Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $12.99

Features:

• Created by Yuji Horii, Akira Toriyam and Koichi Sugiyama
• Create new species as you synthesize customized monsters from a selection of more than 200 different creatures
• Challenge your friends via local wireless play to see whose team is the strongest
• Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection component allows players to upload and download monster team data for battle on their Nintendo DS systems

Customer Reviews:

Wow! [Posted on 2008-08-20]
What can I say, DQMJ offers some of the most unique and interesting ideas into what appears to be a Pokemon clone. Even though the DQM series was inspired by Pokemon, the game and the series in and of itself offers inovative ideas to the "catch em all" formula. So let's begin. What sets this game apart from Pokemon?

-you can have 3 monsters in battle at once
-none of the monsters are rip offs of Pokemon monsters, they all appear in past DQ games
-monsters have skill sets which harbor a decent number of skills and each monsters can have up to 3 skill sets, offering a large number of skills on one monsters( lot more than Pokemon's 4)
-the breeding *Ahem* the synthesising system( it really is breeding but probably some people thought they didn't want their children to know that male and female = baby) is much deeper than Pokemon's breeding system
-ultimate monsters are created through repeated synthesising, which means if you like grinding to get higher numbers(ex. Disgaea) this game is for you
-in many ways the game is superior to Pokemon, although Pokemon offers better story and a more interesting catching system

Whew. Ok. So whats the goods right? If you like numbers, if you like struggling to make a monster better then you will love this game. The story is decent, but that is not where this game shines. Everything revolves around making bettter monsters and if you have wifi you will find that you will have to create some of the best monsters the game offers in order to have a chance at online play. A lot of hours will be spent on getting prepared to be a fair contender online(is Pokemon for Wii any different?). if you hate grinding, stay away form this game. This game is for grinding lovers, nough said. It's a great game, but it is NOT for everybody. Don't look at this as a role playing game because it's really not. It's a "catch em all" game. I really believe "catch em all" should be an actual game genre, because none of the the "catch em all" games feel like true RPGs. So if you are looking for some great epic story with many loveable characters, again, stay away. If you liked Pokemon you will likely fall in love with this game. It is a must buy for such players!

What I thought about DQM [Posted on 2008-09-10]
DQM is a pretty good game for far. You could get frustrated, but I don't know all of the game yet. I just got it. I'm at the first boss. Once you come in, you can't go out. So, to beat the boss, I recommend you get a platapunk for your first monster because it knows body slam. If you get it to level 12 it does 158 damage to the boss but only 45 to you. It's pretty awesome so far. I like it.

dom [Posted on 2008-09-28]
this is a great little rpg it about med hard I didn't have any troubler till the last monster it was hard for me to beat have to have your lavels up win it a great game.

Great little game! [Posted on 2008-10-12]
This is pretty much the type of dragon quest game I've wanted to play since I could use a healee in dragon quest 4 back in the NES days. Its pretty simple, and a bit too easy, but I won't hold that against it. Very much a grind fest because all you end up wanting to do is create more monsters!

Got it on sale for $12 too, and worth every penny! If your thinking about buying this, do so, you won't regret it.

Addictive monster hunting [Posted on 2008-12-16]
DQM Joker is an excellent take on monster RPGs. I'm not a big fan of the traditional random encounter battles that so many other games have implemented, so I appreciated the fact that this game let you actually go out and be the hunter.

The story is fine, and the characters are amusing; but the real meat of this game is in the monster synthesizing. It's always exciting to acquire a new monster, experiment, and figure out who you can merge it with to ultimately create a new powerful creature. This element adds a level of owner's pride when it comes to your monsters; and you can spend many hours trying different combinations to strengthen your team. In my opinion, this more than compensates for the moderately short story mode.

I highly reccommend this game to any fan of RPGs or Pokemon-style games, or anyone looking for a fun, addictive addition to their DS library.

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