A few months ago, a sequel to the popular Dragon Quest Monsters Joker DS game was announced. The first game was a monster collecting turn based RPG not unlike Pokemon (although really, it's unfair to compare it to pokemon since Dragon Quest did the monster catching gameplay first). DQ Monsters in itself is a spinoff series of Dragon Quest which began on the Gameboy/GBC I believe. It doesn't really follow an epic quest, but rather just focuses on the monster collecting aspect put into place by earlier Dragon Quest main games. The original Joker was rather a rare breed of DS game, choosing a cel-shaded 3D approach with a fully explorable 3D world. It was impressive to say the least. And quite fun too for those who wished to have an alternative to Pokemon. Now that the sequel has been announced, a trailer has followed finally, have a look-
For those of us who have played the first game, it's obvious that the game has been built off the same engine as the original. Very cartoony style with a very impressive 3D engine and fully 3D explorable overworld. Like last time, you run around the field where monsters run loose in plain sight (as opposed to random battles). There you level up your own monsters by defeating others. If your monsters are powerful enough, you can attempt to recruit the enemy monster by a show of force. That's basically how it works. Anyone familiar with the Pokemon style will be right at home. In the new trailer, it would appear that they have noticeably improved the animation of the characters in general. Their facial expressions and overall movement seems much more animated and fluid than the first Joker. The weather effects seem much improved as well. I assume the day/night cycle will return as well. It also seems to have a wifi function as well, which i believe allows you to battle your monsters from friends from around the world. Nice!
This should be quite a fun game. I highly recommend the first game for anyone who is interested in these kinds of monster collecting games. The sequel should carry on the tradition. I myself grew weary of Pokemon and have grown more fond of the Dragon Quest Monsters branch of the genre. Anyways, no US date yet, but as you can see, Joker 2 will arrive in Japan on April 28th this year. So just 4 weeks away!
