A legendary franchise such as Dragon Quest is a prime target for spinoffs. There are a few subseries, but today we’re offering you a primer for the Dragon Quest Monsters spinoffs! Dragon Quest Monsters is celebrating its 25th anniversary as well, just in time for the recent release of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, the third entry in the DQM subseries. Learn some of the history of these games to enlighten yourself!
The main difference between Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest Monsters is that the DQM games focus on taming and raising monsters for your party. The main characters do not engage in battles themselves in these titles. This idea’s roots come from a monster-taming mechanic that started in Dragon Quest V! The Monsters games also add on to existing flagship Dragon Quest titles, allowing fans to further explore the settings and characters of their favorite entries!
Dragon Quest Monsters 1+2
It all has to start somewhere, right? This is the first entry in the DQM series, available on Gameboy and Gameboy Color. When released outside of Japan, the game was titled Dragon Warrior Monsters in order to avoid copyright issues.
The game takes place before Dragon Quest VI, as the protagonists are Terry and Milly when they were kids! The battles play out in the typical Dragon Quest fashion, however, the in-depth breeding system sets it apart from other monster-raising RPGs! You can breed better monsters by taking a level 10 male and female monster. This creates monsters with better stats and larger ability pools.
Dragon Quest Monsters 2 introduced two versions of the game, sporting unique protagonists and monsters depending on the version you chose! The breeding and capture mechanics remain. However, there are set-in-stone dungeons with unique objectives compared to the prior game’s randomly generated dungeons. The game also featured Link Cable support, letting players battle and trade.
The first two entries received a Japan-only PS1 remake with improved graphics as a compilation package. They later received Japan-only 3D remakes on 3DS. So, sadly those of us outside of Japan can only play the original Gameboy versions officially.
Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart
This title is the third entry in the series, yet acts as a pseudo-spin-off. This is because you have a typical human party on top of having monsters. This game features Kiefer from Dragon Quest VII to boot!
The gameplay has some key differences to other entries, as you can customize your human characters with multiple classes, wrangle monsters, and manage your caravan! Rather than breeding monsters, you collect monster hearts from defeated monsters. This allows players to combine hearts with their own monsters to essentially evolve them.
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 1-3
This subseries with the Dragon Quest Monsters subseries introduced 3D graphics and new worlds to explore. The Joker games also ditched random battles in favor of monsters that now roam the fields, letting players pick and choose their battles. Mechanically, it is quite similar to the other DQM games, however new features such as monster sizes in Joker 2 and monster riding in Joker 3. Of course, since these are DS and 3DS games they use wifi for battles! Goodbye Gameboy Link Cable!
The Future…
Dragon Quest Monsters is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a brand new entry! Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is set in the story of Dragon Quest IV. Check the game out with the free demo on Nintendo Switch. You can also give our Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince Review to see what the most recent entry is all about! Let’s also hope for this wonderful subseries to grow healthily so that we can be blessed with more quality Dragon Quest adventures.
