Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is a Pokémon-like spinoff of the JRPG Dragon Quest series.
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Story & Themes
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dragon Prince is the seventh game in the Dragon Quest Monsters series, which spin out off the Dragon Quest JRPGs. It's set before the events of Dragon Quest 4, starring that game's villain, Psaro, the child of a human mother and monstrous father. Psaro is cursed and unable to directly battle monsters, so he sets off to become a monster wrangler, building an army, exploring worlds, and competing in arenas to one day challenge his father.
By feeding monsters meat or defeating them in battle (using other monsters) he can earn their trust. Up to four monsters can join his party as active battlers, and four more in reserve. Monsters earn skill points as they level up, and every monster has its own skill tree of spells and abilities.
Monster customization grows as you unlock Synthesis, which is the ability to combine two monsters to create a third, inheriting their skills and abilities. With battles mostly limited to autoattacking and set behaviors, much of the gameplay stems from acquiring, synthesizing, and customizing increasingly powerful monsters.
Save Points
The Dragon Prince includes frequent autosaves, and can be manually saved at any time.
Difficulty
The basic gameplay of gaining and battling monsters is straightforward, though a bit more random and haphazard than throwing Pokéballs. Having multiple monsters at once can be overwhelming, but monsters can be given basic behaviors (such as heal, or offense) and they'll execute skills on their own.
The primary challenge comes from Synthesis, and deciding which monsters to combine, and which skills to inherit to create the most powerful combinations over multiple generations.
It's also a game about grinding, with each new synthesized creature starting at level 1 (and only eligible to be combined once reaching level 10). Players can grind any area to raise their levels and earn more skill points, and making future challenges much easier.
Heads Up!
Violence Monsters battling each other is the primary gameplay focus, using anything from claws and swords to fireballs and poison. There is no blood or gore and very little reaction aside from light impact sounds.
Scary Imagery Some of the undead monsters can be a little creepy for younger players.
Strong Language The words "damn" and "hell" appear.
Online Community
The Dragon Prince features online quick matches, but users cannot interact.
Conversation Starters
- What are your favorite kind of monsters in Dragon Quest Monsters?
- Have you played any other Dragon Quest RPGs before?
- How does Dragon Quest Monsters compare to other creature battlers, such as Pokémon?
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