Dragon Quest Monsters is more than just a Pokémon clone with a Dragon Quest skin. At least, that’s what I’ve been hearing ever since the spin-off series entered the Nintendo DS era and found a bit more of a foothold in Western markets. But despite being a fan of the mainline Dragon Quest games and having very good experiences with other spin-offs like the excellent Dragon Quest Builders, I never took the leap.
After playing just a small amount of the upcoming Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World, I can finally start to see what I’ve been missing out on.
In case it wasn’t already obvious – the Monsters games take the familiar world and turn-based combat of the regular Dragon Quest games and put a creature-collecting twist on everything. Rather than doing the fighting yourself, you’ll amass an army of monsters made up of iconic examples from the series’ history as well as some original beasties. Find them, tame them, raise them up to be powerful enough to take on new challenges, you get the drill. There are some key distinctions to be made, like a “synthesis” system that allows players to combine monsters to form new ones – more akin to Persona‘s Fusions as opposed to Pokémon’s evolutions – and bigger battling parties, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World stars a pair of protagonists, Bianca and Nera, two girls growing up in very different circumstances in very different places, but bound by a similar fate. Both have fathers who’ve fallen ill, and both are visited by a guardian spirit (that should be familiar to Monsters fans), who gives them passage to a realm known as the Kingdom of Witherwood. Here, an ancient plant known as the Leaves of Light exists that promises to cure the girls’ fathers, but on arriving they discover the world has become something of a wasteland. After travelling to a great castle built within and upon an enormous tree, Bianca and Nera agree to help the King restore these lands and in turn secure the Leaves of Light for themselves.
Oh, and Nera’s older sister, Debora, is also here looking for the Leaves of Light. Only, she wants them to make… moisturiser? I think I have that right. Go figure.
That’s as much context as I have for setting off into the wider world, making use of the small amount of time I had for this preview to look for monsters to tame, loot to stack up and long-dried flora to revive with my new “Waterwing” can. But first, I needed to pick which of the two girls I wanted to be in control of, each with their own unique battle perks and affinities with certain monster types. After choosing Bianca for her more HP and attack-focused buffs, I also had to answer a sort of personality test from our spirit friend, Fluffy, which determined who my starter Pokémon monster would be – in this case the iconic sinister candle, Wax Murderer.
But I needed to build up my party beyond just one little helper, and so I beelined for the first monster I saw out on the field and it was time to battle. This part should feel pretty familiar to anyone who’s played a turn-based JRPG, especially a creature-based one, but there are some quirks that I grew quite fond of in my stint. Chief among them is the way each turn sees you queue up all of your own monsters’ moves in a turn and then watch them play out alongside the enemy’s, which I’m hoping will lead to some interesting strategic situations as the game goes own. You’ve also got the option to preset individual tactics for your monsters, allowing you to hit R2 for an auto-battle option and letting them go on their own.
Once you’ve weakened an enemy, you then of course have the opportunity to try and recruit it through a “Show of Force,” a percentage score which your entire party contributes to and predicts your chances of success. A tutorial pop-up claims that, occasionally, simply defeating a monster will be enough for it to ask to join, as well.
Roaming the overworld, a growing party of Little Guys™ trailing behind me, the other thing that’s immediately noticeable is The Withered World’s unique use of perspective. Rather than let you see all the way off into the distance, there’s a distinctive fisheye-like camera in play that pulls the horizon line in quite close and gives it a noticeable curve, making it feel like you’re traversing a world that’s always rolling right into view. I’m usually a fan of being able to see what’s in front of me in a video game, so this’ll definitely take some getting used to, but the intent definitely seems to be to keep surprising players with what’s ahead, and it’s certainly a neat effect to look at.
After a little exploration and some more battling, I also had the chance to tinker around with game’s synthesis system. Here, you’re able to merge your obtained monsters together to create new and potentially unique ones, passing down a limited number of traits each time in an effort to build the most powerful and potent specimens. As I said up top, this reminds me the most of Persona’s fusion mechanic, and while there wasn’t enough time to go too deep into it I’m sure there’ll be plenty of folks looking forward to hours spent grinding up classic Dragon Quest gremlins for… research.
So far, everything I’ve seen and played of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World tells me it’s got all the usual series hallmarks – a personality built on the designs of the late Akira Toriyama, deceptively deep systems, gloriously bad puns galore – layered on top of a competent creature-collecting RPG. Less than an hour simply isn’t long enough to make a true assessment, but I can be sure that this is going straight into my must-play pile when it launches on December 3, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2 and PC.
Previewed at an event hosted in Sydney, with covergeek‘s flights covered by Bandai Namco Australia.
Born into the world of video games through SEGA, and in particular Sonic the Hedgehog, Kieron’s gaming tastes now consist of the latest, shiny AAA thing, an indie darling or two, and an embarrassing number of hours of Balatro.