dragon quest games

[MrPopo]

Dragon Quest 2 has things closer together, and you get party members. But it's still a grind quest. And they added in instant death spells. I'd say Dragon Quest 2 is the most painful entry in the series.

Dragon Quest 3 is when they started to get a bit more modern. You get the four person party, and grinding is reduced (prices of equipment get more sane). And you have the customization of your party, such as determining initial classes and being able to switch classes to customize your eventual party. Of course, going that route is grindtastic.

Dragon Quest 4 probably had the best story of the NES era ones. And the chapter system they used still hasn't been revisited much. It really adds to the character motivations.

Dragon Quest 5, 6, 7 are all standard JRPG fare. At this point the genre has matured.

[mobiusclimber]

DQ1 does not take a very long time to complete, I'd say a good 30 hours finishes it. I personally loved the game, and to me it was not nearly as difficult as people make it out to be. Yes, you will be doing some leveling up from time to time. There was only one spot in the game where I felt it was a bit unfair in this regard tho. Most of the time, I found it to be a breeze. I even defeated the dragon boss (in the cave) earlier than you're supposed to. That's what I love about the first one: You can go almost anywhere you want and do whatever you want, so long as you can withstand the beating you'll receive. It always made me feel like the world was completely open to me, whereas many other RPGs have some artificial reason why you can't go somewhere ("Sorry, the bridge is closed, blah blah"). I always hated that.

Of course I also thought that DQ VII was an amazing game. This one easily takes 100+ hours to complete, and when you beat it there's still more you can do! I found the slow pace to suit this title excellently but others bash it for taking its time to establish realistic characters and setting. Gee, isn't that what makes an RPG great? Also, Enix showed the world the huge set of balls they have with this game. Do you know how long you'll play this title before you encounter one single fight? Three hours! This makes total sense in context w/ the game and helps establish the characters and setting I talked about. It was a ballsy move, and one which I feel really paid off. Again, n00bs hated it. If you didn't grow up w/ videogames since at least the NES era, you might want to just stick to the more recent DQ games. They hold your hand a lot, point you exactly where you need to go, and have next gen graphics to make you think they're the best games ever. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot I liked about DQ VIII, but I'd hardly call it the best in the series. It's definitely the most accessable, but is that always a good thing?

[IndestructibleWolves]

I'd recommend Dragon Quest VIII but all of them are great. I think the best thing about them is that they really developed their own personality over the years. VIII is beautiful, characters are great, story is classic, voice-acting is spot-on.