Xeogred wrote:
I guess I better bring up my VII experience then...
... but I sold it after I played what felt like ~3 hours literally, and never got into a single battle. It was odd to say the least and kind of turned me off instantly. I have no idea why I sold it back then when it was new though, haha. Probably worth a good bit now. One of my friends is a big fan though, he said interacting with all the NPC's is kind of the meat of the game and they'll often change up the dialogue depending on what you've done or whatnot. But yeah, the start was SO slow from what I played, I was totally turned off instantly.
So I can imagine the game definitely must be insanely long. Maybe my memories are jaded, but I'm very sure I played 2-3 hours without getting into a single battle, lol.
You can either admire them for doing this or curse them for it. I guess it depends on what you want out of an RPG. As much fun as the battle system is in this game (and the class system, amongst other things, makes it hella fun), random battles are really not what make a DQ game great. It really is all about the character interaction and story, and Enix basically said "this is the world you live in, this is how the story flows, you have to play the game for a good while until you get into a battle b/c that's just what kind of world you start out in." It takes balls to do that, and I'm damn glad they did. It also definitely sets up the expectation that this is going to be an incredibly long game, which it is.
I'd personally recommend starting with DQIV on the DS and just playing IV-VI to start with. If you're hooked, then go onto (in any order) VII, VIII and IX. After that, I'd go back to the NES and play I, III and IV. If you're still hankering for more, then maybe try the SFC ports, or the GBC ones. (Out of these, I think III is most interesting b/c they added a little bit to it rather than just making it easier like they did w/ I & II.)
I'd also like to take a moment to defend the first Dragon Quest. Yes, it has a very rudimentary story (tho it does do a few interesting things with it), and yes the system itself is also very rudimentary. It can be slow, especially since almost everything you do in the game is menu driven (even walking up or down stairs). But it also has a very adventurous feel to it. It makes you really want to explore the world, especially because there aren't a lot of artificial roadblocks (except for a few places much later in the game). At first it's possible to go anywhere... if you can survive the pummeling the enemies will give you. Part of the fun of the game is in simply exploring the world and seeing what's over the next bridge. Few games are able to capture that sort of feeling as well as the first DQ game did.
