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Dragon Warrior Monsters 2
by Julius Bautista
Wednesday, September 5 2001
Enix's sequel(s) to their monster-raising RPG shapes up nicely.
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Title:
Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: "Cobi's Journey", "Tara's Adventure"
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Platform:
Game Boy Color
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Publisher:
Enix |
Developer:
Enix |
#
of Players: 1 - 2 |
Genre:
RPG
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Origin:
Japan
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Expected
Release:
September 2001 |
Grapevine:
"Having an adventure to utilize this type of gameplay makes DWM2 an engaging experience, while the sheer variety of monsters keeps the action fresh." |
To be honest, I've never played the first Dragon Warrior Monsters game for GBC. In fact, I've had no prior experience in "poke-digi-ranching-catching-battling" whatsoever (striking fear into my enemies by using Jigglypuff in Super Smash Bros. does not count). After venturing through this genre for the first time, I can say that DWM2 is a pair of well-made, enjoyable games.
"Cobi" and his sister "Tara" are a couple of young "Monster Masters" who have been tasked with finding a special item to save their island kingdom of Greatlog from sinking into the ocean. To accomplish this, they must travel to different worlds, visit new towns, unleashing their team of monsters against enemy monsters along the way. Magic keys must also be acquired to unlock new worlds and continue their adventure. Before you're tricked into thinking DWM2 is two unique quests on two cartridges (like the Zelda: Oracle series), realize that "Cobi's Journey" and "Tara's Adventure" are generally identical: they visit many of the same places, and meet many of the same critters. The real differences are in the keys and select monsters Cobi and Tara encounter. Certain keys to certain worlds can only be found by Cobi, and other keys can only be found by Tara. As for the monsters, Tara will find certain monsters that Cobi never sees, and vice versa.
Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 is essentially an RPG with the focus placed on monster raising & battling. You collect items, talk to people, move from town to town, sleep at inns, and execute subquests to advance your progress. Battles are conducted via monsters -- 312 total monsters in both quests combined (lots of critters). Cobi/Tara is allowed to have, at most, 3 monsters in his/her party. As the party wanders the regions outside towns, random encounters with seemingly malicious wild monsters will occur, and you'll fight up to 3 of them at once. You have the choice of fleeing the battle or fighting, directing your party how to fight, what skills to use, etc. It's standard fare, where the usual statistics (HP, MP, EXP..) apply. The game screen shows your monsters' stats at the top, with the enemies depicted in the middle of the screen, and your command menu at the bottom.
When victory over the enemy is achieved (monsters aren't literally killed, merely "defeated") one of the defeated monsters may reappear and ask to join your party, and you must accept or reject them -- this is the standard way of acquiring new monsters. Even "bosses" can join. One of the amusing (possibly annoying) things about getting new critters is they have a "wild" statistic, to show how likely it is to disobey you during battle (yes, your brand-new flying snail may refuse to fight!) The less wild it is, the more loyal it is. To gain its loyalty, Cobi/Tara must "show it love", and in reality "love" strangely means to feed it meat. Is your monster being "stupid"? Give it some beef jerky, or something meatier like pork chop (no, I'm not kidding). Additionally, you may equip your monsters (with one item only), store them at your "farm" (your monster inventory), breed them to create new species (?!), and pit them against other monster masters in Greatlog's Arena. There's quite a lot of customizing to do, and it's all very necessary if you want to optimize the strengths of your party. That's the fun of it: exploring new worlds, collecting new monsters, building up your monsters, and using them to utterly humiliate your enemies! (and you WILL want to hurt them, especially after they whoop you the first times you meet them). Finding and raising new critters is what keeps the games fresh as you go, and makes the experience addicting.
Since we're looking at GBC hardware here, DWM2 falls prey to the usual limitations, but still looks quite good. Map characters and features are slightly animated and are clearly distinguishable despite their small size. The balance of color on the screen shows the developer inserted colors wherever they could, with pleasant results. There are even a few special effects for screen transitions between worlds and into battles. During battles, the enemy monsters are depicted with colorful bitmaps that are well-drawn but generally inanimate, while the animations of the various spells and attacks are sharply drawn and run smoothly and quickly. DWM2 simply looks nice. Job well-done in this department.
DWM2 is musically simplistic, providing basic recurring themes for towns, battles, dungeons, and the overworld. The tunes are pretty nice, and they're hardly irritating (unless your volume was too high). However, there's no doubting they are repetitive. All sound effects are "slashy" and "whistling" as we expect for GB. No matter what kind of situation you're in, they still do well in context to the gameplay, such as in battle or navigating around towns. Nothing truly exciting about the audio overall, but the developer did a good job.
Presentation is more than decent, sporting plain text menus that are easy to navigate and access with the press of a button. Gameplay transitions occur smoothly with the help of screen effects & well-placed music, while text boxes drive the story and dialogue forward. The graphics and the music together successfully create a charming atmosphere, and shows Enix aimed to fit everthing necessary into this GBC title.
Thanks to the gameplay differences of two separate quests, DWM2 yields itself high replay value. A player could just "finish" one cartridge and save Greatlog, but completing the entire game means becoming the "ultimate monster master," to have all 312 types of monsters in your possession. This is only possible by linking the two quests (via Game Boy Link cable), trading the unique keys, and thus unlocking previously hidden worlds that contain new monsters and adventures. Don't forget to experiment with breeding. In addition, you can pit your monsters against other players or work cooperatively against the computer. Saving your kingdom is great, but dedicated "monster masters" will most certainly have a lot of work ahead of them.
Raising and battling monsters IS fun. Having an adventure to utilize this type of gameplay makes DWM2 an engaging experience, while the sheer variety of monsters keeps the action fresh. Unlocking hidden features via game linking really extends the life of the titles beyond the main adventure. Lots of monsters, lots of solid gameplay -- great stuff.
--- Julius Bautista, VGLN Nintendo
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