Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince iOS Game Review – Much Better Than Switch, But With Two Flaws

Back in December, I reviewed Square Enix’s monster-collecting RPG for Switch. I loved my time with it, despite its many technical issues. I expected it to return to PC like , one other Nintendo Switch exclusive, but I didn’t expect a mobile release. Square Enix’s latest release on iOS, Android, and Steam brings the entire previous paid DLC to the sport at a lower entry point, but removes one feature. That’s the real-time online multiplayer battles. Beyond that, there’s already a a lot better experience on Steam and mobile, simply as a result of its lower cost and included content, but is the sport value your time during this crowded release period and given its high price? That’s the query I’m going to reply in my mobile review, which will even include the sport on Steam Deck.

If you’re not accustomed to it, it’s a spin-off series of the major games with turn-based combat, but as an alternative of the major player fighting, you catch, raise, and nurture monsters to fight for you. When I played it, I enjoyed it, but I used to be told it was a “Monsters-lite” game, so when it was announced for Switch, I used to be excited to play it. I ended up loving it, as you possibly can see from my review linked above, but I feel it’s a really strong monster-collecting RPG with turn-based combat, whether you prefer it or not. What was much more interesting was that it seems like a side story and prequel to . It also had a seasonal feature where the monsters would change depending on the season and the world you were in.

Story-wise, the bits and pieces from IV already made it more interesting than a daily spin-off, but I focused more on getting my dream team of monsters than worrying in regards to the plot. I’m super blissful with how well thought out the mechanics are and the way the massive zones, lots of of monsters, and combat made me wish to keep playing, even on Switch after I first finished it, let alone on iPhone, iPad, and Steam Deck. Aside from the traditional turn-based battles and recruiting recent monsters, Synthesis in is sort of a Shin Megami Tensei fusion, and there is just a lot you possibly can do together with your skills. The seasons here not only change the monsters, but additionally the areas you possibly can explore with changes to the map. This implies that a body of water you possibly can’t cross will probably be frozen during a season, providing you with access to a brand new secret.

Combat in games like this will be repetitive, so I’m glad to see loads of quality-of-life features here, like a tactics menu that works similarly to the unique, direct commands, and more. You’re not only here to defeat enemies, but additionally to scout them, to bring them into your team and grow to be stronger. Ultimately, I didn’t test out the web multiplayer on Switch much, so I am unable to comment on how much of a loss it’s here, however it’s still a game mode that was cut. If you’ve got played it on Switch, keep that in mind, as it is the one area where the mobile and Steam versions are inferior to the Switch.

already shipped with loads of content, however the DLC just upped the experience level. This DLC was sold within the Digital Deluxe Edition or as a standalone DLC for the bottom game. The DLC alone cost over $25 on Switch, so getting the complete base game with all of the DLC for $24 on mobile makes it an incredible deal, but I’ll get to that in a moment. This DLC included The Mole Hole, Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym, and Treasure Trunks. The Mole Hole was a dungeon that allowed you to scout (recruit) monsters you’d fought before, making it much easier to max out as you played. The DLC was also good for speeding things up, as you would also easily scout monsters that only appeared during a selected season or through synthesis.

Coach Joe’s Dungeon Gym DLC has randomly generated maps and is supposed to be post-game challenges quite than in-game experiences. The final DLC is just a chest that will be opened once per hour, containing a complete of 10 items. It’s type of a cheat DLC, so to talk. I didn’t find it great to have useful game modes or content in paid DLC, but that is now not a difficulty because it’s all included on iOS, Android, and Steam for the bottom price.

Now let’s move on to the features of the mobile port. With Square Enix you possibly can never make sure what features will probably be in the ultimate game. There isn’t any controller support. This is beyond disappointing for the reason that game is literally a console title ported to mobile devices. I attempted 6 different controllers without success to make certain. In addition to controller support, there may be cloud save and a couple of graphical options on iOS. Cloud save works tremendous.

As for the controls, I used to be surprised at how well the touch controls felt. It uses the floating joystick on the left for movement and the jump button mainly for exploration. The only minor issue you may run into is that among the touch targets are a bit small on non-Plus/Max phones. They’re not an issue on iPads though. The controls are good, but Square Enix must have left full controller support since it is a console game ported to mobile.

One of my only real issues with the Switch was the technical side of things. The frame rate was poor at launch, and the graphics weren’t great either. The former has been addressed to some extent, unlike , however the latter was never fixed. I didn’t have any major issues with graphics or performance on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 12, and even iPad Pro. There are some hiccups on the iPhone 15 Pro when running at the best graphics quality setting and navigating certain areas, however it’s nowhere near as bad because it is on the Switch. The game feels a lot better on iOS. Check out the comparison of the high and low graphics options on the iPhone 15 Pro below:

On mobile, there aren’t any specific visual or frame rate settings beyond the resolution option within the display settings. This enables you to play at low, medium, or high graphics quality. These presets also affect other settings, corresponding to the frame rate limit and post-processing. This setting can only be modified from the title screen on mobile, while on PC you possibly can adjust it on the fly. I stuck to the high setting on all of my iPhones. Unfortunately, it has some minor performance issues even on the iPhone 15 Pro, as I discussed above. The low setting seems unusable as a result of how blurry it’s. On my 2020 iPad Pro, the high preset has more regular frame drops than the iPhone, and it also seems to work with some tweaked settings. Overall, even the older iPad Pro runs well with it, but not in addition to the iPhone 15 Pro as expected. Every device I tested it on, including the iPhone 12, ran a lot better with it than on the Nintendo Switch.

Visually, it looks much cleaner than the Switch even on older iOS devices when playing at a high level. Square Enix didn’t just do a bare-bones port here. It has full-screen support for gameplay on my iPhone 15 Pro, and even has a pattern or graphic to fill the screen in areas with pre-rendered or static 16:9 elements. This pattern or graphic is especially used on my iPad Pro, because it doesn’t support full-screen gameplay there. This also applies to Steam Deck to make up for that aspect ratio in parts. I’m glad Square Enix put within the work here to make certain it still looks good no matter aspect ratio.

Impressions from the steam deck

On Steam Deck, no matter my settings, I could not get the sport to run at a locked 90fps even with the low presets, while playing at 800p. I made a decision to go for a 60fps goal, and it was much easier to attain. One of the eccentricities is that the sport doesn’t let you alter the resolution while playing normally on Steam Deck. You can do this by forcing the resolution in the sport properties before launching it. On PC, it enables you to change the graphics quality (low, medium, high), anti-aliasing (off, low, medium, high), maximum frames per second (from 30 to unlimited), toggle v-sync, and adjust the display mode (windowed, fullscreen, borderless). If you are playing at 60fps, I like to recommend setting the Steam Deck OLED refresh rate to 60 to avoid judder as well.

I’ve played it on iOS, iPadOS, Steam Deck, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite, so there’s little question that the Switch version is the worst of the bunch, despite the incontrovertible fact that the web mode has been faraway from mobile and Steam. The massive performance boost and improved graphics with all of the DLC available for download at a much lower cost make the sport even higher. It’s value noting that the sport is listed as Steam Deck Playable, not Verified, because Valve claims that among the text in the sport is small and will be difficult to read. I had no issues with this, and it seems to me that Valve has previously marked games with smaller text as Verified. Either way, you possibly can safely buy this game to play on Steam Deck.

If you’ve skipped Switch, the brand new mobile and Steam ports are the method to go. While the mobile version without controller support is disappointing, it’s still a game I play frequently as a result of its improvements over Switch and the improbable core gameplay loop. All the included DLC means you’ll have enough content to last you even longer. If you value controller support in a game like this, Steam Deck is the method to go. Hopefully, Square Enix will bring more games to mobile in the long run. Right now, the iOS version is definitely among the finest mobile releases this yr.