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The Monsters games are a beautiful work of art and passion. Koichi Sugiyama
outdid himself in composing the main theme. It really nails that feeling of
"home" and "nostalgia". To this day I still cry upon hearing it, the same as I
did the first time! Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 captured my heart around 2003.
It started in one of the strangest ways: the game was stolen. There was a kid
at school, 2 years older than me, named Rob, and he was a huge jerk. He'd
always call me a retard and make fun of me for being fat. During
the afterschool program we both went to, when most kids would be waiting for mom
and dad while drawing, playing board games, watching movies, eating popcorn,
doing homework, or running around outside, I'd pretend to read.
It took place at the cafeteria tables, in the very back where all the backpacks were kept. Huddled over a library book or a magazine like Nintendo Power, GamePro, or Shonen Jump, I'd actually be situated right in front of Rob's backpack. Being on the bus with Rob gave me insight into where he kept his GameBoy games (that being the 2nd zipper from the front). I wouldn't steal too many, usually just 1, because then he'd get seriously upset and the staff might actually do something. Rob suspected it was me but not once was I caught! Well, that is until I stole a toy from another kid named Ryan (after that I was banned from sitting near backpacks). But for a good 3 years, I was a little thief getting revenge on Rob, as well as his friend Tommy who was also a huge asshole. 
And this is where I found Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, the Cobi Version. I soon lost the game at home, a fitting karmic punishment, and spent a good year or so waiting for it to turn up. With no such luck, I convinced mom to buy the Tara version off of Ebay around 2005 or so. It was definitely some point in 6th grade. Having played the first Monsters game already, it was apparent what an upgrade DWM2 was! The first time I entered a Magic Key world, for example, was mind blowing. It made no sense that they could fit so many detailed monsters, with all those skills and breeding combos, and all those worlds. It was, and still is, an objectively better game than Pokemon Crystal, the best of the Pokemon series, due to the combat system. Anyway, upon deciding to replay the game, I named Cobi Aria, short for Ariados which is one of my favorite Pokemon. The Oasis and Pirate worlds were very familiar because I'd replayed them quite a bit since the old days. It wasn't until the Ice, Sky, and Limbo worlds that old emotions flooded back into me. I may have messed up with breeding, creating weaker offspring, but that's okay because I love certain monsters so much. To be specific, GreatDrak is just the coolest! I'd have a team of 3 if I were more patient. I named him after an old nickname of mine, Lord Wyrm, from 8th grade (a pseudonym I used when writing erotic short stories about girls in class, selling them to other kids at school), and always pictured myself as a GreatDrak or the RingWyrm from FFXII. Then there's the BossTroll who is literally me, a big fat gluttonous, lecherous, ugly oaf with a club, who I named Bossa after the bossa nova genre of music from Brazil. And lastly a Healer named Haily, named similar to Hale from the first Dragon Warrior Monsters game. I was gonna make a KingSlime but got lazy and didn't want to breed a DracoLord, then level it up, just to beat Darck, who you can beat with weaker guys. 
Speaking of Darck, he was way easier than I remember. Sure, he hit hard with GigaSlash, and the StoneMan were brutal, but I really struggled in the old days. The Sky world took a month to get through as a kid and this time it only took a week of casual grinding and exploring. I guess I had better bred monsters this time around. You can check them out in the link at the top, where I uploaded my save file (as well as the official DWM2 Prima guide, courtesy of Woodus's Dragon's Den). I have so many good memories of playing this game from around the years 2005 to 2008. There was the time mom and dad rented that Pixar robot movie (not Wall-E) and I had the flu. The fever was really getting to me that night but I couldn't sleep so I got DWM2 out on my pearl pink GameBoy Advance SP and played for hours into the night. I was delirious and so out of it which is a perfect state to grind in. The dreams were bizarre later on, full of abstractions and conceptual feelings more than people, places, and things. 
Another weird memory was how in 6th to 7th grade, I was not well-liked at school (at least by girls), so I endeavored to become more "normal" by watching what I naively perceived to be the most "normal" TV channels, like Bravo and VH1. It turns out nothing on there is normal and is actually full of weird, boring stuff. Many hours were spent staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning with dumb shit like Queer Eye on while I played Dragon Warrior Monsters 2. I think it was how Good Morning America talked about how being "metrosexual" was considered normal, and so I figured if I wanted to be normal then I had to learn to be metrosexual, and Bravo shows would display correct human behavior. Am I autistic? I don't know. Never formally diagnosed despite seeing a million therapists and doctors. I still stayed on Bravo sometimes, though, to watch the Real Housewives of Whatever (Orange County I think) -- not for information, but for uh, well... boobies, heh. For years, Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 was my go-to game to play where I could spend the day grinding and breeding the ultimate team, challenging the Arena in hopes of a new Magic Key. I ended up with one of the highest level worlds you can get, Dream something, that had ??? monsters in it. They were HARD! I had to really, really grind until I my team was 3 GigaDracos with GigaSlash and HealUsAll, level 99 with massive stats between 800-999. My current replay as Ariados was much more humble and I called it quits after Darck in order to realistically review my top 100 games list. 
Is Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 good and worth playing? Hell yeah! Is it perfect? Honestly, I'd say so. There's not much you can do to improve it. I always wanted to play the PSX version of DQM 1+2 but it is Japanese only. A fan translation has been in the works since 2003 and hasn't finished in 20 years! I could've learned Japanese fluently, 3 or 4 times, by now. Let this be a lesson, kids: don't rely on fan translations. And don't rely on Enix (Square Enix now), either. When I was in 4th grade, having played the first game a lot, I discovered the PSX version because of Woodus. I ended up writing a heartfelt letter begging Enix to translate and sell the game in America. Guess it fell on deaf ears. Now we get plenty of DQ games but they're not all that good, in my opinion (Treasures? Yuck! And the new Monsters on Switch looks like trash, and is full of DLC). 
Click here for full screenshots Click here for the strategy guide Click here for my save file(Give it the same name as your ROM) |
