbosses. The soundtrack is also repetitive, with only a handful of battle themes, none of which are memorable. This isn't the worst game I've played, but it's probably not worth your time unless you're a die-hard dragon quest enjoye4. It would have kicked ass on the 3DS a decade ago, though

super fun and a decent story

always loved the dqm joker series and the gameplay here is similar, but the storyline is genuinely hard to suffer through and the elf girl is by far the worst character in any media i've ever encountered. even though the synthesis mechanic is as fun as it ever was in the old games, any enjoy-ability the game has is ruined by having to interact with the awful story and characters.

The only depth this game has is within the synthesis system. It was interesting figuring out how to create better monsters and transferring skills but ultimately you will just be looking this up as there isn't incentive to experiment. The battle system could be more but it quickly turns into an auto-battler and grinding / hunting metals is a time sink. I wont even really touch on the story because it's just barely there - which would be fine if the remainder of the game play was more engaging. In the end, it couldve been a better game all around but I did find myself beating it and getting 100%.

Fun game. I hate Rose. Shes annoying. Don't really care for Tolkien either. Still worth playing.

Let me start this by saying I love the gameplay. That is why this is getting a positive rating. The story however is... rather weak. For all you Dragon Quest Monster players, you know what you're in for if you've played Joker or Joker 2. You capture monsters and synthesize them to make new ones. Your monsters have skills that carry over between synthesis, but they also have talents unique to their type. Stats increase the higher you go and you can scout new ones as you go along. What is new is that they've gotten rid of genders. You no long have a male and female monster making an egg and running off. Instead, you are pretty much fusing two monsters together to create a new one. The Steam version runs a lot better then the Switch, or so I hear. It also comes with a few dlc preinstalled that you had to purchase on the Switch, and which makes the game a little easier and adds some interesting mechanics. Now for the story. This games rehashes the story of Dragon Quest 4's Antagonist, Psaro the Manslayer. Though, you are allowed to rename them if you like. You are a half human, half monster, cursed by your father with never being able to hurt a monster. So, in order to fight back, you become a monster tamer. Training monsters to fight for you. of course, due to how you were treated by humans, you hate them too. And wish to end them. You meet Rose, an elf who cries ruby tears. And is probably one of the weakest parts of the story. Now for the bad... the game doesn't know if it wants to be happy go lucky or sad. Rose is your moral compass. begging you to give up your hunt for humans... At times. Then you enter a new area and she's happy go lucky and wanting to explore everything, refusing to leave your side. Also, the game is very much 'but thou must'. it gives an illusion of choice, at times asking you a yes or no question. But no matter what you pick, the game proceeds the same, and you are sometimes even criticized for choosing the 'wrong' choice.