Amazon.com Review
Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure takes you to the island of GreatLog, where, playing as Tara--a member of a family of monster farmers--you complete a series of missions to keep the island from sinking. Tara looks for magical keys, explores a number of alternative worlds, performs reconnaissance for an impetuous king, and even joins the circus. But collecting and breeding monsters is the real meat of this game, and is the area with the most intricate and addictive gameplay.
Each monster has its own complex set of characteristics, and can be matched with any monster of the opposite gender to produce a new member of Tara's monster menagerie (don't worry: the actual breeding takes place offscreen). The results of monster breeding can be surprising, and allow for nearly endless experimentation. Of course, your responsibilities don't end with breeding: you must also take your monsters out on missions to give them experience and keep them sharp. Let your monsters languish for too long on the farm and they'll get lazy and disobedient.
The monster breeding by itself wouldn't be much fun if it weren't for the game's imaginative settings and strong characters. Despite the Game Boy's modest graphics and sound capabilities, the game evokes distinctive atmospheres and personalities through an inventive use of textures and dialogue boxes. The multiple menus necessary for successful navigation of this world at first appear dauntingly complex, but the interface does a good job of leading you along until you get the hang of things.
Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure stresses creativity and constructive behavior over conflict. While it's true that you can hardly take three steps without your monsters getting into another fight, the violence itself is not at all graphic, and outcomes rely as much on strategy and relationships as on brute force. The world of the game is a gentle and whimsical one where nothing too bad ever happens. Even if one of your monsters has the misfortune of getting killed, it follows you around in a cute little coffin until you can arrange for a resurrection.
The one disappointment with Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure is not so much with the title itself as with its much-hyped interaction with its companion title, Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Cobi's Journey. Linking with another Game Boy Color running either the same cartridge or its companion title enables, among other things, monster swapping and multiplayer adventuring, but the layouts, plots, characters, and dialogue are virtually identical in Tara's Adventures and Cobi's Journey. The addition of a few extra monster types and spells hardly justifies the expense of a second game cartridge.
But never mind. Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure provides more than enough fun missions, engaging characters, and imaginative settings to rate as a smashing success as a standalone. --David Stoesz
Pros:
- Minimal violence
- Battery save feature lets you bookmark your progress without using passwords
Cons: - Virtually identical to Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Cobi's Journey
- Missions can lead to aimless wandering
Product Description
<I>Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure</I> takes you to the island of GreatLog, where, playing as Tara--a member of a family of monster farmers--you complete a series of missions to keep the island from sinking. Tara looks for magical keys, explores a number of alternative worlds, performs reconnaissance for an impetuous king, and even joins the circus. But collecting and breeding monsters is the real meat of this game, and is the area with the most intricate and addictive gameplay. <p> Each monster has its own complex set of characteristics, and can be matched with any monster of the opposite gender to produce a new member of Tara's monster menagerie (don't worry: the actual breeding takes place offscreen). The results of monster breeding can be surprising, and allow for nearly endless experimentation. Of course, your responsibilities don't end with breeding: you must also take your monsters out on missions to give them experience and keep them sharp. Let your monsters languish for too long on the farm and they'll get lazy and disobedient. <p> The monster breeding by itself wouldn't be much fun if it weren't for the game's imaginative settings and strong characters. Despite the Game Boy's modest graphics and sound capabilities, the game evokes distinctive atmospheres and personalities through an inventive use of textures and dialogue boxes. The multiple menus necessary for successful navigation of this world at first appear dauntingly complex, but the interface does a good job of leading you along until you get the hang of things. <p> <I>Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure</I> stresses creativity and constructive behavior over conflict. While it's true that you can hardly take three steps without your monsters getting into another fight, the violence itself is not at all graphic, and outcomes rely as much on strategy and relat
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