Dragon Quest (The should I get this thread)

[Tommy]

Yes, the annoying type of thread. I want to know if I should buy any of those Dragon Quest games (Warrior up here in the U.S.). It took them long enough to make the 8th one...sheesh......

So from what i here this game series crushes (well, crushed since the comopany that made it merged with Square) FF in the competition and i love FF so I wanna try DQ (same initials as Dairy Queen, Heh). Like what`s the battle system like and all that junk.

Well, it took them long enough to make the 8th one as I said before. The 7th one came out before FF7 for the PS1 and it had much worse graphics and now here`s the 8th one almost a decade later.

I herd right now only the 3rd and 7th one are available in America.

[Magekind]

In reality, the gamestyle is so close it's almost ridiculous. Menu-driven fights, completely scripted storyline, the works.

[Tommy]

Oh ok.........do you recomend DQVII at all?

[Magekind]

Not actually having seen anything beyond 6, I'd say it's a good purchase if you want something what's a little break from FF.

[Chosen Raven]

I've played Dragon Quest 7, and well, I didn't like it that much. The story was so-so with very little character development. In fact, the main characters hardly talked at all. The job system was pretty fun, but that's about it.

[Tommy]

So what makes it the number one series in Japan?

[Chosen Raven]

So what makes it the number one series in Japan?

No idea. At one time, the DQ craze was so great, kids were actually ditching school so that they could buy the game. Things were so bad, that it is now the law in Japan that new video games can only have their big releases on Sundays or holidays.

[Tommy]

How about Legend Of Dragoon. that looks pretty good. I`ll start a thread for it.

[Tommy]

What Dragon Warrior games could I get easily at a store?

I wanna play them......doesn`t the 7th one have graphics similair to Grandia.

[Myoti]

I've beaten the first DQ game, but I don't really like that much. FF has a much better system, story, and dialogue, and DQ rarely seems to push any those beyond the basic level that should have died in the late 80s.
Sorry, that's just my opinion on them.

[Tommy]

I don`t have an opinion. I`ve never played any of them. Do you think Dairy Queen, er Dragon Quest 8 will be good?

[lionheart]

Honestly, I don't think either square or enix are capable of making any good games anymore...

That aside, I really enjoyed the Loto trilogy (or whatever 1-3 was called). It's more adventure based than plot based in my opinion, (though that's not necessarily a bad thing).

In dragon warrior 1, you start out as the 'warrior foretold in legend' or whatever, and the basic plot of the game is to save the princess, find the ball of light, and kill the dragonlord. The battle system is easy to use because you have a total of 4 or so options (fight, spell, item, or flee) and no party members. You'd probably have to be the kind of person who enjoys playing "classic" games to really like it though. (I love this game, but I'm just giving people a heads up.)

In Dragon Warrior 2... Actually I forget most of what happened in DW2... So I'll just skip it I guess. But you play as the three descendants of the hero from DW1.

In Dragon Warrior 3, You play as... Well that would be giving away the ending, but you play as a hero who's been given the task of slaying baramos, the wizard/monster who wants to take over the world or something. You get to create your own party of 4, using any classes you want except the sage class which must be earned, and then you set out to save the world. The story gets slightly more complicated as the game goes on, but... yeah. The battle system is enjoyable in my opinion, and like in DW2 you have a party, the change being that you actually get to choose your party this time. The real best part about this game though are the 2 hidden dungeons included in the gbc version (the only version I've played), giving you something to strive towards even after you've beaten the game.
(DW3's my favorite game in the set, and yes, I've beaten both bonus dungeon's and gotten the Rubiss sword)

So the games are similar to final fantasy in a way, except that to me they're more about adventure and imagination, than they are about actual story/plot whatever.

Well there you have it! Tune in next week to hear lionheart talk about ninja gaided 1&2 for the NES

[Bobtheduck]

I hate the old DQ battle system... just because you can't see your characters... RPG Maker used that system, and I don't like it... Of course, it does make it easier to animate your own characters, but... I didn't get very far on DQ1... For non-FF RPG's in those days, I would go with Ultima... Of course,you're not talking about "those days" anyhow, are you... I haven't played anything but the first game...

Ultima, on the other hand, was great... I don't remember which one, but there's one that basically asks you what you value most, and tests on your values through the game... An interesting concept long before Fable... I think that's a D&D attribute, but Ultima was (I think) the first time it showed up in a video game...

[Tommy]

Can you see the characters in Dragon Warriors 7?

Is it possible to buy any of the 1-6 in america and is DW7 one of those RPGs that are nearly impossible to buy or can I find it as easily as FF7.

[lionheart]

Dragon warrior 1-4 were released for the nes a long time ago, all but the first are really hard to find though
Then 1&2 were re-released on the gb/gbc and #3 was re-released on the gbc, about 3-5 years back I think. And I have no clue when 7 was released, though I own it, it's been about 3 years since I've last played it, so I'll tell you what I remember.

The basic plot is that your fishing village is the only known island left in the world. Then one day while exploring, you find some ruins with your buddy, Kefka I think it was. Inside the ruins you find a broken map piece on a pedestal, and when you put it together you get teleported back in time to the location from the map. It's a depressing time for the village when you arrive, but once you make everything right again and return home, you find out that an island has appeared in your current time. So you go on a quest to find the map pieces to use on the pedestals in the temple, so that you can resurrect the other islands and find out what hapened to them.

I suppose this might be considered one of the 'better' Dragon warrior games, but I couldn't stand any of the main characters except for maybe Gaboo, Or whatever the wolf kid's name was, he was cool

The battle screen is the same as the previous DW games, so you can't see any of your character's on the screen while fighting monsters, unless you happen to meet a mimic or something.

One of the better features of 7, is that the class system is awesome! You get to mix basic classes to come up with advanced classes, then advanced classes to come up with master classes. There are also monster classes as well.

Hmm... You know, that's about all I can remember about this game at the moment

About the difficulty of finding a copy of any of these games... 7 would probably be the easiest to find, followed by 3, then 1 for the nes, then 1&2 for gb/gbc, then 2 (nes), 3 (nes), and 4 (nes).

Sorry, I didn't plan for this to be so long, lol

[Tommy]

I found a website that described every Dragon Quest game. That Dragon Quest Swordmaster would`ve been really cool. It was a game where you had a fake sword and you swung it at the screen. Never hit the US. Also, in Japan I heard they remade the best one (5) for the PS2. I didn`t call 5 the best one, the site did.

So in DW7 your firnd is kefka. that reminds me of a certain Final Fantasy villian I dislike..........

Oh yeah, Dragon Warrior 8 looks awesome. You can see your characters.

[lionheart]

Kefier... I remember now His name was Kefier.
Swordmaster Would have been awesome! I was thinking about importing it a few months back, but when I finally decided to do it, I couldn't find it for sale/import anywhere. (I've just noticed that there's a ripoff of it being sold by tiger electronics in the US, as a lotr game. But remembering the QUALITY of products produced by tiger, I didn't think it would be worth buying.)
I haven't really been paying attention to number 8, after enix decided NOT to send the dragon warrior 4 (I think it was 4...) remake to the US. I've kinda lost interest in any of the games beyond the original trillogy.
So how's number 8 looking? I've always wanted to try out dragon quest 5&6, but I figured there would be a slim chance of that happening anytime soon... Stupid enix.

[Tommy]

5 and 6 was the birth of the anime style wasn`t it? I heard 5 is the best and the PS2 remake was for DW5 not 4.

Dragon Warrior 8 looks awesome but I can`t compare it to any other Dragon Quest games because i haven`t played any yet. I only plan on buying 7 and 8.

I hope Square releases a PS2 Dragon Warrior 1-6 20th anniversary Collection. That`ll happen -sarcasm.-

For the record Lionheart, have you played any Final Fantasy games? If so, are they better than DQ?

[lionheart]

Yeah, actually I own all the ps1 final fantasy games

In comparison, DW is similar to final fantasy V, except without the annoying atb system, you don't have to watch your characters fight, and you can cast return/fly to go back to the castle or town. Well... that's the simplified comparison anyway.

*edit* Oh... I never really answered your question. I'd say the order is: fft>dw3>ff7>ff6>dw7>ff2>dw2>ff1>dw1>ff5 (any final fantasy games that wern't listed I haven't had the time to play yet)

[Tommy]

Play FF9, FF8, and FF10. Those games are gold.

Would you say the graphics for DW7 are in the middle of FF6 amd 7?

[lionheart]

I couldn't stand the cat/monkey boy from ff9... After hearing dialog that went something like this,

Princess: I'm having trouble sleeping.
monkey boy: maybe you just need some company.
Princess: umm, nice try.

I then had a sudden urge to toss the lecherous womanizer off of the building. So I had him killed off in a wild monster accident, and then put the disc away.

I wanted to try ffviii&ffx sometime, but after witnessing the lame attempt by square to sell off x-2 by using fan service(y) gal's, I thought I'd just skip ffx altogether.

But yeah, dw7's graphics are what you'd get if you took ffvii's graphics and mixed them with ffvi's.

[Tommy]

FFX2 sucked.
FFX rocked.
Dude, just play FFX and imagine your own ending instead of playing the sequel.

Oh, and FF9 gets WAAAAAAAAAAAY better on Disc 2 or towards the end of the first.
And buy FF8 now!
FF10 beats all DW GAMES!