Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is the newest installment of the creature-collecting spin-off of the legendary Dragon Quest series. This spin-off lets the player wrangle any monster they face and fight with them, similar to the iconic Pokémon series from Game Freak and Nintendo.
Seeing as I have never played the series, I was very skeptical when first jumping into The Withered World. But the demo hooked me right from the get-go. Not because of some bombastic event or its promise of a grand adventure. But instead because of its heartwarming opening, the whimsical introduction to the characters, and how easy the gameplay is to pick up. The demo is only around 3 hours long, and here is what you can expect from it!
The Story of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World follows the story of Bianca and Nera. Two little girls who are searching for a way to save their fathers from an illness. They read about a path of light that will give them leaves of life to save them, and one fateful night, they are dragged to another world by a fairy to search for the leaves together.
As they journey through the world, wrangling monsters and fighting with them by their side, they are stopped by a villain called Thespidor. Thespidor burns the leaves of life that Bianca and Nera find near the end of the demo, and it stops before it gets to the second location in the game.
The pacing of story events and the writing for each character are lovingly crafted. Everyone’s voice actor has a very animated English accent that brings the characters to life as well. While there was no story event that really “wowed” me, the premise of two children venturing into a colorful world to save their parents is very heartwarming. All of this is sandwiched between exploration and the easy-to-pick-up combat system of the game.
Easy Combat, Fun Exploration
Gameplay in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is split into two parts. Wandering around and finding an encounter, and then choosing to fight the monster or wrangle it. But before that, you get to choose whether to be Nera or Bianca. Both have their own pros and cons. Such as, Nera being able to regenerate MP for her monsters after each battle, while Bianca heals them instead. It’s a nice way to make the choice feel important to your preferred playstyle.
But going back to the exploration part of the gameplay. Monsters will just be wandering around, and you can just run into them to start the fight. The game does have chests and other little goodies littered around. But what makes exploration more interesting is that you are given a little water spout to water withered plants in the environment. It’s a cute little mechanic that offers little bonuses to experience points and money gains, and fast travel points that fully restore your monsters.
The combat in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is very simple and easy to enjoy. You can fight with a range of abilities from monsters in your party or try to wrangle one of the monsters you are up against. When trying to wrangle them, you will see a percentage that indicates whether or not you have a good chance of wrangling them. If you fail, you have a chance to anger them and not be able to try again.
My only problem with the wrangling system is that the encounter fully ends when you wrangle a monster, instead of allowing you to go for more than one in one go. But as far as the combat goes, it’s not really challenging. Most enemies don’t pose a threat, and the only unique encounter was with a boss in the story. The boss needed your full party plus any backup monsters in a pretty intense encounter with a unique rage mechanic. This mechanic makes it so the boss deals more damage for a turn, then needs to rest for one, allowing you to do more damage to it in that window of opportunity. It’s the only encounter that truly stood out in the demo, however.
Fusion and Perfect Technical Performance
One final part of the experience in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is its “Synthesis” system. The synthesis system functions like fusion from Shin Megami Tensei and Persona. You are able to fuse two monsters together to get newer, unique ones. The catch with this system, however, is that it resets their level to 1, making you have to grind more. I would much prefer monsters to have specific levels tied to them.
Finally, the game looks and performs perfectly on PC and Valve’s Steam Deck gaming handheld. I never experienced any noticeable framerate drops, and the game looked consistently beautiful. The world is full of lush greens, vibrant browns, and blues in the caves and the desert areas. The most unique part of the presentation is how the world moves as you do. It’s hard to explain, but to similar to Animal Crossing; the world stretches and moves as you go forward. This can be a little jarring, but there are settings to alleviate this part of the presentation in the settings. You can either create shadow vignettes in the corner of your screen. Or lock the camera to an isometric view.
Closing Remarks on the Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World Demo
The demo for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is a very good change of pace right now. It’s bright, cheerful, colorful, and cute, with easy gameplay to enjoy. Even when the demo finishes, it lets you keep playing for as long as you want. Allowing you to keep experimenting with the synthesis and find the party you want to take into the full game in December. It is absolutely worth checking out on your preferred platform.
The Demo for Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is available on:
- PC.
- Xbox.
- Nintendo Switch.
- And PlayStation.
