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Post by splatter on Dec 30, 2007 5:47:40 GMT -5
Nice article! I've never really liked the DQ games, but it was interesting reading about one of Japan's most famous game series. I've given the games another try, and so far III and V are pretty fun.
However, there's one thing I noticed about the DQIII re-release for SNES.
You must have hit a button, because the intro's pretty long and has an awesome cinema scene of Ortega fighting a demon in a volcano. It's in the GBC version too, and while it doesn't have the Mode 7 effects it still looks pretty good.
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Post by Isao Kronos (BANNED) on Jan 2, 2008 13:26:16 GMT -5
VII was pretty fun except for how tedious most of the beginning was- I never did get to Disc 2.
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Post by Atma on Jan 9, 2008 22:32:02 GMT -5
After reading this article, I have decided to give the only two I never really did anything in, V and VI, a chance. I can't hate on something with an article so well written and convincing.
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Post by Isao Kronos (BANNED) on Jan 10, 2008 17:18:44 GMT -5
VI is EXCELLENT. Probably my favorite in the series.
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Post by kyouki on Jan 11, 2008 7:30:25 GMT -5
I'm playing through DW2 again and am really liking it. This time around I'm trying not to powerlevel if I can help it. I also haven't been saving up any money, I just buy what I can afford and make sure to first buy a lot of tools. It makes the random battles less annoying and more thrilling when I am underleveled and underequipped. And you level up really quickly anyway when you go into areas where you are perhaps a little weak. I think DW2 has the right mix of challenge, memorable music, and a great sense of adventure. It was the first time in the series where you have multiple monsters in battle, multiple party members, towers (I love the tower tile...), etc. DW3, as cool as it is, isn't such a leap over part 2 as part 2 is over part 1.
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Post by kyouki on Jan 15, 2008 12:39:01 GMT -5
I want to post that I was wrong when I posted earlier about how poor the first couple of DW games are. I've been playing them off and on lately and have been really shocked.
Playing the old DW games again has really opened my eyes to how good they are (at least the first two). I remember them both being really linear games where you spend hours grinding out levels, but have been pleasantly surprised by how nonlinear they get towards the middle, and how a carefully thought out strategy can make the game playable without having to resort to grinding.
For example, in DW2 once you have all three party members and get the ship you're given some vague suggestions on what you might want to do next but it's pretty much up to you to sail around looking for information. After the point you can do pretty much any of the main quest things in any order with some exceptions. This is key! It's not one of those games where it doesn't tell you what to do but there is actually one specific thing you need to do (which is not nonlinear, it's just annoying). In DW2 there is plenty to do and if you have been paying attention in town you'll have plenty hints on where you should start looking.
I definitely think this is how these games were meant to be played. Played in this manner, it all falls into place. Random encounters are no longer just a really annoying thing getting in the way of going from A to B; instead are thrilling and rewarding. NPCs are no longer just annoying things you talk to because you feel like you should; they instead provide very useful hints on things you should be looking for.
You're always doing something, whether it's exploring the world looking for information, climbing a tower, or trying to get a powerful piece of equipment out of a dangerous cave with enough MP left to cast return.
That's pretty exciting stuff (for people that like RPGs anyway), especially compared to the alternative, which is walking back and forth across three blocks of mountain terrain wiping out enemies that pose nothing but an annoyance to you so you can level up and get enough gold to buy the best equipment available.
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Post by Scylla on Mar 21, 2008 16:06:27 GMT -5
I just finished reading this article, and I must say it was really a magnificent read. One of the best on the site I would say. Just the intro alone could make an excellent retrospective on the series as a whole.
I admittedly don't know much about the series (well, prior to reading this article), even though I really probably should. The original is the only one I've played to completion. It played a large role in getting me interested in RPGs, since I was very fond of watching it as a kid, though I don't know if I ever picked up the controller myself back then. I know that I enjoyed watching DWII as well, but I don't know if we had 3 or 4 around. Years later, I was inspired to buy Chrono Trigger after looking back on my nostalgia for games like Dragon Warrior, and that got me started on playing RPGs myself and kicked off my obsession. Then when I was trying to recapture my childhood thanks to eBay and a local independent game store, a complete copy of Dragon Warrior was one of the first games I found, and I promptly played through it myself. It was a good time, although I think my mom was secretly being driven insane by the music.
Anyway, I watched my boyfriend play through all of Dragon Quest VIII just a few weeks ago, and that was a fun time too, even if the corny British accents drove me nuts at times. I bought Dragon Quest VI some time ago for dirt cheap, but I haven't really cracked into it. That encompasses all the Dragon Quest games I have. Pretty piss poor, by my collecting standards. Oh, well, I do own and have beaten Dragon Quest Monsters, but that was tedious as all hell.
So because of my limited experience, I really did learn so much. After hearing things here and there all these years, now everything finally makes sense, especially when people makes statements that so-and-so is a reference to Dragon Quest. I never did know why a shopkeeper in Star Ocean named Papas was a DQ reference, just for example. I was unaware of a lot of the remakes too, and I had no idea that Nintendo altered the graphics in the original. Holy crap was that game originally ugly.
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Frau Doppelganger
Junior Member
"I have clones for sale and I may, or may not, have Xanax too."
Posts: 55
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Post by Frau Doppelganger on Dec 17, 2015 14:55:10 GMT -5
Any plans on including Dragon Quest Heroes in the article? I've watched some footage on Youtube and it looks pretty fun. It's pretty pricey (for a game featured on Steam) and the spec requirements are high so I'll have to pass on purchasing it for myself.
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Post by Discoalucard on Dec 18, 2015 14:00:15 GMT -5
Probably not, the article is already pretty outdated by missing coverage for IX and X (the latter will probably never happen properly since it's online and hard for non-US folks to connect, even if it's even active) plus all of the DS and mobile ports. Also I'm not really a Musou fan so I don't really have interest in playing it myself.
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Post by Weasel on Dec 18, 2015 14:05:36 GMT -5
Probably not, the article is already pretty outdated by missing coverage for IX and X (the latter will probably never happen properly since it's online and hard for non-US folks to connect, even if it's even active) plus all of the DS and mobile ports. Also I'm not really a Musou fan so I don't really have interest in playing it myself. Regarding X, I know a person on Twitter who plays it quite frequently. Perhaps you could contact Kimimi to see if she'd be willing to write a piece about it?
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Post by hellomrkearns on Sept 21, 2016 16:01:48 GMT -5
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Post by Snake on Sept 30, 2016 19:29:40 GMT -5
I enjoyed the write-up on HG101. Good job on covering a bit of the development and staffing of the production team. I pretty much agree with the sentiment that Dragon Quest V, VI, and VIII are the most enjoyable of the bunch. Dragon Quest VII... while charming with graphics and atmosphere, it was hard for me to enjoy the pacing. Between Dragon Quest VII, and Dragon Quest IX, I felt like I was really forcing myself to push through, just for the sake of completing the game.
I still like the first 3 Dragon Quest games, though mostly for nostalgia.
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Post by Griever on Apr 9, 2017 23:01:46 GMT -5
Actually, a friend of mine (DQ-fan ;P) jumped right onto that statement when I did show him the article, because DQ3 was releases only 1-2 month' after FF1 (GameFAQs says the same - FF1 came out in Dec. 87 while DQ3 in Feb 88). 1 1/2 month seems to be a bit too short to influence something as big as a class system. I also wonder about the similarities between Dragon Quest 3 and Final Fantasy 1. It's not just class system, but also - elves/dwarves presence - five character stats (STR, AGI, VIT, INT, LUC) plus separate attack/defense calculations - the strongest sword in game is Japanese - battle damage depends on character order (i.e. the first one will be attacked most often) - flying transport (yeah, I know that flying transport existed since Ultima 1, but it wasn't availible in DQ1-2). I'm agree that less than two month gap between FF1 & DQ3 releases seems pretty short, but... - at those times game development was much more rapid - probably DQ3 development process had a good coverage at magazines & TV, so maybe Square was informed about planning features & took the lead by adding them into FF1. ( video1 video2) There is also one more similarity between these games - in USA releases manuals contain almost full game walktrough. Probably that was added in Dragon Warrior 3 manual because of huge success of Final Fantasy 1 western release. Funny.
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Post by vnisanian2001 on Apr 10, 2017 23:28:09 GMT -5
Kurt, the original game never officially had an X68000 version. That one was fanmade.
Also, it's debatable whether or not the PC-98 version is real. If it was, I'm sure the boxart would have turned up by now.
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Post by drpepperfan on Jan 29, 2019 13:35:46 GMT -5
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