Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World offers up a blend of classic charm and familiar gameplay

Believe it or not, the monster taming genre existed far before Pokemon. The Dragon Quest Monsters series had the honor of beating Nintendo to the punch, but it never hit the western market as hard as a certain yellow mouse. With that in mind, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World brings back memories of childhood monster tamers with the fantasy and humor Dragon Quest is known for. But it doesn’t really matter if it came before Pokemon if it isn’t as fun as Pokemon.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World stars two heroines, Bianca and Nera from Dragon Quest V, each hoping to find a miracle cure for their sick fathers in this monster-ridden world. You can choose to take control of either heroine and can switch between them throughout the game. For my demo, I chose to play as Bianca because of her energetic personality. However, each heroine also specializes in certain monster types.

Like the personality quiz in Dragon Quest III, you answer three questions to determine your partner at the beginning of Withered World. At first, I got a dopey eggplant dude called Woebergine. But, because I thought it was ugly, I decided to try again and got Vegandragora next. This ultimately didn’t matter too much, considering you could completely abandon that monster for one of the others you can scout in the opening level. Within 20 minutes, I quickly expanded my team to four monsters. 

Instead of Poke Balls, Withered World uses a Scout mechanic to recruit monsters on the field. The likelihood of scouting the monster goes up when its HP is low, similar to how Pokemon are more likely to be captured when weak. Early tutorials made the concept easy to understand and painless to implement. As a plus, I still gained experience after scouting monsters and ending battles early because of it. 

I also got to experiment with the fusion mechanic that mashed monsters together. You can get copies of the same monster, and even though you aren’t pressured to do that, it’s good to know that I can shove them in the proverbial meat grinder and get stronger party members out of them. With that, I was able to summon higher-level monsters like Drake Slime and Dragonthorn and carry over abilities from their original forms. It’s a nice touch for potentially creating super-strong monsters with abilities they usually wouldn’t be able to have in the wild.

Early on, the girls visit King Withers and find out that the cure for their sick fathers is not possible at the moment because of the decaying Tree of Life. The king gives them a sacred item called the Waterwing Can, which you can use to water checkpoints that heal your monsters and teleport throughout the map. This same can has the power to revitalize the Tree of Life—if you can make it past the monsters.

Even in the demo, the zany personalities and absurd scenarios that Dragon Quest is known for were on full display. Debora, Nera’s older sister, somehow joins the gang and seeks the Tree of Life for the ultimate skincare routine. I'm not a fan of the localized southern accent for Bianca, but I suppose they needed to find a way to represent the Japanese equivalent.

Throughout all this, even though I could agree Withered World is uniquely Dragon Quest, I didn’t feel it offered much outside of monster taming games I’d seen before. In one hour, I got a good grip of the tone to expect and what the progression should feel like, though it could still surprise me later on. I don’t expect it to hit the emotional beats of Digimon or the thematic darkness of Shin Megami Tensei. But, if you’re looking for a Pokemon-like with a Dragon Quest skin over it, then this is close enough.