Worth it?

[Taweret]

i'm playing now pokemon scarlet, and i'm enjoying it, thinking about getting this game. also, i'm fan of shin megami tensei series. how this game stands on it's own compared to shin megami tensei or newest pokemon games?

[TKailan]

Not very good.
The Story is just okay, and the gameplay got a good bit worse compared to the older Nintendo DS Games.
Also, the Steam version is missing the online mode.
If u get it in a sale for around $15 u get a somewhat good experience for around 30h. But the closer u get to the end the more u will just sit in a grind to get a team that can beat it.

[Theofratus]

Depends on how much you enjoy creature collection games. As said above, the story is meh at best and poor most of the time. The collecting and fusion is nice but nothing one hasn't seen before. While you can issue direct orders to your monsters, more often, they will be auto battling with tactics/strategies you set for them (heal,all out attack, don't use mp, use attack A/B more/less often if at all)

If you enjoy the appearance of the monsters of Dragon Quest or enjoy the RPG battling of such games, then you'll more or less enjoy it, but get it on discount if you can for the best bang for your buck.

[hawklaser]

I've always liked the Dragon Quest Monsters games over the Pokemons, and I just couldn't ever get into the SMT/Persona games.

If you enjoy the Dragon Quest games in general, 4 more specifically in this case, and monster collecting games in general, you will probably enjoy this one. This is kind of doing a "what if" exploration off of the DQ4 story, though you don't need to know DQ4's story to appreciate DQM The Dark Prince, but it does add slightly to it.

If you are new to the DQM games in general, heres a brief overview of the core mechanics so can compare to other games. Monsters are broken up into familes of monsters, ie the Slime family & Dragon family, which tend to have similar overall stat trends and resistances. A monster's current stats are based off of a portion of its parents stats and what it has gained from leveling. Its non-basic attack commands come from its Talents (a set of skills and passives) that are selected from its innate one, or those its parents had. They also have passive traits that help differentiate them more as well as do certain things better.

Outside of that, they are are pretty much a hybrid of a JRPG and a Monster Collector.

[Taweret]

I bought it due to the fact that it's only one of the few alternatives to Pokemon, and monsters look very similar. The duck you get as a starting monster is basically Psyduck mixed with Goku. I played it a bit, and I'm at the very beginning after the first arena encounter. And so far the game is more like Shin Megami Tensei than Pokemon, because you can auto-combat and fights are squad battles.

I wish it was more tactical, though, since so far fights were way too easy, except the cyclops encounter since he's unbeatable at this point. Considering there are healing items you can use during battle and backup monsters, I wish it was much harder (but maybe the boss encounters will be something else). Pokemon Scarlet, which has 1x1 fights, gave me more of a challenge at the beginning when I tried to catch wild Pokemons.

Graphics are pretty raw and simple and movement pretty stiff (just jump, no sliding over terrain etc) but it's not a problem for me, I like the season-changing mechanic though, it's beautiful. The problem is the maps are pretty empty, and the "secrets" you discover aren't that rewarding. It would be more fun to explore with a mount. They could add some NPCs for interactions or combat (the most fun part in Pokemon is that you encounter out of nowhere, differed "trainers" and combat them). But that's just the first DQ monster game after 7 years? (edit, before i mistaked anniversary with the last game of the series) As I understand it, maybe they improve it in sequel (if it ever gets made) to make it a better Pokemon competitor, since Pokemon concept is goldmine idk why more developers don't untilize it properly, and won't take it more seriously, like make higher budget game.

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by Taweret:

I wish it was more tactical, though, since so far fights were way too easy, except the cyclops encounter since he's unbeatable at this point. Considering there are healing items you can use during battle and backup monsters, I wish it was much harder (but maybe the boss encounters will be something else). Pokemon Scarlet, which has 1x1 fights, gave me more of a challenge at the beginning when I tried to catch wild Pokemons.

It does get a bit harder as you go on, though most of the difficulty is more tied to the bosses and what are essentially the optional area bosses like the Cyclops. The first couple areas are basically an extended tutorial. Then you can kind of look at it as easy/medium/hard difficulties as you progress through the echelons. They did keep things fairly simple in the lower echelon to help ease in those newer to the series, and they start taking the gloves off in the middle echelon. But the normal enemies will likely never be much of an issue unless you are doing more of a speedrun style of playthrough. If you are doing frequent and well thought out synths it doesn't take too long to become the DQM equivalent of overleveled. So if you want to keep things more tactical, try and save synthesizing for when you feel like you are starting to hit more of a wall. There are definitely the tools available to beat the game with minimal synthing and at lower overall power levels.

Originally posted by Taweret:

Graphics are pretty raw and simple and movement pretty stiff (just jump, no sliding over terrain etc) but it's not a problem for me, I like the season-changing mechanic though, it's beautiful. The problem is the maps are pretty empty, and the "secrets" you discover aren't that rewarding. It would be more fun to explore with a mount. They could add some NPCs for interactions or combat (the most fun part in Pokemon is that you encounter out of nowhere, differed "trainers" and combat them). But that's just the first DQ monster game after 7 years? (edit, before i mistaked anniversary with the last game of the series) As I understand it, maybe they improve it in sequel (if it ever gets made) to make it a better Pokemon competitor, since Pokemon concept is goldmine idk why more developers don't untilize it properly, and won't take it more seriously, like make higher budget game.

For the "secrets" you are discovering, I'm guessing you are still early enough in the game that a certain feature hasn't been unlocked yet. Most of those areas also relate to that feature, which when it's still locked are rather empty.

So for there being npc trainers and such, the other DQM's and DQM Jokers did have them. There was also DQ Treasures (with NPC battles & mounts), which I think was just repurposing an attempt at a DQM game that wasn't quite working out as they wanted, and due to that, they probably didn't have as long as they might have wanted to fully flesh out The Dark Prince. On the upside, the old DQMs and Jokers did get expanded re-releases in Japan, and I'd wager many of the long time fans of the series are hoping The Dark Prince gets the "Profesional" treatment that the Jokers did in Japan, but with a worldwide release. Its been speculated that the reason a significant number of monsters from the pro versions of the Jokers wasn't included in The Dark Prince is because they haven't been present in a DQ game outside of Japan.

[Midknight22]

The short version for me is that this game is good in general but has a few glaring pain points.

- The story is, frankly a bit dull and has way less charm than i'd expect from a DQ game. As someone who has been playing the last pieces of dq11's post game recently it's night and day.
- talents, very few of them level and the monsterpedia does a bad job of showing you what things mean and were you can get things. In short you'll need a tool like metal kids site of stuff to actually build a good team without extensive trail and error.
- The end game is pretty rubbish since PvP isn't available on steam.

Verdict: get it on sale, there's plenty here to have fun with but don't expect it to compete with dragon quest monsters:Joker or other DQ games because it compares poorly.

That said i didn't think much of violet, way too disjointed for my liking.

If you're after a monster battler/collector type of game i'd actually recommend digimon cyber-sleuth, it does most of what this game does but arguably a little better, especially in terms of story.

[Tenseiken]

I just recently bought the game myself being severely unsure if it was worth it. As a kid, DQM for the game boy was HUGE for me. DQM always was a bit different and arguably more intricate/complex than something like Pokemon. Not saying one is better over the other, I just personally always connected to DQM more, although I probably have more time in Pokemon games though.

In a vacuum, DQM Dark Prince isn't necessarily a game for the present modern times. The graphics are quite simplistic (even for Switch games), the story is whatever and the game itself isn't very difficult to understand.

On paper, this really sucks to hear about any game you're considering to buy right? At least that's what I was thinking. However, this game does something VERY right, which is the monster collection and training part. If you played any DQM game in the past, you'll feel right at home with the exception of 3D throwing you off. This game PRETTY MUCH is just old school DQM slightly modernized. They even have OST in there remixed from the old games. I'd go as far as saying this could almost count as a remaster of the old DQM. Personally I think the game lacks more post-game stuff to do. Although you could spend hundreds of hours making your perfect monster/team, there really is no point because there's not much to do it for, which for me makes it hard to motivate myself.

So. You gotta ask yourself what kinda game you expect. If you're down for a game mediocre game that focuses heavily on the monster collection and perfection you can just drown yourself in, then this game is for you. Same if you liked the old DQM games. However, if you're just looking for a nice story-driven game with outstanding dialogue and stuff to just finish and never touch again then this is the worst game for it.

That's pretty much what I've learned reading many opinions about it. Someone calling the story average or mediocre doesn't mean the game is bad, because a game like this doesn't need it. It certainly would profit from it, but the most important part is the game loop and monsters, which they did incredibly well. They added JUST a bit more depth to the monster perfection progress and they did it right.

To finish on a non-biased sentence I'll bring it back to this: Ask yourself what you're expecting from a game (like this). Nobody can tell you if it's worth it, because worth depends on how we individually see it and if the majority agree or disagree about it doesn't do anything for you.

[Taweret]

I don't care much about stories in games like this. What kind of story can you expect in a Pokemon-like game? SMT had some interesting stories because the game has a more philosophical aspect and is darker. The main character in the DQ Monster Dark Prince narrative reminds me of Akira Toriyama's Sand Land a bit.

I played longer sessions since then, and it grew up more in me. So far I'm in the stage after beating the candy biome boss. Some features to highlight:

-Fights can be challenging, since there is 1 save, so no reload and it is harder to save-scum. I eventually was able to beat Cyclops in the first biome, and it required manual control of monsters and some strategy.

- Fusion monsters are more complex than evolutions in Pokemon games (but it's comparable to Pokemon breeding). I always liked that more about Shin Megami Tensei games, but I disliked the fact that fused demons are completely new entities and lose characteristics of previous forms, as it ruin immersion (though they still can pass down skills to the resulting demon), here they inherit some appearance traits.

- Some attacks are more potent against certain monster types.

- Setting up tactics per monster gives more control over squad attacks during auto-combat, a feature that was missing in SMT, however, I believe it can be quite broken when used in a self-sustaining team, as you can narrow which abilities monsters will use, by disabling some.

Some feedback: I wish it was less linear, but the game was also released on phones, so... it can't be too complex. A free-roaming game like Pokemon Scarlet in DQ setting would be much cooler, though. But maybe it would be harder to implement a seasonal cycle in an open-world game, and it's the strongest point of this game, imo, as it makes outdoor areas less monotonous (Pokemon Black and White had it too, and I loved it).
Also, if they added other monster wrangler NPCs that you can encounter while exploring. Also, accessing the monster encyclopedia to see the description of a monster (lore) is inconvenient, it would be better if a description of a monster popped up in the text box after obtaining it.
It sounds like a minor thing to complain about, but for me it's a vital part of games like this, to get imagination involved in some monsters backgrounds, as it's not only about catching monsters but also getting attached to them, and these little characteristics can help.

6+/10 , maybe 7/10 for me. Cus of the music and creative monster design, supporting characters could be better, but overall I'm enjoying playing it and don't regret purchasing it.

[Tenseiken]

I planned to say this at the end, but it's a long ass text so I wanted to make sure you'd at least read this: Do you know the game Monster Sanctuary here on Steam? A fusion between metroidvania platforming and monster collection with a lot of customization. Art style is amazing if you wanna check it out.

I mean I personally don't go into games like these and expect a non-existent story just because it's a monster collection game. Some do it more than others and Pokemon does it by far the least, that's for sure.

I personally find it absolutely braindeadly easy to savescum since this game makes it really obvious when fights are happening, you wanna catch something or pre-synthesis in case you fatfinger something. I do agree that early on, fights can be pretty challenging which I like because if you're not familiarizing yourself with the synthesis system cultivating and paying attention to certain things, you'll find yourself not progressing much or at all. The fact that the game doesn't run itself is what I like personally. Though once you figure stuff out and lose yourself in a grinding session you'll inevitably reach that blind run point.

There's a whole bunch of different "elements" in this game and I personally like that there's a lot more depth and tinkering with in this game than just double damage or something. It's definitely got some RPG elements to it and that's probably what I appreciate about it, but that's obviously subjective.

I also think the seasons is a great design choice. Obviously I'd love open world-ness in a game like this, but it's probably worth pointing out that it's likely they did it on purpose beyond the limitations just so it stays more true to older DQM games. (Not all of them, though) This one right here is in it's essence pretty much a modernized remaster of the first DQM for the game boy so I guess it was convenient for them. Same with the OST, they do love re-using their stuff in Dragon Quest games so this one isn't an exception. That's actually one of my feedback points. The game has some insanely nostalgic bring-backs in the OST, but overall the OST seems very simplistic to a point that I would've liked it more if the old nostalgic songs wouldn't blend in with its OST all that much so the entire OST doesn't sound like a 25 year old game boy OST if that makes sense.

I think you do have a valid point when it comes to the attachments and the whole story part behind the monsters. I personally don't miss it in a DQM game, but I think it's valid criticism. In Pokemon games there's a lot more attachment for me as well. Idk, in DQM you fuse stuff around so much I feel like if they push attachment encouraging designs, people wouldn't do what this game's main point is: fusing stuff around and figuring out hidden/rare combinations. I do like that about this game. Every monster collection game should be different and not do it all the same, so when you play a Pokemon game, Digimon game or a DQM game, they all kind of have like a fundamental distinction as to how you go about the game and how it feels if that makes sense. Obviously that is just me and if you're missing certain things in the game that's just as valid.

I'd probably agree with your score. The monster collection part and added complexity definitely carries it. Although graphics and story isn't as important and they are (for me) like a 2/10 or 3/10 at BEST, they don't have as much weight to them when it comes to the overall score. Still, I'd absolutely love a nice story and such, but if they had to make certain desicisions because of the budget, I'm happy that they did it the way they did. Nothing worse than an empty shell of a game with pretty visuals and non-existent gameplay.

[hawklaser]

I'm glad both of you have been enjoying it.

Originally posted by Tenseiken:

I think you do have a valid point when it comes to the attachments and the whole story part behind the monsters. I personally don't miss it in a DQM game, but I think it's valid criticism. In Pokemon games there's a lot more attachment for me as well. Idk, in DQM you fuse stuff around so much I feel like if they push attachment encouraging designs, people wouldn't do what this game's main point is: fusing stuff around and figuring out hidden/rare combinations. I do like that about this game.

Actually, you can get attached to specific monsters in this, and continue using them quite easily. They made it so you can always maintain the same monster easily, which wasn't a thing in some of the earlier DQM games. Also, monster stat caps are fairly well balanced, as higher ranks don't directly translate into stronger monsters. With the exception of the Gem Slime and the various metal slimes, nearly all non-hp stat caps fall within a range of ~300-800 for their base amount. This does get altered a bit by their family tree and if they get a sparkle. But this range does mean that many monsters stay viable long term, especially when also factoring more defining traits.

Originally posted by Tenseiken:

Still, I'd absolutely love a nice story and such, but if they had to make certain desicisions because of the budget, I'm happy that they did it the way they did. Nothing worse than an empty shell of a game with pretty visuals and non-existent gameplay.

This does tie back into my earlier comments regarding DQ Treasures. I seem to recall in the earlier stages of discussion about it, that it was going to be more of a Monsters game before it ended up as what it was. If you have played treasures and other DQM games, you can definitely see the Monsters influence in the design of Treasures.

Originally posted by Tenseiken:

This one right here is in it's essence pretty much a modernized remaster of the first DQM for the game boy so I guess it was convenient for them. Same with the OST, they do love re-using their stuff in Dragon Quest games so this one isn't an exception. That's actually one of my feedback points. The game has some insanely nostalgic bring-backs in the OST, but overall the OST seems very simplistic to a point that I would've liked it more if the old nostalgic songs wouldn't blend in with its OST all that much so the entire OST doesn't sound like a 25 year old game boy OST if that makes sense.

I'd say this is more in line with a remake of DQM: Joker 1, but with a parallel to Dragon Quest 4's story. After all Psaro is DQ4's villian. Like the only thing this was missing in comparison to DQM: Joker, is the wandering monster masters. Though if you look at it from a story perspective, in TDP the human wranglers would be out of place in Nadira as they don't really have a means to get there in the first place. Then if consider from the Nadira side, they would likely be some what rare, as they would have to be strong enough to compete with the "big hitters" in order to convince the other monsters to do what they say instead of the "big hitter".

Originally posted by Taweret:

The main character in the DQ Monster Dark Prince narrative reminds me of Akira Toriyama's Sand Land a bit.

I'm guessing you haven't played Dragon Quest 4 then, which predates Sand Land, and also is where Psaro, and the hero's come from.

-Fights can be challenging, since there is 1 save, so no reload and it is harder to save-scum. I eventually was able to beat Cyclops in the first biome, and it required manual control of monsters and some strategy.

- Some attacks are more potent against certain monster types.

- Setting up tactics per monster gives more control over squad attacks during auto-combat, a feature that was missing in SMT, however, I believe it can be quite broken when used in a self-sustaining team, as you can narrow which abilities monsters will use, by disabling some.

Originally posted by Taweret:

Some feedback: I wish it was less linear, but the game was also released on phones, so... it can't be too complex. A free-roaming game like Pokemon Scarlet in DQ setting would be much cooler, though. But maybe it would be harder to implement a seasonal cycle in an open-world game, and it's the strongest point of this game, imo, as it makes outdoor areas less monotonous (Pokemon Black and White had it too, and I loved it).

The later areas do get a bit more complicated, and you do get some freedom in choosing what order to do certain ones in. But each area is still fairly linear, but not nearly as bad as some other games.

Originally posted by Taweret:

-Fights can be challenging, since there is 1 save, so no reload and it is harder to save-scum. I eventually was able to beat Cyclops in the first biome, and it required manual control of monsters and some strategy.

- Some attacks are more potent against certain monster types.

- Setting up tactics per monster gives more control over squad attacks during auto-combat, a feature that was missing in SMT, however, I believe it can be quite broken when used in a self-sustaining team, as you can narrow which abilities monsters will use, by disabling some.

Combine this stuff with the game having fairly decent AI for the monsters, and it can definitely reach a point where for the bulk of enemies, you don't have to do much input. Though there are some enemies where will still need to do manual inputs or use items on occasion.

Originally posted by Taweret:

Also, if they added other monster wrangler NPCs that you can encounter while exploring.

I did mention earlier that the other DQM & DQM Jokers did have NPCs you could fight. Though as I explained above, they don't quite fit into the base story of the game.

But... with how the current post game was done, it was definitely set in a way where it could easily get the "Professional" treatment the DQM Joker games got, and npc wranglers would very likely make an appearance then. The base Joker games, had comparable story to TDP, and then got expanded upon with their Pro-rereleases which were basically expansions to the games postgames with comparatively more difficult content.

But at this point, all we can do is wait and see if it does get expanded content, as there hasn't been any word on it that I have seen.

[Caradog]

No it's hot garbage. Even the review saying it would have been great in the 3ds era doesn't hold up. The literal Gameboy remakes on the 3ds are far better than this, more monsters more effort animations and far better story then " but you got to think about how those who try to murk you feeeeeel".

Better then slop Pokémon put out (which is slop no mistake) not even close but square always pushes out slop on their b projects.