The finest work of episodic fiction in a game that I've seen to date. On top of that, it's my favorite iteration of their version of the class system as well as having a just outstanding cast of main characters all the way through.

Exactly as good as people will tell you it is. It has the best balance of drama and comedy that this series has ever managed. It's also ambitious as hell from a design perspective, between basically inventing Pokemon and making your choice of partner matter in ways that, in the scales of Dragon Quest, feeling meaningful.

This is one of the opinions on this list that's going to read like a hot take but this game is my favorite actual story that a Dragon Quest has ever told. It's existentially harrowing and heartrending, and the ending is a tragedy on top of an already harrowing journey. Completely undersung.

Here, we reach the Alrightosphere. This game is a good time all told, and it's probably as friendly to the public as this series can get while being stamped in its traditions. The cast is fun enough, the story is compelling enough, the leveling system is the best its been in years... No complaints! It's alright!

I always wondered why there were so many Torneko side games and then I played this and was like "oh cuz Torneko owns, that's why." A really ambitious game for the hardware it was released on, somewhat undone by the protagonist. The game spends so much more time with the rest of the party that the protagonist lacks any real thrust, and by the time you return to them it's like "Oh, right, your home. Yeah. That's why you're here too." Big swings though, and that's admirable.

Going back to this game is easier than going back to a lot of the NES era games because of how quaint this one feels in comparison. It's a decent enough time with some fantastic lines in the translation that make playing it fun enough, though by the end you are definitely chafing for them to invent party members.

[TEMPORARY RANKING PENDING THE RELEASE OF THE SWITCH VERSION BECAUSE I TRIED PLAYING THE GBC VERSION AND LIKE NO THANKS DUDE]

This is the other Dragon Quest opinion I have that feels like a hot take. I genuinely do not want this party to win. That's more directed at Yangus and Angelo than the others, but a little bit into the quest line to help Red and Yangus make up I decided "man I do not care about this at all" and stopped.

One of two actively bad Dragon Quests. When they invented Party Members, they forgot everything the learned about Balancing, and so this game just beats the living shit out of you from start to finish, or in my case to the point where I decided "man fuck this shit" and dropped it.

Without question the worst Dragon Quest and it's not even close. For as straight laced as these games can be, this one feels the most like a sunday school special, and that's not just because you're actual angels. Rather, because the main characters are some fuckin total randos that are marched face first into a problem, and resolve it with minimal effort, but not before seeing like two flashbacks and then an epilogue about what the afflicted has learned. It would help to have any kind of characters involved in this story at all!