Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart (ドラゴンクエストモンスターズ キャラバンハート, Doragon Kuesuto Monsutāzu Kyaraban Hāto) (Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart) is the third game in the Dragon Quest Monsters series, released only in Japan by Enix for the Game Boy Advance. The game was simultaneously announced with Dragon Quest VIII in Famitsu in 2002. Like the other Dragon Quest titles, development of Caravan Heart was led by Yuji Horii.
It is the second Dragon Quest game to be released for the Game Boy Advance (after Torneko no Daibouken 2 Advance). Caravan Heart features the character Prince Keifer from Dragon Quest VII, as the game acts as a prequel to the PlayStation game. This is also the last game released under the Enix name, since the merger between Square and Enix was finalized a few days later, on April 1, 2003.
When defeating monsters in Caravan Heart, the player can occasionally gain "monster hearts" which can be used to merge into a monster for a new more powerful form. Humans also fight in the battles with the monsters in this installment. The human characters have access to 20 character classes, like hunter, bard, fighter, dancer, mage, and mapper. Players choose which characters to guard the caravan and how to array them in its defense. The mapper job is new and allows players to see the terrain around the caravan. Other differences include a caravan that the player must travel around in, allowing them to add both monsters and humans to their party. The caravan can have up to twelve members in it at a time, and each wagon can only hold a certain amount of weight. A players camp grows as the game goes on, and the more allies that travel with the protagonist, the larger the camp grows. The camp ends up becoming much like a town, with things like an Inn to heal the players party or a shop to buy equipment. To evolve monsters, players can put two monster hearts into one of their own monsters and cause it to be reborn as a more powerful monster. The game also features route mapping, with the game helping identify the path the uses the least amount of food. Players can have up to three carriages at any one time and twelve friends and three monsters guarding it.