The zoology of Dragon Quest IX
"The monsters are cute, for starters, devoid of the baroque stylings of their Final Fantasy brethren, and they’ve made a consistent appearance in every game since the original – to the point where they’re now mandatory for a true Dragon Quest experience. A lot of the monsters’ charm comes from Akira Toriyama’s exuberant, happy-go-lucky art style, but their silly, pun-based names (Meowgician, a magical cat; Hell Niño, a violent cloud) shouldn’t be discredited, either. Looking beyond the superficial though, the simple variations of each monster’s color palette, the addition of prefixes and suffixes to some of their names, and their location in different environments across the world creates the most believable ecosystem I’ve seen in a game"
