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Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary!



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maryadavies

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This was on my get it list for this year; I preordered it and am not sorry. It's been great so far; this isn't my first Dragon Quest, but it might..just might..be the first one other than Dragon Quest 1 that I actually finished.

So! Anyone else playing the first Dragon Quest to come out in English in quite a while?
 

Veevee

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I've yet to play it and planned to get it on release, but since I recently moved and started to study for my Masters degree, I decided that I'd wait for a price drop. Plus, I saw a lot of reviews that said "yeah, it's a good game, but doesn't re-invent anything" and while I like the Dragon Quest atmosphere and gameplay, I always found the story to be rather lackluster (played 8, 9 and Monsters Joker), so I rarely go full price for it. What do you think of the story, is it good?
 

maryadavies

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Veevee; I think it's decent to pretty good, considering. We got a hero saving the world thing but with a twist, he's a hunted man because some folks think he is evil. (which he isn't) I won't say more than that; can't without getting into spoiler territory!

As for nothing new; Actually they usually save the innovations for Final Fantasy, not Dragon Warrior/Quest. Don't quote me on this, but I understand that the JP Dragon Warrior fans would get very angry if the battle system/formula got changed TOO much. (Forget where I saw that) But in a way, if you want a old skool RPG; that's part of its charm. I've been having a blast.
 

Pokie

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I love Dragon Quest games! And this game is just perfection. I love how you can just ride around on a horse!


I know that it's a classic DQ trope, but I think it's time for the Hero to have a voice and personality. There are some moments that would have been more solid if the MC had the freedom to be something...
 

maryadavies

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I'm loving it too Pokie~!

I also read one review that mentioned they DID change the formula for after you beat the final boss. So stick around a bit after! I sure mean to and I think I'm like..halfway though the game now? I can't wait to find out what they did..
 
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Max

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I'll buy it eventually, I love Dragon Quest and from what little I've seen this one will be no exception. Not too long ago I decided to go through the original trilogy since I had never played those ones, and I beat the first one and I'm allllllmost done with 2.
 

Luminary

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Anyone playing the Switch version? I’d love to read your thoughts!
 

Veevee

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I'll buy it eventually, I love Dragon Quest and from what little I've seen this one will be no exception. Not too long ago I decided to go through the original trilogy since I had never played those ones, and I beat the first one and I'm allllllmost done with 2.

Is it worth it? I mean from a story / fun standpoint? While I generally like going back to the roots and observing what it's like, too often I find that it really hasn't aged well (saw this with Adventures of Mana, for example). I haven't dug in DQ11 yet because I still have JRPGs to finish beforehand (Secret of Mana, delaying this because the platinum grind is so awful; Ys 8, delaying this because I don't want it to end; TWEWY, actually playing this one and only delaying this to collect SDPP), but I saw DQ 1-3 in the E-Shop and feel kinda tempted.
 

Max

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Is it worth it? I mean from a story / fun standpoint? While I generally like going back to the roots and observing what it's like, too often I find that it really hasn't aged well (saw this with Adventures of Mana, for example). I haven't dug in DQ11 yet because I still have JRPGs to finish beforehand (Secret of Mana, delaying this because the platinum grind is so awful; Ys 8, delaying this because I don't want it to end; TWEWY, actually playing this one and only delaying this to collect SDPP), but I saw DQ 1-3 in the E-Shop and feel kinda tempted.
They are definitely worth it in my opinion, at least 1 and 3.

1 isn't a long game, it took me about 10 hours to finish with no guide. The story isn't anything special, but it's still charming in a classic kind of way. But especially with the new quick save feature in this whole trilogy, it makes them so much better to go through instead of using the old archaic save system. And the gameplay is a solid old school jrpg affair as well.

Now Dragon Quest 2. I enjoyed it, I really did, but it's the hardest of the three for me to recommend. It has several very obtuse moments with just what I consider bad game design in how you're supposed to figure out how to progress. It isn't a constant issue, but as someone who never looks anything up in games, I had to look up how to progress in this game 2 different times. This may not be as big a deal for other people, but it was a huge deal to me. But other than that, it's an improvement over 1 in every other way. You now have 3 party members instead of one, the world size is almost quadrupled (with the ENTIRE world map of the first game being present and taking up only a corner of this map). But like the first game, the story is fine, it's pretty much the same story but on a little bit of a bigger scale.

Dragon Quest 3 is the best game of the original trilogy by far. I'm not done with it yet, but I can say with confidence that it's the best. It introduces a job system to the Dragon Quest series, and the job system is sooooo addicting. Say you make one of your party members a fighter. Once they hit level 20, they can change jobs if they want. So maybe you'll change them to a thief. Their stats from when they were a fighter don't go back to zero, but are cut in half. So now you have a thief with the stats of a level 10 fighter. Now get your thief to 20, and it's agility has went up tremendously. You can now change jobs again, and YOU CAN LITERALLY GO BACK TO LEVEL 1 FIGHTER, BUT NOW YOUR STATS ARE HALVED AGAIN. You can keep doing this if you're so inclined, and you could end up with a super fast fighter or a super strong thief. This is just one example though, you could cycle a character between as many jobs as possible to learn all of the skills, or stick to one job the whole game to level as high as possible as quick as possible, any option is viable. Each character also has a personality trait, which affects just how their stats go up with each level, it's a very deep system.

3's world is also the best of the three, and it's loosely based on our real world map, and the locations reflect that, giving it an odd familiarity and making it a little different and more interesting than usual in jrpg's to explore.
 
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Harmonie

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I bought it for half price on sale on the PS4 earlier this year. I got several hours into it, but was massively turned off by the tacky MIDI OST which just was too over-the-top.

When I heard that the Switch version was going to have an orchestrated OST instead I immediately shelved the game in hopes of continuing it on the Switch. However, after playing through part of the demo, I can't say that the improved OST has fixed everything that feels "off" about the game to me. It just feels very uninspired.

I've never played a Dragon Quest game before, so I didn't know what to expect. However, so many people sang high praise about this game, I just expected more from it, TBH. Turns out it's just not for me, apparently.
 

Luminary

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I read an article that said the game is best played as a bedtime story. So I’ve taken that approach with my Switch playthrough, only playing for like 30 minutes to an hour each night. I loved it the first time when I binged it on PS4, but I think this really is the best way to experience the game without getting burned out from the soundtrack and other elements that feel repetitive.
 

Veevee

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I read an article that said the game is best played as a bedtime story. So I’ve taken that approach with my Switch playthrough, only playing for like 30 minutes to an hour each night. I loved it the first time when I binged it on PS4, but I think this really is the best way to experience the game without getting burned out from the soundtrack and other elements that feel repetitive.

I totally understand where you are getting from, but I think the other way also works. I remember playing DQ8 on PS2 back then and I wouldn't start the game when I didn't have at least 2 hours time to play because back then, there was no quick save feature (added later in the 3DS remake), so you could only save in churches and random mini-churches around the world. It took some time to get accustomed to it, but I always took it as part of the journey: For me, it added to the feeling that you were actually traveling far across the world with only a few places to take a rest now and then. When you enter a dungeon, you have to see it through the end, because you wouldn't just turn around or make camp in a dark underground swamp. What I probably love most about JRPGs is the traveling aspect, the huge world unfolding before your eyes and I feel that Dragon Quest always does well in that regard.

Concerning DQ11, I just started recently and played it for nearly 5 hours straight. Currently I'm at Hotto, the soundtrack isn't exactly the greatest, but I'm not (yet) annoyed by it and I enjoy a lot of the quality of life upgrade in comparison to DQ8 I recently played. The skill system is so much more appealing (like, you can actually see what you get and what it costs and can plan ahead), you have a lot of character interaction (Erik is just so wonderful. In every regard) and so far, I consider the story to be quite good. When I'm ever done with this, I will take Max' advice and jump into the first three and work my way up even though it will take quite some time - I usually switch between JRPG franchises to avoid getting sick of one.
 
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