which dragon quest has the most personality

About 30 hours into 7, it feels like playing through one of those super long anime series. Or a TV series that goes on for several seasons like Stargate SG1 or Sliders or something, where there is a longform story that pops up every now and then, but each episode is mostly self contained.

As for personality, I am finding 5 has a lot more than 7, if only for the spritework and a lot of small moments that seem to be missing from 7 thanks to the sheer length.

Anyone know if DQ Heroes is worth picking up?

In five you start by going on an adventure with your Dad.
Then you go on adventures with your pet and your friend, and possibly your wife.
Later you go on adventures with your kids.

ā€¦not really, maybe if you like musou stuff a lot
the sequel is due out in a couple of months and has co-op

Unless it just starts out very slow, itā€™s not much of a musou musou. The maps are pretty tiny and linear.

thinking back it ends up more like a tower defence than a musou

You canā€™t pick a Dragon Quest with particularly more personality than the others, because they all have the same personality and thatā€™s actually the entire point.

I do not like this series much. Watch how Iā€™ll still be able to talk about every single one now because Iā€™m a monster

1 is the most archaic JRPG, it is you vs the grind. There is something cathartic about the pleasure of getting levels and new armor but you might start hating the lack of meaning in your life halfway through

2 adds party members and is the only Dragon quest that made me make meaningful interesting choices in battle. (!) Otherwise itā€™s just too old, too plain

3 adds a real old job system similar to FF1! IIRC you just stay in one job until level 50 and then you change jobs. There are no skill points. Itā€™s not a very interesting system but the game uses it well enough. One of the jobs is Jester / Goof-off / Fucking Loser. It has poor stats and wastes turns in battle, but is needed to unlock the best class later on. Or something

4 is probably the one with the most personality. Or at least the neatest one. It has a decent tragic figure for a bad guy (usually DQ has evil alien demons as final bosses) plus multiple different scenarios with different characters. In the merchant one the goal is to get fucking rich. Fun!

5 treats its plot with a lot more care than the others but itā€™s still a really generic JRPG childrenā€™s story from 1992 with your father dying, a part where you choose your waifu, dragons etc. People love it and I donā€™t get it.

6 is one I had to play with gamefaqs open next to me all the time. There are two alternate dimensions but they are really similar? Thereā€™s a new job system and itā€™s like FF5ā€™s if it blew and all the jobs / skills had no personality?
Cool fake ending though

7 is a monstrosity. Its length is palatable thanks to its episodic nature. It takes 120 hours to finish it in a straight line, like 30 to unlock jobs, 2 to get to a fight?
Also God looks like Santa and you can fight him
I do have immense respect for this game

8 was the best thing at release when its 3d environments were amazing. It would probably be shit in 2016 on a mobile device.
I remember Trode being pretty funny and likable but he might look too much like Pepe the frog to be cool in 2016

9 I canā€™t remember anything about it really. It did feel like something slightly different from the others. They made it an action RPG before enough people complained and made them change back

Rocket Slime is the best

4 Likes

5

make a poll if you need to visualize that everybody said 5

but itā€™s 5

Cross-posting DQ threads just to say Iā€™m a couple hours into that 5 fan translation for PS2 and itā€™s feeling super comfy, well moreso than usual for the series. :smiley_cat: (whereā€™s the slime-moji?) Almost started the SNES/DS versions many times but here I am finally!

the ps2 version of v is real charming yeah

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I started DQ1-2-3 on mobile and surprise I like them a lot.

DQ3 begins with a personality quiz for The Player to determine a personality for them that will alter the main characterā€™s stats.

I lied for every question to get my opposite personality.

The game then told me that my personality was Thug and started insulting me, suggesting that I have no empathy and will lose all my friends and die alone if I continue to act this way
And it gave me shitty stats

I bet among all the japanese players, a lot answered earnestly and got a brutal takedown of their own selves 5 minutes into the game

A+

4 Likes

Dragon Quest Swords or DQ8

Of those I have played (1-4, 7, and 8), Iā€™d probably recommend 4 (or possibly 3) if itā€™s to be the only one you try. I only ever played the NES versions and I canā€™t say anything about the remakes.

I had fun with 7 but never even reached Disc 2. And itā€™s worth mentioning that there are shockingly bad cutscenes in that one that can hurt the experience if that sort of thing bugs you.

8 was fun but I was done with it long before it ended and I was left with kind of a negative impression after slogging through the last parts.

I know nothing about 5, but seeing all the recommendations here makes me curious.

dragon quest series is bad because you get random encounters on vehicles and it makes ex: Giant Cat Travel fully joyless

this is amazing thank you

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this is probably a good thread to mention that dragon quest monsters: terryā€™s wonderland 3d has a full fan translation already

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5

And this isnā€™t a proper Dragon Quest but you should also play Rocket Slime on DS.

The mecha duels/boarding in Rocket Slime were quite something
Did that ever get iterated on? It was the least shitty tower defence thing I think Iā€™ve every played

thereā€™s a 3rd Rocket Slime game for 3DS that never got localized ;_;

Ever try I + II for GBC?

yes