The Dragon Quest Thread

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

I never liked Final Fantasy (except for XII that I played through emulation) so I did give even less of a damn about Dragon Quest.

But then I got a smartphone with great DS emulation so I tried Dragon Quest IX. I really liked it, even the linear main story was quite touching at times, and the end game was quite engrossing even if I didn't go very far in it, I'm not a Diablo or WOW kind of farming guy even if I can understand the appeal.

So then I tried the Dragon Quest V DS remake and was quite impressed. The whole life gimmick was pretty nicely done, I hesitated a whole hour between marrying the Nasty Virgin, the False Whore or the Nagging Pseudo-Cool Sassy Chick. I should have married the three but I am no muslim. The kids are cute. I do like it (it got me into jRPGs).

I play at the same time Dragon Quest Rocket Slime which is a great Zelda-like. The slimes are great characters.

Are the other Dragon Quest as good (I played a bit of Dragon Quest VIII but didn't have the time to get past the first dungeon, I don't have the time to play on my desktop anymore, but it seemed also great)?

(By the way I love Toriyama when he's being totally moronic like in the kid Dragonball or in Dr Slump, I think it plays for me, don't give a damn about Dragonball Z).

 

[TigerKnee]

I like the original GB Monsters 1 and 2. Compared to their sequels, they play like really fast Rogue-Like (because the dungeons are randomly generated, don't whine at me about usage of that term) Monster Raising RPGs.

Kind of like 9 because I like JRPGs with class systems, but it's kind of flawed in that regards.

 

[DragoFireheart]

The only ones I've played are Dragon Warrior 1 and that Joker Monster arena thingy for the Nintendo DS.

 

[ZoddGuts]

DQVIII had the slowest battle system in the series so it feels slower than the other games in the series. I loved playing DQV on the PS2 using an eng fan translation with the PCSX2, the eng fan translation came with dev debug mode so I was able to level up my characters to avoid grinding. From what I hear DQIII, DQIV and DQV are considered the best in the series. DQVII is well known to be a long ass game that starts off very slow and has too many puzzle solving. If you do play DQIII get the SNES version which there's an eng fan translation, it's also the best version of that game.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Get III, the Super Famicom version with fan translation, it is the best of the series, followed by VIII.

 

[da_rays]

Get III, the Super Famicom version with fan translation, it is the best of the series, followed by VIII.

Damn , i got beat to it ! But yes Go for DQ3 , the english translation is superb for the SNES , you also have a DQ1+2 remake on the SNES who also got a decent translation. And indeed DQ8 is the best of the whole . If youre feelign courageous and have a few hours to invest (50ish and more ) , DQ7 on PS1 is a good choice. You unlock various region by finding stone tablet and forming map with them. A bit slower than paced than the other DQ game , but still , its good dragon quest fun. Im guessing that if you tried DQ5 DS version , DQ6 is to follow up? Which is very ressembling to 5 , but you got all thoses diff class which anybody in your party can take , and a few to unlock with ''secrets'' hehe . You might want to take a look at ''Oriental Bue'' on GBA , the fight is almost the same as the DQ game , with a more oriental flavour to it ( who would have guess? ) . Same for the SNES , lots of translation of very obscure RPG, some interesting , some dont .

Also , you've tried Glory of heracles? there isa few translation and a DS american version . maybe you can find some appeal in them.

 

[eric__s]

Dragon Warrior VII is one of the best Playstation games and I'm pretty sure the most popular game in the series. Like the rest of the Dragon Quest games, it's a very conservative JRPG - you have a fixed team, plot progression is fairly linear, you fight tons of random battles - but it does everything very well. The best part about the game, and the thing that makes it one of the best RPGs, is its exploration. The world starts out very small and gradually grows as you find shards you can use to travel to the past. Each area in the past is facing a problem that you need to solve. When you solve its problems, the area appears in the present, growing the world. It's really fun not knowing what you're going to find next or how the adventure you're on will affect the world, but what's best about the game is that for most of the time, it doesn't feel like you're out saving the world or thwarting some evil nemesis, you're just exploring. It's also got a really fun and complex class system that lets you develop your characters in the way you want.

The game is massive and I've never actually beaten it. Every time I play it, I get about 20 hours further into the game than I did before. Apparently it takes people between 120 to 200 hours to beat it, so I have no idea how big it really is, but I feel like I've gotten very far and still haven't come close to the end.

The original Playstation version is a very good and extremely charming game with some of the best exploration I've ever seen, but I'm pretty sure it was remade for the 3DS recently too so you might want to hold out for a translation!

 

[Humanity has risen!]

No, DQ VII is horrible. It drags on forever with interminable "scenes", and has horrible backtracking with all the shards. Most of the vignettes in all the towns you visit are bad as well. A terrible game.

 

[eric__s]

It's a very slow game, especially in the very beginning. It takes like 3 hours before you fight your first battle but I don't know any other games that make you feel like an adventurer taking on the world as well as Dragon Quest VII, except for maybe Sorcerer's Kingdom.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I completed it, I know what I'm talking about. It's a huge waste of time that never goes anywhere.

It has its moments but is it worth it to spend 120 hours to see them? I say no.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Goddamn those fucking shards!

 

[victim]

9 was pretty awesome if you enjoyed building your characters (ie grinding) in the post game. Nostalgia wise DWIII on the GBC is probably my favorite. I think I'm the only person who liked the remake of DQ4 better than the original version.

 

[SCO]

If you haven't got anything good to say it's better to keep quiet:

...

 

[Ermm]

What I like about Dragon Quest is that even though it is very standard in terms of story and gameplay, it still has some kind of a magic hook that makes these games very interesting and unique in some ways. Like, I can totally dig into the very first Dragon Quest for NES, but I can barely play the very first Breath Of Fire for SNES (even though I love BOF III and IV).

I am not kidding, I have completed DQ 1-4 for NES, but could not make myself to even get halfway through BOF.

 

[Jasede]

BoF 1 is hopelessly overrated; am I the only one to prefer 2? It had really good graphics, sounded good, had fun battles and shaman fusions, the last dungeon kicked ass...

 

[yes plz]

Is the first Breath of Fire really that well loved? I remember it getting pretty weak reviews. As for why people might prefer it to its sequel, BoF2 originally had a pretty shitty translation and then there's the newer GBA version that's probably the version a lot of people of familiar with, which was cut up all to Hell and pretty shitty overall. I've always vastly preferred Breath of Fire II over the original as well.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

BoF 1 had a cookie cutter weak story... BoF 2 (especially if you can read Japanese/get the superior translated version) was MUCH better. Still my favorite in the series.

 

[victim]

What I like about Dragon Quest is that even though it is very standard in terms of story and gameplay, it still has some kind of a magic hook that makes these games very interesting and unique in some ways. Like, I can totally dig into the very first Dragon Quest for NES, but I can barely play the very first Breath Of Fire for SNES (even though I love BOF III and IV).

I am not kidding, I have completed DQ 1-4 for NES, but could not make myself to even get halfway through BOF.

I like the DQ series but I have never been able to make myself complete 1 or 2. Might be a caveat on 2 since I'm not sure I've ever played it. But DQ1 is rather tedious.

 

[Lemming42]

I can't remember which ones I've played. I played I, II and VII definitely, and I played one for the SNES where you spend the first part of the game as a lame-ass kid following your dad around, which I think was V.

Never really grabbed me in the same way the early Final Fantasy games did.

 

[victim]

I can't remember which ones I've played. I played I, II and VII definitely, and I played one for the SNES where you spend the first part of the game as a lame-ass kid following your dad around, which I think was V.

Never really grabbed me in the same way the early Final Fantasy games did.

V seems to be one of the more beloved games but I'm with you on that one

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

I can't remember which ones I've played. I played I, II and VII definitely, and I played one for the SNES where you spend the first part of the game as a lame-ass kid following your dad around, which I think was V.

Never really grabbed me in the same way the early Final Fantasy games did.

V seems to be one of the more beloved games but I'm with you on that one

I was in the same boat until fairly recently - I actually didn't get into the DQ games until 4-5 years ago. I was a huge FF fan, but didn't really love Dragon Warrior enough to go any further. FF games seemed to be all about blowing your mind story-wise and doing something entirely new mechanically with each entry while DQ games seem to be more focused on telling a lighthearted story and iterating on the same system.

Ironically, now that I'm older, the stories and characters that I would have dismissed as childish now come off as quite charming. Plus I can appreciate how good they've gotten at implementing that same basic system. Never have menus been so satisfying.

I only played FF: 4 Heroes of life for a few hours, but from what I saw its kind of taking the DQ approach to making a FF game. So if you liked that at all, it might be worth checking the DQ games out again.

 

[victim]

I can't remember which ones I've played. I played I, II and VII definitely, and I played one for the SNES where you spend the first part of the game as a lame-ass kid following your dad around, which I think was V.

Never really grabbed me in the same way the early Final Fantasy games did.

V seems to be one of the more beloved games but I'm with you on that one

I was in the same boat until fairly recently - I actually didn't get into the DQ games until 4-5 years ago. I was a huge FF fan, but didn't really love Dragon Warrior enough to go any further. FF games seemed to be all about blowing your mind story-wise and doing something entirely new mechanically with each entry while DQ games seem to be more focused on telling a lighthearted story and iterating on the same system.

Ironically, now that I'm older, the stories and characters that I would have dismissed as childish now come off as quite charming. Plus I can appreciate how good they've gotten at implementing that same basic system. Never have menus been so satisfying.

I only played FF: 4 Heroes of life for a few hours, but from what I saw its kind of taking the DQ approach to making a FF game. So if you liked that at all, it might be worth checking the DQ games out again.

Four Heroes of Light is actually pretty good, but I like the DQ series much more than FF -- in fact I think my favorite FF is still the original. It seems like Bravely Default is quite reminiscent of 4HoL but I have yet to properly sink my teeth into BD except for a few minutes of the demo so maybe I am wrong.

If you want to go really deep there is a game that is like a cross between DQ and Etrian Odyssey called 7th Dragon. Unfortunately it was never localized -- but its extremely playable with the help of a wiki. Its one of my favorite games, not only in the genre but overall.

 

[A user named cat]

I just tried DQV for PS2 (pcsx2) for the first time today with the English translation patch, pretty nice so far. Obviously a lot fancier than the SNES version and seems to be quite faithful. Not sure what all is different aside from the aesthetics and orchestrated soundtrack.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

IV and V are horrible, the former is horribly formulaic and dull, and the latter is an ordinary game that was overhyped to high heavens because "mai waifu!!".

 

[victim]

IV and V are horrible, the former is horribly formulaic and dull, and the latter is an ordinary game that was overhyped to high heavens because "mai waifu!!".

Better to say that you think you don't like formulaic games in regards to 4. I doubt that is actually true however, since almost all games are highly derivative. Not to mention that V changed the formula up a bit and you're bitching about that too.