Once the game gets underway, and the scouting tournament begins, players can basically move freely between several areas or islands. The islands are basically well-designed, small dungeons, and each has different monster types, music and an overall feel to it. The game looks pretty good and the textures are smooth, and the overall feel of the environment is about as real as it can be on a DS game. The biggest problem in exploring the islands is the camera angle. More than once players will find themselves running in place caught on the edge of a small step or steep hill that they cannot go down all because the camera cannot be tilted up.

Controls are rigid and unforgiving using the d-pad. Thankfully, you can use the R and L buttons to rotate the camera and move forward at the same time, this makes for much more fluid turning than using the d-pad. The touch screen is mainly used for showing the map of the islands. Players can use the touch screen to move the map around and look at different parts of the island. It is also used for navigating the menus. If the main character or one of the monsters currently in your party is touched on the touch screen, a menu for that character is opened up. Different selections can be made from moving a monster into storage, to equipping weapons on the various monsters.

Monsters are seen on the overworld and, much like Blue Dragon, if the monster is touched from behind, the player gets an advantage in the fight and vice versa. Once engaged in a fight, the game plays much like any other turn based RPG. Up to three monsters can be in the party at any time and at the beginning of the round, actions are chosen, and then fighting ensues. If the scout command is chosen, your monsters do a show of force to one on the other side and if the monster on the other side decides to join, the fight ends. If the scouting fails, the opposing monsters get a free attack and an increased attack power. The environments for these fights are not nearly as detailed as those in overworld. The trees are terribly pixilated and the textures are not smoothed over very well. Controls in the fights can also be a little confusing until players get used to it.

The models for the monsters look great, almost as good as the monsters looked in Dragon Quest VIII. The characters also look much the same as they did in the previous Dragon Quest games, only this time the main character doesn’t have a bandana. The music on the different islands sound like rejected songs from the Love Boat, and they will most likely put you to sleep rather than make you want to play the game. Thankfully the battle music is much better.

Overall Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker is pretty good spinoff, especially if you enjoy monster collecting. If you are a fan of the Dragon Quest games, and are into the Pokemon style gameplay, definitely give this one a try.