I know this title has been released for a while now, in fact they have already released the next one in the series. (V, obviously) Which I hope to get a hold of before the release of VI.

*If you don’t want to read a bunch of philosophy about Dragon Quest, just skip to the next asterisk.

Before going into the review, I would just like to bring up some of my thoughts and experiences of Dragon Quest in general. Cutting to the heart of it, I am a big fan of Dragon Quest. Not including the side games (although I’ve played some of them too.), I’ve played through every game in the series aside from the three they are remaking on the DS. (So this is a first play through for me.) And I’m also a big fan of the Final Fantasy series. Some might superficially call these titles similar, but I find they both have their own unique quirks that separate them greatly. Since this is a review about a Dragon Quest game, I won’t be going into the differences, but what I like about this series.

The main impressions I get from Dragon Quest is that they keep it basic, and in doing so, it makes the game much more balanced. Basically what this means is, from start to finish you are going to come across a challenge. And the story is usually a simple hero’s quest, which is getting more diverse as the games go on.  You can see the evolution throughout the titles, starting with the first game, that virtually has no story structure.

The last bit of information I will get into before the real review (already apologizing for the length. But it’s like two reviews in one!) Is a jump in the evolution in the series. As stated I had not played, (IV, V, or VI) so it would make sense that I saw a skip when I played VII. This skip wasn’t necessarily a good thing. (But I think it will be important to understand how these games can fail.) Dragon Quest VII is maybe one of the best plotted video games I’ve ever played, and the premise behind the game play is perfect. But it had a major problem with being too good at these things.

The premise being that you are a hero that traverses time to bring balance to various city’s in the past, and the future. (not necessarily in that order.) The quests to save the towns are individually brilliant, but at points these quests are beyond meticulous. Basically, there are times that you will be wasting 4 hours because you forgot to talk to the fairy in the past of a town that they didn’t tell you to go to. Quite simply, this game is too vast.

Another problem, and the last I’ll go into is that they had a really good job system. But they didn’t implement it until half way through the game, and they made it absurdly expansive. To master the jobs, or even get advanced jobs, you are looking at spending possibly more than 40 hours on just leveling up. More time than a casual gamer like myself can consciously waste.

I believe that Enix realized their mistakes and corrected them in Dragon Quest VIII. (My favorite in the series.) In a way devolving the series, back to its pinnacle. What I haven’t figured out yet is where the pinnacle is. Is it between II, and III? (Which are amazing.) Or is it between, IV, V, and VI. This is what I plan on finding out.

* Finally the Dragon Quest IV review. (The remake for the DS. Dubbed “Chapters of the Chosen” Although I doubt it varies from the original much.)

The game starts as many of them do with the emerging of a hero (or heroine). And as with other Dragon Quest games, it finds a way to do the same thing in a unique way. The vessel for this ones originality is a chapter system, in which the headline character is switched in each one. Their are five chapters, and the fifth chapter is dedicated to the chosen one, the main character of the game.

There are some things that I like about this system, and there are some things that get a little repetitive. What I mainly like is that it gives you a good chance to get to know all of the playable characters. (And like them, because at one point they are the only main character.) Final Fantasy VIII is a notorious example about not having any focus on side characters. And it takes something away from the main game. (FF VIII is great anyway though.)

Each of the chapters has some towns to save, while building the characters personal stories. Giving it a feel like Dragon Quest VII, but only the good aspects of what that entails. It shared a few of the problems with getting hung up at a few places, but not nearly as bad, and it was probably my fault, as I was trying to run through the game very quickly.

The bad side, isn’t so bad. It’s just that you have to start out five different times at level 1. I actually didn’t get tired of it until the fifth chapter, and the feeling didn’t linger. Because that is when the game kicks into high gear.

I’m always impressed by Akira Toriyama’s creature and character designs, and this game is up to par with the rest. My favorite creature was easily the abracadabrador. Which is obviously what you get when you give a dog magic spells. This is just the best example though, as 90% of the creatures are named with puns. The hot dog is another example. The end bosses were designed really well, especially the end boss, that goes through 7 evolutions, and ends up looking pretty cool. (I think I was under leveled, but he was pretty challenging.)

The DS is a great system to play RPG’s on, especially with how easy it is to just close and put it in your pocket. There are literally a hundred uses for the second screen throughout the game that aren’t worth mentioning individually.

Not only was this a great port to the DS, but this is easily one of the best RPG’s to play for the DS. With a first play through time of under 40 hours, including all the bonus dungeons and side quests. And unless you get hopelessly stuck it remains fun throughout. In fact as soon as I put it down, I could feel myself reaching for it again. Definitely worth a second play through.

Another thing they did different from some other Dragon Quest games, was the party system, because you get 8 characters by the end, you can trade them in and out of you’re party (As long as you’re aloud to bring your wagon to the dungeon.) So it is a lot like what Final Fantasy X did, but way before it’s time. Although it didn’t do it as well. I could barely afford the equipment for four characters. I didn’t want to invest the time getting equipment for 8. So I stuck to a single party. (Although this is another good reason to go through the game again.)

The story apparently leads into the next game, and then into the sixth one. But they don’t leave you hanging at the end in any way. I would say spoiler alert about spoiling the ending in the next sentence, but an airship ride around the world, taking all of your characters back to their hometowns is a terrible cliche. One that you can go into any NES or SNES RPG expecting.

Going into bonus features, after you beat the end boss there is an extra chapter (only for the DS) that gives an extra, extra long, dungeon to play through. And then two extra, extra hard, bosses to fight. If you like a challenge it’s worth going through. But the story ends up 99% the same way it did before you go through it, so it shouldn’t be a requirement.

I would say more, but I’m literally not allowed to. This is a really good game, I can’t wait to play the next in the series. You can buy them both on amazon. Click here for IV! And here for V!

Yeah, I just did that. What has math ever done for me…….lately?