Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince puts players in the shoes of Psaro, one of the major villains from Dragon Quest IV, in what is a somewhat remixed version of the story of Dragon Quest IV. Psaro was always a noble antagonist and even ends up with the party in remakes, so it's not as wild as it sounds. This title follows the young Psaro, a half-human/half-demon whose heritage left him an outcast as a child. When his mother grew deathly ill, he sought out his father, the current evil overlord of monsters. His father mocked him and inflicted a curse on him: He may not harm any monster. To add insult to injury, Psaro's mother died while he was seeking help. Understandably bitter, Psaro sets out to defeat his father and get revenge. With his curse, he's forced to rely on monsters that he befriends and recruits to do the fighting for him.

The combat system in The Dark Prince is ... well, it's Dragon Quest. You and the enemy take turns hitting each other and casting spells to heal or do damage until one runs out of HP and falls. If you've ever touched an RPG in your life, you have a pretty good idea of the basics. What separates DQM from other Dragon Quest titles is the monsters. Rather than having a preset party of characters, Psaro fights alongside tamed versions of iconic Dragon Quest monsters. He can deploy up to four monsters at a time, but certain larger monsters may take up more than one spot.

As a result, your party is comprised of monsters that you capture through the tried-and-true process of "threatening them really hard," which either makes them join or causes them to get angry, depending on your success rate. More powerful monsters in your team mean you can have an easier time in subduing monsters, but some monsters will offer to join after a fight, even if you don't manage to convince them. It's pretty RNG, and that makes it tougher to get strong monsters in your party, but that is largely because Monsters is less about capturing monsters and more about breeding them.

Each monster in the game begins with two skill sets. One monster might be able to spec into elemental spells or powerful buffs, and another might be able to focus on physical damage or defensive/support skills. Some sets are raw stat blocks that can be used to further boost an already useful monster's ability. You earn skill points that can be applied to various talents as you level up the monsters.

Once a monster has reached a high enough level, they can be bred with another monster. The resulting monster begins at level one but will be able to inherit skill sets from their parents and will usually be stronger. That monster then can be trained up and bred with other monsters to produce even stronger children, which inherit skill sets, and this can be used to pass powerful skills and traits from weak monsters to absurdly powerful ones. There are even special breeding trees that can give you special monsters if you follow them, but it means you need to plan out how to develop your monsters in addition to getting the right monsters along the way.

It's a simple but incredibly addictive method of monster training. Thankfully, leveling is swift and easy, and unless you're massively over-leveled you'll probably gain levels rapidly beyond the early game. While you can fly by the seat of your pants and worry about cool-looking monsters, it's infinitely more satisfying to find the exact chain of skills and abilities to create something truly special. The game has enough challenges that you're rewarded for doing this, but as long as you can build a reasonably coherent team, you'll be able to muddle through.

The only core problem with Dragon Quest Monsters is that it's extremely straightforward. Like the franchise it is based on, the combat system is the mold around which a massive number of video game RPGs is based. The franchise has stuck to the classic tried-and-true. Functionally, this means that you're playing a standard RPG with heavily customizable characters, rather than something like Pokémon, which is more focused on strengths and weaknesses. You need to approach it as a Dragon Quest-style game, and that might make it less accessible to someone who's looking for a more standard monster trainer experience. This also means that the online multiplayer feels a bit more limited. If you're not using top-ranked, hand-crafted super monsters, it's probably not worth checking it out because it's mostly about the raw power level.

That is the only real core problem with the gameplay, but it's pretty difficult to get around the fact that The Dark Prince runs poorly. It's more akin to Shin Megami Tensei V than Pokémon Violet, but considering the relatively basic environments and simplistic graphics, it does not feel like it should be struggling this much, even on the Switch's relatively weak software. It isn't unplayable, but the graphics are very much in the modern vein of the simple and cartoony 3D graphics that Dragon Quest has used since Dragon Quest VIII. Much like the rest of the game, the soundtrack is standard Dragon Quest fare. I smile every time the bombastic Dragon Quest theme starts up, but it is all very familiar.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is a solid and enjoyable RPG that plays it very safe. If you enjoy Dragon Quest gameplay, then there's a lot to like, and the monster customization and fusing systems allow you to create some truly ridiculous monsters. Overall, it's a nice and breezy RPG. It doesn't break any molds, and it may not engage players who don't already enjoy Dragon Quest-style gameplay, but it knows exactly what it is and goes for it. Some technical issues hold it back and can drag down the experience, but Dragon Quest fans should be able to overlook that with ease.

Score 7.5/10