Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 does it bigger and better

by: jackal27

If you have played previous Dragon Quest Monsters games, especially the original DQM: Joker, you should know what to expect here. The Dragon Quest Monsters series can best be described as Pokemon with... well... Dragon Quest monsters! There are some obvious differences though.

In Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, you play a young monster trainer who stows away a ship that is headed for a monster tournament, attempting to make his big breakthrough. However, the ship crashes on a remote island and you are tasked with seeking and saving it's passengers who are now scattered across the land. It's all very simple, but it gives the player a reason to explore some fun, exotic locations and capture all the monsters he possibly can. It is also much preferred over the original DQM:J story which simply whisked the player away to boring, tiny island after boring, tiny island.

Thought they share some similarities, don't write DQM off as a Pokemon clone, this is a strict JRPG. It is a are story-driven, stat-building affair. Battles progress in standard, turn-based fashion, and feel very Dragon Quest. You level your monsters up, assign skill points, and eventually fuse them with other monsters to create even stronger ones! On that subject, the fusion aspect of the game is enormous and there are literally hundreds of different monsters for you to create. Fusion is probably the best part DQM and you will find yourself spending almost as much time fusing monsters as you spend running around the game's world. However, once a monster has been fused, the new monster starts at level 1, so you know what that means... Grinding. And lots of it. However, grinding isn't necessarily an excruciating experience and fusion isn't required to play the game either.

Finally, we come to the game's graphics and music. From a technical standpoint, DQM:J2's graphics are gorgeous. However, from an aesthetic standpoint, they are rather boring. This is the same problem that DQM:J1 suffered from. However, DQM:J2's graphics are nowhere near as boring as it's predecessor. Still, while the monsters look great, the environments lack the detail and polish that you would expect from a JRPG. Also, much of the music is recycled from previous DQM games, which is rather disappointing.

Still, when all is said and done, Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 is a fantastic game that deserves your attention. There are also many other aspects that I don't have time to dive into right here and now such as multiplayer and tag mode.

No one has commented