DQ Monsters - Caravan Heart (Eng. Fan Translation)

[aweigh]

I only just stumbled upon this shit... never even knew anything about this! Anyway here is some footage of the game in action:

Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart is the third game in the Dragon Quest Monsters series, released only in Japan by Enix for the Game Boy Advance. The game was simultaneously announced with Dragon Quest VIII in Famitsu in 2002. Like the other Dragon Quest titles, development of Caravan Heart was led by Yuji Horii.

On Prince Keifer's tenth birthday, the prince was looking for a way to cause a little trouble and sneak out of Gran Estard Castle. This makes his father very angry, and when Keifer is finally caught, he hides in his room. While hiding in the closet, a masked figure that calls herself The Master of the Illusions, Magarugi appears and tells Keifer that if he finds the Orbs of Loto, he will be given one wish. Keifer is pulled into the spirit's realm of Torland, the world of Dragon Quest II. When he first arrives, he encounters a caravan with a weak leader, Luin. Luin is also searching for the Orbs to save his sick parents. After their first battle together, the Caravan ask Keifer to lead them. All together, must travel the world in order to find the to cure Luin's sick parents and allow Keifer to return to Estard Island.

Note: This is a fan translation version as the game didn't release in North America or Europe. Kinda sad as the game is actually very good. Would recommend people to try to find the English fan translated version and give it a try on emulation.

I actually have never bothered playing any of the DQ Monsters games because I always just assumed they were straight-up Pokemon clones but apparently they arent - or at least THIS entry is not. The game features 4 character party plus normal turn-based DQ battle system along with a complete ((what-if)) scenario story centering around DQ7s Kiefer that is gaiden to DQ7 itself and takes place in the world of DQ 2.

Apparently this is the only DQ Monsters entry that takes place in a main-line DQ world and uses main-line DQ characters but someone feel free to correct me on this since Ive never played any of them (like I said I always assumed they were just budget-clones of Pokemon games) and am too lazy to google-proof my own posts.

ROM Link: www.google.com

 

[CryptRat]

Yes my brother would know better but the Dragon Quest Monster Joker games on DS have a 3 monter party, monster fusion and stuff, they're no direct Pokemon clones. I think he likes them about as much as main Dragon Quest games. No idea about a potential direct connection with a main Dragon Quest game.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Even the old gameboy (color) ones play like a regular DQ.



They're short and fun enough, worth a look even if you don't like the poking men. If you like the breeding aspect, you can have an OP monster with all the skills you like, but bosses will usually ask to join when defeated and random recruits are good enough.

 

[Alkarl]

I've been a fan for awhile. They aren't quite pokemon, as stated above. They play far closer to the regular DQ games, just with an all monster party. I can't remember too much of the story of any of them, but I don't think any of the ones we've received connect to the mainline in any meaningful way.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I like DQ Monsters more than the mainline games. To call them mere Pokemon clones is doing the spinoff series a major disservice, and making Pokemon look much better than it is (in comparison). When the first DQM came out it was doing shit that was light years ahead of Pokemon, such as breeding and other mechanics that made it far more complex and engaging. Dragon Quest Joker and Joker 2 for the DS look and play way better than any modern Pokemon game and the thing that blew my mind in them was how the monsters, characters and world were up-to-scale. A giant monster actually was giant and watching them walking around the world would make you shit your pants and want to run away fast so they don't come and stomp all over your low tier team. It made world exploration feel so cool. Joker 3 exists as well, but it was never localized in the west, unfortunately. The games are also suitably challenging and so you won't get bored. Anyone who likes Dragon Quest should like these games as well.

And honestly, who the heck wouldn't want to play a monster training game with all the cool monsters designed by Akira Toriyama?

 

[aweigh]

joker 3 has a fan-translation. i haven't been able to find a CITRA-compatible ROM of it but there is a patch for the physical cartridge (patching applied via hacked physical 3ds).

There probably is a citra-compatibe ROM with the patch already applied but I haven't looked hard enough.

 

[flyingjohn]

joker 3 has a fan-translation. i haven't been able to find a CITRA-compatible ROM of it but there is a patch for the physical cartridge (patching applied via hacked physical 3ds).

There probably is a citra-compatibe ROM with the patch already applied but I haven't looked hard enough.

A bird told me that if you go to Google and combine the words of the game you want + nicoblog,you might get your wish fulfilled.

 

[mck]

I played a good bit of the first Joker game on DS and really enjoyed it. Recently tried the aforementioned English translation of the new one and it looks great (very similar to the DQ 7 3DS remake). I haven't really gotten too far into the game though, but I assume it's quality.

 

[Zerth]

I used to play in my gameboy color DQ monsta II alongside Pokemon Blue. I'm not as fond of this spinoff as I used to be, yet I admit It was pretty thrilling to explore first time the desert zone of DQ II and stumble across a town deep within the wastelands.

Whilst pokémon is relatively compact and systematic, DQ monsters is more loose designed and random where you can truly go nuts with figures and numbers through breeding, and well, DQ monsters is mostly about that: you can pick a slime, couple it with a golem over and over until you have a slime child with an insane STR growth stat. Also you can obtain signature DQ Bosses as party's monsters through breeding.

Joker titles introduced a helluva amount of passive abilities and night/day cycles, also the sequel and onward added monster size as an interesting game mechanic. Size's differences are significant, with giant monsters being mostly double size of a big one, finding one of those giant dudes in the wild is awesome, background music switches and every small monster around starts to run away.

Yet, there's nothing else to do besides raising monsters and fight other teams in the arena. As bland as it is, Pokémon exploration is fairly superior.

 

[deuxhero]

Is the DQMII remake better than the original? I felt the original had potential but too slow and unbalanced to use it.

 

[Siveon]

Is the DQMII remake better than the original? I felt the original had potential but too slow and unbalanced to use it.

There's no English translation for that yet, so I don't think anyone can tell you. People seem to like the 3DS remake of Dragon Quest Monsters, though.

 

[TigerKnee]

DQM1's Terry became a playable character in DQVI as an adult.

Is the DQMII remake better than the original? I felt the original had potential but too slow and unbalanced to use it.

Man, if you think the original GB games were slow...