Furu Anime Panikku

Unless you’re a big fan of the DQM series, skip this game totally and play the DQM II on the gameboy colour instead. The graphics may not be as good, but the gameplay is definitely superior as compared to DQM: Joker. Don’t follow what I did, burning a whole 20 hours of in-game time last weekend on the game instead of spending it wisely on soon-to-be due assignments, only to be disappointed tremendously.

First of, the thing that got me started with DQM: Joker, which was released ages ago in Japan, was the distribution of a certain DS emulator in class. I have no idea where the emulator originated from, but I’m not complaining. My other classmates having fun with other games such as Cooking Mama aren’t complaining either, since almost 50% of my class owns a PSP, while no one owns a DS. Sad, but true.

Anyway, back to stuff regarding the game. Firstly, I have a great dislike for the idea of travelling from one new land to another using the jet-ski. Unlike the warpholes and the keys in the DQM and DQM II respectively, there is a limited number of islands that the player can visit, even with the few random islands. This greatly limits the number of monsters the player can face. I’ve gotten bored of facing the same few monsters over and over again.

Levelling’s a chore, but you don’t really need to worry much since I completed the game with 3 level 20 monsters. Finding new monsters to breed is a pain too, and being unable to choose the “gender” of your monster after synthesis makes things worse.

Next, the length of the main story is incredibly short and uninteresting. This is one huge flaw, since by 50% of my way through the game, I was still playing on just for the sake of completing the game, not to find out more about the plot developments. Also, unlike the previous 2 DQM games where the storyline had a link, this has totally nothing to do with any past DQM game, which is a negative point for me. I loved the old storyline.

The final point to rant about is the amount of crap the game puts the player through. There’s a whole lot of useless travelling around some islands, which results in wasted time. Let’s not forget all the trials you have to go through after you complete the main storyline in order to fight the new bitchy chairwoman. Synthesis is going to consume a whole lot of time, and the battle arena has opponents that can be crushed rather easily. I gave up on trying to complete the post-main game events because it just isn’t logical to burn any more time on it.

Still, not everything is horrible. 3D is always welcomed, and so is the change to some parts of the gameplay elements, such as scouting instead of the usual feeding of meat to get new monsters. I spot a nifty Wifi feature; something about wireless player-to-player battling, as well as connecting to the server daily to download a new opponent for battle. Sadly, I don’t own the real thing, so this feature is beyond my reach. I’ll probably give it a better rating if I could try my hand at it though, since the concept really appeals to me.

I’m looking forward to the next DQM game, although I’m not even sure if Square Enix has plans for one. A remake wouldn’t be too bad an idea either. Imagine playing DQM II in 3D on the PS3. That’ll be totally epic. Damn, I’m such a Dragon Quest fan boy.