I only played the first DWM game, but it was pretty good (didn't realize until much later that you were playing a spinoff of one of the more mysterious characters in DQ6) and I thought a better game, honestly, than Pokemon. At the very least, IMO the battle system was much better developed, plus it had kind of the Monster Rancher-ish way of growing/breeding monsters, which gives it a lot more longevity. I never did beat all of the hidden gates... but I did manage to get a Dracolord/Dragonlord monster in my party.