It's no secret that Japanese-developed card battle games are performing like gang busters in the Western world. Despite GREE already having one of those hits in Driland, the global mobile social game company's U.S. studio based in San Francisco has opted to try an distinct approach to ensuring that the sub genre remains popular here. The result is Monster Quest.

A free-to-play game for iOS devices, Monster Quest sends players into a Pokemon-like (the comparisons are inevitable)--albeit much more mature--world and story in which people go to war with one another using genetically-fused monsters. With that premise, players explore various landscapes in an isometric view characteristic of games made by GREE's recent acquisition, Crime City creator Funzio. However, the game features many explicit social game elements, like asynchronous player versus player battles and invasions of players' home bases, which are built up over time through completing quests. The most interesting feature in Monster Quest, however, is monster fusion. A concept that's the corner stone of Japanese card battle games, GREE has taken this idea and applied it to a more traditional style of monster capture game.

It will be interesting to see whether Western mobile gamers latch onto this style of monster battle game, especially with these traditionally Japanese concepts baked in. Hey, they seem to dig straight up card battle, so why not, right? Monster Quest is available on iOS devices for free starting today.

Click here to download Monster Quest on iOS for Free Now >

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