User:System Error/CnC 3: Additional Info

This is the Additional Information for Compare and Contrast 3: Dragon Warrior Monsters.

Flavor Text vs. Flavor Text

Pokémon's flavor text is a load of physics-defying crap. Some of it is obvious - such as Phanpy allegedly being able to easily pick up and carry an adult human on its back. You know, with its 3-inch trunk, and have them ride 1 foot from the ground. Some just make no sense, like a gigantic snake comprised of solid steel weighing less than a colossal fatass. Others are more amusing, such as Scyther having to be lying on the ground to create afterimages if the laws of physics are adhered to.

Well, Dragon Warrior Monsters has its own index of sorts too, though it's a library instead of some magical marvel of technology. Let's compare a few that are the same for a laugh.

GASGON: "Traps gas in its body to float in the air."
Koffing: No explanation given as to why it can float. Except smelly gases which are lighter than air; only problem is no such element exists which is both poisonous, smelly, and lighter than Oxygen (I actually checked).

GOPHECADA: "Since it lives underground, it hates light."
Nincada: Also can't withstand sunlight. Though it's "virtually blind", so why should it care?

BOMBCRAG: "Usually dormant and looks like a normal rock." Also explodes.
Geodude: Looks like a normal rock, despite having arms. Also explodes.

But seriously, what's the deal with some of those Pokedex entries? Though I suppose that's another series.

The World

Here's a little more information on the Traveler's Gates. As established, their layouts are semi-random. The layouts from screen to screen are preset and they're made sure to link up properly with one another, but they're chosen at random. A floor can have anywhere from 2-16 screens. Regardless of the layout, each Gate has a certain amount of floors, set monsters which can vary by floor, and a set selection of items you can randomly find. But besides these floors, you can also enter into special rooms. Examples include a healing spot, a shop, a battle arena (participation is mandatory for three rounds, but you get rewards), a room full of treasure (or Mimics!), and three different types of mazes. You won't run into every type in every Gate, however.

Here's the lowdown on what the foreign masters can do for you. Note that all select from the same list of monsters, if stealing's your game.

Knight: Comes in cherry and orange flavor, the knight is the basic foreign master. Both give up a WarpWing and random other item when defeated.
Shopkeeper: One of the more useful ones, who appears if you avoid picking up items on the floor before. Kick his ass, and he'll flood your inventory to the brim with meat of all kinds! A great help and easy access to Sirloin early on.
Bishop: An odd one who allegedly appears if you pick up all the items on a floor. Except...that's not the case. So who the hell knows? Only thing for certain is that when you beat this guy, he'll heal your team.
Wizard: If you've just come off a massive, massive floor - on or at the limit of the full 16 they can be - this guy might show up. If you win, he'll warp you 20 floors down or to the bottom floor, whichever comes first.
Bard: Most useful? Definitely - he'll give each of the monsters with a medicine with a special medicine that boosts a random stat by 20 when you win! The only catch is, he only shows up if the last floor had only 2-3 screens, so he's the rarest.

I really can't go into too much more detail on the gates, as once more, they are semi-random. The only other constant is the boss rooms, which as mentioned are sometimes little puzzles, scenes, or throwback references, but that's about it.

Now let's talk about GreatTree. It's...well, a great tree, basically. On the right side is a marketplace area of sorts, and there are these little nooks in it where the citizens stay. The King's place is at the top, as are most of the gates and the farm, but some are scattered throughout. At the bottom is where you first enter, and though looking like something out of Giygas' lair, is where you go to breed monsters. After completing certain levels of the arena, the tree changes, allowing to access new places.

The farm in the 3DS version.

Now there's the Arena, which is pretty expansive, and in particular has one notable feature. In one room, you can crash and chat up your monsters (as shown in the main article). In Dragon Warrior Monsters moreso than Dragon Quest V, it's quite clear that speech is something all monsters are capable of, and though what they say isn't unique to a species, you do get some real gems such as the aforementioned "you are having a bad hair day".

More on the Monster System

Even though this section does have more information, it's still not nearly the whole course. Let's start off with the various classes of monsters.

Slime: The mascot of the Dragon Quest series, also significantly more consistant than the mascots of the Final Fantasy series. They have quite a bit of variety here.
Dragon: Dragons in an RPG. Of course they're typically powerful, though the flip-side is many of them take quite a while to level up. They commonly learn elemental slash and breath moves.
Beast: Mostly consisting of vicious mammals. Physicality and HP tends to be their game
Bird: Not just traditional birds, but also half-bird-half-man mixes and whatnot. Most have high agility, and many fly, which offers immunity to the LegSweep and BigTrip attacks.
Plant: Magic is typically the game of these dudes, especially status magic. Typically weak when it comes to physical blows, though ones like RoseVine and ManEater are good there. Usually fast to level.
Bug: They tend to level up really fast, except the Armorpion. Most typically have average stats and typically low IN, but the class has some nice skills.
Devil: While they're slow-leveling, and their MP is hit-and-miss, they have stats and skilled tailor-made to send your foes to Hell. The few that don't have skills that'll make them feel like they're in Hell anyway. Really, really offensively-orientated.
Undead: Status is usually the name of the game - both buff and debuff. Stats and leveling curves vary greatly.
Material: Elementals, golems, inanimate objects come to life, and so on. They're usually good with defense.
???: These are home to the boss monsters. They all have high stats all around.

On another note, the sequel adds in the Aquatic category.

In regards to gift monsters, besides the Slime you start off with, there are also the boss monsters at the ends of Traveler's Gates. There are three kinds of those: ones that will never join, ones that are guaranteed to join, and ones who are like any other monster and can be convinced with meat to join. Furthermore, giving enough TinyMedals to the Medal Man will result in him giving you eggs, cumulating with an egg of a Metabble. Finally, standing under a SkyDragon on the farm can net you a free egg as well. Try it again and you'll get crapped on. Seriously.

Like any good monster-training game, interactivity is possible between two games. There's trading and battling, of course. Both self-explanatory as they should be. Game link breeding is a different beast of its own, though.

Here's how it works: both of you choose a monster, and both of you get an egg. You'll generally get whatever it is you would've gotten if the monster you put in was the Pedigree, meaning that yes - you can and probably will get different monsters in your eggs. This can be a great way to get powerful monsters quickly. It sounds simple enough...but there's a catch: your monsters' personalities are taken into account. If there is a clash of personalities, they won't breed. Certain ones are better than others in this regard - for example, Humane monsters will breed with just about anything, but Lazy ones have a grand total of four compatable personalities! Just because their personalities match doesn't mean they're compatable, either. Note that this *ONLY* applies for game link breeding, so you can go wild if you're on your own - including with traded monsters.

Thee foreign Masters lounging in the arena act similar to the link breeding (also kind of acting like in-game trades). Again, your monster will be the Pedigree in this instance, but there is no personality to worry about. These Masters carry monsters with unique attacks, so it's worth breeding with their monsters.

Still on the subject of breeding, there's also gender ratios in Dragon Warrior Monsters...but only when it comes to breeding. There's four possibilities: always male, 9/10 male, even odds, and 5/6 female. Of course, what Pokémon doesn't have is a skill known as BLESS, that changes the sex of a monster in an egg.

That's about all I can write about here without going into the really technical stuff.