Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road

Did You Know?

• The original Battle Road was developed by Rocket Studio and released in June 2007.
• Legends was released in September 2009.
• Victory was developed by Eighting and released in July 2010.

Gameplay

The Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road series pits monsters and heroes from the Dragon Quest universe against each other in a coliseum setting. Players select their combatants either from within the game itself or by inserting physical cards into the arcade machine. The fighting system is streamlined, relying on just two buttons. At the start of a match, the machine provides one free card to the player. These cards are used during battle, and possessing a rare card unlocks a special attack. In the Victory version, players must photograph their Legends cards using a DSiWare camera or a cell phone, then upload the image to a virtual album with a separately purchased scanning tool. The game also allows players to collect cards through normal gameplay. Victory introduced the option for one-on-one or two-on-two matches, playable locally on the same console or online.

Reception

As of March 2008, Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road had earned ¥4.5 billion. In the following six months, from April to September 2008, the series had contributed additional earnings between ¥1.6 billion and ¥1.7 billion for Square Enix. This is equivalent to a total of $78.2 million in United States dollars, as of September 2008. As of May 2010, Square Enix had shipped over 200 million player cards for the first two games. Victory sold 136,000 units in its first week, the second-most sold after Fire Emblem: Shin Monshō no Nazo: Hikari to Kage no Eiyū. By the middle of August, the last week it was in the top ten games sold in Japan, it had sold over 220,000 copies.