I know I’m doing another really late review, (more than a year late by my calculations.) But I just got around to playing it,  and I was so excited by how good it was that I wanted people to know what they were missing out on. Dragon Quest V has quickly taken a spot on  my top 10 RPG list. Now I know why this is the second remake of this game! (Super Famicom, PS2, DS.)

Although it isn’t the best selling Dragon Quest game of all time. I think it easily has the most epic story. Beginning while your hero is a young boy, and going all the way until he’s an old man with children of his own. But that isn’t what makes the story so epic, it’s what they are willing to put your character through. From a ten year stint in slavery, all the way to getting married. I was constantly surprised at how much they were willing to change things.

The only real complaint I had about this game, was that it wasn’t quite as tough as some of the other Dragon Quests, and there wasn’t as much playtime either. My first run through was 24 hours, while DQ4 was about 35 hours, DQ7 90+, DQ8 45. But a good game to me has nothing to do with quantity, if anything I think this games brevity is one of its many charms.

The next best thing (Besides the story), was a cool new party system, which allows you to pick up and level almost any monster in the game. Making the party possibility’s endless and therefore very replayable. Although it was poor planing that they give you a very easy opportunity to get a slew of ultimate weapons just a few hours into the game. Literally the best sword in the game is acquired by about 10 minutes of gambling in the fifth town you get to.

I can’t describe just how cool the story in this game is. It’s almost more like reading a book than playing a video game, although the gameplay is still really good. Additionally for the DS version they even added some extra dungeons, and some mini-games that are pretty fun. Overall it was just relieving to see such a cool form of story telling in a video game for once.

Which brings me to my weekly tangent: Video games aren’t telling as good stories as they should. Why do books, and movies, have all the good story real estate? I would say that the average fifty hour video game has less story than any other medium, and if it does have story, it’s usually kitschy as hell. Perfect example? God of War, the story of God of War is horrible, I love it to death, but it is God of Awful!

And as we see in Dragon Quest V, you can have a really cool story without sacrificing gameplay. It isn’t a completely lost cause though, there are games that break this pattern. Nintendo has been doing a really good job lately, at least on the writing side. (Bowser’s Inside Story, and LoZ: Spirit Tracks, I’m looking at you.)

At the end of the day, Dragon Quest V was a real treat to play, and well worth the investment. Unfortunately, although it is pretty new, it is already hard to find. But I urge every robot with the Nintendo DS system to find themselves a copy. You’ll be glad that you did. I picked up my copy on Ebay for a reasonable price, I suggest you do likewise gentlemen.

I am giving this game 10/10!