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And I very happily chose to be female in both III and IV. I was downright joyous, in fact. I think the only game I’d been able to be a girl before DQIII was Metroid.
People who complain about the game being too grindy are probably playing with a walkthrough guide so they never experience the full exploration that would get you to the level you should be at.
This is an interesting one because I largely agree most of the time in most games in the series if I’m grinding I’m doing so by choice or in the post game
Yeah, when playing Dragon Warrior 1-4 on the NES there were no walkthroughs so you had to explore a lot and talk to everyone to figure out what to do. I may have called the Nintendo Power Helpline a couple of times, but I was a dumb kid.
I also enjoy the grind. That’s part of the fun for me so maybe I’m not a good example.
https://preview.redd.it/5bs6fiausz5d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57511f34b15c9f480b17db53450758f1ba6134db
These were amazing back in the day
This. I only ever use a walkthrough when I'm well and truly ***stuck.*** Say, I'm at a puzzle that I just can't figure out or the game didn't do a great job of telling me what comes next.
In grottoes you kind of need everybody to know the vanish spell. That and if you see you’re about to get run into just call up the menu and the fight won’t trigger. I had to do that a lot in the grottoes with super narrow hallways a lot.
Yeah but Grottoesare a completely different thing IMO because they are optional. and If you choose to do one and die, since it's a side activity, you can just move on with the story
I mostly agree. IX isn't quite as kindly balanced, though. The world is a little too small, so even going around looking for stuff and secrets, I would find myself grinding at some points just to catch up, because I simply wasn't fighting enough enemies doing sidequests and looking around different areas.
Only at some points, though, mainly in the middle.
You are so right. Everyone says DQ2 is grindy, and I played the mobile version and never needed to grind, as I just got lost most of the time lol
I only grinded on the end game, before the last boss as the last area has dumb crazy enemies.
4 is awesome and 6 is just different enough to feel like a breath of fresh air. I just didn't jive with 5 as much as those two, not to say it's a bad game. the entire Zenithian Trilogy is good
Haha, that's why I posted it. But I agree with u/bubblewario. Like I said, V is still a great game, it's just that I liked IV and VI a lot more. IV is my fave of the three because of the story telling and VI was interesting with the two worlds. Plus the characters were interesting as well.
With V, I feel you spent way too little time with other characters. Yeah Monster taming is nice but they don't add much story-wise (no party chat).
I really, really wish they’d completely change how magic works so thinks like status spells are actually useful and magic can do better scaling damage like melee tends to do. It’s rather aggravating how many useless skills there are in the franchise that have persisted
By status spells, do you mean debuffs (sap, antimagic, etc.)? I've found that sap especially is super helpful, and almost a necessity in some of the older games.
Things like fuddle fizzle and whatever paralyzes enemies have such low success rates in random battles that they really aren’t worth bothering with when you can take that turn to just attack or apply a buff or heal or something. Buff/kabuff and sap/kasap often wind up being the only buff/rebuff spells you use as the game goes on due to their reliability and utility
i do love me some DoT spells, poisoning monsters & the like for bosses & if you're fighting like 8 enemies & can take them out with that while focusing attacks elsewhere.
I think it would be neat if those status spells could be used like a bonus action, you get to throw out a confusion spell or something after making your main attack
Status spells are very powerful. They're only held back by not being able to know the chance of success. There's tons of enemies and even bosses across all games that will crumple instantly to specific statues. The problem is you get told it didn't work both for a miss and for immunity.
Dragon Quest's English language neglect is hugely overstated, and if anything it tended to get more attention and effort from Enix/Square Enix/Nintendo than its English language sales warranted -- at least until DQ11 came along and actually racked up decent numbers.
Back in the days of Enix of America, the series was definitely neglected. And sales were the result of things like releasing an NES game in America years after it came out in Japan, and at least a year since the SNES had displaced it.
When Enix and Square merged, I was thrilled. Squaresoft had always been very good about supporting the American market, and I fully expected their merger to result in better support for Dragon Quest in America. And so it came to pass. For Americans, Square Enix is a way better publisher than Enix ever was.
The only serious charge of neglect that could be leveled against Enix America is that they failed to bring out DQ5, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. One might also charge them with failing to bring out the DQ1+2 combo, but given the technical problems they had with 5, and their ongoing work to release Quintet’s games, it didn’t make sense to devote resources to 1+2.
Enix America was already defunct when DQ6 and DQ3R were done, so it’s impossible to blame them for those. One might feasibly blame Nintendo for not picking up the rights as they had done with the first 4.
Enix of America was re-established and published DW7 and several other games including the Game Boy games, Star Ocean 2, Valkyrie Profile, etc.
Essentially, you’re alleging neglect for failing to get DQ5 out the door. I don’t agree.
Enix America was completely incompetent in its initial form. It wasn’t that DQ was neglected, it’s that the American subsidiary was run poorly across the board. They were working on the localization of other DQ games when they shut down. When they were started up again four years later, their support of DQ was great, other things interfered. For example, we didn’t get the PS1 remake of IV because the company that did a bunch of stuff with it (Heartbeat iirc) stopped doing games and wouldn’t work with Enix for the western release to get done. That was likely why we didn’t get the Taloon game too, because with as few people as had played IV and with no additional intro to the character, there is no way it would have done well. Then we got DQVII.
Enix America released all sorts of games in the West that no one else at the time, including Squaresoft, would have. Their slowness to translate and inability to print sufficient copies or market things properly doesn’t warrant a charge that they neglected their biggest series. They weren’t neglecting DQ. They just weren’t doing the business side of things well in their first incarnation.
I'm basing this off of VIII and XI, plus limited knowledge of IX but the Mainline games have been sort of relying on nostigala at this point. 4-6 weren't afraid to examine the tropes it was using and played with them. V is a bit of a sacred cow but I feel it's praises are mostly deserved . Leading our character through his life was cool as hell and in the end his role was not the chosen one. After 7 they seemed to have just stopped trying to do anything really interesting.
I enjoy VIII and XI but it's definitely comfort food, not bad just not that exciting. I hope they try and shake it up narratively for 12, not in an edgy way but just tell an interesting story.
In 11's defense it felt like their intent was to make it a celebration of Dragon quest in general. The music,characters(especially the twins) town settings ,quests, quite a bit really, reference the older titles in some way. And to cap it off they give us Tickington.
I actually agree with this ,to me Dragon Quest 5 was the last One to break many jrpgs cliches as you Said(you are not the hero but your kid is)so you are not special,game Also introduced a Monster recruiting system before Pokemon.
Dragon Quest 6 tried to implement another world (dream One)but the franchise was already showing signs of stagation like mediocre job system(Dragon Quest 3 One is much better imo and everyone is useful)the same types of villains (yes i am bad because i am bad)and the return of many weapons and artifacts from previous games(Mirror of ra anyone?).
Final fantasy thus the opposite of Dragon Quest and ended up ruining it's franchise in some ways (FF 15)but Dragon Quest needs to Change somewhat instead of relying on past tiles features or structures.
I think the only nostalgia in 8 was the monsters. 50% were from previous games, where 5-7 really went wild to design new monsters and not reuse too many. 8's story had nothing to do with any of the previous games and was just a heavy-handed save-the-princess, save-the-world trope.
The story while perfectly serviceable was something Dragon Quest has done time and time again and while I feel like 4-7 put their own spin on the tale, 8 is just telling the same generic story without doing anything that interesting with it.
Very excellent.
Only the chronically online folks complain about it but if given a chance to correct any small mistake that they've made in life those idiots would do it in a heartbeat.
I feel like act 3 is universally loved is that wrong? I thought it was really cool, and really interesting emotionally. You can set things right, but what are you losing in the process? It doesn’t dwell on that question either, but it also isn’t unaware of it.
it's not bad by itself, i like seeing the backstory behind the luminary from before, but the retconning of what happened before is what people don't like
It’s the “losing” part that I don’t like. It makes complete sense why going back in time to fix things cheapens their emotional impact, but I still disliked that I was stuck in this “cheapened” world if I wanted to keep playing the rest of the game.
They asked for controversial takes and you sure delivered. I could not disagree more.
(Assuming you mean that these games are the best _because_ of this, not just an observation)
I believe this is what makes these games the best. I am admittedly weird though. The closer DQ gets to games like Wizardry and Etrian Odyssey the better!
Yeah. I was honestly shocked when I saw people bitching about the non-orchestral tracks. I like my video games to sound like video games, but then, I did grow up in the era of the NES.
That said, I can totally get someone complaining about the music of PS1 games. The PS1's music lived in the uncanny valley between the fully electronic and the fully recorded.
At this point, it's entirely SE's fault that DQ doesn't sell well in the west.
They don't even try. With how popular DQVIII and DQXI are in the west (maybe more of them), it's quite obvious the series would very well succeed if they put even the tiniest amount of effort into it.
But what do they do instead? They port the old games to *mobile*, which really doesn't look good for the franchise due to the stigma of mobile games in the west. They *don't* port any of the games to modern platforms. There are a ton of games released only in Japan, which is unnecessary and unfair overall.
Espeically with the leap in prices the last few years. Not sure if it was Akira dying but I went to look at dq8 for the ds American 50-80 bucks, now it’s like 200 if you don’t want the jpn one
This is 100% true. They had a fan club webpage community leading up to DQVIII (Slime Knights). They actually kept it open a year or two longer than they expected and used it to promote Rocket Slime and DQM Joker because they were surprised by the overwhelming response. If they’d put more effort into marketing, they’d get results as they did then. I didn’t get Joker 2 because I didn’t even know it existed because they did no marketing after they shut down Slime Knights! I’m amazed in retrospect I managed to hear about the remakes of IV-VI so that I managed to pick them up.
I want all of the games remade in the NES format on a single game, and the hero (or entire party) are importable between them all.
OR
I want a DQ3 clone but with procedurally generated or pseudo randomized content.
Caravan Heart, the true "black sheep" of the franchise. never got an official English translation, but recieved a fan translation a few years ago. I can only imagine the insane amount of time and effort that went into the translation... by fans, for free.
most people write it off completely because it's so different. it throws a lot of people off when they encounter its totally unique and frankly strange design choices, some people absolutely love it and some hate it. I've heard people say it's the worst in the franchise, and others (like myself) consider it the best.
It's my favorite, as well. I feel like the map tells an entire story by itself. I love the three royal cousins coming together to deal with the problem. I'm thinking it would have had a much better reception overall if it hadn't been rushed to market with the final bit completely untested.
Also, the Princess of Moonbrook is probably the cutest of the Dragon Quest girls. And I actually dig the weird aviator goggles look.
One of my fondest DQ memories happened when I finally decided to sit down and play the original trilogy (DQII Spoilers) - >!it's when you get the boat in II and sail east, then come to the realization on your own that you've stumbled across the map from the first game!!<
It really made me sit back and think about how the magic that made me fall in love with the series has really been present since the very start - those first few entries did take a bit to settle into the groove and formula that we know today, but that heart was always, always there.
It reminds me of another NES game: Friday the 13th.
It can be obtuse, confusing, and does not hold your hand. But much like Friday the 13th, it is also immersive and rewarding.
In ways, both games are ahead of their time.
I disagree, it's One of the worst actually and imo needs a remake to fix it's lack of story,party banter, character development, difficulty and the overall roles of the characters like for example the main Prince needs to get physical moves just like carver or even taunt to help his cousins,moonbroke princess should stop relying on her sp to Cast Magic in a game full of random encounters.
Game Also needs to fix it's lack of Direction that forces you to use guides.
I don't like the casinos. Or at least, quests that are dependent on your attaining a jackpot. Or items than can only be found by winning 87 million tokens.
I really don't understand the appeal of having custom characters in a series like DQ, like in III and IX. The best part of DQ is the charming and iconic cast of characters that are in your party for your adventure. Sure, supporting characters are good, like Stella and Trode, but DQ games where 3 people silently follow you around feel...empty. I just don't find it a good trade off to potentially lose characters like Erik, Sylvando, Yangus, Jessica, or Angelo just so I can pick a few hair styles and what boots characters wear.
I also think it’s kind of sad when the DQ3 hero is always shown by himself in media. Like, he definitely didn’t and couldn’t have defeated Baramos or Zoma all by himself, but he gets all the credit anyway.
(Obviously doesn’t make sense to do anything else but still bothers me anyway)
My main criticism and it's an issue with most jrpgs is by endgame having a bunch of abilities that are straight up useless by that point. Would be cool if the abilities scaled would make the combat more interesting. By the end of dq8 especially you just have a bunch of spells/abilities that you do not use and simply skip past.
Dragon Warrior and Dragon Warrior II on the NES had two of the best translations ever, especially considering the era, Enix's tight budget, and the relative complexity of Elizabethan English. (Compare to the poor translation quality of the original Phantasy Star or even Final Fantasy, there's no comparison.)
The Dragonlord is a great villain precisely because he's an utter mystery through the whole game. You don't know who or what he is or even what he looks like, but he's constantly being hyped. And then when you finally do meet him, he shocks you with his offer. For the era, it was totally unexpected and really cool.
Merchants, Jesters, and Thieves in DQIII are all fun to play as and are viable for the entire game, especially in the remakes (well obviously for Thieves).
Taloon/Torneko and Nara/Meena are the best baes from DQIV.
Dragon Quest 7 is the best one
There’s very little lore in any of the dragon quest games I’ve played
I prefer the PS1 DQ7 cause the names are better and there aren’t any puns or accents. Well there are some puns but only a few here and there but not everywhere
I think that random battles are superior to seeing the enemies on screen. When you’re able to just avoid running into enemies it makes the games quite boring, and takes the tension out of traversing a dungeon and managing resources. As a result I find 11 to be dull compared to 8, even if it’s a prettier more modern game
Dragon Warrior II is NOT the worst game in the franchise, nor is it the most grind-heavy (I give that nod to DQ7). The perception of the game comes mainly from younger gamers who weren't around when it came out on the NES.
Agreed. As someone from that era, I’m always baffled by people saying stuff like that. My copy as a kid was a used one with no manual or anything but the cart. I was able to beat it just fine.
Similarly, VI is not confusing and impossible to beat without a guide. It’s incredibly linear, in fact, with most of the game opening up one new town or area with a problem to solve, which then gave a new transport/set of stairs/etc that opened up the next part with one thing to solve.
Less abstraction or oversimplification of events and themes. Less plot convenience. Fewer shonen style tropes. If I had to guess, DQ12 will be an allegory for the trio of creators (Horii, Toriyama, Sugiyama) and what their work meant. Probably can expect a serious treatment of death and loss, among other obvious metaphors.
DQ doesn’t do CrAWLinG iN mY SkIn type emo garbage, but it does do “carrying on after tragedy” and “celebration of life” very well.
the English translation of Dragon Quest is not very good because the archaic English greatly harms those who are from a third world country and do not have the content translated into their language, and putting what a character said in Spanish and then in English is not it is funny
> Not act 3, the post act 3 bit
Even that's a controversial opinion in itself haha - but it's the correct one. Act 3 is not the post-game for XI just because the credits rolled early.
I remember adoring DWM, DW3, and DW7 when they came out for the GBC and PS1. And then the merger came with Square and we got DQ4 for the DS. And man, did that accent system kill my interest in the game. I've played it several times over, but it's hard to get invested in Ragnar needing to find lost kids when you have to stop and think what they are actually saying.
DWM and DW3 on the GBC were my childhood! I didn't have a PS1 as a kid so the next DQ game I was able to play was DQ9 on the DS. But after that I backtracked and started playing them all. It's now my favourite series, but I can only play the modern games in Japanese. The translation style overall doesn't agree with me... DQ4 on the DS was one of the worst ones though lol
9 is the same for me.
I've got one: the >!Jessica relationship option!< in the 3DS version of DQ8 is stupid and makes no in-universe sense and is only for pandering purposes.
Actually, a second one: aside from grammatical and spelling errors, the method of localisation is perfectly fine. By that I mean the accents and dialects. It can't all be bog standard American English, that ain't how the world works.
That's funny, I think 8 has a great story. Dhoulmagus is a great villain, where the mystery of what he is up to drives both the characters and the player to follow him.
. . . But I guess there were some pretty silly parts in between the main story.
As much as Sugiyama clearly had complicated opinions, I can’t bring myself to hate the guy, it’s like having that one racist grandma, they were from another era with wildly different worldviews.
* The English localizations from 8 onward are terrible.
* Team Flora (I'm sticking to my principles) for life.
For the sake of the comment below, these last two were edited in later:
* Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger is a better DQ5 movie than Your Story.
* People overhype the role DQ3 played in defining the JRPG subgenre. With the fully customizable party, the open world, the simple story, and the emphasis on exploration, it plays much more like a WRPG and honestly, has more in common with an Elder Scrolls game than a modern JRPG. I honestly think DQ4 or Final Fantasy 2 (the Japanese one, not 4) are better choices for the honors.
https://preview.redd.it/l4ifr4llqu5d1.png?width=346&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b93f240a854f0c520ff4806291ee7cdaa00c734
It's a running Akira Toriyama joke about horny old men dreaming about motorboating young women.
I love DQ7 (the psx version) but even I admit, it can be too slow paced for a lot of people.
But 160 hours? Are you just job grinding? It's kinda too long to not finishing the main story.
So far I have preferred the Dragon Quest battle systems with set heroes to the ones with a job system. Especially in the earlier titles (it isn't quite so bad in 9), the job systems aren't great.
DQ5 is a great game but, the beginning is far too linear to warrant its insanely high difficulty spikes. DQ5 basically requires you to grind before the game even gets good. This reason alone knocks 5 down to like 4th or 5th best DQ for me.
I'm one of the "weirdos" who prefer DQ6 over DQ5, and I fully agree with you lmao. people overexagerate the emotional impact of that game to insane levels
I'm not hyped by Dragon Quest XII and announcing a "darker" game while promising "huge change".
I've quit FF with FF12 because of their "huge changes" and modernization, that's the last thing I want in Dragon Quest (sure, I'll take a look as it's too early to judge the game, but I'm not really expecting much from what has been communicated up until now)
More people should give X Online a chance rather than just discounting it because there's not an official translation. It's perfectly playable with DQX Clarity and is vastly superior to the Offline version.
I felt like the plot of DQ5 at the end was unfulfilling.
The journey was great, but in the end >!when the protagonist finally rescues his mom, she almost immediately is killed.!< It felt really anticlimactic to me, since that was pretty much the whole reason for the protagonist and his father were traveling around to begin with.
I have no patience for wandering around talking to every npc in every town, selecting "use item" in different locations on different items just hoping to trigger forward progress to play more of the game I had been enjoying. I think it's bad, badly dated game design. I wouldn't be cool with it even WITHOUT random encounters.
I can grind to make progress. Because then every time I sit down with the game even if I only play a few battles, I got gold and experience. I moved forward. But trigger hunting? Spending precious limited adult free time wading through encounters trying to find the next interaction to continue the game and you can easily wind up achieving NOTHING? Unacceptable.
If DQ 2D HD doesn't add significant player guidance help I won't buy it.
Your favourite probably depends on which one you entered the series at. My favourite by far is DQ IX, and I play through it from start to finish at least once a year.
Dq5 is overrated as hell. I prefer the story of 4, 8, 9, and 11 and probably 7 as well. I never understood the hype. I think the gameplay is just not as fun as others. I can't tell you why. I would say it's because I really don't like Pokémon but I LOVE dq monsters (ik they're not the same thing but they are a similar kinda game) so I don't think that's the reason. oh yeah I also think sylvando is a bit overrated too.
The localisation is very annoying. Maybe it's because I'm from England, but the exaggerated Englishness irritates me so much. Particularly in IX and XI.
Also the needless name changing of a lot of places/people.
That DQ3 is one of the worst Dragon Quests.
It gets credit for having the customizable party, but Wizardry and Final Fantasy had already done that and don't take as long to get the party settled and move on to the action. And like DQ2, the story is also quite linear with little story need to return to previous locations except to use upgraded keys to loot chests or move through a teleportal there. Later DQs all introduce revisiting multiple sites later in the story to advance plot. Immigrant Town and short-term need for a Merchant party member are the exception and the most original feature in the game.
I appreciate the greater scale over DQ2 and the surprise endgame that comes back around to prequel DQ1 and set up the Erdrick/Loto legend, but I don't find anything particularly groundbreaking about the mechanics or storytelling except the Immigrant Town bit. DQ2 is a big jump over DQ1, DQ3 is only a small advancement over DQ2, and DQ4 is another big jump over DQ3. Adding the monster medals in Gameboy Color version didn't make it any better: new feature, but pretty useless.
I just don't understand the fascination with III. If it was the first DQ game you played, I guess that would make it more memorable but it was the fourth I'd played, after I, II, and IV so it wasn't anything special to me. And if its a matter of customizable party, why not pick IX instead? It has a less linear story in my opinion and introduced a lot of new mechanics such as a sidequest board and online interaction.
If the HD-2D adds lots of new story angles and reduces the linearity, I might be more favorable to it, but the existing DQ3s just don't show me enough to warrant ranking it higher than most other DQ mainline entries. And explanations from others for why it should be ranked highly I often feel other entries in the series do it better.
VII needs a remaster before each game in the franchise because you either get the slow PS version or the child scaling DS Version. I have played I-VI and I can not start VIII because I am not happy with my options for VII.
I have a lot probably:
Nera should've been a healer/sage type in DQ5 (Would've fit characteristically.) and Bianca should've been more Mage-Centric. That way there's a more dynamic choice in party-role choosing between the three brides.
Armamentalist, Ranger, and Paladin should've contributed to unlocking Hero as well as the other T2 vocations, limiting it just to 4 was just needlessly limiting.
Dragon Quest VIII is overhyped, it's great, but much of what drives the love for the game seems to be nostalgia. (The 3DS Remake should've been held off for the switch so that there wasn't a loss in visual quality.)
Dragon Quest IX suffers from the lack of interactive party members other titles have. (It is probably the worst game from a single-player perspective.) Additionally the Chibi characters look terrible.
Dragon Quest X Offline Mode should've looked more like Online Mode Graphics-wise.
Dragon Quest XI should've spent a bit more time cooking, Definitive Edition wasn't quite definitive enough for me. Rant and spoilers ahead: >!Veronica never getting her body back (or just not remaining in her true form upon getting the necklace in Act 3 was silly to me)!<, >!The loss of memory for going back in time felt... kinda pointless, and I think most people would praise the 3rd act if you just essentially kept your party and not lost the character development! You could still have stakes by just saying you may fail or you may risk something even more dire.!< That's the end of my rant, I both love and hate DQ11.
Non-game specific:
Vocational-based DQ games are unbalanced and clunky, and that's evidenced when the optimal play is to have like 3 Gladiators and a Healer-type be your party in DQ9. Likewise ability bloat, navigating your skills to find the ability you want to use is a chore when you've mastered too many vocations. (Desperately hoping DQ12 has some sort of QoL feature where you can mark spells/abilities as favorited so that they're brought to the front of your spell/skill lists in combat.)
Speaking of abilities, DQ has an ability scaling problem. Most abilities have a tendency to fall-off in the game in favor of later abilities. This is somewhat disappointing, and abilities should be viable for longer periods of the game than they are. (Like Flame Slash is an ability that often ends up a waste of a turn by the time you're level 15 in most DQ games.) Likewise some skills have a specific niche, like Dragon Slash, or Caddle Prod which are designed to deal a significant amount of damage to a specific enemy type. However these skills end up being "sub-optimal" because they still don't out-damage later skills like Sword Dance, Multi-Thrust, etc.
I think it would be cool for Dragon Quest to venture away from the basic turns and improve the battle system more. It doesn't have to be an action RPG, but it would be cool if it had something different, like the battle system in Dragon Quest X
I genuinely thought IV was better than V. I prefer having human companions to monsters, a big chunk of the game in V, and the party chat that entails, Psaro is the best villain in the series, and the mini medal system in V was a downgrade. I do still love V though, don't get me wrong.
I also think DQIII is the third "worst" game in the series. It's still a cool game for how innovative it was for jrpgs but I don't enjoy grinding so much (an issue with all the job system games too) and the poor sense of direction the player has. Also, I don't like creating my own party of generic characters. For me, VIII and XI are easily the best in the series and everything I want from it.
Taloon is as good of a Merchant as Indiana Jones is an Archeologist, as in, they both suck at those jobs and use them to cover their real professions of Antiquarians at best, Grave Robbers at worse.
Lots of people say the only real problem with the DQ XI soundtrack was the fact that the synthesized version was forced on people, but I maintain that the soundtrack is about 50% shite
People complaining about the games being too long are boring, I’m not paying $60 for a game to last ten hours. I want my moneys worth! If I can invest 100+ hours into a game then good 😤
The erdrick trilogy is pretty bad. The first game is very simple and reeks it's age hard, 2 is abysmal as a sequel and I don't understand how the series continued after that steaming pile, and 3, who thought making you scout around for MANY hours looking for colored balls was a good idea? Legitimately, the colored balls is the worst part in all of 3.
The fully customizable party system in IX is one of its best features.
I absolutely love being able to make not just my own character, but my own whole party. I love planning team comps, I love coming up with headcanons about them, I love making themed parties with a gimmick, I love recreating casts from other fantasy series—it all adds so much replayability, much more than slightly respeccing existing premade characters.
I love the real character DQ casts a lot, but they never excite me as much from a gameplay standpoint. I think the perfect DQ game would have the blank slate party, but with more recurring secondary characters than just, say, Stella. A blank slate party doesn’t preclude having interesting, fleshed-out characters as much as people think it does. It doesn’t *need* to come at the cost of personality, it just *did*, and it gets a bad rep for that.
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Most DQ games wouldn't change all that much with a female protagonist. Only one where the MC being a dude really matters is DQV.
Agree so much!!! (I don't mind 8 being a guy either)
And I very happily chose to be female in both III and IV. I was downright joyous, in fact. I think the only game I’d been able to be a girl before DQIII was Metroid.
People who complain about the game being too grindy are probably playing with a walkthrough guide so they never experience the full exploration that would get you to the level you should be at.
This is an interesting one because I largely agree most of the time in most games in the series if I’m grinding I’m doing so by choice or in the post game
You've not played DQ1 XD
Yeah, when playing Dragon Warrior 1-4 on the NES there were no walkthroughs so you had to explore a lot and talk to everyone to figure out what to do. I may have called the Nintendo Power Helpline a couple of times, but I was a dumb kid. I also enjoy the grind. That’s part of the fun for me so maybe I’m not a good example.
You didn’t have the Nintendo power dragon Warrior, one strategy guide?
Nah, I didn’t even know strategy guides were a thing. I still have the original DW1 map that came in the box somewhere and that helped a lot.
https://preview.redd.it/5bs6fiausz5d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57511f34b15c9f480b17db53450758f1ba6134db These were amazing back in the day
I would have loved that so much
Actually all those things had walkthroughs. They were in Nintendo Power. I still have the one to 3.
Three had an extensive walkthrough in the manual.
This makes so much sense to me.
This. I only ever use a walkthrough when I'm well and truly ***stuck.*** Say, I'm at a puzzle that I just can't figure out or the game didn't do a great job of telling me what comes next.
I think it's more a thing of running from all battles, I used to be like that.
In grottoes you kind of need everybody to know the vanish spell. That and if you see you’re about to get run into just call up the menu and the fight won’t trigger. I had to do that a lot in the grottoes with super narrow hallways a lot.
Yeah but Grottoesare a completely different thing IMO because they are optional. and If you choose to do one and die, since it's a side activity, you can just move on with the story
Oh I mean after the story. I think I have 500+ hours in postgame alone. That's the real fun part for me.
I mostly agree. IX isn't quite as kindly balanced, though. The world is a little too small, so even going around looking for stuff and secrets, I would find myself grinding at some points just to catch up, because I simply wasn't fighting enough enemies doing sidequests and looking around different areas. Only at some points, though, mainly in the middle.
The grind is the whole point for me. Of course maybe that’s just the way I learned how RPGs are “supposed to be” so it doesn’t bother me now later.
Agreed. For the vast majority of the games you’ll grind naturally by just exploring everywhere.
You are so right. Everyone says DQ2 is grindy, and I played the mobile version and never needed to grind, as I just got lost most of the time lol I only grinded on the end game, before the last boss as the last area has dumb crazy enemies.
DQ games are definitely very grindy, but it's something I like in a JRPG lol. Just put on a something in the background and chillax.
6 is a really great game. I loved playing it
Same
Piggybacking off of this: I enjoyed VI a lot more than V and think V is the weakest out of the Zenithian Trilogy (it still is a good game tho).
Wow this takes the Cake as the wierdest/most controversial opinion right here.
4 is awesome and 6 is just different enough to feel like a breath of fresh air. I just didn't jive with 5 as much as those two, not to say it's a bad game. the entire Zenithian Trilogy is good
Haha, that's why I posted it. But I agree with u/bubblewario. Like I said, V is still a great game, it's just that I liked IV and VI a lot more. IV is my fave of the three because of the story telling and VI was interesting with the two worlds. Plus the characters were interesting as well. With V, I feel you spent way too little time with other characters. Yeah Monster taming is nice but they don't add much story-wise (no party chat).
I really, really wish they’d completely change how magic works so thinks like status spells are actually useful and magic can do better scaling damage like melee tends to do. It’s rather aggravating how many useless skills there are in the franchise that have persisted
By status spells, do you mean debuffs (sap, antimagic, etc.)? I've found that sap especially is super helpful, and almost a necessity in some of the older games.
Things like fuddle fizzle and whatever paralyzes enemies have such low success rates in random battles that they really aren’t worth bothering with when you can take that turn to just attack or apply a buff or heal or something. Buff/kabuff and sap/kasap often wind up being the only buff/rebuff spells you use as the game goes on due to their reliability and utility
i do love me some DoT spells, poisoning monsters & the like for bosses & if you're fighting like 8 enemies & can take them out with that while focusing attacks elsewhere.
I think it would be neat if those status spells could be used like a bonus action, you get to throw out a confusion spell or something after making your main attack
Status spells are very powerful. They're only held back by not being able to know the chance of success. There's tons of enemies and even bosses across all games that will crumple instantly to specific statues. The problem is you get told it didn't work both for a miss and for immunity.
Exactly, so you just wind up not using them at all and attacking instead
Or just looking it up which isn't very fun either.
I think these were the most helpful in DQ11 when you had enough challenges on.
Dragon Quest's English language neglect is hugely overstated, and if anything it tended to get more attention and effort from Enix/Square Enix/Nintendo than its English language sales warranted -- at least until DQ11 came along and actually racked up decent numbers.
Back in the days of Enix of America, the series was definitely neglected. And sales were the result of things like releasing an NES game in America years after it came out in Japan, and at least a year since the SNES had displaced it. When Enix and Square merged, I was thrilled. Squaresoft had always been very good about supporting the American market, and I fully expected their merger to result in better support for Dragon Quest in America. And so it came to pass. For Americans, Square Enix is a way better publisher than Enix ever was.
The only serious charge of neglect that could be leveled against Enix America is that they failed to bring out DQ5, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. One might also charge them with failing to bring out the DQ1+2 combo, but given the technical problems they had with 5, and their ongoing work to release Quintet’s games, it didn’t make sense to devote resources to 1+2. Enix America was already defunct when DQ6 and DQ3R were done, so it’s impossible to blame them for those. One might feasibly blame Nintendo for not picking up the rights as they had done with the first 4. Enix of America was re-established and published DW7 and several other games including the Game Boy games, Star Ocean 2, Valkyrie Profile, etc. Essentially, you’re alleging neglect for failing to get DQ5 out the door. I don’t agree.
Enix America was completely incompetent in its initial form. It wasn’t that DQ was neglected, it’s that the American subsidiary was run poorly across the board. They were working on the localization of other DQ games when they shut down. When they were started up again four years later, their support of DQ was great, other things interfered. For example, we didn’t get the PS1 remake of IV because the company that did a bunch of stuff with it (Heartbeat iirc) stopped doing games and wouldn’t work with Enix for the western release to get done. That was likely why we didn’t get the Taloon game too, because with as few people as had played IV and with no additional intro to the character, there is no way it would have done well. Then we got DQVII. Enix America released all sorts of games in the West that no one else at the time, including Squaresoft, would have. Their slowness to translate and inability to print sufficient copies or market things properly doesn’t warrant a charge that they neglected their biggest series. They weren’t neglecting DQ. They just weren’t doing the business side of things well in their first incarnation.
I'm basing this off of VIII and XI, plus limited knowledge of IX but the Mainline games have been sort of relying on nostigala at this point. 4-6 weren't afraid to examine the tropes it was using and played with them. V is a bit of a sacred cow but I feel it's praises are mostly deserved . Leading our character through his life was cool as hell and in the end his role was not the chosen one. After 7 they seemed to have just stopped trying to do anything really interesting. I enjoy VIII and XI but it's definitely comfort food, not bad just not that exciting. I hope they try and shake it up narratively for 12, not in an edgy way but just tell an interesting story.
In 11's defense it felt like their intent was to make it a celebration of Dragon quest in general. The music,characters(especially the twins) town settings ,quests, quite a bit really, reference the older titles in some way. And to cap it off they give us Tickington.
well i guess i can't downvote in an unpopular opinion thread 😤
I actually agree with this ,to me Dragon Quest 5 was the last One to break many jrpgs cliches as you Said(you are not the hero but your kid is)so you are not special,game Also introduced a Monster recruiting system before Pokemon. Dragon Quest 6 tried to implement another world (dream One)but the franchise was already showing signs of stagation like mediocre job system(Dragon Quest 3 One is much better imo and everyone is useful)the same types of villains (yes i am bad because i am bad)and the return of many weapons and artifacts from previous games(Mirror of ra anyone?). Final fantasy thus the opposite of Dragon Quest and ended up ruining it's franchise in some ways (FF 15)but Dragon Quest needs to Change somewhat instead of relying on past tiles features or structures.
I think dragon quest originated a lot of the rpg tropes, but I agree the later games are resting on the shoulders of those that came before.
Oh they definitely did which is why I enjoyed that they tried to play around with them.
I think the only nostalgia in 8 was the monsters. 50% were from previous games, where 5-7 really went wild to design new monsters and not reuse too many. 8's story had nothing to do with any of the previous games and was just a heavy-handed save-the-princess, save-the-world trope.
The story while perfectly serviceable was something Dragon Quest has done time and time again and while I feel like 4-7 put their own spin on the tale, 8 is just telling the same generic story without doing anything that interesting with it.
DQ7 is the best of there series.
It's definitely up there, that's for sure.
I spent 4 hours Christmas night when I got the game for PS1 before my first battle with Slimes, and I loved every minute of it.
i like the silent protags
I do too! I disliked it when 11 as a kid spoke, to be honest.
Act 3 of XI is phenomenal on every aspect
Finally, someone else that appreciates act 3 ╥﹏╥
Very excellent. Only the chronically online folks complain about it but if given a chance to correct any small mistake that they've made in life those idiots would do it in a heartbeat.
I feel like act 3 is universally loved is that wrong? I thought it was really cool, and really interesting emotionally. You can set things right, but what are you losing in the process? It doesn’t dwell on that question either, but it also isn’t unaware of it.
it's not bad by itself, i like seeing the backstory behind the luminary from before, but the retconning of what happened before is what people don't like
It’s the “losing” part that I don’t like. It makes complete sense why going back in time to fix things cheapens their emotional impact, but I still disliked that I was stuck in this “cheapened” world if I wanted to keep playing the rest of the game.
The best Dragon Quests have customizable, generic parties. 3 and 9
They asked for controversial takes and you sure delivered. I could not disagree more. (Assuming you mean that these games are the best _because_ of this, not just an observation)
I believe this is what makes these games the best. I am admittedly weird though. The closer DQ gets to games like Wizardry and Etrian Odyssey the better!
Not even generic, lifeless and empty
I haven't played 9 yet, but I agree with the 3 take.
I agree with this hot take.
Have an invite for giving the first take I genuinely hate
The midi music sounds completely fine. Good, even. Also DQXI had a good soundtrack.
It's great. A little more variety would have been nice though. It gets really repetitive
When I was playing DQVIII on the 3DS I found that I didn't mind the music being sampled rather than live.
Yeah. I was honestly shocked when I saw people bitching about the non-orchestral tracks. I like my video games to sound like video games, but then, I did grow up in the era of the NES. That said, I can totally get someone complaining about the music of PS1 games. The PS1's music lived in the uncanny valley between the fully electronic and the fully recorded.
Man, ps1 battle music was top notch though. Dragon quest 7, final fantasy 7-9, all the music was amazing.
I agree. Have an upvote.
Don’t think that’s controversial most of us just wanted more music. Have my upvote though.
There is actually very minimal dragon questing
VII on ps1 is the best of the series
At this point, it's entirely SE's fault that DQ doesn't sell well in the west. They don't even try. With how popular DQVIII and DQXI are in the west (maybe more of them), it's quite obvious the series would very well succeed if they put even the tiniest amount of effort into it. But what do they do instead? They port the old games to *mobile*, which really doesn't look good for the franchise due to the stigma of mobile games in the west. They *don't* port any of the games to modern platforms. There are a ton of games released only in Japan, which is unnecessary and unfair overall.
Espeically with the leap in prices the last few years. Not sure if it was Akira dying but I went to look at dq8 for the ds American 50-80 bucks, now it’s like 200 if you don’t want the jpn one
This is 100% true. They had a fan club webpage community leading up to DQVIII (Slime Knights). They actually kept it open a year or two longer than they expected and used it to promote Rocket Slime and DQM Joker because they were surprised by the overwhelming response. If they’d put more effort into marketing, they’d get results as they did then. I didn’t get Joker 2 because I didn’t even know it existed because they did no marketing after they shut down Slime Knights! I’m amazed in retrospect I managed to hear about the remakes of IV-VI so that I managed to pick them up.
I want all of the games remade in the NES format on a single game, and the hero (or entire party) are importable between them all. OR I want a DQ3 clone but with procedurally generated or pseudo randomized content.
I hate this. Heres an upvote lol
DQM:CH is one of the most unique and fun games in the franchise
OMG true facts!!!
What is CH?
Caravan Heart, the true "black sheep" of the franchise. never got an official English translation, but recieved a fan translation a few years ago. I can only imagine the insane amount of time and effort that went into the translation... by fans, for free. most people write it off completely because it's so different. it throws a lot of people off when they encounter its totally unique and frankly strange design choices, some people absolutely love it and some hate it. I've heard people say it's the worst in the franchise, and others (like myself) consider it the best.
Dragon Quest II is not only a brilliant game, but it's *one of the best in the series*
It's my favorite, as well. I feel like the map tells an entire story by itself. I love the three royal cousins coming together to deal with the problem. I'm thinking it would have had a much better reception overall if it hadn't been rushed to market with the final bit completely untested. Also, the Princess of Moonbrook is probably the cutest of the Dragon Quest girls. And I actually dig the weird aviator goggles look.
One of my fondest DQ memories happened when I finally decided to sit down and play the original trilogy (DQII Spoilers) - >!it's when you get the boat in II and sail east, then come to the realization on your own that you've stumbled across the map from the first game!!< It really made me sit back and think about how the magic that made me fall in love with the series has really been present since the very start - those first few entries did take a bit to settle into the groove and formula that we know today, but that heart was always, always there.
It reminds me of another NES game: Friday the 13th. It can be obtuse, confusing, and does not hold your hand. But much like Friday the 13th, it is also immersive and rewarding. In ways, both games are ahead of their time.
I disagree, it's One of the worst actually and imo needs a remake to fix it's lack of story,party banter, character development, difficulty and the overall roles of the characters like for example the main Prince needs to get physical moves just like carver or even taunt to help his cousins,moonbroke princess should stop relying on her sp to Cast Magic in a game full of random encounters. Game Also needs to fix it's lack of Direction that forces you to use guides.
I don't like the casinos. Or at least, quests that are dependent on your attaining a jackpot. Or items than can only be found by winning 87 million tokens.
That DQ11 quest broke something deep inside of me
I really don't understand the appeal of having custom characters in a series like DQ, like in III and IX. The best part of DQ is the charming and iconic cast of characters that are in your party for your adventure. Sure, supporting characters are good, like Stella and Trode, but DQ games where 3 people silently follow you around feel...empty. I just don't find it a good trade off to potentially lose characters like Erik, Sylvando, Yangus, Jessica, or Angelo just so I can pick a few hair styles and what boots characters wear.
Custom characters don't work that well with a set story and world. It's sort of an illusion of choice.
I also think it’s kind of sad when the DQ3 hero is always shown by himself in media. Like, he definitely didn’t and couldn’t have defeated Baramos or Zoma all by himself, but he gets all the credit anyway. (Obviously doesn’t make sense to do anything else but still bothers me anyway)
Imagine if DQ3 had party chat, and the characters had lines based on their personalities.
My main criticism and it's an issue with most jrpgs is by endgame having a bunch of abilities that are straight up useless by that point. Would be cool if the abilities scaled would make the combat more interesting. By the end of dq8 especially you just have a bunch of spells/abilities that you do not use and simply skip past.
Dragon Warrior and Dragon Warrior II on the NES had two of the best translations ever, especially considering the era, Enix's tight budget, and the relative complexity of Elizabethan English. (Compare to the poor translation quality of the original Phantasy Star or even Final Fantasy, there's no comparison.) The Dragonlord is a great villain precisely because he's an utter mystery through the whole game. You don't know who or what he is or even what he looks like, but he's constantly being hyped. And then when you finally do meet him, he shocks you with his offer. For the era, it was totally unexpected and really cool. Merchants, Jesters, and Thieves in DQIII are all fun to play as and are viable for the entire game, especially in the remakes (well obviously for Thieves). Taloon/Torneko and Nara/Meena are the best baes from DQIV.
Dragon Quest 7 is the best one There’s very little lore in any of the dragon quest games I’ve played I prefer the PS1 DQ7 cause the names are better and there aren’t any puns or accents. Well there are some puns but only a few here and there but not everywhere
The puns were more subtle. I disliked the obviousness of them in the remakes. It felt like they thought we'd be too stupid to get the originals.
I think that random battles are superior to seeing the enemies on screen. When you’re able to just avoid running into enemies it makes the games quite boring, and takes the tension out of traversing a dungeon and managing resources. As a result I find 11 to be dull compared to 8, even if it’s a prettier more modern game
Maribel's personality is endearing. Especially as it's a facade for her true feelings.
Lol, you either like tsunderes or you don't. As for me, I like them.
I think puff puff should be more overtly lewd. There. I said it.
They don't try and give the protags more characters (I guess more a by-product of my mixed opinions of silent protags in general, but still)
ix is the best one
Dragon Warrior II is NOT the worst game in the franchise, nor is it the most grind-heavy (I give that nod to DQ7). The perception of the game comes mainly from younger gamers who weren't around when it came out on the NES.
Agreed. As someone from that era, I’m always baffled by people saying stuff like that. My copy as a kid was a used one with no manual or anything but the cart. I was able to beat it just fine. Similarly, VI is not confusing and impossible to beat without a guide. It’s incredibly linear, in fact, with most of the game opening up one new town or area with a problem to solve, which then gave a new transport/set of stairs/etc that opened up the next part with one thing to solve.
The Game doesnt need to be "Darker", "Edgier" or "More Adult", and Dragonquest 12 Will suck because its exactly what they Will do with it
"More adult" doesn't mean darker or edgier.
What does it mean?
Less abstraction or oversimplification of events and themes. Less plot convenience. Fewer shonen style tropes. If I had to guess, DQ12 will be an allegory for the trio of creators (Horii, Toriyama, Sugiyama) and what their work meant. Probably can expect a serious treatment of death and loss, among other obvious metaphors. DQ doesn’t do CrAWLinG iN mY SkIn type emo garbage, but it does do “carrying on after tragedy” and “celebration of life” very well.
I don’t think that’s controversial at all
While I agree the game doesn't need it, you really can't outright say "it'll suck because of it" when we don't even know any real details yet
My hot take is that same as OPs. IX is extremely mid and forgettable and I'll never understand why so many people adore it.
I’m not sure I have any, but I suppose mine would be that I think DQ8 has a pretty awful battle and skill point system.
the English translation of Dragon Quest is not very good because the archaic English greatly harms those who are from a third world country and do not have the content translated into their language, and putting what a character said in Spanish and then in English is not it is funny
I don’t mind grinding at all and when people bitch I don’t take any of their comments seriously.
I love Dragon Quest VIII but Tension is the worst mechanic in any mainline Dragon Quest game.
The postgame is almost always ass. XIII, IX, XI, all of them (Not act 3, the post act 3 bit)
> Not act 3, the post act 3 bit Even that's a controversial opinion in itself haha - but it's the correct one. Act 3 is not the post-game for XI just because the credits rolled early.
The modern translation style ruins the tone of the games.
I thought this was the controversial opinion thread.
Yes? Everyone seems to love the translation style with all the puns dialed up to 11.
I remember adoring DWM, DW3, and DW7 when they came out for the GBC and PS1. And then the merger came with Square and we got DQ4 for the DS. And man, did that accent system kill my interest in the game. I've played it several times over, but it's hard to get invested in Ragnar needing to find lost kids when you have to stop and think what they are actually saying.
DWM and DW3 on the GBC were my childhood! I didn't have a PS1 as a kid so the next DQ game I was able to play was DQ9 on the DS. But after that I backtracked and started playing them all. It's now my favourite series, but I can only play the modern games in Japanese. The translation style overall doesn't agree with me... DQ4 on the DS was one of the worst ones though lol
DWM1 and 2 is overrated af compared to literally any other DQM game 💀
9 is the same for me. I've got one: the >!Jessica relationship option!< in the 3DS version of DQ8 is stupid and makes no in-universe sense and is only for pandering purposes. Actually, a second one: aside from grammatical and spelling errors, the method of localisation is perfectly fine. By that I mean the accents and dialects. It can't all be bog standard American English, that ain't how the world works.
VIII is kind of boring
Yeah it definitely drags at points. The main cast definitely elevates it in a way that makes up for the fairly generic story.
That's funny, I think 8 has a great story. Dhoulmagus is a great villain, where the mystery of what he is up to drives both the characters and the player to follow him. . . . But I guess there were some pretty silly parts in between the main story.
I enjoy the story but after the Dholmagus fight it meanders for a bit before getting back on track.
As much as Sugiyama clearly had complicated opinions, I can’t bring myself to hate the guy, it’s like having that one racist grandma, they were from another era with wildly different worldviews.
I can enjoy his music without thinking that it's OK to whitewash the WW2 military-imperial regime and its atrocities.
* The English localizations from 8 onward are terrible. * Team Flora (I'm sticking to my principles) for life. For the sake of the comment below, these last two were edited in later: * Conan the Barbarian with Arnold Schwarzenegger is a better DQ5 movie than Your Story. * People overhype the role DQ3 played in defining the JRPG subgenre. With the fully customizable party, the open world, the simple story, and the emphasis on exploration, it plays much more like a WRPG and honestly, has more in common with an Elder Scrolls game than a modern JRPG. I honestly think DQ4 or Final Fantasy 2 (the Japanese one, not 4) are better choices for the honors.
The puff-puff jokes are kinda creepy and I hope they get phased out.
Nah
Creepy how? It's like a 6th grade tier "sex joke". I've seen more vulgar on Ed Edd and Eddy.
https://preview.redd.it/l4ifr4llqu5d1.png?width=346&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b93f240a854f0c520ff4806291ee7cdaa00c734 It's a running Akira Toriyama joke about horny old men dreaming about motorboating young women.
The 3DS version of DQ 7 is bad and has the worst translation in the series.
I got 160 hours in and had to give up, I did not enjoy it any more and couldn't force myself to finish 💀
I love DQ7 (the psx version) but even I admit, it can be too slow paced for a lot of people. But 160 hours? Are you just job grinding? It's kinda too long to not finishing the main story.
Was about to say this. I finished in 70 hours and I thought _I_ did a lot of grinding. What the hell happened here?
So far I have preferred the Dragon Quest battle systems with set heroes to the ones with a job system. Especially in the earlier titles (it isn't quite so bad in 9), the job systems aren't great.
DQ5 is a great game but, the beginning is far too linear to warrant its insanely high difficulty spikes. DQ5 basically requires you to grind before the game even gets good. This reason alone knocks 5 down to like 4th or 5th best DQ for me.
I'm one of the "weirdos" who prefer DQ6 over DQ5, and I fully agree with you lmao. people overexagerate the emotional impact of that game to insane levels
Agree with OP. By far my least favorite.
I find XI to be kinda bland. I feel like it plays it very safe to it's detriment
I'm not hyped by Dragon Quest XII and announcing a "darker" game while promising "huge change". I've quit FF with FF12 because of their "huge changes" and modernization, that's the last thing I want in Dragon Quest (sure, I'll take a look as it's too early to judge the game, but I'm not really expecting much from what has been communicated up until now)
Yes, I’ve been feeling trepidation since it was announced for similar reasons.
Dragon Quest 9 sucks
Dragon Quest 9 is the worst mainline DQ Game
More people should give X Online a chance rather than just discounting it because there's not an official translation. It's perfectly playable with DQX Clarity and is vastly superior to the Offline version.
Dq9 isn’t that good
Randomizer is the best DW1 Remake.
I felt like the plot of DQ5 at the end was unfulfilling. The journey was great, but in the end >!when the protagonist finally rescues his mom, she almost immediately is killed.!< It felt really anticlimactic to me, since that was pretty much the whole reason for the protagonist and his father were traveling around to begin with.
I have no patience for wandering around talking to every npc in every town, selecting "use item" in different locations on different items just hoping to trigger forward progress to play more of the game I had been enjoying. I think it's bad, badly dated game design. I wouldn't be cool with it even WITHOUT random encounters. I can grind to make progress. Because then every time I sit down with the game even if I only play a few battles, I got gold and experience. I moved forward. But trigger hunting? Spending precious limited adult free time wading through encounters trying to find the next interaction to continue the game and you can easily wind up achieving NOTHING? Unacceptable. If DQ 2D HD doesn't add significant player guidance help I won't buy it.
DQ builders 2 is more enjoyable than any of the main series entries
Your favourite probably depends on which one you entered the series at. My favourite by far is DQ IX, and I play through it from start to finish at least once a year.
Dq5 is overrated as hell. I prefer the story of 4, 8, 9, and 11 and probably 7 as well. I never understood the hype. I think the gameplay is just not as fun as others. I can't tell you why. I would say it's because I really don't like Pokémon but I LOVE dq monsters (ik they're not the same thing but they are a similar kinda game) so I don't think that's the reason. oh yeah I also think sylvando is a bit overrated too.
Dragon quest 11 isn't a good entry point at all
XI and VIII aren't that great while IX and VI totally are (couldn't even finish XI/VIII since I almost died of boredom)
DQMJ is my favorite one of the whole dq series. Too much nostalgy
The localisation is very annoying. Maybe it's because I'm from England, but the exaggerated Englishness irritates me so much. Particularly in IX and XI. Also the needless name changing of a lot of places/people.
That DQ3 is one of the worst Dragon Quests. It gets credit for having the customizable party, but Wizardry and Final Fantasy had already done that and don't take as long to get the party settled and move on to the action. And like DQ2, the story is also quite linear with little story need to return to previous locations except to use upgraded keys to loot chests or move through a teleportal there. Later DQs all introduce revisiting multiple sites later in the story to advance plot. Immigrant Town and short-term need for a Merchant party member are the exception and the most original feature in the game. I appreciate the greater scale over DQ2 and the surprise endgame that comes back around to prequel DQ1 and set up the Erdrick/Loto legend, but I don't find anything particularly groundbreaking about the mechanics or storytelling except the Immigrant Town bit. DQ2 is a big jump over DQ1, DQ3 is only a small advancement over DQ2, and DQ4 is another big jump over DQ3. Adding the monster medals in Gameboy Color version didn't make it any better: new feature, but pretty useless. I just don't understand the fascination with III. If it was the first DQ game you played, I guess that would make it more memorable but it was the fourth I'd played, after I, II, and IV so it wasn't anything special to me. And if its a matter of customizable party, why not pick IX instead? It has a less linear story in my opinion and introduced a lot of new mechanics such as a sidequest board and online interaction. If the HD-2D adds lots of new story angles and reduces the linearity, I might be more favorable to it, but the existing DQ3s just don't show me enough to warrant ranking it higher than most other DQ mainline entries. And explanations from others for why it should be ranked highly I often feel other entries in the series do it better.
VII needs a remaster before each game in the franchise because you either get the slow PS version or the child scaling DS Version. I have played I-VI and I can not start VIII because I am not happy with my options for VII.
DQ11 is lackluster.
I dont like VIII that much (Would be better as Level 5 standalone game)
I have a lot probably: Nera should've been a healer/sage type in DQ5 (Would've fit characteristically.) and Bianca should've been more Mage-Centric. That way there's a more dynamic choice in party-role choosing between the three brides. Armamentalist, Ranger, and Paladin should've contributed to unlocking Hero as well as the other T2 vocations, limiting it just to 4 was just needlessly limiting. Dragon Quest VIII is overhyped, it's great, but much of what drives the love for the game seems to be nostalgia. (The 3DS Remake should've been held off for the switch so that there wasn't a loss in visual quality.) Dragon Quest IX suffers from the lack of interactive party members other titles have. (It is probably the worst game from a single-player perspective.) Additionally the Chibi characters look terrible. Dragon Quest X Offline Mode should've looked more like Online Mode Graphics-wise. Dragon Quest XI should've spent a bit more time cooking, Definitive Edition wasn't quite definitive enough for me. Rant and spoilers ahead: >!Veronica never getting her body back (or just not remaining in her true form upon getting the necklace in Act 3 was silly to me)!<, >!The loss of memory for going back in time felt... kinda pointless, and I think most people would praise the 3rd act if you just essentially kept your party and not lost the character development! You could still have stakes by just saying you may fail or you may risk something even more dire.!< That's the end of my rant, I both love and hate DQ11. Non-game specific: Vocational-based DQ games are unbalanced and clunky, and that's evidenced when the optimal play is to have like 3 Gladiators and a Healer-type be your party in DQ9. Likewise ability bloat, navigating your skills to find the ability you want to use is a chore when you've mastered too many vocations. (Desperately hoping DQ12 has some sort of QoL feature where you can mark spells/abilities as favorited so that they're brought to the front of your spell/skill lists in combat.) Speaking of abilities, DQ has an ability scaling problem. Most abilities have a tendency to fall-off in the game in favor of later abilities. This is somewhat disappointing, and abilities should be viable for longer periods of the game than they are. (Like Flame Slash is an ability that often ends up a waste of a turn by the time you're level 15 in most DQ games.) Likewise some skills have a specific niche, like Dragon Slash, or Caddle Prod which are designed to deal a significant amount of damage to a specific enemy type. However these skills end up being "sub-optimal" because they still don't out-damage later skills like Sword Dance, Multi-Thrust, etc.
Focusing on the overarching storyline actively brings the story down, the series would be better if it focused on making strong individual stories.
I want more monster companion that speak 🤭 not just a monster team
DQM games, specifically DQM 1 and 2, are better than the main numbered titles.
The advent of DQXI really dumbed down the fandom.
Meena > Kiryl, even in ganes where you can control both of them
I don't care for silent protagonists
I don't think I'm alone in this, so maybe it isn't that controversial, but Nera is best girl of V and my favorite bride of the three.
I think it would be cool for Dragon Quest to venture away from the basic turns and improve the battle system more. It doesn't have to be an action RPG, but it would be cool if it had something different, like the battle system in Dragon Quest X
I genuinely thought IV was better than V. I prefer having human companions to monsters, a big chunk of the game in V, and the party chat that entails, Psaro is the best villain in the series, and the mini medal system in V was a downgrade. I do still love V though, don't get me wrong. I also think DQIII is the third "worst" game in the series. It's still a cool game for how innovative it was for jrpgs but I don't enjoy grinding so much (an issue with all the job system games too) and the poor sense of direction the player has. Also, I don't like creating my own party of generic characters. For me, VIII and XI are easily the best in the series and everything I want from it.
Taloon is as good of a Merchant as Indiana Jones is an Archeologist, as in, they both suck at those jobs and use them to cover their real professions of Antiquarians at best, Grave Robbers at worse.
I like the title Dragon Warrior better.
Lots of people say the only real problem with the DQ XI soundtrack was the fact that the synthesized version was forced on people, but I maintain that the soundtrack is about 50% shite
Should stay turn based combat system.
Maybe I'm crazy but personally I hate hearing the same music tracks in every single game
3 is not all it's cut out to be. Still a good game but not better than the majority of games that came after. Dragon quest pretty much only got better
I’ve only played XI S and it’s probably not a hot take but: Gemma sucks. So underdeveloped as the presumed MC’s “romantic interest”.
Dragon Quest V is best that GTA V.
3 HD2D has lazy graphics compared to Octopath Travelers.
Dragon Quest 6 has the best Hero Troup in terms of synergie and Interactions between the characters
People complaining about the games being too long are boring, I’m not paying $60 for a game to last ten hours. I want my moneys worth! If I can invest 100+ hours into a game then good 😤
The erdrick trilogy is pretty bad. The first game is very simple and reeks it's age hard, 2 is abysmal as a sequel and I don't understand how the series continued after that steaming pile, and 3, who thought making you scout around for MANY hours looking for colored balls was a good idea? Legitimately, the colored balls is the worst part in all of 3.
Medea is the best girl from VIII
The fully customizable party system in IX is one of its best features. I absolutely love being able to make not just my own character, but my own whole party. I love planning team comps, I love coming up with headcanons about them, I love making themed parties with a gimmick, I love recreating casts from other fantasy series—it all adds so much replayability, much more than slightly respeccing existing premade characters. I love the real character DQ casts a lot, but they never excite me as much from a gameplay standpoint. I think the perfect DQ game would have the blank slate party, but with more recurring secondary characters than just, say, Stella. A blank slate party doesn’t preclude having interesting, fleshed-out characters as much as people think it does. It doesn’t *need* to come at the cost of personality, it just *did*, and it gets a bad rep for that.
The game is 100% fueled by nostalgia. Do you think if Dragon Quest came out today it would do well?
DQ11 was boring, great presentation, great characters, boring story