Like its companion title Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Tara's Adventure, the plot of Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Cobi's Journey takes you to the island of GreatLog, where, as a member of a family of monster farmers, you complete a series of missions to keep the island from sinking. Cobi looks for magical keys, explores a number of alternative worlds, performs reconnaissance for an impetuous king, and even joins the circus. But collecting and breeding monsters is the real meat of this game, and is the area with the most intricate and addictive gameplay.

Each monster has its own complex set of characteristics, and can be matched with any monster of the opposite gender to produce a new member of Cobi's monster menagerie (don't worry: the actual breeding takes place offscreen). The results of monster breeding can be surprising, and allow for nearly endless experimentation. Of course, your responsibilities don't end with breeding: you must also take your monsters out on missions to give them experience and keep them sharp. Let your monsters languish for too long on the farm and they'll get lazy and disobedient.

The monster breeding by itself wouldn't be much fun if it weren't for the game's imaginative settings and strong characters. Despite the Game Boy's modest graphics and sound capabilities, the game evokes distinctive atmospheres and personalities through an inventive use of textures and dialogue boxes. The multiple menus necessary for successful navigation of this world at first appear dauntingly complex, but the interface does a good job of leading you along until you get the hang of things.

Dragon Warrior: Monsters 2, Cobi's Journey stresses creativity and constructive behavior over conflict. While it's true that you can hardly take three steps without your monsters getting into another fight, the violence itself is not at all graphic, and outcomes rely as much on strategy and relationships as on brute forc

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The obvious change from the first one is that they created two games, just like Pokemon (which I thought it wasn't necessary at all/ and I'll give you my reason why later). So what you could do is exchange certain monsters between two games for those who want to collect everything. (personally I do not like the pokemon idea when I have no one else to trade with, especially when you are in your late 20s..) The reason I didn't like having two almost identical games plot is because you need both games in order to unlock the one special stage, which gives you the access to the ultimate stage at the end although it's not necessary to finish the game. And I do not see myself playing almost same game again in order to gain that access. If they have created both game with substantial difference, not just some exclusive monsters, but with different story lines and plot, then it would be attractive enough to play the second game to gain that last access.

Ok, I do not want to give you the impression that this game isn't worth playing by giving you some of my complaint. However, this game excels great in plot from the Dragon Warrior Monsters. In Dragon Warrior Monsters, you are traveling through bunch of maze and encounter boss at the end, period. However, in the Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, which has to be the biggest enhancement from the first one, is composed of literal stories, just like Dragon Warrior games. THIS LITERALLY FELT LIKE PLAYING OLD DRAGON WARRIOR GAMES ALL OVER AGAIN WITH MY PRECIOUS MONSTERS ON THE SIDE (ok, I just sounded like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings..) Do you know how great this is??? It's like having second Christmas for those who are thirsty for more Dragon Warrior games, seriously. They have also increased the categories of monsters substantially, which added numerous monsters to the original Dragon Warrior Monsters.

You are probably thinking this game gotta be better than the first one, especially with its real story lines and more monsters, right? Well, it's not that simple, however. There's no argument that the second one is much better because of its real story lines. However, I believe the biggest difference, or sort to speak the deciding factor between two games, comes to be the combination of core of story line and the music. Although the second one has much better story line compare with the first one, where you just wander around in bunch of maze, second one does not quite provide that compelling reason for the player, or the main character in the game to pursue what he/she is pursuing ultimately. In the first game, Terry had to find his kidnapped sister, training his monsters vigorously, winning various tournaments to save his sister, ultimately gives you this THE reason for going through all that hardship. However, in the second game, Cobi goes through series of wonderful story lines in order to find this `plug', to prevent kingdom from being sunken, which was caused by this mischievous princess, whom I felt like spanking for his attitude problem. First one's story line was justified by the ending, ultimately saving Terry's sister, however, second one had very strong story content, yet weak ending with much less motivating force than the first one.
This is just my opinion; I mean who really cares about the driving force of the character, right? Well, it meant a lot to me somehow and I could somehow feel for the Terry, who's child himself yet going through all the training and hardship to find his sister. I believe that I felt that way because of the music. First one had this series of incredible music, which definitely added not only to the atmosphere but combined with the story line and creates this incredible EXPERIENCE, which becomes very satisfying/rewarding at the end. However, the combination of the story and the music in the second one does not create same level of experience despite of its excellent story and music.

The bottom line is you will buy and play this game no matter what if you've enjoyed the first one. And trust me, you will enjoy this one tremendously as well. I do not know what to tell you if you are new to the series... I would suggest that you would play the first one then move on to the second one. (and I guess you wouldn't be looking at the review in the first place if you haven't played the first one)

You know what, I think I'll play the Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Tara's Adventure to unlock the ultimate stage on the second thought; Writing this review convinced me that it's definitely worth playing, AGAIN.

Enjoy them.

5 of 6 found the following review helpful:

This game is the best game I've ever hadAug 10, 2002
By L. Shinn
If you've ever played Dragon Warrior Monsters...you'd know that that game was extremely fun. Now, Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's Journey is one of the best games for Game Boy Color I have ever purchased. Its monsters are endless and the gameplay is addictive. I would HIGHLY suggest that you get this game!!!

2 of 2 found the following review helpful:

DWM2 Cobi's JourneyJul 10, 2002

This game was amazing and a real treasure trove of fun. The plot and storyline is relatively weak but this does not mean the game is not fun. There is no comparison, this game is infinatly better than Pokemon and stands out a mile. The actual gameplay is amazing. However i couldn't help but feel that this game was nothing like as good as DWM simply because it was shorter (not inc. breeding) and I personally prefered the worlds and plot of the story better in DWM than DWM2. Again this doesn't mean that the game is not fun as the excitement and extended playability of the breeding feature means that the game lives on supreme in the world of RPGs. A title which thoroughly deserves a space in your game collection.

4 of 5 found the following review helpful:

DWM2 is the bestJun 02, 2002
By Olliver
I would like to start out positively. Dragon Warrior Monsters 2: Cobi's journey is a must have for anyone who has played DWM before. It has a wonderfully rich plot and a great replay. If you get this, you should also get it counterpart Tara's Adventure. This game was great and I am still playing it long after I have beaten it :)

6 of 8 found the following review helpful:

it's NOT a flaw...Jun 20, 2004
By Christian H. Kim
I just wanna say that the 'flaw' some reviewers mentioned IS NOT a flaw. The 'supposed to be fixed' flaw is..

"Another flaw is that the bugs in the combat system were never fixed (if you assign a monster to attack another monster and the monster you want it to attack dies before yours has a chance to strike, the attack goes to waste. In other RPGs, when this happens, the attack is usually inflicted onto another target, but not here.)"

What this means is that instead of just executing commands or button-smashing, you gotta assign appropriate command to your monsters; you gotta know your enemies. There is no such thing as 'wasted' attack/command because you should know how much attack and magic would take an enemy monster away, what specific spell/how many times will wipe them out, and etc. You are playing a role-playing game here; monsters simply follow what YOU ordered them to do...they don't simply decide on their own and decide to be 'effective' by cutting down the 'wasted' attack all of sudden.

I know I'm being a 'jerk' here...and may be they are right..it was a bug, which was supposed to be fixed. However, being a Dragon Warrior Mosnters lover, I just had to get it out of the system. Any game has some kind of flaw. However, when a specific feature of a game, which is specifically designed for a specific reason, is being labeled as 'flaw/bug' then it's a different story.

My apology for those who said it's a bug/flaw (not trying to criticize your review, simply stating my opinion), but you gotta say what you gotta say, right?

Enjoy a 'flawless' game, at least before my 'biased' eyes.

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