Square Enix states that DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS: The Withered World holds more than 500 monster species, drawn both from the wider DRAGON QUEST series and from creatures new to this game. Every one of them is described by four properties: a family, a rank, a size, and a personality.
Property | Values | What it governs |
|---|---|---|
Family | 8 families | Broad species grouping. Offspring in Synthesis usually come from the family of one parent |
Rank | 9 ranks, G through X | Relative standing, from the lowest rung to the highest |
Size | S or L | An L monster occupies two party slots. See Battle and Party |
Personality | Many | Sets attribute caps and growth rates. See Monster Growth and Talents |
Families
There are eight families, which Square Enix illustrates with slimes and dragons. Seven of them have appeared in published material. Five have a confirmed English name; two more have been shown only in Japanese, and Square Enix has not published an English rendering for either.
Family | Japanese name | Status |
|---|---|---|
Slime | スライム系 | English name confirmed |
Dragon | ドラゴン系 | English name confirmed |
Nature | 自然系 | English name confirmed |
Beast | 魔獣系 | English name confirmed |
Material | 物質系 | English name confirmed |
Not published in English | 悪魔系 | Japanese name only |
Not published in English | ゾンビ系 | Japanese name only |
Not published in any language | Not published | The eighth family is confirmed by the stated count of eight, but its name has never been given |
The eighth family does not appear anywhere in the material published so far, in either language, including on the official monster listings. Its name is genuinely unknown rather than merely untranslated.
Ranks
Each monster sits at one of nine ranks, which Square Enix describes as running from G to X. Seven of those steps appear in published examples: G, F, E, D, C, B and A. The step between A and X has not been named, and no monster has been shown at rank X yet.
Rank is not a simple power level you outgrow. Synthesis reads rank directly: pushing a parent's Plus Value high enough can produce a child that outranks both of its parents, and one of the published worked examples pairs a rank G monster with a rank E monster to produce a rank D child. See Synthesis.
Sizes
Monsters are either small (S) or large (L). A large monster costs two of your four active party slots, but it carries more Traits than a small one and many large monsters act more than once per turn. Outside battle, size makes no difference: any monster can walk the field with you.
Personality
Personality varies between individuals of the same species, and it sets both the upper limits of a monster's attributes and how fast they grow. Two otherwise identical monsters can therefore develop quite differently. Items exist for changing a monster's personality, so the roll you get when you recruit one is not permanent. See Monster Growth and Talents.
Why there is no roster list here
The gap between the stated roster and the published roster is large. Square Enix has put out individual profiles for 23 monsters, each giving a family and a rank, and has published official English names for 17 monsters. Those two sets barely overlap, and together they cover a small fraction of a 500-plus roster.
A list assembled from that material would be a fragment presented as a catalog, and the obvious way to "finish" it would be to import names and data from earlier games in the series. That does not work here: this series reworks family assignments, rank scales, skill tables and synthesis charts with every entry, so older data is not evidence about this game. A roster will go up when there is a roster to publish.
What is confirmed and what is not
Detail | Status |
|---|---|
Roster size of more than 500 species | Confirmed by Square Enix on several of its own channels |
Eight families | Confirmed |
Names of seven families | Published, five of them in English |
Name of the eighth family | Not published in any language |
Nine ranks running G to X | Confirmed |
Ranks G, F, E, D, C, B and A | Each shown in a published example |
The rank between A and X | Not named |
Sizes S and L | Confirmed |
Stat tables, skill lists and trait lists | Not published for any monster |