A commemorative Dragon Quest thread draws near!

[Xeogred]

Damn! Some nice praise on DQ4 then. I bet the NES music is amazing too. Maybe I'll give that one a shot before going for DQ8 again, to start a little earlier. The GBC versions of the first two sound really cool too.

I hate to be that guy, but I don't really like the looks of the DS games that much... but the SNES installments from what I've seen, look a little weird themselves.

I'm a little surprised at some How Long to Beat times for the NES games. Are they all within the 10-20 hour range? I guess most 8-16bit JRPG's tend to be around 30 or under. I think hearing this series can be grindy has always put me off a little, but maybe it's not that bad at all and pretty fun... I don't know! Gotta check them out.

[Tanooki]

You can kill DW1 on the NES in under 6 hours. As to the others, I call bullshit on them under 20. Maybe if you've played it a dozen times and know every shortcut, optional thing, and what your minimums can be to skate through stuff perhaps it's possible but I wouldn't want to place a bet on that. Speedrunners (or those unintentionally so) specifically might do it, but a normal person, no.

[Exhuminator]

Dragon Warrior VIII for PS2 is seriously amazing. It's as good as a classically designed JRPG could ever hope to be. If you only play through one DQ, make it this one. (I only recommend the PS2 version personally.)

[Xeogred]

Probably the coolest looking Toriyama game out there from what I've seen.

Imagine a new Chrono in that style. But nah man, Square knows nobody wants that.

[Sarge]

Yeah, I could go for that. Not a remake, though. The original is just fine as is.

[Tanooki]

Funny Chrono comes up, found that over this weekend complete on the DS side. I just cracked it open, dude rolled it at least a few times as it has a few finished files one was all 9s and has all the unlockables mostly done. I wrote over 2 of the 3 though, started fresh. I'm not sure if I'll get anywhere or not, I've never finished it for whatever reason, but I'm thinking I may pick away at it before time skipping up front, raise a few levels, maybe buy that nice silver sword for 4K I don't know. This time though I actually have that classic SNES guide from Nintendo though I do know they renamed enough stuff in the update.

[Nemoide]

I love the Dragon Quest series, though I'll admit I somehow haven't played any of the NES originals, instead mostly playing remakes for GBC and DS. DQ III is what really cemented the series as something special in my mind; it's pretty easily my favorite 8-bit RPG. I'm currently chipping away at DQ IX after having played I-VIII in order and own a good portion of the spinoffs. I also have a bunch of soundtracks, including a 7" single of a J-pop rendition of the name-entry/menu music from Dragon Quest II. My merch collection has plush slimes, a slime bank, a King Slime mug, slime ice cube trays... I LOVE ME SOME SLIMES.

Honestly, just hearing the theme song fills me with nostalgia and makes me want to throw money at the series. They're just such well crafted RPGs!

[Exhuminator]

after having played I-VIII in order

Since you've finished eight of the DQ games, howabout giving us a ranking list?

[MrPopo]

If I was going to rank:

VIII
IV
V
III
IX
VI
VII
I
II

But really, everything past the first two is amazing.

[Sarge]

But really, everything past the first two is amazing.

Truth. (And I still love those, too, they're just... rough.)

My own personal rankings, highly, highly subjective in nature and probably not even properly reflective from day to day...

IV > III > VI > VIII > V > VII > IX > II > I

Although it's probably more like:

IV = III > VI = VIII = V > VII > IX > II > I