Dragon Quest Monsters

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Dragon Quest Monsters (Japanese: ドラゴンクエストモンスターズ) is a monster breeding video game series based on the fictional Dragon Quest universe made by Enix Corporation now known as Square Enix. In North America, the series is known as Dragon Warrior Monsters.

The game playing mechanics are similar to another popular video game series, Pokémon; however, Dragon Quest has had monster catching elements since the Super Famicom game Dragon Quest V. As of 2005, there are four Dragon Quest Monsters titles, three for Game Boy Color and one for Game Boy Advance. One important element to the Dragon Quest Monsters series that makes it different from Pokémon is Dragon Quest Monster's extensive breeding system. In Dragon Quest Monsters, the player can take two monsters of opposite genders and breed them together, no matter what the species. For example, breeding a Slime with a Golem will result in a Rockslime, with powers and abilities from both Parents. The results are a very large amount of new monsters, most from other Dragon Quest games but others exclusively created for the Dragon Quest Monsters games by Akira Toriyama. Dragon Quest Monsters is the prequel of the Super Famicom game, Dragon Quest VI.

The only difference between Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru no Bouken and Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Ruka no Tabadachi titles were the different types of monsters that the player hero or heroine can obtain -- Iru's (the male character) game contains more direct damage based monsters, while Ruka's (the female character, Iru's sister) game contains more support type monsters, such as Healers and monsters that do status effects.

Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart diverts from the series slightly. The main character is Keifer at age 10. In Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, the player get both monsters and human people to join the party, which is much larger than the previous games. Other differences include a supply system that requires your caravan make frequent stops to pick up supplies and the aformentioned combination of both monsters and human team members. One final, very large difference is the removal of the breeding system. Instead, when defeating monsters in Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, the player occasionally gain "monster hearts", which also made an appearance in Dragon Quest VII. Using 1 or 2 Monster Hearts, the player can merge a monster into a newer monster form, similar to Shin Megami Tensei's system. This allows three "parents" for young monsters in Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, and increases exponentially the number of breeding comments. Caravan Heart is the prequel of the PSOne game, Dragon Quest VII.

In 2002, Enix made a PSOne port of the first two Dragon Quest Monsters games in Japan. The PSOne port of the first two Dragon Quest Monsters games and Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart are not confirmed for the United States, although the translation of Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart is still a possibility.

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Game titles

Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland for Game Boy Color (1998) (Renamed Dragon Warrior Monsters in the United States)
Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru no Bouken for Game Boy Color (2001) (Renamed Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey in the US)
Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Ruka no Tabidachi for Game Boy Color (2001) (Renamed Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure in the US)
Dragon Quest Monsters I & II for PSOne (2002) (Not released in the United States)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart for Game Boy Advance (2003) (Not released in the United States)
Dragon Quest Monsters for Nintendo DS (TBA)