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timrpgland · #1

I'm not sure how many fans of Dragon Warrior/Quest there are here but this one is finally getting close to its US release date on the DS. July 11th was the last posting. I suspect we'll hear about VI's US release date sometime after that. Looking forward to it. Dragon Quest X is set for the Wii so they aren't staying handheld only.

This also gives me the chance to spam and promote my online rpg based on Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest. We're currently taking early beta applications at http://www.dragonwarriorland.com and the message board just went public tonight. If anyone is interested in helping us test, head over there and send an email to apply for the beta.

Pentegarn · #2

1) I can't wait for Dragon Quest 9

2) I hope hope hope they make Dragon Quest 6 for DS soon

3) I am pretty damn sure I want in on that beta

timrpgland · #3

1.) Awesome. I played a bit of the jap version but didn't want to dive in much.

2.) Yeah. It seems to be taking kind of long. 4 and 5 were really well done for the DS and 6 I never got to finish cause the translation for the rom isn't complete and a lot of the jobs were messed up once you got farther into it so it's the one I haven't beaten yet. Replayed 8 recently to get back in the mood. 2 more Dragovian Trials to do but pretty much destroyed it the second time through.

3.) Thanks for signing up. Got your application. The site just went public as of that post so yeah other than here no real exposure yet. I'm friends with DQ Shrine so I'll get a writeup there and of course over at RPG Land and some various other outlets. Once we get the game out there a bit and get enough beta apps we'll roll with the 1st beta test. I'll be posting more information on the game in the coming days.

timrpgland · #4

It's out and it's in my hand. Excellent

Pentegarn · #5

Same here. I love that with the character customization you can essentially make winged DBZ characters if you want

Of course, I went with the most non known character DBZ look I could get away with

Pentegarn · #6

It's official, only people named Tim care about dragon quest

We need more Tims here so this thread can have some legs

Phoenix Gamma · #7

Didn't like DQ4 or 5 on the DS. Or 8, for that matter, though the presentation in 8 was astounding. Great graphics and incredible music.

Would have tried DQ9 if P3P hadn't come out days before and Tales of Innocence's translation hadn't been finished a little before then. It's on the backburner, though P3P is halfway done and Tales games rarely hold my attention anymore.

Also, Toriyama's a fucking hack and must be stopped. I'll pay anyone who brings him to me, dead or alive.

timrpgland · #8

Yeah, not a whole lot of DQ popularity here. That's ok.

Toriyama only bothers people because of DBZ. Hell, I used to watch DBZ but now think it's laughable. The association doesn't really influence my opinion of the artist. He's been doing Dragon Quest well for a long time and I can appreciate his style while laughing at DBZ similarities. Chrono Trigger was another game with good character design/art direction. Similar to not hating Amano for Kartia, etc.

I can definitely see how Toriyama will turn off some gamers while luring the crowd it's most likely trying to avoid.

All in all, Dragon Quest games offer some of the deepest traditional role playing experience around. Period. If you didn't like 4, 5 or 8 then there is something wrong with your appreciation for tradition. You'll probably not like any of them if that's the case. That's cool though. It's part of the reason why I like the series. Each entry keeps the right things to keep a series going while each game creates a unique experience. DQ9 would be most similar to DQ3. You create your own party. Everything is customizable. Job changing and so on.

Most of the games in the series take longer than your normal console rpg to complete. Most recent example is DQ8. Both times I played through the game I tallied over 100 hours each.

Versions (most japanese versions have been translated independently)
DQ1 - MSX, NES, GBC and SFamicom
DQ2 - MSX, NES, GBC and SFamicom
DQ3 - NES, GBC and SFamicom
DQ4 - NES, DS, PS j
DQ5 - SFamicom, PS j, PS2 j, DS
DQ6 - SFamicom, DS j (soon US)
DQ7 - PS
DQ8 - PS2
DQ9 - DS
DRAGON WARRIOR LAND - haha. Looking like August. Having some bugs with certain status spells/timers.

Notables:
The PS2 version of DQ5 is the best and translated by DQ Translations.

The SFamicom version, translated by the same team, is the best of 3.

My Fav list:
DQ8 - Narrative, not many characters, set classes but skill customization.
DQ3 - Create your party, job changing.
DQ5 - Narrative, set characters but also 50 or so recruitable monsters that each have their own set of abilities/class.
DQ4 - Narrative, set characters that play out in chapters. Eventually ending in a gathering of characters for the 5th chapter.
DQ7 - Narrative, not many characters but job/class advancement.
DQ1 - Narrative, not many characters, set classes.
DQ2 - Narrative, same. the first 2 kind of wanted to tie in (100 years apart) but soon realized it was better to do it subliminally.

DQ6 is pending simply because I've only been able to complete 90% of the game due to translation.

DQ9 is pending because I haven't finished it yet. It's similar to 3 in job/character creation. Also uses skill customization. I'm sad that it's only local multiplayer cause the character customization is awesome. A mix of 3 and 8 mainly. No voice acting hurts the narrative big time when compared to 8 along with the lack of set characters.

Phoenix Gamma · #9

He just draws the same faces and bodies. Only difference between a DBZ and a DQ character is if they have a weapon or shoot lasers out of their hands. He hasn't drawn anything new or different in over two decades.

And you can't say "if you don't like X game something's wrong with you".

There's tradition... and there's nine iterations of the same monsters and the same combat and the same attacks. It's stuck in it's own tradition that it hasn't evolved until DQ9, which was nice enough to include things like visible enemy encounters; an innovation delivered to us over a decade ago. If you can tolerate ancient NES RPGs, then you can tolerate DQ. But if you want new experiences, new stories, and new combat, there's better alternatives.

Final Fantasy manages to juggle tradition while making whole new games.

timrpgland · #10

It's called the artist's style. It's fine if you don't like it. Most artists have a style that they stick to.

And, yes, you can easily say if you don't like old school console rpg formulas that are ever present in the Dragon Quest series then you don't quite appreciate the tradition of them. You basically said it there yourself while stating Final Fantasy... which is one of the worst examples of a series being a series known to man.

There isn't better alternatives. There are just alternatives. To each their own when it comes to what you like. I like how you defend a point by basically stating you don't like it again...

Pentegarn · #11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phoenix Gamma

Final Fantasy manages to juggle tradition while making whole new games.

Putting aside Toriyama for a moment (I will speak on him in a bit), the only tradition FF seems to juggle is making games with characters I don't care about and trying to RPG outside the box (which is not necessarily a good thing.

I haven't cared about a character in a FF game since Locke from FF6. Basically, FF coasts on it's success with 4 and 6 and sheeple gobble up sequel after sequel despite bringing us annoying angsty whiney protagonists time after time.

Look at it this way, if I said "This game involves an unlikely hero struggling with his own emotions striking back against the evil threatening to consume the world." Who am I talking about? The correct answer is it doesn't matter they have all been like that since FF7 came on the scene.

But Pent, what about the innovative gameplay?

Let's just look at that for a moment.

FF7 - Materia slotted into weapons determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF8 - Junctioning Guardian Forces determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF9 - Equipment taught skills/abilities which must be allocated into a limited number of points determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF10 - Sphere grids determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

FF12 - License Board determines characters skills while still using traditional menu based combat. Leveling largely only increases hp, mp, and to hit score

I see a pattern here. They don't really do anything new, they just took a basic formula and changed what drives said formula.

Moving on to Toriyama.

I am personally surprised DBZ still has any sort of following. Nothing new has come out in years, yet the show has been re-released some 4 + times now and people still gobble it up like it is new and original. That is less Toriyama's fault and more Funimation's and those who keep paying for the same product over and over.

Besides, Dragonball was way more entertaining than DBZ ever was.

Dragon Quest gives me exactly what I am looking for. Fun customizable old school RPG goodness. Ironically, FF as a series only gave me masturful customization to match DQ3's once, and it wasn't even a series game, it was FF Tactics.

Dr. Boogie · #12

It should be noted that Toriyama called himself out on drawing the same face with different hairstyles in one of his own mangas.

Pentegarn · #13

When did he do that?

I would love to see that just for the

Phoenix Gamma · #14

Quote:

It's called the artist's style. It's fine if you don't like it. Most artists have a style that they stick to.

Actually most artists grow and refine their style and experiment with new ideas so that they don't stagnate. I say this as an illustrator, and as someone whose seen other artists grow and evolve :X

Quote:

And, yes, you can easily say if you don't like old school console rpg formulas that are ever present in the Dragon Quest series then you don't quite appreciate the tradition of them. You basically said it there yourself while stating Final Fantasy... which is one of the worst examples of a series being a series known to man.

Yea, it's so horrible. No one buys them. Wait fuck.

Quote:

There isn't better alternatives. There are just alternatives. To each their own when it comes to what you like. I like how you defend a point by basically stating you don't like it again...

And you just stating there's something wrong with me again. Hooray for fallacies!

If you like it, man, then that's your thing. I just don't see how they can appeal to people. We'll see if they can finally penetrate the US market this time, though judging by the series' track record here, it probably won't reach the sales they had in Japan

Quote:

I see a pattern here. They don't really do anything new, they just took a basic formula and changed what drives said formula

Which is a fair assessment, but to be fair, that's more than I can say for DQ1-8.

Dr. Boogie · #15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pentegarn

When did he do that?

I would love to see that just for the

He did it in an issue of Dr. Slump back in 1980. Here's the scene in question (reads from right to left):

timrpgland · #16

Nice.

Gamma, I didn't ever say there was anything wrong with you, I'm sure there is but I didn't say that. When it comes down to it you agree with me but are taking it as an attack against you so you can't agree. If you didn't say it I wouldn't have commented on it.

Pentegarn · #17

He really only does have about 8 different faces to choose from.

I never knew Arale was from another manga, I always thought she was made for that trippy episode of Dragonball where Goku and General Blue end up in Penguin Village. Which I quickly discovered through a couple googles was actually a crossover.

timrpgland · #18

Yeah, Dragon Quest definitely doesn't have the US popularity like it does in Japan. I'm just glad they keep releasing them. I don't see it getting much better in the US but they are definitely marketing it a bit better in the US these days and 8 did well so we'll see.

I like a lot of game series and rpgs going back to decades of gaming. Dragon Quest just continues to fill the nostalgic rpg gaming void while mixing in different elements in each game. It's just a satisfying game experience imo. They all have a huge open world "hey go for it" style that is rarely accepted these days in that type of game.

Grislygus · #19

tim, gamma, it's a bunch of japanese rpgs. Settle down

OxBlood · #20

The one thing I don´t like about oldschool JRPGs is that you get everything just from leveling.
I´m not a big fan of "you´ll get Heal2 at level 16", I wanna customize my stuff and modify my loadout according to the situation I´m in, one of the reasons I prefer FF7s Materia System over about anything else the series has done since then...
And I am aware that you get certain Materias at certain points of the story wich is kind of like normal leveling but it still makes a difference to me.

Pentegarn · #21

Quote:

Originally Posted by OxBlood

The one thing I don´t like about oldschool JRPGs is that you get everything just from leveling.
I´m not a big fan of "you´ll get Heal2 at level 16", I wanna customize my stuff and modify my loadout according to the situation I´m in, one of the reasons I prefer FF7s Materia System over about anything else the series has done since then...
And I am aware that you get certain Materias at certain points of the story wich is kind of like normal leveling but it still makes a difference to me.

But DQ9 (and DQ3 for that matter) is completely customizable. You want a wizard with a shield and boomerang? You can make it. You want a warrior who can steal? Done. You want a ranger that can buff everyone and cast nukes. Go for it. A martial artist who can heal? No problem. And any combination you can think of in between. The world is your customizable oyster. And you can easily change what you need on the fly. And if you like the materia system, you should like this. In essence, it is the same time sink, just different ways to do the same thing.