I’m setting off on an adventure to find a lost child. I have a best friend monster (one of six that I can hold at any one time) to protect me when I go in tall grass, and a method of capturing more. With Dokimon, I am home.
Doki Monsters: Quest (otherwise known as Dokimon: Quest, or for this review, Dokimon) is a monster taming game that wears its influences proudly on its sleeve, for better or for worse. The whole thing is clearly designed to tug on your core memories of Pokemon Red and Blue. There’s a few quality of life additions, but there is no doubt in my mind of the pitch meeting here.
As a gamer, I’ve always been a huge fan of the monster tamer genre. Cassette Beasts, Digimon Story: Time Stranger, Dragon Quest Monsters, if you can catch a team of beasts, train and evolve them, and travel the world on some form of quest I am normally first in line on launch day. That, and the fact that I was a child when Red/Blue hit the UK shores mean I’m pretty sure I am the exact audience Yanako and Red Deer Games had in mind for this project.
We can start with the basics. 140+ original monster designs. Your usual turn based battles with elemental types to juggle and evolution mechanics, plus an intriguing story of hunting for your missing childhood friend. Dokimon has the basic premise nailed.
When i mentioned QoL improvements earlier, we have fast forwarding battles, fun twists on “shiny hunting”, being able to access your box of partners from anywhere, and inbuilt exp share (sure, modern Pokemon has those last two now, but it took them a long time to adopt it). However, even with these modern adjustments, Dokimon has a very old school feel to how it runs. There’s no traditional tutorial, any information you want has to be farmed from environmental interactions or NPCs. I’ve run around the starting areas for a while now, having played a good chunk of the supposedly 20+ hour story, and I still feel like I’m missing something.
I could have genuinely missed something, this is true, but even as a self proclaimed “expert” in this kind of game, I’d struggle to tell you exactly how the exp system works. Nor can I find a base type chart anywhere official. Sure, I can see how each monster personally interacts with the types, or how a move will, but without a base reference chart it means I’m having to work backwards or check the menus every single time.
Speaking of menus, there’s an oddly nostalgic sense of jank to proceedings here. It’s very easy to get yourself stuck in a menu tree (navigating to the weakness page of a monster leaves you unable to swap to any other page, you have to back out and reopen the info pane). No matter which monster you’ve selected, when you back out of their menu you are instantly set to having the first monster in your party selected, so you have to back out once before being able to do anything. Pressing the button to move through battle text automatically starts the fast forward, meaning animations become jittery affairs. So much care has gone into the essence and soul of the game, but the execution a little less so.
One thing I cannot complain about is the audio and visuals. Yes, it’s heavily retro inspired. There’s no fancy 3D models, and you can see the edge of every pixel, but gosh darn it those are some really pretty pixels. It’s a masterclass in chiptune (though piano versions are available) and pixel art. Unless you don’t vibe with this kind of style, you’re truly in for a treat here.
Dokimon really does a good job of capturing how these games used to feel, and it manages to sand off most of the rough edges that we forget were there too. Whether the remaining friction points register as part of the experience or too much for you to bear is something only you can decide though. I fall into the former camp, but only just.
Doki Monsters: Quest was reviewed on Xbox Series X, but is also available on Nintendo Switch and Steam.