Dragon Quest: The Definitive Thread

Heian said:

I haven't played DQ4 in 25 years but it left me a very strong feeling. I can easily rank that one in my favorite RPG with planescape Torment, FF9 and DS's the world ends with you.

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I'm actually playing DQ4 on phone right now. Played 1-3's new phone versions over the last couple years and got into this big DQ mood after 3 so I went right into 4. It's fantastic.


About to go to the town full of women, hoo rah.

I'll probably keep going and do the rest of the phone versions of 5 and 6 at this rate, then wait to see what kind of remasters come down the pike for the rest.

Talenvor said:

Isn’t DQ1 (DW) the game that came free with a Nintendo Power subscription back in the day? Man, that was the best surprise as a kid getting a free nes game with my magazine one summer and I’ve been hooked on DQ/FF/RPGs in general ever since.

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Yeah, that had to be the best NP bonus in history. A full $50 game with an issue. I miss Nintendo Power a lot. It took me until like issue 55 to get a subscription, so before that I just read it at friend's houses and the library when I could.

Heian said:

Yup I remember that I once saved the princess and the sprite changed that he was carrying the Princess in his arm. I went to the last boss and killed him while holding the Princess. Made the 9-10 years old me laugh.

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Whoa, I thought she had to be returned to continue. I hope the 2D-HD remake in the future still lets you do that. I'll totally carry the princess around for half of the game.

Hateyou said:

The way they worded it was stupid. They should have said it introduced a much larger audience to RPGs, which it did. Everyone just wanted a free game, it was a lot of people’s first experience with an RPG, especially if they were just NES scrubs. FF7 did the same thing, that was a lot of people’s first RPG.

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I agree with that. The RPG genre got a bunch of heavy-hitters in a row in the mid-90's that really elevated it. FF6, then Chrono Trigger, then Mario RPG, then FF7. Each one was bigger than the one before it. The one that pulled me in was Chrono Trigger, then Mario RPG, then retroactively FF6 and FF4. So by the time FF7 was on the way I was fully on-board and counting the days until it arrived.

Not to get too off-topic, but speaking of the Ultima series, how much of that series is worth playing? I assume most of the PC series is worth playing, but I'm thinking more about the console versions. I always thought that the two Runes of Virtue games on the Game Boy looked interesting. To this day I still emulate Game Boy games from time to time, the visuals don't bother me. Also Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar on the NES looked really good, possibly on par with a Dragon Warrior game. Ultima III: Exodus was also on the NES, but it's fairly primitive, and Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny just looks like a mess. I've considered giving Ultima IV and Runes of Virtue I+II a go in the past though.

Caliane said:

ultimas never got remakes. which man, that would be interesting..

ultima 3 and 4 were on the NES.

ultima 3 was a pretty old PC port at the time. added a bunch of stuff. But even by NES standards, pretty archaic to todays gaming.
NES version did remove the dialogue system. (you had to type in keywords in the pc versions. totally unprompted. like, if you are looking for a key, type Key when taking to everyone you meet to ask them bout a key.) NES removed that.
PC version:

(although does have some NES footage in there)
NES version.


Ultima 4 also was greatly streamlined.

Its a much more coherent storyline, direction, and all around more advanced then 3. A much better fit for consoles.

4 is probably more playable. But each have their importance ot history. seeing 3's 3d dungeons, etc.. hidden towns, etc.

Ultima 7: the black gate, did show up on the SNES.
ultima 7 is considered one the greatest RPGS of all time. part 2:the serpant isle never made it to SNES.
the SNES version is massively striped down. play the PC version.
yes its still relevant. and the spiritual origin of Divinity Original sin.

Ultima: Underworld is also a must play game. also not on consoles.

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I'll probably give Ultima 4 on NES a run after I finish with the Dragon Quest crusade I'm on now (doing, at least, the DQ4/5/6 mobile ports). Got a hankering for an NES RPG and I've played all the good ones I knew about like FF, DQ, DoaE.

How are the Runes of Virtue duo-gy on Game Boy?

I feel like a full run-through of the Ultima series on PC isn't the worst usage of time, as well. Spoony Experiment did a series on it that was very entertaining.

Hateyou said:

Breath of Fire? Lufia II?

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Those are SNES, but yeah, now that you mention it BoF2 might be the last major SNES RPG that I never played, and I should get on that too. Then there are a bunch of Japan-only games I never played like Rudra no Hihou, Treasure Hunter G, Bahamut Lagoon, Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean, and probably something else I'm forgetting. Yeah, I still have a long list that I might never get through. The only series' that I've made sure to fully complete (beat every game, mostly 100%) are FF and Metroid, and soon DQ (mainly just have DQ8 left).

Speaking of DQ, I finished DQ4 phone port. Really good update of the DS version. There's a new Chapter 6 where you get Psaro as a playable character, and he's OP AF, though there's only one superboss left at that point. I'll definitely give the 5 and 6 phone ports a run in the near future. I don't even like phone games necessarily, but old DQ ports are perfectly suited for an Android screen and it's convenient.

The sad thing is, these companies could have absolutely printed money in the mid-1990's by bringing over things like Final Fantasy 5, Dragon Quest 5, Star Ocean, etc.

I stand corrected, maybe Dragon Quest V wouldn't have been as much of a license to print money as I thought. It looks like RPGs didn't start becoming a successful genre in the U.S. until 1994 or 1995, and even then it was mainly Squaresoft that had said successes. Americans gave DW a try, but weren't into it:

U.S. Sales
Dragon Warrior 1 - 500k sold
Dragon Warrior 2 - 150k sold
Dragon Warrior 3 - 95k sold
Dragon Warrior 4 - 80k sold

Yikes

Chimney said:

I have only beaten III in the series but I have played most including about 10 hours of XI. They just never hook me with story, art or music and I have played and beaten practically every other popular rpg series that has existed from the 90s onward so it's weird that these just never clicked with me considering the overall popularity. Maybe I should revisit VIII or something ;[

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This series is better if you like Akira Toriyama art designs and old-school RPG mechanics. If you weren't into XI I'm not sure if you'll like the others. VIII is probably the best one to give a shot to, though.

Hateyou said:

Yeah no one was really into them back then. I had a friend that was into the FF’s with me but everyone else had just played DW1 from the Nintendo Power promotion. I remember showing RPGs to people and they were like wtf is this picking from a menu to do actions shit? Street fighter 2, mortal kombat, racing & sports games and platformers were all anyone played.

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I was like that too, not being able to control your character was just weird to me at first. I remember playing FF6(3) in a store display (back when those were a thing, go 90's) and didn't get it. I wanted to move the characters to attack and instead they were just attacking on their own it seemed like. I was interested in the game because of Nintendo Power, but as soon as I played it I was like "ehh" and moved on. A few months later, NP got me interested in Chrono Trigger, I played through that, and suddenly I "got it" and understood the appeal of RPGs. Went back and played FF6 then and it was a bit of a revelation.

Nester said:

I played Dragon Warrior earlier this year on my switch.

what a great nostalgia trip.

DW was the first game I bought with my own money I. 1989. I think it was $80 back then.

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No wonder my mom bought me like one game every 6 months when I was growing up. They were like $70 or $80! I remember Breath of Fire 2 in particular being one she just said no to because they priced it so high. Adjusted for inflation it's even worse.

Hateyou said:

I did a couple years ago after not having played it for like 25 years or more. I was blown away by how small it was. Seemed so epic and big when I was a kid.

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That's been striking me a lot the last few years, how short some of these games are. When I replay things like Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, and Final Fantasy IV and beat them in like 8 hours, they aren't the sweeping epic marathons I remember. I played DQ1 on my phone during one workday a few years ago (final time was like 3 hours). Last month when I tried the FF1 Pixel Remaster, I set aside a few days to play it and then found myself looking at the credits on the first day (and the day wasn't even over yet)