Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Review

Because of Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 for Nintendo DS, I'm addicted to mixing monsters. I've had my fill of catching and hunting them through other franchises, but mixing them -- raising two monsters then fusing them together to create a new, more powerful synthesis of the two -- that feels fresh.

It's an addictive system, and that's because there's an element of randomness. You can start with a lowly slime and send it on a 20-step journey of evolution to end up with a huge, screen-filling dragon if you fuse the right partner monsters with it along the way. But, as with most good things in gaming, there are some frustrations too.

Mixing monsters reduces the resulting creation down to Level 1. It inherits some of the skills of the "parents," so you're not starting entirely back at square one, but it's still disheartening to see your experience point totals erased over and over again. Monsters can't be fused again until they reach Level 10, so there's a lot of grinding involved. Luckily the whole process moves pretty fast thanks to generous grinding spots, so it doesn't kill the fun.


Beyond the monster synthesis stuff, Joker 2 offers a fairly linear role-playing adventure. The hero is an airship stowaway, a young kid whose ambition is to travel to the world's biggest Monster Scout Challenge and become the world's greatest monster tamer. Instead, the tournament-bound airship he's hiding on crash-lands onto a mysterious island.

The quest then becomes a rescue mission, as his task is to venture out and explore the surrounding areas to find the airship's lost passengers and bring them safely back to the downed vessel. Exploring the island means running into all of its native monsters and taming them, building up a stronger and stronger team by capturing new creatures and going through the synthesis procedure several times over. This island setting is a definite departure from traditional RPG progression, as there are no towns full of humans -- the only other people are the ones who crashed along with you. So it's all wild lands beyond the ship's door. Monsters as far as the eye can see.

Capturing those monsters, though, introduces another of Joker 2's frustrations. Rather than attacking wild creatures to weaken them for capture as in the Pokemon games, Joker 2 employs a mechanic of persuasion to try to convince new monsters to join your team. You go into battle, field your fighting force (of up to three allies at a time) and then select the "Scout" option from the touch screen menu to target a beast for potential recruitment.


Your team members then make a "show of force" against the creature, attacking it -- without damaging it -- in order to display their strength. As they do so, a percentage meter starts increasing. Scoring a higher percentage means the monster will be more likely to join you, but here comes Joker 2's frustrating part -- monsters can just shrug you off.

After any unsuccessful attempt to capture a creature, it can "become offended." If that happens (and it happens all the time), your capture attempt is over. The Scout option on your touch screen goes dark and you can't choose it for the rest of the fight, meaning your only choices are to kill the creature you were trying to befriend or just run away. That gets to be really annoying. It's like getting the game's equivalent of a silk glove slapped across your face for trying to do what's supposed to be the entire point of playing.


The frustration of unsuccessful captures plagues games like Pokemon too, of course. But at least in those games there are more strategies you can employ to increase your chances of success -- using more powerful Poke Balls, putting the creatures to sleep or paralyzing them, using moves that prevent them from running away. In Pokemon you can often keep a battle going for 100 turns or more to try to capture the most stubborn creatures. In Joker 2, the option to recruit is more frequently just torn away from you after just one or two rounds.

Luckily, the opposite of this frustration is also true -- sometimes a slim-percentage scouting attempt will turn out in your favor. You'll see some incredible dragon, huge troll or giant demon and give scouting a shot even though the percentage is something pitiful like 3 percent. But sometimes it actually comes through, and it's truly exciting to score a successful capture when all the odds are pointing toward failure.


Square Enix has rounded out Joker 2 with the same suite of multiplayer features found in last year's hit Dragon Quest IX, including the Tag Mode that lets you interact with other players. Tagging another Joker 2 cartridge will give you the chance to capture copies of your friends' fighting forces. Tagging older DQ games -- like IX and the recently re-released Dragon Quest VI -- earns you the opportunity to score some exclusive creatures from those worlds too.

You can also send your party into battle wirelessly against other Joker 2 players' best teams. Nintendo's even planning to hold a worldwide Wi-Fi tournament, so if you think you've got what it takes to become the Earth's best Monster Scout, you'd better buy your copy quickly and start synthesizing. Just be warned that, if you do, some sleepless nights may be in your future.

• More 3DS & DS Reviews
• Latest 3DS & DS News, Reviews, and Videos