(I played the PS2 translated version). I really wanted to like this game. I hoped it would be a good gateway for me to get invested into Dragon Quest, but it seems to be a "cozy" game rather than an RPG experience I hoped for. It has some of the most boring exploration. Being forced to walk around where you can get into a random amount of encounters that all play the exact same feels like a punishment, and for what, a chest with a chimera wing? One of the most useless traversal items in any game ever? The combat is so watered down and standardized that the second you get a boomerang, that's what you will have for the rest of the game until you get one of the better swords, so all you do is hit circle until its over. Every boss plays the same as an enemy except you need to cast buffs and debuffs (if they aren't nullified like most other magic), so you spend one turn doing that, before spamming attack and healing, same with every other encounter. The game is so desperate to feel grand with its lackluster story that is built around 1 core idea, that it can't even have an engaging combat system for a moment at all. Too bad what it built itself around is a sorta vapid story of having pure bloodlines and destiny. The most impactful choice you can make at all in the game is choosing which heavenly wife you have, and they still are functionally the same in the story. They are there for a few dungeons, before being whisked away until the tail end of the game. The game is also as desperate as possible to take away any agency or player-character involvement as much as possible, to the point you have 2 huge sections of the game where you are enslaved or turned into a stone that span 10 and 8 years respectively. You don't even get to raise the kids or be with your wife at all, which is the whole central axiom of the game. It fails on almost every account, but it has some interesting concepts, that could be used in better made games, and it was charming, if not quaint, but that's truly the highest praise I have for it. I can't think of anything else positive to say, which is the most damning thing about it.