Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince for Android Review

Monster Mayhem

Developed by Tose and published by Square Enix, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince arrived on Android last month after debuting for Nintendo Switch in 2023. While technically the seventh installment in the RPG series’ Pokémon-esque monster collecting spinoff, it’s the first DQM game to launch in the West in over a decade.

The Dark Prince is a prequel and side-story to the 1990 NES game Dragon Quest 4. It stars a younger version of the 1990 game’s antagonist, Psaro, as he embarks on a quest to overthrow his father, the monster king Randolfo the Tyrant.

After refusing to save the life of Psaro’s human mother, Randolfo curses his son to be unable to harm Monsters. However, nothing says he can’t get other Monsters to do the fighting for him. After learning the art of monster wrangling, Psaro returns to the Monster Kingdom of Nadiria alongside the elf Rose. Joined by the sticky-fingered human researcher Toilen, they travel the various circles of Nadiria, defeating powerful enemies to grow Psaro’s reputation.

One of the more unique aspects of The Dark Prince’s exploration is its four seasons. Seasons change as players explore, altering the terrain, weather, and which monsters spawn. Rivers freeze in winter, and players can float down them on giant flowers in spring. Summer brings clinging vines that players can climb to reach high places, while fall lets them search for leaf piles for random loot. It’s not the most groundbreaking system ever, and it can be hard to notice the changes in Nadiria’s more exotic climates. Still, it’s a neat little feature, even if it’s ultimately just a gimmick.

Gotta Catch Em All

I’m not the first to compare Square Enix‘s Dragon Quest Monsters to Pokémon, and for good reasons. The primary gameplay loop consists of exploring various themed zones and dungeons battling wandering monsters in turn-based battles.

Monsters have a small chance to join your team when you defeat them, though you have better odds with the Scouting mechanic. When Scouting, your monsters perform a “show of force” to make the enemy monster change sides. Success gives you a new friend/minion and ends the battle early. Failure buffs the enemy party, so you must balance risk and reward. However, you can increase your chances of success by throwing food items at monsters before scouting them.

In addition to catching monsters, one of DQM: The Dark Prince’s other key mechanics is Synthesis, where players can combine two monsters into a new, more powerful one. You can only use it to combine level 10 or higher monsters, and you will have to say goodbye to the monsters used in the Synthesis.

The offspring monsters can be upgraded versions of one of the parent monsters or another monster with similar traits. Players can also select which ability upgrade paths they want the new monster to inherit. It adds a degree of customization to your monsters, letting you experiment with alternate builds. The new monsters do start at level 1, though it’s not too hard to catch them back up.

To Be the Very Best

One big difference between DQM: The Dark Prince and Pokémon is that the player typically commands a team of up to four monsters, rather than most matches being 1v1. The battle interface has various options depending on how much control you want to give your monsters. You can micromanage every attack and ability or give your monsters general instructions through the Tactics system and trust them to do the rest. The AI does a decent job in standard encounters, though you’ll want to step in for boss fights. One criticism of AI is that it seems biased in favor of AOE attacks, even against single targets. However, if you’re in a situation that’s more than an inconvenience, you should probably be fighting the battle manually.

Strangely, you can’t do that during the Monster Mega Brawls and Maulosseum battles. These are formal tournaments for professional Monster Wranglers, so it makes sense you can’t run off with your opponent’s beasties. However, it’s odd that saying “hit that one next” would be against the rules. It’s not a big deal since you can still change Tactics between turns, and I never felt like I lost a battle because of it. It just stuck out to me as odd. Quirks like that aside, it’s a fun turn-based combat system, and I liked watching my little guys go at it.

Overall, I immensely enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. The few issues I encountered, like a somewhat clunky camera, were so minor they barely feel worth mentioning. The price tag is worth noting since $30 is a lot for an Android game. However, that’s still $10 cheaper than the Switch and PC versions and would be worth the price even if it wasn’t.