Back in December, I reviewed Square Enix’s monster-collecting RPG Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness on the switch. Despite its many technical issues, I enjoyed my time with it. I expect it will land like PC Dragon Quest Treasureanother Nintendo Switch exclusive, but one I didn’t expect to be released on mobile. Latest releases from Square Enix Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness All previous paid DLC on iOS, Android, and Steam introduced the game with a lower entry point but removed one feature. This is online real-time multiplayer combat. besides, Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness On Steam and mobile, it’s already a better experience in terms of value alone for its lower price point and included content, but in this crowded release period and its premium price, is this game worth it? What about spending time? This is what I want to answer with my answer Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Action Reviews also covers games on the Steam Deck.
if you are not familiar with Dragon Quest Monsters itself, it is a spin-off series from the main series Dragon Quest The game features turn-based combat, but instead of the main player fighting, you capture, breed, and raise monsters to fight for you. when i play Dragon Quest TreasureI enjoyed it, but was told it was a “Monsters-lite” game, so when Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Announced for Switch, I’m excited to play it. I ended up liking it, as you can see from the review linked above, but I think it’s a very strong monster collecting RPG with turn-based combat, whether you like it or not Dragon Quest Or not. what makes Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Even more interesting is that it feels like a side story and prequel Dragon Quest IV. Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness There is also a seasonal feature where monsters change depending on the season and region you are in.
When it comes to stories, Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darknessthe moments in IV already make it more interesting than the usual spin-offs, but I found myself more focused on creating the monster party of my dreams than worrying about the narrative. I’m really pleased with how well thought out the mechanics are and how the large areas, hundreds of monsters, and combat make me want to keep playing it on Switch, not to mention now on iPhone, iPad, and other platforms. In addition to normal turn-based combat and recruiting new monsters, synthesis Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Just like Fusion in Shin Megami Tensei, you can do a lot with your skills here. The seasons here not only change the monsters, but also the areas you can explore through map changes. This means that bodies of water you can’t cross will freeze over for a season, giving you a new secret.
Combat can get monotonous in a game like this, so I’m glad to see a lot of quality-of-life features here, like a tactics menu similar to the original game Persona 3direct orders, etc. You’re not just here to defeat enemies, but to scout them and bring them into your party and become stronger. I didn’t end up testing online multiplayer on the Switch, so I can’t comment on how much of a loss here is, but it’s still a game mode that was cut. If you do play the game on Switch, keep this in mind, as this is the only area where the mobile and Steam versions are lacking compared to the Switch.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness There’s a lot of content that already comes with it, but the DLC just enhances the experience. This DLC is sold in the Digital Deluxe Edition or as a standalone DLC for the base game. The DLC alone costs over $25 on the Switch, so getting the complete base game with all the DLC for $24 on a mobile device is an amazing deal, but I’ll get to that in a moment. The DLC includes “Mole Hole”, “Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym” and “Treasure Chest”. The Mole Hole is a dungeon that lets you scout (recruit) monsters you’ve fought before, making min-maxing during gameplay much easier. DLC also helps speed things up, as you can also easily scout for monsters that only appear in certain seasons or through crafting.
The Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym DLC features randomly generated maps that are intended to be a post-game challenge rather than an experience while playing the game. The final DLC is just a chest that can be opened once an hour, with a total of 10 items. This is like a cheat DLC if you can. I don’t think it’s a good thing to include useful game modes or content in paid DLC, but that’s no longer an issue as all of this is included in the base asking price on iOS, Androidl and Steam.
Now let’s understand the mobile port functionality. With Square Enix, you can never be sure what features will be included in the final game. Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness No controller support. This is really disappointing because the game is essentially a console game ported to mobile devices. I’ve tried 6 different controllers but haven’t had any luck. In addition to controller support, Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness There is cloud storage and some graphics options on iOS. The cloud is great for saving work.
When it comes to control, I’m surprised at how effective it can be Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Feel it through touch. It uses the floating joystick on the left to move and the jump button when exploring. One minor issue you may encounter is that some touch targets on non-Plus/Max phones are a bit small. However, this is not an issue at all on the iPad. The controls feel good, but Square Enix should have kept full controller support since this is, after all, a console game being ported to mobile.
One of my only real questions Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness The issues on Switch are technical. The framerate at launch was rough, and the visuals weren’t great. The former is solved to some extent, with Pokemon scarlet and purplebut the latter was never repaired. I didn’t have any major visual or performance issues on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 12, or even the iPad Pro. There are some issues on the iPhone 15 Pro when running at the highest graphics quality settings and moving through certain locations, but nowhere near as bad as on the Switch. The game feels much better on iOS. See a comparison of low and high graphics options on the iPhone 15 Pro below:
There are no specific visual or frame rate settings on mobile devices other than the resolution option in display settings. This allows you to choose low, medium or high graphics quality options for gaming. These presets also affect other settings such as frame rate limiting and post-processing. This setting can only be changed from the title screen on mobile devices, whereas you can adjust it on the fly on PC. I stick to high settings on all my iPhones. Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, there are some minor performance issues even on the iPhone 15 Pro. Low settings seem unusable because it becomes so blurry. On my 2020 iPad Pro, the high preset showed more frequent frame drops than the iPhone, and it also seemed to be running with some tweaked settings. Overall, even the older iPad Pro works well, but not as well as expected with the iPhone 15 Pro. Every device I’ve tested (including the iPhone 12) runs much better than the Nintendo Switch.
Visually, it looks much cleaner than the Switch, even when playing at high speeds on older iOS devices. Square Enix didn’t just do a simple port here. It supports full screen when playing games on my iPhone 15 Pro, even providing patterns or artwork to fill the screen in areas with pre-rendered or static 16:9 elements. This pattern or artwork is mainly used on my iPad Pro since it doesn’t support full screen gaming. This also works on the Steam Deck to compensate for the aspect ratio of some parts. I’m glad to see Square Enix put in the work here to make sure it still looks good regardless of the aspect ratio.
Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Steam Deck Impressions
On the Steam Deck, no matter what my settings are, I can’t get Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Even at the low preset when playing at 800p, it operates at a locked 90fps. I decided to go with the 60fps target, which was easier to achieve. One weird thing is that when playing the game normally on the Steam Deck, the game doesn’t let you adjust the resolution. You can do this by forcing the resolution to be used in the game properties before launching the game. Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness On PC, you can adjust graphics quality (low, medium, high), anti-aliasing (off, low, medium, high), maximum frame rate (30 to unlimited), toggle vertical sync, and adjust display mode (windowed, full screen), no borders). If you play games at 60 fps, I recommend setting the Steam Deck OLED refresh rate to 60 to avoid judder.
Played now Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness On iOS, iPadOS, Steam Deck, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite, the Switch version is hands down the worst, even though online mode has been removed from mobile devices and Steam. Massive performance improvements and better visuals, along with all the DLC included for a lower asking price, only make it better. One thing to note is that the game is marked as Steam Deck Playable and unverified, as Valve says some of the in-game text is small and may be difficult to read. I have no problem with this, and I think Valve has marked games with smaller text as “verified” before. Either way, you can safely purchase the game and play it on the Steam Deck.
if you skip Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness On Switch, the new mobile port and Steam port are the best options. While the mobile version’s lack of controller support is disappointing, it’s still a game I play regularly because of its improvements in switching and its excellent core gameplay loop. The inclusion of all DLC means you’ll have enough content to last you longer. If you value controller support in games like this, then Steam Deck is the way to go. Hopefully we see more continue to come from Square Enix Dragon Quest In the future, games will move to mobile phones. Currently, the iOS version Dragon Quest Monsters: Prince of Darkness Easily one of the best action releases of the year.
