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Dragon Quest Community Thread: Come in! Would you like a Puff-Puff?

Aeana

Member
DQ2 is amazing, and the hate it gets is stupid. The remakes fix all of the issues people harp on it about. The mobile version even makes it impossible to enter Rondalkia cave unless you already have the seals.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
I really hope DQ 1-3 come out on 3DS over here or maybe even Switch.

I'll also accept PS4 because I can always play them on remote play.
 
I actually thought DQ2's issues were the most memorable part of the game and the main part of its identity.

The remake fixes the stuff and technically makes it a 'better' game but at the same time it also makes it more obvious that its only identity outside of those problems is of a weird half-way point between 1 and 3 that doesn't quite have the charms and strengths of either of them.

(Also the Famicom version of 2's soundtrack is way better than the Super Famicom's)
 

Kirie

Member
Well damn
At least I should have the 3DS version if they don't bring it for some reason

So what would be a good place to start with what's available to me? I-III are tempting due to lower price but IDK if they're too archaic or something.
I kind of went in a reverse order, finished VII then VIII (played IX a few years ago) then jumped back to the Zenithia trilogy. Finished IV recently and now am in the middle of V.

After VI I'll go back and play I, II and end with III. It's been a surprisingly decent experience so far going backwards from the more modern DQs to the classic ones, but I've really enjoyed it. Ymmv of course!
 
I somehow managed to recruit a metal slime the first time I killed one in DQV. I feel extremely lucky right now @_@ The rest of my party is around level 12 and even at level 3 it hits hard with a boomerang, I love it lol

I managed to do the same! Got decently far in Dragon Quest V with it, but PCSX2 somehow corrupted the save, and I can't find which version corresponds to my save states. Haven't gotten back to the game due to that.

poured so many HP boosting items into that lil guy

e: Also, I and III at least have aged very well! I's a unique enough experience on the merit of being a single person party JRPG, and III's just a very tight game in general with a very fun class system. I wasn't too fond of II when I played it, but I would like to give it another go via one of the other remakes. I had played the GBC version, which was really difficult to navigate in due to the smaller screen and whatnot.
 

RDreamer

Member
Hey fellow Dragon Questers. I've just been getting into the series over the last year or so. Started out with DQ7 when that came out on 3DS. It was quite a slog but I finally finished it not too long ago. Then I moved on to DQ8 and I'm absolutely loving it so far. About 45 hours in and just got Red. I can't believe I slept on this game so long ago. I owned it for PS2 but never really got that far past the boat boss at the beginning.

Anyway, this is me now:

iFdsaFx.jpg

Also grabbed DQ1 on my phone for fucking around with. Wonder how many of these I can complete before DQ11 comes out here.
 
Speaking of which, do we still not know the full details of DQXI's western release on PS4? Like is SE publishing it or Sony? Who's footing the bill for the translation?
 
So, I'm waiting for RHDN to process it, but I'm very pleased to announce my overhaul of DQ+FF in Itadaki Street Special for the PS2 is DONE. There's still no character dialog (I'm not fluent enough to properly translate it) but ALL gameplay is FULLY translated.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/ja7jvn6wtmved4z/Fortune_Street_Special_1.0.7z

While I'm going to post it in the English Fan Translation thread eventually. One of the main reasons I'm posting it here is because I still haven't played DQ V and VI and the Zenithia stage has a ton of references to these games. I did my best cross-referencing Wikis and the like, so I could really use some DQ fans to check my work if it's up to snuff :)

Screens (A lot of these were WIP and have been fixed, newer stuff is on top)
 
I somehow managed to recruit a metal slime the first time I killed one in DQV. I feel extremely lucky right now @_@ The rest of my party is around level 12 and even at level 3 it hits hard with a boomerang, I love it lol

It took me approximately 6 months of grinding to recruit my Metal Slime (after awhile I used a suspend state which I would start over from so I wouldn't over level in the process), so yes, you are extremely fortunate to get yours on the first try considering the recruitment odds each time are 1/256. I named mine Truxton (after the "heavy metal" themed Sega Genesis shmup). Where did you recruit yours? In the cave behind Whealbrook (tried many times there and failed) or the island near the Mini Medal palace? That's where I got mine, my moment of triumph:

MoVIvF1.jpg


And yes, having a Metal Slime in your party is awesome and will save you many times. Here is a pic I took once after venturing to a region I wasn't ready for:

4cfnqBj.jpg


And I took my Metal all the way to the final boss (pic below, pre-fight pic so as not to spoil the true boss form) and it didn't die once. Had to heal him a few times but even the final boss in his true form had problems landing critical hits on him, haha.

RVvFQjm.jpg


DQ V was my first DQ and I absolutely loved it, it's such a fun game with a charming story, simple yet fun combat and the monster recruitment is a blast. I rank it right next to Chrono Trigger and Earthbound for my all time favorite SNES JRPGs. Once I finally finish DQ VII I plan on doing the post game quest/bonus dungeon and will try to recruit a Liquid Metal as well.
 

hamchan

Member
30 hours into DQVII and I love it.

I love the time travel especially. It's amazing seeing how things change over time, how you meet the same people again and see what happened to them or how entire towns have been wiped from the map. It certainly brings out an emotional response from me.
 
30 hours into DQVII and I love it.

I love the time travel especially. It's amazing seeing how things change over time, how you meet the same people again and see what happened to them or how entire towns have been wiped from the map. It certainly brings out an emotional response from me.

VII really got to me with that aspect as well. It made the journey feel so palpable - I never got stuck in the game because I just genuinely wanted to revisit every area anytime an event happened anyways. To me, it has such a beautiful atmosphere of exploration and optimism, even with all of the sad and unfortunate events that go on throughout the course of the game.

It's always a bit hard for me to recommend due to the amount of content being so daunting, and the effect on the player being a bit unpredictable. I get where people are coming from when they say that it's dull or bloated (my first time giving it a go, I felt the same way admittedly), but it really just "worked" for me emotionally.
 

Kirie

Member
It took me approximately 6 months of grinding to recruit my Metal Slime (after awhile I used a suspend state which I would start over from so I wouldn't over level in the process), so yes, you are extremely fortunate to get yours on the first try considering the recruitment odds each time are 1/256. I named mine Truxton (after the "heavy metal" themed Sega Genesis shmup). Where did you recruit yours? In the cave behind Wheelbrook (tried many times there and failed) or the island near the Mini Medal palace? That's where I got mine, my moment of triumph:



And yes, having a Metal Slime in your party is awesome and will save you many times. Here is a post fight pic I took once after venturing to a region I wasn't ready for:



And I took my Metal all the way to the final boss (pic below, pre-fight pic so as not to spoil the true boss form) and it didn't die once. Had to heal him a few times but even the final boss in his true form had problems landing critical hits on him, haha.



DQ was my first DQ V and I absolutely loved it, it's such a fun game with a charming story, simple yet fun combat and the monster recruitment is a blast. I rank it right next to Chrono Trigger and Earthbound for my all time favorite SNES JRPGs. Once I finally finish DQ VII I plan on doing the post game quest/bonus dungeon and will try to recruit a Liquid Metal as well.

Holy cow I had no idea the chances of getting one were so low! Yeah I caught him over in the revisit to Whealbrook cave :) I left his name Chromeo because it made me laugh


I'm super glad to hear he's relevant until the end though! I'd love to do a playthrough where I collect all the monsters, but if the chances are so low for some of them that'd probably burn me out pretty quick lol. Maybe I'll try once I've finished all of the games.

Yeah I'm extremely enjoying DQV so far, it might be still too early to say but it's definitely going to be up there with my favorites I think. I'm just loving everything about it so far (1st gen and early 2nd gen spoils)
I totally teared up at Pankraz's death and everything that happened :'( my husband thought there was something wrong, and I was like no, just sad over pixels lol. Poor Hero and Harry :( Though I just got the point where Harry and Maria married, so that was a really cute surprise!

How're you liking VII?
 
Holy cow I had no idea the chances of getting one were so low! Yeah I caught him over in the revisit to Whealbrook cave :) I left his name Chromeo because it made me laugh



I'm super glad to hear he's relevant until the end though! I'd love to do a playthrough where I collect all the monsters, but if the chances are so low for some of them that'd probably burn me out pretty quick lol. Maybe I'll try once I've finished all of the games.

Yeah I'm extremely enjoying DQV so far, it might be still too early to say but it's definitely going to be up there with my favorites I think. I'm just loving everything about it so far (1st gen and early 2nd gen spoils)
I totally teared up at Pankraz's death and everything that happened :'( my husband thought there was something wrong, and I was like no, just sad over pixels lol. Poor Hero and Harry :( Though I just got the point where Harry and Maria married, so that was a really cute surprise!

How're you liking VII?

Yes, he's a great monster to have in your party the whole way. He has a good, reliable second level Frizz attack and of course his near-indestructibility (I think I only had to revive him a few times all 135 hours I personally poured into my DS cart file) all by itself makes having a Metal worth it. That's great you were able to recruit one in the Whealbrook cave, I tried so many times there before moving on a bit with the main quest.

Game's story is wonderful and emotional, all I will say, no spoilers. It's also apparently Yuji Horii's personal favorite in the series due to the father/son structure.

I really like VII but I had to take a break from it this summer and started a file in DQ 8. I just returned to my VII file last week, I'm about 70 hours in now (I think). Going to try to finally finish it in the next month or two. Great game with very interesting side stories but requires serious commitment. But as Lunarwhale above said, being able to see the often bittersweet and tragic after effects story wise while time traveling are where the game's overall experience really pays off.
 

Square2015

Member
Why is the font so small in all the DS versions? I literally cannot read it.
Why aren't they using the font used in DWIII GBC? That was the perfect size.
 

Velcro Fly

Member
Jealous of you guys getting to play through most of DQV with a metal slime in your party. I thought about either replaying the game and at the end recruiting all monsters no matter how long it took or using my already completed file to do so.

Anywho I'm about to finish Dragon Quest IV again. I love DQV but I think maybe IV may be my favorite.

I also started VI for the first time and played for maybe an hour.
 

RDreamer

Member
Just beat DQ8 and then got the true ending. I'm really baffled as to why that dungeon and ending were locked behind post-game, especially since canonically they happen before the final boss.

In any case, the game was a true delight. Loved it so much. Great cast of characters and while the story isn't much to write home about I think it was great for what they were trying to do.

So, now that I have DQ7 and 8 down I guess IV is next!
 

Kirie

Member
Yes, he's a great monster to have in your party the whole way. He has a good, reliable second level Frizz attack and of course his near-indestructibility (I think I only had to revive him a few times all 135 hours I personally poured into my DS cart file) all by itself makes having a Metal worth it. That's great you were able to recruit one in the Whealbrook cave, I tried so many times there before moving on a bit with the main quest.

Game's story is wonderful and emotional, all I will say, no spoilers. It's also apparently Yuji Horii's personal favorite in the series due to the father/son structure.

I really like VII but I had to take a break from it this summer and started a file in DQ 8. I just returned to my VII file last week, I'm about 70 hours in now (I think). Going to try to finally finish it in the next month or two. Great game with very interesting side stories but requires serious commitment. But as Lunarwhale above said, being able to see the often bittersweet and tragic after effects story wise while time traveling are where the game's overall experience really pays off.
I did the same with VII, though that was earlier in the year. Took me a bit to get into it, but when I did, I breezed through it. The whole going back and forth from past to present was so cool, and like it's been said, I absolutely loved some of the vignettes in the game. Some of those stories hit me really hard. :( I actually beat it around 70 hours, so I was surprised to learn how long the original was. I guess those QoL changes in the 3DS remake really helped!

Just beat DQ8 and then got the true ending. I'm really baffled as to why that dungeon and ending were locked behind post-game, especially since canonically they happen before the final boss.

In any case, the game was a true delight. Loved it so much. Great cast of characters and while the story isn't much to write home about I think it was great for what they were trying to do.

So, now that I have DQ7 and 8 down I guess IV is next!

Really cool to see someone else playing them in the same order that I am! Looking forward to your impressions on IV :)
 

RDreamer

Member
I did the same with VII, though that was earlier in the year. Took me a bit to get into it, but when I did, I breezed through it. The whole going back and forth from past to present was so cool, and like it's been said, I absolutely loved some of the vignettes in the game. Some of those stories hit me really hard. :( I actually beat it around 70 hours, so I was surprised to learn how long the original was. I guess those QoL changes in the 3DS remake really helped!

Goddamn, 70 hours? It took me between 100 and 110. It felt like a massive slog to get through and I had kind of a love/hate relationship with it in a way. I felt there was a lot of stuff that still needed streamlining and cutting. Overall I loved the idea of visiting places you've helped before, but there was just too much backtracking through dungeons and reused content overall. That and the first chunk before the jobs was kinda bad. And I really hated that the advanced job skills didn't stick with you after you learned them. Made them feel really useless overall. I hear that's a change from the PS1 version.

In a way though after playing 8 I do kind of respect some of the things 7 tried to do a bit more. By the end the journey felt so ridiculously massive and epic compared to 8 which felt outright down to earth even at the end.

The games overall are very different and it's kind of funny how different when you think about how much this series is called out for never changing.


Really cool to see someone else playing them in the same order that I am! Looking forward to your impressions on IV :)

That's awesome! I'm a few hours into IV now. It feels really old school so far. Like FF2 (not 4) old school. That's alright though, I'm liking it so far. I like the chapter structure so far, too.
 

Aeana

Member
That's awesome! I'm a few hours into IV now. It feels really old school so far. Like FF2 (not 4) old school. That's alright though, I'm liking it so far. I like the chapter structure so far, too.
I'd like to hear why you feel this way, because my response was basically "wat"

I've always felt that DQ4 was way ahead of its time, and even the NES version feels more modern than its peers and many games that came after.
 
One thing I really liked about VII is how much contextual speech there was for NPC's in the game. NPC's almost always had some different to say depending on what was going on in the world.

On the flip side of it though party chat felt really weak. Over the course of the game I found it happening too many times where I would press the party chat button only to get "......" as a response. It was weirdly inconsistent because at times the group would have plenty of things to say relevant about certain events and at other times nothing.

I still love the translation but the party chat was a bit of a letdown.
 

RDreamer

Member
I'd like to hear why you feel this way, because my response was basically "wat"

I've always felt that DQ4 was way ahead of its time, and even the NES version feels more modern than its peers and many games that came after.

So far it's just the way things are set up overall in terms of the gameplay loop. It's like Ok, here's your overall goal, now get to it. And you probably have to level up around the town a bit and then get some gear and then go over to the place.

Then the quest leads themselves are very passive. It's like one person with a random unnotable part of dialogue that could be what you should actually do. And the story is rarely expounded on so far. It's just that short line of dialogue or something. With FF4 and beyond you had a lot more explained to you. There's backstory and stuff.

And the characters have almost no personality so far compared to something like FF4 and beyond. Like "Hey we're joining you." "Ok." Nothing. Or in the case of Healie joining, he just joins. Silent protagonists doesn't help either.

That and the dungeons seem so far very separate from towns in a sort of old school way. You know you're in a dungeon and you know when you're in a town, etc. FF4 and beyond sort of blurred that line in some instances.

I mean I'm pretty close to the beginning still. Haven't finished the second chapter yet. Just got to the tower to get the medicine for the king. There are some portions that feel ahead of its time. Splitting things into chapters like that feels ahead of things, really. And I'm sure when things come together that will make this all seem a bit further ahead too. So far the two chapters just seem, when you look at them more focused, like two smaller old school games.

Not shitting on IV or anything, so don't take these to be huge criticisms. I know it actually IS an older game and I was ready for that.
 

Erdrick

Member
I finally finished Dragon Quest 7 on the 3DS yesterday. It's still too long for all the wrong reasons, but I still enjoyed visiting it again in the better 3DS version. As I played it for a solid year, I'm kind of sick of the game right now so no more post game content for now for me. I managed to beat the boss first time. Much, much easier than the PS1 version.

I've moved onto DQ8 on the 3DS and holy hell, is it such a breath of fresh air compared to 7. The sped up battles combined with the best presentation of any mainline DQ game thus far released in English plus portable...

I still love this game as much as I did back when I played it in 2005. Such a great game... And this version looks to be even better than the original. I can't wait to revisit it again in full.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
I'd like to hear why you feel this way, because my response was basically "wat"

I've always felt that DQ4 was way ahead of its time, and even the NES version feels more modern than its peers and many games that came after.

It is. The micro games within a game structure of the chapters introducing you to the various areas of the world and party members, and them all coming together under the banner of the hero to stop a sympathetic but dangerous villain.

It's also the game where I fell in love with something that is largely out of favor these days, AI controlled party members. I've always liked DQ AI party members, speeds things up and sometimes cheats in your favor by dialing in a heal when a party member takes a massive hit when otherwise they wouldn't have used a heal command on that party member. That's still not the reason I love it, it's because of the narrative. You are the hero in the final chapter. Not those other people. They came together to fight the big bad as did you, and joined you on your quest.
 
My DS copy of DQ IV is missing. I have the case and instructions, but the game isn't in there. I think I might have loaned it out and never got it back.

Thinking of tracking down a cart only copy.

Also picked up IX as I had never picked that one up.
 

RDreamer

Member
Beat DQIV the other day, and then did Chapter 6. Overall it's a great game. There are some truly unique ideas in there that I'd love to see more expanded in a modern RPG, but overall I still stick with the fact that the game overall felt very old school. I think it was the lack of party chat that really did it. No one in the game had any personality whatsoever without that. It still had a lot of charm despite that, but I did feel like I was missing out a bit.

Overall though I really liked the game.
 

MoosiferX

Member
I have some random Dragon Quest enthusiasm that I wanted to share with fellow fans. So this year I've finished up VII, Builders, Heroes 1 and 2, XI, and I'm plowing through VI again. With Itadaki Street just around the corner, this year has shaped up to be the most Dragon Questy year I've ever had.

The great thing is my son turned 3 this year and he's been along for the ride, and he's turbo into all the different monsters. I had the DQ monster encyclopedia and a bunch of the vinyl figures so I gave them to him and watching him have a Gigantes and Psaro duking it out while humming the DQ theme is pretty amazing. Dragon Quest is magical and I can't wait for english XI release(s)!
 

Pepboy

Member
I have some random Dragon Quest enthusiasm that I wanted to share with fellow fans. So this year I've finished up VII, Builders, Heroes 1 and 2, XI, and I'm plowing through VI again. With Itadaki Street just around the corner, this year has shaped up to be the most Dragon Questy year I've ever had.

The great thing is my son turned 3 this year and he's been along for the ride, and he's turbo into all the different monsters. I had the DQ monster encyclopedia and a bunch of the vinyl figures so I gave them to him and watching him have a Gigantes and Psaro duking it out while humming the DQ theme is pretty amazing. Dragon Quest is magical and I can't wait for english XI release(s)!

This is great. I also introduced my 5 year old neice to Dragon Quest V this year, she surprisingly really enjoyed it! She grinded a lot of early dungeons for me.

It was super adorable though when she would sometimes face a lot of enemies or a new monster type, she would get quiet and then often flee. I asked her why and she said she was scared. It's been so long since I started gaming I hadn't even considered that.

I've also been playing DQ a lot, played and beat VII on 3ds, restarted and beat V on DS. I've been so excited I jumped into too many DQ games, currently rotating between DQ Heroes 2 and DQ VIII.

Yesterday I also finally got DQ X working and am playing through the Weddle storyline. DQ fans on the fence should really consider DQ X, just play with google translate app (to take photos of the screen). It misses a lot of nuances but still fun. And my Japanese is improving as well.
 

MoosiferX

Member
Yesterday I also finally got DQ X working and am playing through the Weddle storyline. DQ fans on the fence should really consider DQ X, just play with google translate app (to take photos of the screen). It misses a lot of nuances but still fun. And my Japanese is improving as well.

Aw man, I really should get around to DQX. I played FFXI for like 13 years, and haven't ever touched another MMO, but would've dropped it in a heartbeat had DQX come out over here. I remember downloading the benchmark software before it came out and thinking that it was probably the only thing that could end my FFXI run, but in the end having a kiddo did just that. lol

I understand there's pretty extensive guides on how to get on DQX over here in the states now. It might finally be time!

My son gets pretty scared whenever we get to certain new enemies, but he understands that we can flee now so he says, "if he's too tough you can just run away daddy!".
 

Aeana

Member
I wanted a friend of mine to play DQ10 with me a lot, but since he doesn't understand Japanese, I wrote an app for DQ10 that will read the dialog on the screen and copy it to the clipboard, for use in any one of those auto-machine translating things. It's not great, and it's not very well-tested since he quit playing a few months later, but I checked and it does still seem to work.



If there's any interest, I can upload it somewhere.
 

Biske

Member
I wanted a friend of mine to play DQ10 with me a lot, but since he doesn't understand Japanese, I wrote an app for DQ10 that will read the dialog on the screen and copy it to the clipboard, for use in any one of those auto-machine translating things. It's not great, and it's not very well-tested since he quit playing a few months later, but I checked and it does still seem to work.




If there's any interest, I can upload it somewhere.

That would work really awesome with a program like Qtranslate which you can have running and translate text by highlighting it.
 

DouglasQuaid69

Neophyte
i think some people who played both the 3ds and ps4 versions said towns were a whole lot bigger on the ps4 version even though they were the same town pretty much. I also like good towns in my rpg's, so all these positive comments are music to my ears. There is around 15 some guys said?
 

sotojuan

Member
New to this thread.

I just did
Highendreigh Tower, Sunken Citadel (Past)
section in VII. Overall I find this game pretty slow paced which is what I expected from online comments, but overall I like it. Currently grinding Hero's vocation while watching YouTube. I feel like I've been playing this game for a while but apparently I have a lot left as well as more characters in the party, so I think I'll start playing a little bit everyday or every other day to avoid burnout.
 

Shiki_

Banned
New to this thread.

I just did
Highendreigh Tower, Sunken Citadel (Past)
section in VII. Overall I find this game pretty slow paced which is what I expected from online comments, but overall I like it. Currently grinding Hero's vocation while watching YouTube. I feel like I've been playing this game for a while but apparently I have a lot left as well as more characters in the party, so I think I'll start playing a little bit everyday or every other day to avoid burnout.

Uhm, beware to grind a lot when getting experience, the job growth can be stopped if you overlevel the enemies from the area. Enjoy the game!
 
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sotojuan

Member
here's DLC thingies you can download that transport you to areas with enemies. Most (all?) of these have a level 99 cap, so I am using those to grind for jobs."
 
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