Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road
Encyclopedia
is a series of Japanese arcade game
s based on Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. Players battle monsters and can win real-life cards with monster data imprinted on them. The first game, also titled Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road, was released in 2007 only in Japan
, using the Taito Type X
system. A sequel, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road II Legends, was announced at the 2009 Jump Fiesta in Tokyo, and a third game in the series, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road Victory, a port of the Legends game, was announced for the Wii
in 2010.
games. The battles take place in a coliseum and the monsters can be chosen from either the game or cards the player can insert into the machine. The combat is very simple and only uses a two-button system. The machine gives the player a free card at the beginning of a match. These cards can then be used in battle and if the player has one of the rarer cards, a special attack becomes available to be used in battle.
In the Victory game, players must take a photo of their Legends cards with the DSiWare camera or their cell phones, and send it to a virtual album using a separately sold scanning utility. Then, those cards can be used in the Victory game. Cards can also be collected through the game itself. The game added the ability for players to player one-on-one or two-on-two battles, either on the same console or over the internet.
's Love 'N Berry card-driven arcade game, and as being aimed towards young children. For Victory, Square Enix released a special Wii controller to tie in with the game. The controller cost ¥
12,800 upon release, or around US$150.
in earnings for Square Enix. As of May 2010, Square Enix had shipped over 200 million player cards for the first two games. Victory sold 136,000 units in its first week, the second-most sold after Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū. By the middle of August, the last week it was in the top ten games sold in Japan, it had sold over 220,000 copies.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
s based on Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. Players battle monsters and can win real-life cards with monster data imprinted on them. The first game, also titled Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road, was released in 2007 only in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, using the Taito Type X
Taito Type X
The Taito Type X is an arcade system board released by Taito Corporation in 2004. Based on commodity PC hardware architecture, Type X is not a specification for a single set of hardware, but rather a modular platform supporting multiple hardware configurations with different levels of graphical...
system. A sequel, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road II Legends, was announced at the 2009 Jump Fiesta in Tokyo, and a third game in the series, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road Victory, a port of the Legends game, was announced for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
in 2010.
Gameplay
The games are based around battles with monsters and heroes from the Dragon QuestDragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
games. The battles take place in a coliseum and the monsters can be chosen from either the game or cards the player can insert into the machine. The combat is very simple and only uses a two-button system. The machine gives the player a free card at the beginning of a match. These cards can then be used in battle and if the player has one of the rarer cards, a special attack becomes available to be used in battle.
In the Victory game, players must take a photo of their Legends cards with the DSiWare camera or their cell phones, and send it to a virtual album using a separately sold scanning utility. Then, those cards can be used in the Victory game. Cards can also be collected through the game itself. The game added the ability for players to player one-on-one or two-on-two battles, either on the same console or over the internet.
Development
The original Battle Road was developed by Rocket Studio and released in June of 2007, while Legends was released in September 2009. Victory was developed by Eighting and released in July 2010. The series has been described as being inspired by the success of SegaSega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Love 'N Berry card-driven arcade game, and as being aimed towards young children. For Victory, Square Enix released a special Wii controller to tie in with the game. The controller cost ¥
Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
12,800 upon release, or around US$150.
Reception
As of November 7, 2008, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road had contributed between 1.6 and 1.7 billion ¥Japanese yen
The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar and the euro. It is also widely used as a reserve currency after the U.S. dollar, the euro and the pound sterling...
in earnings for Square Enix. As of May 2010, Square Enix had shipped over 200 million player cards for the first two games. Victory sold 136,000 units in its first week, the second-most sold after Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū. By the middle of August, the last week it was in the top ten games sold in Japan, it had sold over 220,000 copies.
