Dragon Quest Monsters

Dragon Warrior Monsters (known as Dragon Quest Monsters in Japan) is the first video game in the DQM series. It was released in Japan on September 25th, 1998 and published in the US in 2000. A later remake of the game for the Playstation, titled Dragon Quest Monsters 1+2, was released in May 2002. While no US release was forthcoming, a fan translation by The Romhacking Aerie is in progress.
The game follows Terry, an antagonist and protagonist from the main series game Dragon Quest VI. In this spinoff, which takes place when Terry is a young child, Terry follows his sister into an alternate universe in order to save her from being kidnapped.
== Gameplay ==
The game follows Terry as he attempts to save his sister, Milayou, who was kidnapped at the start of the game by Warubou, the evil patron nature spirit of the country of Greatlog. Watabou, the patron nature spirit of Greattree, helps Terry come to the same universe to save her.
Unlike a traditional RPG, Terry can recruit classic monsters from the Dragon Quest series into his party. When fighting certain battles, Terry can set out meat, which can convince the monster to join the party. However, more importantly is after a certain point of the game, Terry can breed one or more monsters together, combining them into a new and stronger monster.
Monsters not in use can be kept at the farm, which allows them to be kept even if Terry does not have room in his party to keep them. The farm can hold a max of 19 monsters, with 3 monsters following Terry. However, monsters at the farm gain wildness points, slowly going feral, and monsters with a high wildness score are likely to ignore Terry's commands in combat. A sleep option, allowing Terry to put the monsters in his farm into hibernation, allows monsters to be stored without gaining wildness points, however they also do not gain experience points.
Monsters gain experience from combat and being stored at the farm. Upon leveling up, monsters gain skills based on their statistical scores -- HP, MP, Attack, Defense, Agility and so forth. A natural or wild monster has the possibility to gain 3 skills, whereas a bred monster can learn any skill it should learn naturally, any skill it's parents should learn naturally, and any skills it's parents knew, up to a total of 8 skills at a time.
With some exceptions, skills cost MP, or Mana Points. Mana Points can be recovered using items, walking around, or by using skills.
=== Random Map System ===
Dragon Quest Monsters makes heavy use of a random map system. Upon entering a dungeon, a rectangular map is created based on some parameters. This map is then made up of a certain number of room templates, which are then linked together by creating walkable places between the rooms. Each dungeon has it's own tileset, and each room has it's features deformed based on this tileset -- for example, one room may have rivers, whereas another may have mountains, or even lava. These features are all taken from the classic NES dragon quest games.
Some levels are stationary, for example a level with a very large series of conveyor belts. These levels can be rotated or flipped horizontally, but are not randomized. Other special levels include treasure rooms, tournament rooms, and other special one shot rooms.
Every floor is randomized upon entering it based on certain factors -- size, tileset, and probability of special floors. Each floor has a single exit positioned someplace on the floor, Terry must find it in order to proceed.