I mean, I respect the hell out of it for basically inventing JRPGs, having great music and art, and some of my favourite series are parodys of it (Earthbound/Mother).
But lord help me, I just cannot get into this series. It's stories and world building suck. It's so very, very chuddy in its values and characters. All about birthright and bloodlines (Something that's putting me off the Zelda and Fire Emblem series too as I get older). It's also got that Square Enix sexism stink that I find myself being less tolerant of the older I get.
Please feel free to roast me for this opinion, it's just my personal preference after all.
If you like the Dragon Quest series I would love to hear why, because I want to like it. Maybe I just haven't played the right one. I've only played 8 to completion on the PS2 back when I was a kid, and I tried the Demo of 11 but wasn't really gelling with them changing the iconic presentation of their battles, if that makes sense (a nitpick, I know)
Afaik Link isn't a part of every bloodline. Each one is a different prophesized hero
I bought a (used) PS2 towards the end of its life mostly for DQ8 (and later Personas 3 and 4).
When DQ11 arrived on PC, I actually asked for it as a gift at near full price rather than waiting for the inevitable 75% off, but somehow I never got very far on it.
It manages to not age well even as a new title-- the tropes are a bit too tropey (Sylvando, dear, I went to the freaking Castro and saw less flamboyance) and the storyline doesn't seem to give a rewarding feel of forward motion, just bouncing from aimless episode to episode like a shonen anime that went 500 episodes beyond its original vision.
It does have a unique nostalgia as a franchise in that it was basically EVERY American's first JRPG, due to the first installment being given away by the millions as a "subscribe to our print game magazine" promotional item, so whenever you look at someone trying to produce a "8-bit/16-bit RPG" homage, it's going to smell a lot like Dragon Quest.
It’s stories and world building suck.
JRPGs in general have terrible story and world building. So many have incredible game mechanics, art and animation but the writing feels stuck in 1980 when they were making games for fifteen year olds.
I played 1 and 2 on a cartridge when it was still called Dragon Warrior. Good games, I remember them fondly.
They're some of my favorite games, but there's no reason to force yourself to play them. I like that the combat is still the classic simple JRPG format. It's satisfying to just run around and check every drawer, closet, and cupboard in a new town. They're structured so you can play for like 30 minutes a day and always feel like you made some progress.
Ooh, good point on playing in little chunks. Unlike FF games where you can spend literally 30 minutes in one cutscene/dialogue vortex, DQ games move you along pretty quickly.
Dragon Quest games are cozy for me because I remember playing DQ1 on the NES as a kid not knowing what the fuck to do and just walking around fighting. Same thing in FF1, just made a party and fucked around because I didn't get the concept of the game. Eventually I played Pokemon and was like, "Oh, this is like DQ and FF, I should replay those" and got into JRPGs properly. DQ is like Star Trek TOS: it's flawed but revolutionary and still enjoyable if you understand it as a product of its time. Where FF changes everything up in every game, DQ presents itself as familiar and reliable. You always know what you're getting and if you like one DQ, you'll pretty much like them all. That said, the first 2 games are really rough from a modern perspective and are only recommended if you're some kind of series completionist. As for the themes, yeah, that's just how it is. It's really old school style fantasy so that's what you end up with. I would recommend trying DQ5 (the PS2 version with translation patch or DS version), it's a high point for the series and not too long. It introduced the ability to catch monsters and use them in battle (copied later by Pokemon) and the story follows the protagonist through different periods of their life, which is somewhat unique. In the end, though, DQ fandom is nearly entirely vibes-based. Other JRPGs have more interesting stories, battle systems, music, etc. For me, it's a combination of nostalgia and the particular quirks of DQ games that make me feel at home in the slop.
You mean Dragon Quest III remake? I never played any of the games except XI (i liked it but the controls on PC were beyond fucked up) but that legitly looks like decent remake with more effort than the usual "HUMONGOUS PIXELS EVERYWHERE and that's it, pay us 75 bucks"
I have never played a Dragon Quest game and probably never will.I've only played 8 too though I am great full for it inspiring yakuza 7, love me some ichiban going all don quixote because of that game.
If you want a fun less problematic (because slimes, comfy) Dragon Quest game, check out Dragon Quest Rocket Slime. It was for the DS but you can def find, pirate, and emulate it.
I know nothing about it as a series, but the DQM Joker games were great and I honestly still replay them sometimes. The storylines are pretty bland but the synthesizing monsters mechanic makes them like a more fun Pokémon imo - and your post is the first I’ve heard of birthrights or bloodlines even after playing all the Joker series, so if it has anything about that I missed it (luckily).
If you wanna give it a try I’d probably recommend joker 1, it’s got the best gameplay (although QoL improves in 3) and the single good character in the trilogy (she’s such a massive bitch, truly an icon). 2 is skippable but not bad, and 3 is a real change with some new and fun mechanics but kinda cursed to get it working in English.
I like Dregonquest (despite the problematic aspects) and I felt ripped off by 11. A game that looks that good deserves more than the most boilerplate storyline since the NES entries.
I still stand by DQ7, though. The plot centers around time travel and sees the heroes save world not because it's their destiny but because they decide it's the right thing to do. Also at the end you kill god with the power of friendship, as a proper JRPG should end.
i personally have a beef with the Dragon Quest series after Yakuza Like a Dragon where the entire game just felt like the devs screaming "wow i wish we were making dragon quest instead of Yakuza. Let's turn Yakuza into Dragon Quest about it and then mention it by name too many times" and instead of Kazuma Kiryu kicking ass with that signature crisp, clean beat em' up combat that I came to know the series for, I instead got some very forgettable turn based combat that made me want to fall asleep. God I can't believe what a let down Y:LAD was
That's the only Yakuza game I've played. Are you saying that the prior games weren't turn-based RPGs?
Tho I liked Ichiban's gamerness. He's such a dork and everyone's ridiculous attacks really suit the bombastic soap opera tone of the game. It's great
The previous seven games in the series were all beat em ups (ignoring the spinoffs, but even then only one was arguably not a beat em up)
idk, the tone was so wildly different than so many of the previous Yakuza games that I found it baffling that the name even found its way onto the title. It feels remarkably forced to have even called it a Yakuza game tbh
That's hilarious! I can't even imagine a serious Yakuza game. Aren't the latest two set in Hawaii where you fight against sharks and shit? How many sharks has Kiryu bashed with a bat, I wonder?
I thought it was a neat gimmick at first, but by the end of the game it had been stretched way too thin, and it became clear relatively early that most jobs are just worse than the default (except for the women-only Idol class, which is the best healer by a mile). When 8 was announced as being just the same thing again I had no interest.
if your gameplay is so route that there's literally an option to have it play for you, then what do you even have for a core gameplay loop? The random street goons in games prior were a. moderately easily avoidable if you really wanted b. a terribly easy encounter that posed little real threat to you and c. was at least cathartic to smack some heads around. Random encounters went from "Eh, fine. I'll use this as an excuse to work on my quick step timings and crack some skulls for fun" to "Oh god go away please"
I tried 11 and at its best I was bored, at it's worst I was actively disliking it. I maybe did like 10 hours because I know how JRPGs can take some time to find their form but Dragon Quest is definitely not my thing
11 is the most beautiful a Dragonquest game has ever looked but the story is fucking whaleshit. I wanted to like it so bad but it's just the most boilerplate a Dregonquest story has been since the first 4
Nah, you're spot on with the biggest problems in the series. In many ways it's as stagnant a series as Pokemon. And a lot of the stuff that was cliche and cringy 20 years ago is even more so today. 11 is mostly pretty good, but there are quite a few moments that just ruin a character for me, for no reason other than a lame cliche anime joke that was overplayed back in the 90s.
Though if you played 11 (or a demo) you can swap it back to traditional battles in the options menu. I did that straight away.
