The best Pokemon announcement at Nintendo Direct was Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

Jordan Gerblick

21 June 2023 at 4:20 pm·2-min read

Arguably the most exciting Pokemon-related news announced during today's Nintendo Direct wasn't actually an official Pokemon game; it was the surprise reveal of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince.

If you aren't familiar with the long-running spinoff series, Monsters can loosely be likened to Dragon Quest's take on Pokemon, featuring a vast assortment of monsters designed by Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama. Unlike the mainline Dragon Quest games, Monsters tasks you with finding and capturing Slimes, MetalKings, Snailys, and loads more to do the dirty work for you while you embark on an epic journey across a large interconnected map.

The first Dragon Quest Monsters released back in 1998 - right around the same time as the Pokemon games and anime came onto the scene. Dragon Quest Monsters features a more robust breeding mechanic than Pokemon, allowing you to combine two creatures together to create a new one. You can also leave out food to coax monsters into joining your crew.

The new Dragon Quest Monsters game centers around Psaro and his companion Rose as they travel through the demon realm of Nadiria. Interestingly, Psaro is the main antagonist from Dragon Quest 4, with Rose originally being an elf with whom Psaro is romantically linked.

The surprise return of the Dragon Quest Monsters series is exciting both to fans of the franchise as well as anyone who might find the "Dragon Quest but Pokemon" elevator pitch appealing. In fact, I'd be willing to wager the announcement overshadows the real Pokemon news we did get: an update on the Scarlet and Violet DLC.

Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince is coming to Switch on December 1.

In the meantime, here are the best Switch games to play right now.

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