Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Review

gameinformer.com:

Dragon Quest possesses so much history that any new game carries a degree of raised expectation. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince delivers many of the conventions I’ve come to expect from the series: the vibrant opening song, the charismatic Slime, and the emotional storytelling I already associate with the franchise. But this game goes beyond those well-treaded territories, offering an intelligent and elegant yet simple approach to combat and dungeon design that makes it a solid spin-off experience.

In The Dark Prince, you play as Psaro, a half-human, half-monster boy who becomes a powerful monster wrangler because of a curse that makes fighting them with his own hands impossible. Wrangling is all about capturing monsters and controlling them during turn-based battles. As I progressed throughout the boy’s journey, I found stronger creatures to add to my roster. The game also has an online mode that lets you fight other players, which is a good way to test different group compositions. In my case, it took so long to find a match that my time was better spent adventuring solo.

Synthesizing new monsters by fusing two parent creatures is the best method to obtain a better team, and this system makes all your effort in previously maximizing weaker monsters worth it. Whenever you create a new monster, it’s possible to keep some of the skill points spent in the creatures you’re fusing. Through this system, I crafted some extremely powerful monsters, surpassing their regular versions found in the wild. This system pushes you towards excessive grinding, though. Whenever you fuse a new creature, it comes at level 1, regardless of its parents' levels. In the final sections of the game, fusing a new monster at the wrong