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Dragon Quest Monsters (Japanese: ドラゴンクエストモンスターズ) is a monster breeding video game series based on the Dragon Quest universe made by Enix Corporation now d.b.a. Square Enix. In North America, Dragon Quest Monsters is known as Dragon Warrior Monsters.
The gameplaying mechanics are similar to another popular video game series, Pokémon; however, Dragon Quest has had monster catching elements since the Famicom game Dragon Quest IV. As of 2004, there are four Dragon Quest Monsters titles, three for Game Boy Color and one for Game Boy Advance. One important element to the Dragon Quest Monsters series that makes it different from Pokémon is Dragon Quest Monster's extensive breeding system. In Dragon Quest Monsters, you can take 2 monsters of opposite genders and breed them together, no matter what the species. For example, breeding a Slime with a Golem will result in a Rockslime, with powers and abilities from both Parents. The results are a very large amount of new monsters, most from other Dragon Quest games but others exclusively created for the DQM games by Akira Toriyama.
The only difference between Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru no Bouken and Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Ruka no Tabadachi are the different types of monsters that your hero or heroine can obtain -- Iru's (the male character) game contains more direct damage based monsters, while Ruka's (the female character, Iru's sister) game contains more support type monsters, such as Healers and monsters that do status effects.
Dragon Quest Monsters 3: Caravan Heart diverts from the series slightly. In Dragon Quest Monsters 3, you get both monsters and human people to join your party, which is much larger than the previous games. It also takes place in the Roto trilogy's universe, several hundred years before the events of Dragon Quest 1 - 3. Other differences include a supply system that requires your caravan make frequent stops to pick up supplies and the aformentioned combination of both monsters and human team members. One final, very large difference is the removal of the breeding system. Instead, when defeating monsters in Dragon Quest Monsters 3, you occasionally gain "monster hearts", which also made an appearance in Dragon Quest VII. Using 1 or 2 Monster Hearts, you can merge your monster into a newer monster form, similar to Persona's system. This allows 3 "parents" for young monsters in Dragon Quest Monsters 3, and increases exponentially the number of breeding comments. Caravan Heart is the prequel of the PSOne game, Dragon Quest VII.
In 2002, Enix Corporation made a PSOne port of the first two Dragon Quest Monsters games in Japan. The PSOne port of the first two Dragon Quest Monsters games and Dragon Quest Monsters 3 are not confirmed for the United States, although the translation of Dragon Quest Monsters 3 is still a possibility.
Game titles
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland for Game Boy Color (1998) (Renamed Dragon Warrior Monsters in the United States)
- Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru no Bouken for Game Boy Color (2001) (Renamed Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey in the US)
- Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Ruka no Tabidachi for Game Boy Color (2001) (Renamed Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure in the US)
- Dragon Quest Monsters I & II for PSOne (2002) (Not released in the United States)
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart for Game Boy Advance (2003) (Not released in the United States, anticipated release date late 2004)
External links
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