Blending elements from the Dragon Warrior series of role-playing games with the monster-raising aspects of Nintendo's Pokémon franchise, Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 updates 2000's hit Game Boy Color title with a new storyline, setting, and characters. Players can now capture, raise, and breed over 300 types of monsters from the long-running series, including monsters from Dragon Warrior VII.   Taking the role of a girl named Tara, players embark on a quest to save their island home of GreatLog from sinking into the ocean. The adventure will take them across many lands as they search for the keys needed to open magic portals. Each portal opens up a new environment populated with a variety of monsters, which randomly attack Tara as she ventures forth across an overhead view of the land.   Battles are structured in the same manner as the original Dragon Warrior, where players and monsters take turns attacking until one side is defeated. Since Tara is a trainer, she does not directly attack enemies. Instead up to three monsters battle for her according to a specific strategy set in the options screen. Once a monster is defeated, players can coax it into joining their team, which results in it tagging along behind Tara as she explores the different worlds.   Monsters no longer part of the team will be sent home to Tara's farm, where her brother will care for them until she returns. Players can also embark on a series of challenges against other trainers to earn higher rankings and special items. The simultaneous release of Cobi's Journey features an identical storyline with Tara's brother in the lead, a different frequency of certain monsters, and keys to new areas (which can be traded using the Game Link cable).