This review contains spoilers
(Review at ~24 Hours of gameplay)
A game letting you think you're getting away with something while still balancing accordingly is a powerful motivator to keep playing.
DQM The Dark Prince might be the highest quality turn based battling that I've played in a new release in years, the difficulty curve perfectly compliments the progression of power as you fuse stronger and cooler monsters. I'm on the verge of 12 different decision trees all converging in satisfying ways resulting in systems that feel like cheating but the game is gently pushing you along the entire time. As a consideration, I took notes while playing the game and I feel it improved my experience immensely.
At present the game has shown me 28.8% of its 500+ monster catalog. That tells me that there is not only more content to be seen, but there are plenty of gaps in my bestiary to suggest the creation of even more monster combinations of strategic growth and battle strategies.
I've performed just shy of 100 fusions, where I'm confident over 80% of them result in original species. This means I'm in a constant cycle of making new Monsters, searching for the path of evolution to make the next higher tier.
I've won 318 battles. Between the overworld encounters, arena fights, bosses, and encounters to recruit more monsters, 104 successfully ended in scouting a monster. These are important numbers because it's showing that a third of the time I got into a battle, it was building up my strength through acquiring raw resources, and 2/3rds of the time building up the strength of my team by cultivating resources I already had.
Like all great "Number Go Up" games, it comes down to resource management on a micro and macro scale. Read my Fire Emblem post if you haven't and want to, but I kind of articulate this that if you are investing your gametime into different avenues of getting more powerful, the cohesion for replaying the game is a lot stronger. Your team is getting stronger, your skills are getting stronger. It’s very engaging as you are juggling present and future investments to create the ultimate team of strong and silly guys.
I already believe I’ll put in an embarrassing number of hours into this game. Will the game stick the narrative landing? They’ve handled this game and characters with care, even if I don’t LIKE Toilin, the themes he represents about humanity being guilty and innocent on his path to seek revenge against his father as a representation of the world. The fact that the game is giving this Monsters spinoff something to work with shows that this is both a fully fleshed out game with more voice acting that 4 Treasures stapled together, and something that will appease long term fans as they wait for more information and news on mainline entries.
So this game is an instant recommendation if you enjoy making complex decision matrices, love anti-hero stories, and can’t help but like a picture of a Slime on social media.
Next update at 48 hours or credits, whichever comes first.
A game letting you think you're getting away with something while still balancing accordingly is a powerful motivator to keep playing.
DQM The Dark Prince might be the highest quality turn based battling that I've played in a new release in years, the difficulty curve perfectly compliments the progression of power as you fuse stronger and cooler monsters. I'm on the verge of 12 different decision trees all converging in satisfying ways resulting in systems that feel like cheating but the game is gently pushing you along the entire time. As a consideration, I took notes while playing the game and I feel it improved my experience immensely.
At present the game has shown me 28.8% of its 500+ monster catalog. That tells me that there is not only more content to be seen, but there are plenty of gaps in my bestiary to suggest the creation of even more monster combinations of strategic growth and battle strategies.
I've performed just shy of 100 fusions, where I'm confident over 80% of them result in original species. This means I'm in a constant cycle of making new Monsters, searching for the path of evolution to make the next higher tier.
I've won 318 battles. Between the overworld encounters, arena fights, bosses, and encounters to recruit more monsters, 104 successfully ended in scouting a monster. These are important numbers because it's showing that a third of the time I got into a battle, it was building up my strength through acquiring raw resources, and 2/3rds of the time building up the strength of my team by cultivating resources I already had.
Like all great "Number Go Up" games, it comes down to resource management on a micro and macro scale. Read my Fire Emblem post if you haven't and want to, but I kind of articulate this that if you are investing your gametime into different avenues of getting more powerful, the cohesion for replaying the game is a lot stronger. Your team is getting stronger, your skills are getting stronger. It’s very engaging as you are juggling present and future investments to create the ultimate team of strong and silly guys.
I already believe I’ll put in an embarrassing number of hours into this game. Will the game stick the narrative landing? They’ve handled this game and characters with care, even if I don’t LIKE Toilin, the themes he represents about humanity being guilty and innocent on his path to seek revenge against his father as a representation of the world. The fact that the game is giving this Monsters spinoff something to work with shows that this is both a fully fleshed out game with more voice acting that 4 Treasures stapled together, and something that will appease long term fans as they wait for more information and news on mainline entries.
So this game is an instant recommendation if you enjoy making complex decision matrices, love anti-hero stories, and can’t help but like a picture of a Slime on social media.
Next update at 48 hours or credits, whichever comes first.
tsdenizen
4 months ago