Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2

Story

Monster Scouts are famed for their talent at training monsters - they tame wild beasts and assemble teams of amazing creatures, which they then send into ferocious, raging battles against other Monster Scout teams. The most courageous commanders of critters meet every year in the Monster Scout Challenge, where they battle for the honour of becoming world champion.

Just getting to the Monster Arena where the event takes place is difficult enough though: only the very best get to go, and securing passage on an airship is tricky at best. Our hero - a young Monster Scout desperate to take part in the championship - stows away on the Albatross, an airship bound for the Monster Arena. Unfortunately, fate has other plans for the ship, and it’s pulled off course by a terrific storm to crash on an unknown island...

The island is a dangerous place, full of exotic, never-before-seen monsters ripe for scouting. More importantly though, the Albatross’ passengers have been scattered across the island - there’s nothing for our hero to do but take charge, track them down and find a way to escape the enigmatic island!

Characters

Our hero:

This ambitious young chap (with ultra-impressive haircut) is the hero of our adventure. Driven and determined in his quest to become the top Monster Scout, this guy won’t stop ‘til he makes it big!

Captain Rex Mayday:

A fine swashbuckling fellow and head honcho of the good ship Albatross, he once dreamed of life as a Monster Scout too...

Rory Bellows:

A big, beefy lump of a man who happens to be the chief engineer of the Albatross. His gruff demeanour masks a super-reliable, amiable nature.

Archie Logg:

A true intellectual who spends his time leafing through crumbling old tomes, investigating ancient ruins and poking suspect artefacts in the pursuit of knowledge. His quest is to learn as much as he can about monster origins.

Lily Gilder:

She thinks she’s got what it takes, and says she’ll stop at nothing to get what she wants. Who cares what the truth is? She’s off to the Monster Scout Challenge to become number one!

Eugene Poole:

A lifelong fan of the Monster Scout Challenge, Eugene has stalwartly returned to compete in every single one. Sure, he may have a grey ol’ noggin and be ready to apply for his airbus pass, but age ain’t nothin’ but a number!

Melonie:

This benign and breezy young lady is off to start a new job in the Monster Scout Challenge - but being a Monster Scout assistant might prove to be trickier than she thinks!

Battles & Scouting

The mysterious island is brimming with savage beasts that pose a threat to your safety! But, if you use your monster scouting abilities carefully, you should be able to recruit some creatures and form a team. Then you can train them up to become stronger and take on the island’s secrets from your base (the wreck of the Albatross) and perhaps even escape in time for the Monster Scout Challenge!

The more battles your team wins, the stronger they get. You can even use your team to scout new monsters for your collection!

To battle

As you explore the different regions of the island you’ll see wild monsters wandering around - it’s up to you whether you attack or avoid them...

If you run into a wild beast, your team of allies will enter a turn-based battle where you can select commands and issue orders to guide their actions. You can give specific orders just for the current turn, set overall tactics for your monsters, try to scout (recruit) monsters into your collection, use items, or attempt to run away!

Winning will earn you experience points, which add up to make your team stronger, and you’ll also receive some gold coins and maybe even some helpful items. Winning will also sometimes earn you skill points, which you can allocate to improve and develop your monster’s skills - this lets you customise your monsters in a very personal way.

If you choose to scout a monster, each of your team will launch a show of force that might impress the monster you’re scouting. If your enemy is impressed their scout gauge will fill up to show a percentage.

The stronger your monsters’ attack power, the more the gauge will fill; the higher the gauge goes, the more of a chance you have to scout successfully! If all goes well, the battle will end straight away and your new ally will take its place in your monster menagerie.

Your Base & Exploration

The wreck of the good ship Albatross is your base of operations. Heading back there allows you to rest up and recuperate for free, returning all of your monsters to full health!

The Albatross is also home to a host of handy facilities that will make your mission much easier.

• At the Gold Bank ATM you can save the gold you receive from winning battles - better than losing half if you fall in battle!
• At the Item Vendor you can purchase helpful items or weapons, or sell stuff you don’t need.
• Soon enough, the option to carry out Monster Synthesis will become available... meaning you can combine monsters for amazing results!
• You can have up to six monsters with you at any time (three on your team, and three as substitutes) the rest stay home on the Albatross. The monster pen is where they’ll wait for you, and also where you can sort out your team and subs.

Out and about, the island is made up of several different regions just waiting to be explored; as you play you’ll discover lots of new regions. But new isn’t always better: it’s worth revisiting different regions at different times of the day or under different weather conditions - you never know what you might find!

As you explore, an area map will display on the lower screen to help you find your way around. Out in the world you can talk to people, investigate items of interest like treasure boxes, and collect plants and useful ores. Dotted around the island there are also some pretty unusual stone monuments, well worth taking a gander at - some allow you to learn new skills and abilities, some will heal your party right up just once, and others will even teleport you to other spots in the region. Magic!

Monster Synthesis

Synthesis is where you put in two monsters and get out one that’s even better - you even get to hand-pick the skills and abilities your new monster will inherit from the original monsters you put in. In this way, you can fully customise your creatures to create the ultimate battle team!

There are lots of different types of monsters to recruit from the following family groups: Slime Family, Dragon Family, Nature Family, Beast Family, Material Family, Demon Family and Undead Family. It’s even said that there are super rare species hidden in the world that don’t belong to any of the usual families, but that’s just a story, right?

World Championship

Wireless

In Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 you can battle your pals using Multi-Card Play. Take on a single opponent in a Head-To-Head battle, or play with up to seven mates in a full Tournament.


Just connect, choose your battle rules (like number of turns, whether substitutions are allowed, the turn time limit and more) to get stuck in. Your tournament players will be paired off and fight the first round of battles, the winners will then go on to the next until a winner is finally decided!

You can also trade monsters with mates via local wireless communications, allowing you to get completely new allies for your team from a friend.

Tag Mode

If you put your system into Tag Mode you can automatically battle any opponents you pass on the street - with no chance of your team being wiped out if you lose!

It's also possible to scout monsters via Tag Mode from Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie too!

Online

Over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection you can play one-on-one battles with mates all over the world whose Friend Codes you have registered in your Friend Roster, you can also take on other Monster Scouts you don’t know personally - either way you’ll be facing a team of their very best monsters in a clash for victory!