CORBIE'S GAME BLOG

Back in the late 90's the Pokemon series was really taking off. Monster collecting games were beginning to take shape and Enix obviously recognized this and created a very unique spin-off of their hugely popular Dragon Warrior series. This game was Dragon Warrior Monsters. It took the adventure and fighting aspect of the Dragon Warrior games, and fused it together with monster collecting and breeding. The game offered a huge number of monsters to collect and breed, and sported a terrific and easy-to-use combat system, unforunately, Pokemon was just so huge at the time that many similar type games were sadly ignored, including this one. The game has garnered a loyal fanbase over the years and has become quite the cult classic. Read on to see what makes Dragon Warrior Monsters a game every rpg/monster collecting fan should have in their collection.

The story in Dragon Warrior Monsters is simple. One night as you and your sister lay in bed, an evil monster named Watabou comes out of your dresser and kidnaps your sister. His brother Warabou, appears and takes you back to the Kingdom of Greatlog where you meet the king and somehow get recruited to become a monster master. Your goal is to catch and train a group of monsters in order to compete in the Starry Night Tournament in the hopes of getting your sister back. You'll travel through different warp areas called traveler's gates where you'll fight and capture monsters while doing battle with a boss monster at the end of each area. As you gradually move up through the levels in the game, the monsters that you can catch become more powerful and more rare. These monsters also become more difficult to catch, so you'll have to use your best lures to get the really great monsters. Once you've completed all of the levels and become a monster master, it's then that you'll compete in the tournament against the greatest monster masters in the land. If you can win the tournament, you'll recieve one wish in which you can use to rescue your sister and return home.

The graphics in Dragon Warrior Monsters were good for their time, but definitely look a bit dated by today's portable standards. The soundtrack, on the other hand, sounds as terrific as ever, even with the limited Game Boy audio capabilities. Very melodic and upbeat, the music in the game is so well done, you won't mind that it tends to repeat a lot as you play through the game. What makes this game so much fun is the capturing and breeding of monsters. As you capture male and female monsters, you can breed them together to form an even more powerful monster. Careful breeding is the key to creating the ultimate monster. You'll roam through different areas looking for that area's warp hole, but you'll also have to battle monsters along the way in order to have a chance to capture them, not to mention level up the monsters you already have. Some monsters will just naturally offer to join your party, but others you'll have to lure with different types of meats. The better quality of the meat, the better chance you'll have of making friends with the monster and having it offer to join you. It's a fun cycle to go through as you'll have to work at becoming a true monster master. But that's what makes this game so much fun to play.

Given that there are hundreds of different monsters found throughout the game, you're never going to be at a loss for one to hunt or breed. The sheer number of combinations of breeding means you'll always be in for a surprise when you breed two different monsters together as you never know what new monster you're gonna get. You may even get lucky and breed one of the ultra powerful "???" monsters. There's just so much you can do with this game that it appeals to a fairly wide audience. RPG gamers will appreciate the lenghty quest involved, and Pokemon fans will enjoy the monster taming and breeding portions of the game. Dragon Warrior Monsters has got plenty to offer any gamer, and it's one of the best out there for the Game Boy system.