Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

Genre: Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG

Players: 1-8 Competitive Tournament (Online)

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Review:

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, released in 2023 on Nintendo Switch and ported to PC and mobile devices in 2024, is a long-awaited return to the Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG franchise, which Western audiences haven’t seen since 2011’s Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 on Nintendo DS. What’s more, this game acts as a prequel to Dragon Quest IV, originally released in the West on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, meaning that Dragon Quest series fans have plenty of reason to be interested in this game.

This game’s story follows Dragon Quest IV antagonist Psaro as he seeks to confront his father again after being cursed by his demonic dad to be unable to attack monsters. Finding refuge in a peaceful town, Psaro is shown a loophole to get around this curse, by recruiting monsters as a monster wrangler and getting them to do the fighting for him. Over the course of the game, Psaro will recruit an expanding legion of monsters, train them, combine them, and enter them into colosseum tournaments as he builds up his strength with the goal of taking down his father and ending his curse.

This story is delivered with some decent voice acting, although not all of the game’s dialogue is voiced. And alongside this, there’s an instrumental soundtrack in line with what series fans have come to expect from the Dragon Quest games (a series which has never had particularly good music in my personal opinion).

When it comes to the visuals, The Dark Prince features cel-shaded 3D characters with an anime style and excellent animation, in a 3D world that’s colorful but… well, it has issues. There’s slowdown at times, and there’s noticeable pop-in. It’s not so bad that it severely damages the experience, but it it’s disappointing to see all the same, especially in a game that isn’t particularly ambitious with its graphics and world.

When it comes to the gameplay, this is a pretty good Pokemon-style Monster-collecting JRPG, although I can’t say it’s an especially inspired or revolutionary one, and it’s not ambitious enough to tackle Open World design or anything like that. The game has a few noteworthy features, such as its four seasons mechanic, which works like a day-night cycle on overdrive. But for the most part, this is a pretty standard entry in the genre.

I also really appreciate how the game gives players multiple ways to streamline the gameplay depending on how much micromanaging they want to do – you can direct you’re crew’s attacks individually, set up their general strategies based on a few different priorities, or use a single button “set it and forget it” auto-battle mode to breeze through grinding.

That said, I wish the game was a bit better about letting players compare and contrast different stats, especially when deciding which monsters to add to their party (you can have four active party members and four in backup reserves, with everyone else waiting back on your ranch). What’s more, the game doesn’t do enough to make it clear when you’re out grinding and recruiting to let you know when a monster you’re walking up on is too overpowered for you… or so underpowered it’s scarcely worth dealing with.

Still, while it’s far from revolutionary and has multiple areas where it could do with improvement, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is still a solid entry in the Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG. It’s not likely to turn any heads, but if you’re a fan of the genre and especially if you’re a Dragon Quest fan, this is definitely going to be worth trying out.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is a Turn-Based Monster-Collecting JRPG starring Psaro, the antagonist from Dragon Quest IV, with this game acting as a prequel to that classic following Psaro’s growing power as a monster wrangler as he seeks to challenge his demonic father and undo a curse. This is a pretty typical entry in the genre, and while it doesn’t do anything groundbreaking, it’s still well worth a look for fans of this genre, especially those who are Dragon Quest fans.

Grade: B

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