What a great rpg, fantastic starting point for the series. Very cozy, the orchestrated soundtrack of this version is great, and it has shockingly strong narrative beats. I think I can get away with saying that this is the very first JRPG with a strong story beginning to end, releasing in 1992 (1991's FFIV fumbles the landing with some questionable plot points).
Dragon Quest V's narrative really appealed to me on its subtlety - there's a moment in particular involving an NPC you met like 30 in-game hours ago, and it's just a single (optional) text box, and it really stuck with me.
The party talk feature in particular was incredible to me, tons of effort were put into that - your (human) companions have something to say about pretty much every event and NPC dialogue in the entire game. It does a great job at fleshing out your characters, your silent Hero included.
The monster catching thing ends up feeling more like a gimmick than a proper mechanic, since it's entirely RNG-based, and there's nothing you can do to influence it. It's one of the pioneers of monster-catching RPGs (not quite the pioneer, as Megami Tensei released about five years earlier), but it still felt underdeveloped
There were a couple of times where I felt there was poor conveyance, and I had to quickly look at a guide: first to find the fairy forest, a location that is only given to you by a random nun in an abbey you have no reason to return. Not sure how devs expected players to find this, other than dumb luck (one of my party members just so happened to mention "a nun" in party talk - not terribly specific, but at least it narrowed it down a bit), or brute forcing
And the second time, where you need to talk to an NPC multiple times to trigger an event. This is the only time where an NPC whose text doesn't change after multiple interactions actually has more to say if you keep insisting, so it was poorly handled imo.
Beyond those issues, a lovely game, with great pacing, and intense endgame bosses - intense turn-based bosses are really appealing to me. Great way to start my Dragon Quest journey (though I technically started it by beating the mobile version of DQ1...)
Dragon Quest V's narrative really appealed to me on its subtlety - there's a moment in particular involving an NPC you met like 30 in-game hours ago, and it's just a single (optional) text box, and it really stuck with me.
The party talk feature in particular was incredible to me, tons of effort were put into that - your (human) companions have something to say about pretty much every event and NPC dialogue in the entire game. It does a great job at fleshing out your characters, your silent Hero included.
The monster catching thing ends up feeling more like a gimmick than a proper mechanic, since it's entirely RNG-based, and there's nothing you can do to influence it. It's one of the pioneers of monster-catching RPGs (not quite the pioneer, as Megami Tensei released about five years earlier), but it still felt underdeveloped
There were a couple of times where I felt there was poor conveyance, and I had to quickly look at a guide: first to find the fairy forest, a location that is only given to you by a random nun in an abbey you have no reason to return. Not sure how devs expected players to find this, other than dumb luck (one of my party members just so happened to mention "a nun" in party talk - not terribly specific, but at least it narrowed it down a bit), or brute forcing
And the second time, where you need to talk to an NPC multiple times to trigger an event. This is the only time where an NPC whose text doesn't change after multiple interactions actually has more to say if you keep insisting, so it was poorly handled imo.
Beyond those issues, a lovely game, with great pacing, and intense endgame bosses - intense turn-based bosses are really appealing to me. Great way to start my Dragon Quest journey (though I technically started it by beating the mobile version of DQ1...)