While I’ve never played any of the Dragon Quest Monsters titles, I am very familiar with Dragon Quest V and consider it to be one of the greatest narratives in a JRPG ever. So, I was relatively pleased when I saw that the fledgling monster tamers that were being introduced in Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World were none other than Bianca and Nera. Now, they’re on a brand-new adventure that pits everything fun about Dragon Quest into a fun, well, quest.
At gamescom, I was granted about 45-minutes of hands-on gameplay on a base-model PS5 that led me through the introduction of The Withered World.
Bringing a Withered World Back to Life
Controlling either Bianca or Nera (I chose Bianca), the session began with a brief introduction to what is going on: your ailing father is in need of what is called the Leaves of Life, which another woman named Deborah is also seeking for her own personal use. I was then whisked away to the overworld with a watering can I could use on dead trees and monsters. Watering some dead trees could provide you with a healing zone that also acts as a fast travel point, while watering others could lead to stat-boosting items.
I also got a chance to briefly check out the battle gameplay since I was provided with my own monster after a brief personality quiz. From the start, you have slots for up to four monsters in your party and four in reserve. I was also able to check out the monster-taming gameplay loop, but not for long, before the session switched over to the other half: the monster synthesis system.
Now I Want to See the Really Wild Monsters
If you’ve played Persona games in the past, you’re likely familiar with the synthesis system presented in The Withered World. I was given a few monsters, all at Level 10 or above, that I could use to combine with others and see what sort of combinations I could conjure up. When doing so, you can choose from a preset list of abilities that your new monster can have once he’s been mixed up.
The few monsters that I was able to make up here made me excited for what sort of late-game monsters can be synthesized, as well as which iconic monsters will be available. Synthesizing was pretty simple, and I felt that there was little room for error when it came to what the outcome of a synthesis would be and whether it would be beneficial to you.
All in all, I left the gameplay session very excited for what will come from the full release and am eager to see where this new journey takes my beloved Nera and Biance. A demo is currently available to check out that goes over exactly what I was able to check out at gamescom. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World will be available on September 3 on PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, and PC.
