When first dumped into the DQM: Joker world, you'll notice the fully 3D environments, the gorgeous cut scenes, and Akira Toriyama's character art (the Dragon Ball guy). Then you'll witness our angsty hero's release from prison to compete in the Monster Scout Challenge. From there, you're let loose to tackle seven isles in an attempt to woo all 200 monsters into your collection.

Square also insists that DQM's story is much deeper than those of its monster-hunting rivals. Every character in the game actually has something important to say about the world instead of parroting simple hint phrases like, "I like zipping around town in my running shoes."

Unfortunately, the demo dumped Joker onto a rather barren desert island. For all the care that went into the character art, the land was very bland (a fact emphasized by its impressive draw distance). At least there were plenty of scorpions and crabs to bully. And, luckily, you won't have to contend with random encounters.

If you can out run them, you won't have to fight them.
If you can out run them, you won't have to fight them.
But if you do manage to get trapped in a prickly situation, Joker can release up to three monsters to deal with the foe. (Like Pokemon, Joker can only have three monsters on his person. The rest are stored away for later play). Combat, as you'd expect, is fairly straightforward. You can simply instruct monsters to fight (the game will take care of the details), or you can micromanage each encounter.