Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

By rigidly following Dragon Quest traditions, we end up with flat, cartoonish characters who inhabit a repetitive, cyclical world. But The Dark Prince plays to its strengths to deliver a solid RPG experience with a cozy narrative seasoned by a long list of charismatic creatures and entertaining dungeons.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is an enjoyable monster-catching RPG that combines charming visuals with addictive gameplay to make for a genuinely gripping experience, making it feel like the long wait since the last entry to leave Japan has been worth it. Even so, its general lack of ambition and struggles with performance issues hold it back from greatness-it's very good, but it's also definitely got its issues. If you're at all a fan of Dragon Quest or monster-catching RPGs, we'd suggest you pick this one up, though perhaps wait a few months to see if Square can sort out the worst of its performance issues.

The Dragon Quest Monsters series makes a great return on Nintendo Switch, but in regards to its story it does very little to properly honor the legacy of the game it takes inspiration from.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is a fun traditional, monster-collecting RPG with plenty of homages to the classic Dragon Quest IV.

In a lot of ways for someone like me, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is weirdly validating for a video game product you purchase. This series has been living in relative obscurity for decades, either going unlocalized entirely or simply being seen as a niche within a niche destined for handheld gamers looking for more Pokemon. But there’s so much meat, life, and ambition in this one. It’s a console game, it’s got a story it wants to tell, it has ideas beyond “catch slimes, win tournaments”. I hope this is the direction Dragon Quest Monsters keep moving in. It’s no Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, but what is?

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is fun enough to give frustrated Pokémon fans a solid alternative.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince forgoes complexity in favor of creating an accessible and enjoyable gaming experience.

As a whole, while I enjoyed some elements of DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Dark Prince, it is not a game I resonated with as much as I would have liked. The monster collecting and designing is neat, but the time commitment required to design a perfect monster is high, and the act of levelling up a monster was not significantly stimulating. The story had some interesting pieces, but quickly became stale and repetitive too. I could see someone getting a lot of value out of monster breeding, with the caveat that this comes with a bit of a grind. For others, however, I would hold out.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is, without a doubt, a fun RPG for fans of monster capture.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince has been a real treat to play, with the monster collecting and synthesis keeping me hooked in for hours on end. I’ve really enjoyed exploring its world, collecting all of the monsters than I can, building them up in power, and then synthesising them into more formidable monsters, whilst progressing through the story and completing tournaments was equally rewarding. I’ll admit, I’ve ended up enjoying the game a lot more than I expected, so much so that I’m still playing through post-completion to try and collect every monster in the game… it really has been THAT addictive. It’s great to see that the PC release doesn’t suffer from some of the technical issues of the Nintendo Switch version of the game too, and whilst the visuals still might not really be all that impressive, this is easily the best way to experience Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince.