jirou
Joy Boy
- Pronouns
- he/him
An ST draws near!
Command?
Welcome to the Famiboards StarTopic of the Dragon Quest series! This thread is a hub for any Dragon Quest discussion, about the history, the future, the developers, the games, the manga, merchandise or anything else related.
Debuting on May 27th 1986 in Japan, Dragon Quest changed gaming history by largely defining what we now fit under the Japanese RPG umbrella. The beautiful art by the great Akira Toriyama combined with witty writing and meaningful progression created a unique style of game unlike any other. To this day, Dragon Quest manages to stand out, despite many RPGs following it leaning on this father of the genre. What's more, the series is not afraid to branch out and create new paths, while still being rooted in its traditions. Each of the installments have their own story and characters, monsters to befriend or slay, and Jackpots to win in the casino!
I welcome everybody to discuss this great franchise that has since spawned 11 mainline titles and 38 spin-offs!
"Scion of the bloodline of Erdrick! Long have I awaited thy coming!"
The Dragon Lord has befallen the Kingdom of Alefgard. As the descendant of the hero Erdrick, it is on you to return the Sphere of Light and make all monsters disappear! What's more, the princess has been captured!
This simple setup of Light vs. Darkness is a cornerstone of the franchise, though later games expand upon the narrative in many ways. Here, we already have different towns with NPCs who feel like people living their lives, not just as window dressing for the hero to meet on his journey. This first entry is also the first appearance of iconic monsters like Slime, Dracky, Golem, and of course the Dragonlord himself.
"Thy destiny lies on that difficult road, just as it did for Erdrick the Great, for thou art of the line of Erdrick, and his doom is thine."
As the Prince of Midenhaal you have to venture forth, accompanied by the Prince of Cannock and the Princess of Moonbrooke, to defeat the High Priest Hargon and his cult. The three heroes, all descendants of the legendary hero and together called the Scions of Erdrick, are all part of battles! No more one on ones with the monsters also means multiple foes will jump you at the same time. The world map is also much bigger, thankfully you have a ship now, which will become a series staple.
"Brave Hero, you must free us from the Archfiend's ever-encroaching tyranny! But alone, you will only meet the same fate as your father."
The legendary third entry has the hero build a party of comrades - none of them are real characters with a place in the world, but the upside is that you can choose from a number of different vocations, a system that comes back in multiple Dragon Quest games after III. This game is much bigger than the first two and is the first Dragon Quest game that truly feels like a journey around the world. It also introduces Mini Medals and a day and night cycle. Reaching the the Archfiend is an odyssey, but the different options of the vocation system make it attractive to replay the game many times. Maybe they'll remake this one someday...
"Rose, have you been good? I have something to tell you. I've decided to destroy all humankind."
To this day, this game's chapter structure is very unique! After the prologue which shows a bit of a day in the Hero/Heroine's life, it jumps to Chapter 1 following Ragnar, one of the party members. From then on every party member gets their own chapter including some changes of pace in gameplay like running the shop as Torneko. This really makes you feel connected to all party members and adds to the feeling that this is a group of people who all have their own lives and purposes, coming together to save the world. In most other games you never get to see what your party members were like before they met the protagonist unless it's in a flashback. Add to that the coolest Dragon Quest villain Psaro and you have one of the most impressive Famicom/NES games out there.
"Your father looks strong and powerful. You're a bit weedy compared to him. Maybe you'll get more like him as you grow up, though, eh?"
Not just a journey around the world, but a journey following the protagonist's life. You start as a child, traveling with his father, searching for... someone. One thing leads to another and as time passes on you become a young man, capable of fighting on his own. But what's a fight without comrades? In this game, you can tame the monsters you fight! After defeating a monster, there is a chance it wants to join you. If you agree, it will act as a party member just like any human partner would. Old enough, you will become a father yourself, remembering the time you went traveling with your father as a child. Going around the world, the towns here might be my personal favourite lineup in the whole franchise! It's again a unique new twist added to Dragon Quest and it alongside the game's story make this entry very special and infinitely replayable. Who knows, maybe a metal slime will even join you on your next playthrough?
"The Archfiend gains strength from people's fear and misery.
We gain strength from people's faith and good will."
Where do you go after a journey of a lifetime? Dreams, of course! In this one the vacation system returns after being absent for two installments, the party members suffer from amnesia and they soon realize that they are traveling through two worlds, one the real world, the other the dream world. This concepts includes two world maps with some variations as well as being able to have some unique stories that seem even more fantastical than usual thanks to them being inside of dreams. Some hints from NPCs might be hard to find in the real world, why not look inside a dream? There's also a fashion contest. A real dream game!
"What? All of the villagers disappeared? Don't be silly! The village might be small, but there's no way something like that could happen! Did you take some bad Herb, or something?"
In the whole world, the hero's home island is the only land mass. After finding a shrine and learning about some secrets of the world, the hero and his friends travel through time, collecting fragments of stone plates to make islands appear. Once they helped the people out in the past, the island exists in the present where you will see the aftermath of whatever happened in the past. The game leans more heavily into telling segmented stories per town you visit, it is less so about the overarching story. Outside of this concept and the vocation system being back once again, the game is best known for being over 100 hours long for a normal playthrough. Saving the world in the past and present takes its time!
"It's hard to believe the lord of darkness, this single being, is threatening the entire world. What gives him the right?! Just thinking about it makes my blood boil!!!"
The first installment to release in Europe, Dragon Quest VIII was a passion project for many of the developers at Level-5. It is the first Dragon Quest game with a third person perspective in 3D and brought many contemporary elements with it. One of the major changes is discarding the vocation system and opting for a party of only four who are always your battle party. Instead of different classes, characters have different weapon types they can choose which have different abilities unlocked through skill points that are gained after level ups. You can also do alchemy to craft material into items, weapons, armour, and accessories for the first time. The party follows on the footsteps of the evil Dhoulmagus who turned the King into a monster and the princess into a horse. As a guardsman and the only person in town not affected by the curse, the hero starts the chase to catch the evil jester Dhoulmagus.
"Hello? Is there anybody there? If you're there, say something. Show yourself. Thus do the voices of the mortals plead, ever hopeful of proof of our existence..."
The first handheld mainline Dragon Quest installment that wasn't a rerelease and another ambitious game developed by Level-5. It takes the vocation system idea of III to new heights as you not only make your party based on vocations rather than characters - the main draw for this game is multiplayer! Playing with up to three other real players you can do the whole story like that. What's more, the game includes the precursor to the 3DS's StreetPass feature. You can swap treasure maps that serve as bonus quests between each other. Partly because of this, the game is notoriously tough to complete if you want to do absolutely everything. It is also the first game without random encounters. The story starts with the hero, an angel, falling from heaven and becoming a mortal because of a mysterious attack, just as the Starflight Express was ready to take off to God's Land, Heavens, no!
This is the part where Dragon Quest fans start crying. X is an MMO that never made it out of Asia. Thus, I honestly don't know much about it. There is an Offline version! Which also seemingly won't make it out of Asia... If you're willing to put the effort in there is a way to play the game outside of Japan and part of it has been translated into English by fans.
"Rejoice, dear subjects! The day is upon us at last! The Luminary walks among us once more!"
The latest game in the franchise and an absolute celebration of what came before it. A huge adventure with enough party members to fill two party battles, skill fields for every character, forging items out of materials, and many, many enchanting scenarios over dozens of hours. This game debuted not only on PS4 but also on 3DS. The special thing about that version is that they remade the entire game in a 16 bit style akin to SNES games which is always playing on the touch screen, while a 3D version is on the top screen. That 16 Bit mode in addition to visiting scenarios of all of the previous titles were also added in the XI S Definitive Edition when the game came out on Switch. The hero of this game learns that he is the legendary luminary after going through a coming of age ceremony that turns out to be more dangerous than anticipated. After finding his destiny out, he makes his way to the King, only to be surprised by the King's reaction to the news...
Now, without further ado, let's talk about - and play! - Dragon Quest!
If you find any names I used are wrong, please correct them. The different English translations are a little confusing, especially since I haven't played any of the games after III in English. Same goes for any grammatical or spelling mistakes of course.
Important notice regarding the music and composer Koichi Sugiyama: While I and many other fans of the franchise are fans of the music you might have noticed that the iconic soundtracks have not been mentioned once here. As many of you know, the composer for the Dragon Quest franchise was a horrible man. This thread is a celebration of Dragon Quest and he is not to be celebrated in any way, even if like me you still paradoxically enjoy his work. I hope people understand that while, in my eyes, discussions of the soundtracks can be allowed in here, Sugiyama does not deserve to be remembered fondly, which is why I opted to leave him and mention of the soundtracks out of the OP. If you have feedback on how to handle this situation better, please let me know.
Important notice regarding the music and composer Koichi Sugiyama: While I and many other fans of the franchise are fans of the music you might have noticed that the iconic soundtracks have not been mentioned once here. As many of you know, the composer for the Dragon Quest franchise was a horrible man. This thread is a celebration of Dragon Quest and he is not to be celebrated in any way, even if like me you still paradoxically enjoy his work. I hope people understand that while, in my eyes, discussions of the soundtracks can be allowed in here, Sugiyama does not deserve to be remembered fondly, which is why I opted to leave him and mention of the soundtracks out of the OP. If you have feedback on how to handle this situation better, please let me know.
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