Caravan Heart: The Dragon Quest Monsters Game That Stayed in Japan
By 2003 the Dragon Quest Monsters series had already moved from the Game Boy to the Game Boy Advance, and Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart was the third entry and the last game to carry the Enix name before the company merged with Square. It was developed by Tose with series creator Yuji Horii supervising, and went on sale in Japan on 29 March 2003. It was never published officially in English.
The story puts you in the shoes of Prince Kiefer, a character from Dragon Quest VII. He runs away from home on his tenth birthday and is pulled into the world of Dragon Quest II, where a figure called Magarugi promises a wish if he finds the Orbs of Loto. Kiefer then joins a travelling caravan led by Luin, whose sick parents need a cure.
At a glance
- Created by: Tose (developer), Enix (publisher)
- Released: 29 March 2003 in Japan
- English translation: KaioShin, completed in March 2008
- Genre: Monster-collecting RPG
- What sets it apart: caravan management and the "heart" transformation system
What makes it different
- Monsters are no longer simply recruited. You gather "hearts" from defeated monsters and combine two of them to transform an existing monster into a new one.
- The caravan holds up to three wagons, each with a guard monster and up to four humans, so as many as twelve people and three monsters.
- Humans have 20 classes, including the new mapper job, and several of the same class in a wagon combine their effects.
- Food drains as you travel, and running out costs your guard monster health.
Reception
Famitsu gave it 35 out of 40 and a Platinum Award, and it sold about 593,000 copies. RPGamer was cooler, awarding 3 out of 5 and noting that it does not show off the GBA hardware.