Sprawling semi-open world ridden on monster mounts, capture and breeding remain thrilling. Turn-based battles hold up, story takes a back seat and no Western release. Dense adventure mostly limited to Japanese readers.
Your verdict
Category
RPG1 player7+
Description
Monster-taming RPG in the Dragon Quest line with deep synthesis. Published by Square Enix, released in 2016 in Japan. 500+ monsters, semi-open world, new synthesis options, tactical battles. Japanese edition.
Dragon Quest Monsters - Joker 3 review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Gameplay
"Solid"
Fun
"Pleasant"
Addictiveness
"Captivating"
Difficulty
"Balanced"
Lifespan
"Massive"
Capturing, synthesising and refining a stable of over five hundred monsters opens a near-endless quest across a semi-open world. Hunting rare creatures, novel syntheses and tactical battles feed dozens of hours of optimisation. That collecting depth, the Dragon Quest Monsters hallmark, guarantees a lifespan dear to tamers.
Complete: box, manual and disc/cart very clean. Lightly handled.
Q1 damagedQ6 completeQ10 new
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Collector interest
A Japanese entry in Dragon Quest Monsters Joker, an RPG of capturing and synthesizing monsters in the saga's world, never released in the West. This market exclusivity sustains steady import demand among Dragon Quest fans keen to own the branches absent from Western catalogues. Desirability rests on attachment to the series and the absence of any localized alternative.
A questionable morality
Becoming the top tamer here involves a few habits one rarely questions: you capture the monsters you meet in the wild, make them fight on your behalf, then fuse two of them to obtain a third, mightier one. The process cheerfully erases both parents, yet the lure of an overpowered creature sweeps away any scruple in an instant.
