I was prepared to be more down on this game, but then I hit the ending and I was like "you know what? That was good, actually." I do think it's a little more frustrating than the other Dragon Quests I've played that weren't literally in the process of hammering out the genre, mostly in terms of its gameplay. Its fight design just feels meaner throughout than any of the other DQs I've played have felt, and I can't really explain why I feel that way aside from unlocking the class system a weirdly chunky way through the game. I feel my assessment of the class system itself is also colored by the fact that I played 7 before this one, because I liked 7's implementation better, even if it ended up being a lot fiddlier in some ways.
I also agree with the assessment that there's just, like... too much game? There's two full maps, and then one map has an undersea map where the locations don't actually show up on the ingame map item. So you just kind of have to remember where the undersea locations are. I think this is the first Dragon Quest where I just gave up trying to figure things out for myself and glued myself to a guide because I was tired of keeping track of everything. I feel like the plot starting to meander is kind of making a thematic point, but it kind of made it hard to actually know... where I was going.
I still definitely think this one's as worth playing as the rest of the series, despite my criticisms. When it hits, it hits. I feel like both the games that debuted on the SNES do a really good job of making you invested in your blank slate silent protagonist. 6 definitely isn't as in your face about it as 5, but there's still some interesting stuff going on with this protagonist, and I'll admit that I liked him as soon as he looked at a bookshelf in a castle and started rearranging the bookshelf in alphabetical order. To say more would be getting into spoiler territory, but I think there's stuff involved in his story that I'll be thinking about for a while. I'm sorry I mistook you for Erik from DQ11 in fanart, Mr. Protagonist. I didn't recognize your game. Dragon Quest often feels like it's seen as the Mario to Final Fantasy's Sonic, but I really do think there's something in every Dragon Quest that'll leave you staring at the wall for a while. Especially the bit immediately before the credits, man. Christ.
The rest of the cast is great, too. I'd say that it's up there as one of my favorite playable casts. It was great seeing the actual context for Terry and Milly, as someone whose first Dragon Quest was the original Dragon Quest Monsters, and everyone has some really good moments. I think the only non-optional character I feel got the short end of the stick was Nevan, who feels like he never really got anything particularly important after his introduction. The party banter was also generally a lot of fun, outside of like. more than one instance of "oh no, CROSSDRESSING." it WAS 2010 but come on.
There were also some very fun optional characters, even if only one of them was really a character. I feel like the game would have been worse had I screwed myself out of recruiting Amos, who was a delight. I do wish the monster party members you pick up throughout the game were more Actual Characters, but I'm not going to lie. Goowain saved my ass in the final boss fight. I'm glad I sent him to dance/goof off school so he could be a luminary and we could hustle our way to not dying horribly. You are truly the best of us, Goowain...
I feel like the weakest part of the character end is the antagonists, which is... not uncommon in Dragon Quest. 4 and 5 had more charismatic antagonists than Murdaw and Mortamor, although I do have to give a shout out to the phase transitions in the final boss fight. That was some absolutely sick sprite animation. It didn't quite dethrone 4's final boss fight phase transitions for me but it did elicit a "YOOOOO" from me the first time I got there.
There's a fair amount of side stuff that I didn't get too deep into, like Slime Fight Club, the fashion shows, and stuff that required DS internet. I think they were neat, but I didn't feel particularly compelled to delve too far into that or try and go into postgame content. I did enjoy my time with DQ6, but somehow that 40-some hours felt way longer than Dragon Quests I spent considerably more time on... and I'm not really sure it'd be as fun if I can't have that Dragon Quest Story charm.
I also agree with the assessment that there's just, like... too much game? There's two full maps, and then one map has an undersea map where the locations don't actually show up on the ingame map item. So you just kind of have to remember where the undersea locations are. I think this is the first Dragon Quest where I just gave up trying to figure things out for myself and glued myself to a guide because I was tired of keeping track of everything. I feel like the plot starting to meander is kind of making a thematic point, but it kind of made it hard to actually know... where I was going.
I still definitely think this one's as worth playing as the rest of the series, despite my criticisms. When it hits, it hits. I feel like both the games that debuted on the SNES do a really good job of making you invested in your blank slate silent protagonist. 6 definitely isn't as in your face about it as 5, but there's still some interesting stuff going on with this protagonist, and I'll admit that I liked him as soon as he looked at a bookshelf in a castle and started rearranging the bookshelf in alphabetical order. To say more would be getting into spoiler territory, but I think there's stuff involved in his story that I'll be thinking about for a while. I'm sorry I mistook you for Erik from DQ11 in fanart, Mr. Protagonist. I didn't recognize your game. Dragon Quest often feels like it's seen as the Mario to Final Fantasy's Sonic, but I really do think there's something in every Dragon Quest that'll leave you staring at the wall for a while. Especially the bit immediately before the credits, man. Christ.
The rest of the cast is great, too. I'd say that it's up there as one of my favorite playable casts. It was great seeing the actual context for Terry and Milly, as someone whose first Dragon Quest was the original Dragon Quest Monsters, and everyone has some really good moments. I think the only non-optional character I feel got the short end of the stick was Nevan, who feels like he never really got anything particularly important after his introduction. The party banter was also generally a lot of fun, outside of like. more than one instance of "oh no, CROSSDRESSING." it WAS 2010 but come on.
There were also some very fun optional characters, even if only one of them was really a character. I feel like the game would have been worse had I screwed myself out of recruiting Amos, who was a delight. I do wish the monster party members you pick up throughout the game were more Actual Characters, but I'm not going to lie. Goowain saved my ass in the final boss fight. I'm glad I sent him to dance/goof off school so he could be a luminary and we could hustle our way to not dying horribly. You are truly the best of us, Goowain...
I feel like the weakest part of the character end is the antagonists, which is... not uncommon in Dragon Quest. 4 and 5 had more charismatic antagonists than Murdaw and Mortamor, although I do have to give a shout out to the phase transitions in the final boss fight. That was some absolutely sick sprite animation. It didn't quite dethrone 4's final boss fight phase transitions for me but it did elicit a "YOOOOO" from me the first time I got there.
There's a fair amount of side stuff that I didn't get too deep into, like Slime Fight Club, the fashion shows, and stuff that required DS internet. I think they were neat, but I didn't feel particularly compelled to delve too far into that or try and go into postgame content. I did enjoy my time with DQ6, but somehow that 40-some hours felt way longer than Dragon Quests I spent considerably more time on... and I'm not really sure it'd be as fun if I can't have that Dragon Quest Story charm.
4 Comments
@tanman
It's funny that you ask this just as I'm writing up a summary of the series to share my brainworms with my friends. As far as the DS goes, I'd say IV or V are best to start out with. IV is a little iffy because of the way the original English release worked, in that they cut party chat to save translation costs. I think there's a patch to either the English or Japanese version that adds it back in, but I played it on iOS so I didn't go through the effort myself. If you do go through patching it I'd start with IV over V.
If you're interested in trying the series out via the Switch or Steam, Dragon Quest XI S has a really big chunky demo available for free that gives you a really nice taste of what you can expect and carries over if you decide to buy the whole game. DQ11 is the game that really got me into the series and made me want to check out the rest, so it's a really great place to start imo. It's got a bunch of stuff that ties into the older games that served to make me curious while being fanservice for long time fans of the series.
If you do end up bouncing off the gameplay, I'd still recommend giving the Builders games a shot. They're Minecraft with surprisingly excellent stories. I think they work a little better if you have knowledge of DQ1 and 2 because DQB1 ties into one of the endings of the first game and DQB2 ties into the second, but I have plenty of friends who've played one or both of the Builders games and enjoyed them wholeheartedly without having played DQ1 and 2.
It's funny that you ask this just as I'm writing up a summary of the series to share my brainworms with my friends. As far as the DS goes, I'd say IV or V are best to start out with. IV is a little iffy because of the way the original English release worked, in that they cut party chat to save translation costs. I think there's a patch to either the English or Japanese version that adds it back in, but I played it on iOS so I didn't go through the effort myself. If you do go through patching it I'd start with IV over V.
If you're interested in trying the series out via the Switch or Steam, Dragon Quest XI S has a really big chunky demo available for free that gives you a really nice taste of what you can expect and carries over if you decide to buy the whole game. DQ11 is the game that really got me into the series and made me want to check out the rest, so it's a really great place to start imo. It's got a bunch of stuff that ties into the older games that served to make me curious while being fanservice for long time fans of the series.
If you do end up bouncing off the gameplay, I'd still recommend giving the Builders games a shot. They're Minecraft with surprisingly excellent stories. I think they work a little better if you have knowledge of DQ1 and 2 because DQB1 ties into one of the endings of the first game and DQB2 ties into the second, but I have plenty of friends who've played one or both of the Builders games and enjoyed them wholeheartedly without having played DQ1 and 2.
@ranrannerson
Wow that was a great explanation. Thank you for that, plenty to look at there for that series. I appreciate it.
Wow that was a great explanation. Thank you for that, plenty to look at there for that series. I appreciate it.
@tanman No problem! I hope you enjoy journeying through the series as much as I have!
tanman
20 days ago
I want to enjoy the Dragon Quest experience fully and without much preconceptions.
Mind if I ask what your personal recommendation is for starting DQ? I have a few games on my DS ready to play. I just started Phoenix Wright but maybe DQ is next.