Another great Dragon Quest game.
The amount of customization in this game is amazing. You start off by capturing monster, which right off the bat you can customize they're abilities better then any game I've seen in a while (and I'm an RPG freak). However, the game takes a twist once your monsters reach a level of 10. From then on you can breed new and superior monsters with better statistics and usually a better class (the rating of each monster which ranges from F-A and then X for special monsters). When you breed new monsters, you then are able to choose which traits (or abilities) to give your monster. The traits are carried on from the monsters parents.
That being said, this game wouldnt be great at all if you only had a few dozen monsters to play around with. In Joker, it is possible to capture over 300 monsters!
The game also has an interesting scouting system. Each member of your team (you can carry a max of 3 monsters) tries to persuade your foe to join the team. Depending on your monsters level and class you can either impress your monster to join your team or aggravate it. This is somewhat annoying once getting to the higher hours of the game. That being said it makes it all more addiciting trying to capture the particular monster you would like to recruit.
The game looks simply gorgeous for a DS title. It would very much be an impressive looking game even if it was on the PSP. It lags a bit year and there but somewhat not noticable. It carries the same look that Dragon Quest 8 did, and I am very pleased with this decision.
The game lost the frustrating random battles of the older Dragon warrior monster games and now you can actually see the monsters youll be facing. If the monsters see you in the game they shall either (depending on your level of monsters) run after you or run away. This usually is a good way to detect how the battle will commence. If the monsters run after you and you try to run away you will probably not get the first shot at placing damage on the opposing monsters. Again, this all depends on your monsters level.
The game, could have had alot more story elements in it to make it more of an epic storyline. It is pretty much strait foward; go to an island gather crystals and go one to the next. There is a side storyline that does play a huge part in the game that has to do with a unique monster in the game and its need to grow stronger.
The game is virtually up to you how long it is. The way the game progresses you to do things is extremely loose. And in a good way. It all depends if you want to have the best of the best monsters and the way you want to breed them and where should you go to find the cool monsters on the island. Its all up to you!
However, the only huge problem in the game is all the level grinding you have to do. Most of the game involves you picking fights with monsters just to get your monsters levels high enough to either breed or take on the big bad guy in the temples on the island.
Overall this game is great, and would recommend it to anyone