Cult Hit Spotlight- Dragon Quest Monsters (GBC)

Cult Hit Spotlight: Dragon Quest Monsters

In the original Cult Hit Spotlight, We're going to examine an overlooked but amazing RPG from the Gameboy Color era. After the jump, We're going to look at some of the things that made it great, and take a look at some breeding combinations to help you get started.

Cult Hit Spotlight: Dragon Quest Monsters

   Dragon Quest Monsters (known in the US as Dragon Warrior Monsters) was an RPG for the Gameboy Color, realeased in 2000, about the same time as Pokemon: Gold\Silver. Despite the obvius comparisons to Pokemon, Dragon Quest Monster easily stands on its own as an amazing RPG. The game is simple, the basic flow goes something like this: Open new Traveler's Gates, defeat the bosses at the end, then compete in the Arena to unlock more Gates (There are a total of 22 story gates, including the 6 you unlock after beating the game). While this may seem repetitive, it isn't thanks to randomly generated dungeons that change every trip through, breeding, and various bonus Gates spread around the kingdom. Not once has it felt tedious in over 10 years of off-and-on playing.

   Breeding is a huge part of the game, and extremely important for building a team capable of competeing in the later Arena classes. Breeding can create monsters that can handle level 30-40 monsters at level 1. If possible, breeding should always be done through link breeding due to the fact that both of you get new monsters. Through link breeding, each of you can breed the same monster's offspring over and over, creating more and more powerful monsters each time.

   All in all, if your a Dragon Quest fan, play this game ASAP. If you like Pokemon, you more likely than not will like it. If you have a passing intrest in old gameboy games or RPGs in general, check it out. It is an amazing game, with a large number of monsters and near endless gameplay. It's a damned shame that there aren't more of this series in the US (8 in Japan vs. 3+1 planned in the US)

Early Breeding Tips (the left monster is the pedigree)

  Anteater+Teto's Iceman = Grizzly
  [Beast Monster]+Demonite or Gemlin = Grizzly
   Has an extremely high Attack, Agility, and high max level potential, plus learns many powerful skills thanks to Iceman. Teto will breed with you after the C class tournament (note that to get a Grizzly from Teto's Iceman you HAVE to use an Anteater)

  [Beast Monster]+Healer = Unicorn (that knows HealUs)
   Has an extremely good Intelligence and MP, plus it will learn HealUsAll, which fully heals the entire party instantly. Unicorn will be you go-to healer for most of the game. There is no better healer than a Unicorn that knows HealUs.

  [Spirit Monster]+Golem=Shadow
  [Spirit Monster]+Mimic=Shadow
   A rather powerful supporter, and learns good abilities if made with a Mimic, but Golem is an early boss, and it is difficult to even defeat Mimics when they first appear, much less recruit one.

  [Beast Monster]+Fangslime = Unicorn
  [Demon Monster]+Unicorn = Gigantes
   Gigantes has a higher attack than Grizzly, but lower agility, and has extremely low intelligence. Be sure to allow Unicorn to learn Fangslime's attack abilities before breeding it.