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If you’re like me, you probably grew up with a Game Boy Color back in the day and poured hours into 8-bit adventures. I fondly remember my time with games like Dragon Quest IV, Oracle of Ages and a few others. Back in those days, the technology wasn’t very sophisticated, so game design was much simpler and exploration wasn’t guided by nav points. It’s that kind of nostalgia that Doki Monsters Quest chooses to invoke. Memories of bygone days where game mechanics were explained in booklets rather than in the game itself. This philosophy of old meets new works to both Doki Monsters benefit and its deficit.
Developed by Yanako RPGS, Doki Monsters Quest originally released on Steam on November 22nd, 2024. A successor to the developers first project, Nuumonsters, Doki Monsters got its start on Kickstarter in 2022 where it met its goal and got the funding to go forward. Made with the in-house MonMae engine, It saw a mostly positive response on Steam and got a Nintendo Switch release just recently and in time for the first anniversary. Full disclosure: The Switch version is the one I’m playing for this review. So let’s get into it.
The story of Doki Monsters Quest is fairly simple. Your childhood friend Maiko disappeared, so you and two other friends Koi and Ai depart on a journey to find out why. Along the way you meet and befriend an assortment of Doki Monsters while also battling an evil team that’s up to no good in the region. If that sounds familiar, that’s the point. This is a game that wears its inspirations on its yukata sleeves.
The gameplay also feels familiar though that's by no means a bad thing. Battles between monsters are turn-based with each side selecting a move to use. These moves can be physical, special or status related with a variety of effects. Moves and the monsters all come in an assortment of different types with varying degrees of effectiveness against each other. Thankfully the game has the option of letting you know how effective a move would be if you’d prefer not to do any guesswork. I appreciate little details like that since it means I can jump right into the game without memorizing a chart.
The battles are pretty straightforward with the only options being fight, switch, catch and run. It could use some tweaking however. Only the monster participating in the battle gains experience, which means if you choose to swap it out, only the monster taking its place will gain any exp from the battle. Which makes training up lower level monsters a bit of an annoyance but the ability to rebattle most npcs in the game means grinding isn’t usually difficult. There’s also an item obtained early on which gives a portion of exp to other party members and that helps. The inability to heal in battle outside of using certain moves feels weird, but most fights aren’t hard enough to where you’ll notice anyway.
Speaking of moves, that brings me to one of Doki Monsters high points. Customizability for your monsters is a definite selling point. As they level up, they’ll unlock new move slots and learn new techniques to use in battle. These moves can be swapped at any time by going into the monsters info page. And while you’re there, you can take time to view type effectiveness and assign EP points to the monster's stats to give them a small boost. There’s room to decide how you want your Doki Monsters to grow. I do find the systems a little clunky though, going into the monster's info and scrolling through the pages doesn’t feel as seamless as it should. I find myself often backing out on accident and the game doesn’t give any explanation for the AP/EP system but considering its dedication to emulating an older style of game design, I can’t fault it too badly.
When you’re not battling and catching monsters, it’s time to explore the colorful overworld. True to its retro inspirations, everything in the game is rendered in an 8-bit graphical style reminiscent of the Game Boy Color. Sprites are colorful and vibrant, with some actually showing a little more level of detail than would be typical. There’s colorful billboards, cluttered houses, trucks and boats. No shortage of visual variety and that extends to the npcs and creatures as well. Each one has a unique design, with its own sense of character. Incidentally each of the creatures also comes in rare variants of differing color palettes which is really neat. And I’ve heard that the games color palette can be changed in the Steam release. No such option on Switch but that’s a neat feature.
What is present on Switch is the ability to change up sound. The games soundtrack, which invokes memories of the games it’s inspired by, can be changed between 8-bit and piano in the settings. It's a nice touch that adds a bit of a personal effect to the adventure. The monsters all have unique sounds as well. It’s not the most memorable soundtrack but it serves its purpose.
There’s a lot to like about Doki Monsters Quest though the overall package could use a bit more polish. Things like transitioning to surfing and navigating the overworld don’t always come as naturally as they should. Still for the price, it's a good deal with a roughly 20 hr main story and post-game content. Worth checking out.
