Collecting the Dragon Quest Series

[Westane]

I'm a huge fan of the entire series. I'll echo the sentiment of others that the best option for collecting is probably to just track down and play the handheld remakes for the first six! And just a heads-up: Dragon Quest II is generally considered the worst of the series, don't let it turn you off from DQ III which is hands-down my #1 favorite 8-bit RPG.

And even though it seems to get overlooked a lot, I highly recommend Dragon Quest Monsters if you have any interest in Pokemon-style games. I've only played the first one but I liked it way more than Pokemon.

Heh, I'm actually in the middle of playing Dragon Quest Monsters and I'm hating every minute of it! Loved/Still love Pokemon but I'm finding DQM to be mindnumbingly boring.

[Fragems]

And even though it seems to get overlooked a lot, I highly recommend Dragon Quest Monsters if you have any interest in Pokemon-style games. I've only played the first one but I liked it way more than Pokemon.

Dragon Warrior Monster, and DWM 2 are both pretty good. DWM 2 in terms of story and graphics DWM2 is a pretty big improvement over DWM though. The dungeons in 2 actually have mini stories connected to them instead of just random wandering till the boss and the world in general feels more alive. They also had two versions of DWM 2 one for each sibling in the main story so you could be Cobi or Tara not sure if there were any real differences other then the main character though.

Haven't gotten around to the DQM: Joker games but they are probably just as good if not better.

[Sarge]

I played through the GBC version of Dragon Warrior III, and it is excellent. I want to go through the SNES version eventually, but I'm not sure I can justify going through the game again. I've probably gone through the game at least ten times on NES, and the additional time on GBC.

I'd go the cheapest route, and I like the suggestion of grabbing Japanese copies for use on the Retron 5. I'd forgotten about that little nicety, and it's got me thinking about snagging a Retron 5, even though I have an SD2SNES.

[Jagosaurus]

I really really wish they would port DQ8 to the 3DS

Me too. It's on iPad right?

[Daria]

Slight necro-bump:

DragonQuest is one of my favorite series; I actually own all the US release (except mobile, yuck).

My favorite titles are 7, 5, 8, 4, and the spin-off game Rocket Slime. Seeing as how you've already played and loved 7 and 8, I'd have to urge you to just go ahead and pick the DS versions of the other 3. Hell get 6 while you're at it. They're very nice updates, and are fairly inexpensive if not downright cheap. You could go ahead and pick up 1-3 on the Gameboy, but they're pretty grindy and if you didn't like the original game I don't see too much to love about these three either.

Rocket Slime is an odd one, it's like Zelda meets tower defense but you play as a bunch of slimes. It's also filled with a ton of slime-related puns that reference DQ8 heavily. I thought the game was incredibly charming and a lot of fun.

[jmbarnes101]

I enjoyed Rocket Slime as well, fun and quirky little game that I would recommend. My daughter is currently playing through IX, her first RPG, and is really enjoying it. Like most people I prefer the later games in the series 5 on then the first couple of games though I haven't played 4 or 7.

[Daria]

I enjoyed Rocket Slime as well, fun and quirky little game that I would recommend. My daughter is currently playing through IX, her first RPG, and is really enjoying it. Like most people I prefer the later games in the series 5 on then the first couple of games though I haven't played 4 or 7.

4 is the first game in the series where they really focused on storytelling. Half the game is literally spent introducing your party; only once you've played through all their individual quests do they band together to save the world.

7's just fun. I really loved the time traveling mechanic, you have to visit lands in different eras to solve puzzles (and problems). I think it was the first game to introduce party chat, which really added a ton of personality to the characters during otherwise nonscripted portions of the game. I also love the way the story fleshed out the world, some of the biggest characters in the game were the NPCs you helped along the way. It's also infamous for being extremely long, once you think you've beaten the final boss the game just keeps going.

[noiseredux]

this thread made me realize that DQ I-VI and VIII are all on Android. I actually bought the first game w/ some Play Store credit I had over the Summer. I know this doesn't really speak to the 'collecting' part of the thread title. But given these mobile ports, and Square's recent hurry to bring as many Final Fantasy games to Steam as they can, I'd be willing to bet the DQ games will follow.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm gonna play parts I & II on the NES again soon.

[Daria]

I know this doesn't really speak to the 'collecting' part of the thread title.

As long as you play them, that's all that matters.

Actually by buying the mobile versions you're doing more to support the franchise then someone hunting down used copies of old DS games. (: