Here's Your First Look At The Switch Box Art For Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince

Nice! I will wait to see what the language options are before I buy.

That's wonderful. Sure looks better than any of the actual game in motion.

Well, the story looks very contrived but what counts is the gameplay. I hope it's real-time, and a lot better than what Adore turned out to be.

Unpopular opinion: Akira Toriyama is not a very good artist. There are so many manga artists with a better style than him.

Methinks that box art contains a certain betrayer from DQ IV. 🤔 Definitely looking forward to this spinoff.

i loved the dragon quest monsters joker games on the ds can't wait for this game

Not really at all a fan of that box art personally. Just looks like some random piece of concept art they clumsily cropped out the sides of.

This looks great. I hope SE doesn’t change it for the Western version.

@Maulbert I hope this doesn’t spin into anything but I agree.

DQ is that series I like in spite of his art. It was easier back when things were pixels but I am pretty invested in the series at this point so I just fade out a bit on the artstyle.

@Ryu_Niiyama If someone likes his stuff, fine, it's just, he's got like maybe 4 faces he can draw, and maybe 6-8 character trait designs he can mix and match. I admit, I don't care for DBZ, but this issue is prevalent in everything he does. I honestly think if Dragon Quest wasn't so popular in Japan, he wouldn't be so venerated.

Who is sitting on the throne ?

CERO B huh? That's a good sign, I think.

It does look a bit like the Kingdom Hearts 1.5 art.

@Anti-Matter Psaro

@Maulbert
"a better style" will always be a supremely subjective point of criticism. To be honest Toriyama himself has always been extremely humble when it comes to his own ability to draw and has often made jokes about how his characters all look the same and how he is not good enough to do some of the stuff other manga artists do. The thing is, his style is completely inherent to the series. Dragon quest was a success thanks to Toriyama and in Japan Toriyama established himself as an illustrator thanks to Dragon Quest.

This and also the core value of DQ as a series is actually tradition. In the whole industry I don't think there is a single series that embodies the concept of tradition this much. So you know, not only are they very difficult to separate but square-enix is not even likely to try.

@Maulbert Most manga artists only draw a certain number of faces, it's more noticeable with artists like Toriyama, Oda and Araki because they have such unique styles. Also if you're only familiar with the anime adaptations of his style, I do recommend checking out the manga versions, his panelling and visual flare mixed with his great eye for design and composition are what made him stand out.

Nice will fit in the collection along side 11s

@Maulbert but you can't deny it's unique and clearly his style.

So hype for this, love all DQ:M games. Might play through Joker again in preparation.

@DekuHero Thanks this is spot-on. Just going to re-iterate.

VERY few artists really have a wide variety in their character likenesses. Those artists generally lean more towards realistic styles whereas super unique and recognizable styles like Oda and Toriyama naturally have a sameness because it all fits into that set design aesthetic.

And anyone that knocks Toriyama as an artist has never actually seen his manga work; which is incredible in all facets outside of "his style". It is perfectly fine to not like his style personally, but using the argument of "sameness within his style" (which I call consistency) or even saying that the dude is overrated is not fair at all nor valid.

Toriyama established so many tropes, visual ideas, and inspired so many artists it is impossible to say he has not had a great impact on the visual world regardless if you like or dislike how he draws. That alone makes him a credible creator deserving of the fans he has.

@Maulbert This is a laughably ignorant take. I don't even know where to begin. I assume what you meant to say was that you don't care for his character design. Which is fine. That, at least, would be a valid opinion.