Smash does it again. What Dragon Quest game do you recommend?

[DecoReturns]

So new character is reveal for Smash and now I want to play a game from their respected series.

This time. It's Dragon Quest, a JRPG which is a genre I'm a huge fan of. But in this case. I have no clue where to start with so many games. I was planning of DQ XI on switch, but I own a copy of V on DS which I've never touched. VIII is highly regarded as well. And with the common trait I hear about these games is how long they can be, my time is going to be limited (took me 6 months to beat Xenoblade 2)

So, what do you guys/gals recommend? I think I want to go with the one with a good story and characters.

 

[Rosebud]

DQ VIII is great and has a nice 3DS version

 

[Xavi]

A Guide for Getting Into Dragon Quest

A Guide for Getting Into Dragon Quest With the imminent release of Dragon Quest XI (which is a huge deal - it's been a full 8 years since we got Dragon Quest IX), I figured now would be a fantastic time to provide some advice about "getting into" the series. This post was originally much...

www.resetera.com

 

[KtotheRoc]

III, IV, V, VIII, XI.

Pick any one of these and you should be fine.

You can play I if you want to see the roots of the series. It's so short that it isn't a major commitment. Probably don't start with II, though, unless you also use a guide.

 

[the magical kitsune]

Dragon Quest 5 is about 30 hours long, so not *that* long compared to most jrpgs. It's one of the shortest DQ's though.

DQ 5, 8 and 11 are considered by many to be the best, imo you can't go wrong with any of them. 8 and 11 certainly are the more modern iterations of DQ (and hence may be more appealing to a modern jrpg fan), but 5 is a classic '90s rpg. Get 8 on 3DS if you want to go with that one.

 

[Mozendo]

As long as you avoid 2 you're fine.
V, VIII, and XI are all great choices so you can''t go wrong with either of them, but my favorite is V.
I don't want to spoil it, but V's story compared to the others is more much engaging, one of the few games that I got emotionally invested and got me back into video games.

Aside from good story and characters is there something you're looking for?

 

[KtSlime]

Any of them can really be played whenever, their stories are not directly connected, however there are some fun little connections between 1,2,3,11 and 4,5,6. I highly recommend 5 since you have it.

 

[Neoxon]

My main experience with the DQ games were with III & VIII, so I'd recommend those.

If you want to play XI (I did play a bit of this, but later opted to wait for the Switch version), just wait for XIS (I.E. the Switch port). It has more story, all the orchestrated tracks, the 3DS's 2D mode, & a bunch of other stuff.

 

[Deleted member 11008]

IV

 

[Deleted member 10737]

you already own the best one (5), start with that.

 

[DecoReturns]

A Guide for Getting Into Dragon Quest

A Guide for Getting Into Dragon Quest With the imminent release of Dragon Quest XI (which is a huge deal - it's been a full 8 years since we got Dragon Quest IX), I figured now would be a fantastic time to provide some advice about "getting into" the series. This post was originally much...

www.resetera.com

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Oh. Didn't know this existed.

Dragon Quest 5 is about 30 hours long, so not *that* long compared to most jrpgs. It's one of the shortest DQ's though.

DQ 5, 8 and 11 are considered by many to be the best, imo you can't go wrong with any of them. 8 and 11 certainly are the more modern iterations of DQ (and hence may be more appealing to a modern jrpg fan), but 5 is a classic '90s rpg. Get 8 on 3DS if you want to go with that one.

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Damn. That's shorter then I imagined. That's like a few Zelda games I've played in length. Probably could beat it in a few weeks.

As long as you avoid 2 you're fine.
V, VIII, and XI are all great choices so you can''t go wrong with either of them, but my favorite is V.
I don't want to spoil it, but V's story compared to the others is more much enganging to the others, one of the few games that I got emotionally invested and got me back into video games.

Aside from good story and characters is there something you're looking for?

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Looking for?
World interaction. As in taking to NPCs and exploring the world. I've seen a few screenshots of DQ and it reminded me of favorite games Golden Sun 1&2, which I love for being able to interact with a long of things. One of my favorite things was able to mind read every npc. Just added a little bit more then the game, even if it was a Small thing.

Any of them can really be played whenever, their stories are not directly connected, however there are some fun little connections between 1,2,3,11 and 4,5,6. I highly recommend 5 since you have it.

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Guess I go with V with the amount of recommendations I'm getting for it. Properly go to VIII next or XI depending on how long I spend playing Fire Emblem.

 

[brinstar]

I would just wait for XIS at this point, but if you really want to play one now you can't really go wrong with any of them.

 

[1upsuper]

There's a great Dragon Quest introductory thread floating around here. My favorite is III, though it's a bit more powerful of an experience if you have played 1 beforehand. IV is also excellent and has a sort of Canterbury Tales-ish setup where you play as several very different characters on their own little adventure before all meeting up in the end for the final act. V is one of the fan-favorites and has my favorite family-centric video game story. VIII was a lot of peoples' introduction to the series. XI is an amazing experience for long-time series fans like myself due to being a love-letter to the early games but a lot of DQ novices got into the series with that one so it's very accessible for anyone.

Honestly you can't really go wrong starting with any of them. I-III and IV-VI constitute very loose trilogies, I-III especially, but you don't have to play them in order. Starting with V is a pretty good choice.

 

[sir_crocodile]

DQVIII on the 3DS, and If you're happy to emulate, DQV on the PS2 and DQVI on the SNES (these need emulation as these versions were never officially localised).

Patch for V: http://www.dqtranslations.com/projects/dq5r
Patch for VI: https://www.romhacking.net/translations/344/

My reasons for PS2 over DS for V: https://www.resetera.com/threads/dr...e-for-fathers-day.123668/page-2#post-21942491
SNES over DS for DQVI is because the DS one was not a very good remake.

DQV is generally seen as the best DQ game, though as it's so old (the original release was for the snes in the early 90s), the battle mechanics are a bit simpler then VIII onwards. Be aware a lot of the dialogue comes from "party chat". When you have story based characters with you (as opposed to recruited monsters), there is a party chat option where they will say something about the town/situation you are in. And if you use it immediately after speaking to any person, they will normally have something to say about that person or what they just said too. It's a vast amount of often very entertaining extra dialogue a lot of people never read.

If you end up liking those, there are good remakes of DQ I-III on the SNES which is the best way to play those games (all were once again never localised but have fan translations). I think the mobile release of IV is the best, VII is the original PSX release, and IX(the weakest in the series) is DS only and has never been remade. X is an MMORPG not available in english.

For XI wait for the switch release as it will have far more content.

 

[Benzychenz]

You already own V which is top three in the series so just go with that and enjoy.

That said, if you're playing it because of Smash, the Hero has alts for 3, 4, 8, and 11, which are pretty much the best games in the series alongside 5. So you're playing the only one there that you're not getting fan service for in Smash.

 

[Speevy]

8. It has the awesome monster fighting contest and random battles, which I like for some weird reason.

 

[KtotheRoc]

You already own V which is top three in the series so just go with that and enjoy.

That said, if you're playing it because of Smash, the Hero has alts for 3, 4, 8, and 11, which are pretty much the best games in the series alongside 5. So you're playing the only one there that you're not getting fan service for in Smash.

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The other Heroes that aren't alts are in the Dragon Quest Hero's Final Smash. So, yes, even V gets Smash fan service, lol.

 

[NHarmonic.]

8 was an incredible ride from start to finish. Amazing cast, the world was so interesting, combat was ace.

Go for 8.

Edit: And you can use a fucking boomerang to attack. And the skill tree gives you meteor like attacks with them. It's crazy.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

DQV is the Final Fantasy VI of DQ games

DQVIII is the Final Fantasy VII

DQV is peak classic DQ.

DQVIII has a lot of modernizations like being able to see your characters in battle, a party of characters with distinct, fixed abilities and personalities, etc.

Unlike FF though, the aesthetics don't change much, nor do the fundamentals like the battle system. But the series didn't really start getting a lot of bells and whistles until VIII.

Either way, I'd go for one of these two.

 

[syncyes]

Dragon Quest V is the best of the bunch and relatively short for an RPG too.

 

[jb1234]

I'd say V is your best option. Not too long and it has the best story of the bunch.

 

[RingoGaSuki]

Dragon Quest V is the best. One of the greatest games ever made and the one I'd most recommend to start with right now.

DQIV, VIII, IX and XI are all solid starting points too (XI S is shaping up to challenge V for its mantle as best in series).

I personally only got into DQ last year with the first one, then went through in order. II is fun but forgettable, but all the others are fantastic in their own right and well worth experiencing. Do note that X is a Japan-only MMORPG, so you likely won't be able to give that one a go.

V>XI>VIII>IV>I>IX>VII>III>VI>X>II imo.

 

[Gold Arsene]

I started with VIII and thought it was great.

V is also highly regarded.

And of course XI is coming to Switch.

 

[Zen Hero]

The only one I played was 8 on 3DS, and I loved it. The story could be surprisingly heart renching at times, the world was really interesting to explore, and I felt that the side/optional content was quite fun. The voice acting was super charming, as well.

That said, 11S looks incredible too (and 11 was already great from what I heard). So personally I'm waiting for that to be my next Dragon Quest game.

 

[TranseKuja]

I keep seeing peuple recommanding DQ4 but i've played like 6 hours of it on DS and found it really bland, what's so special about this one ?

Also it's my only experience with the series so far but i'm a big jrpg fan, I should really try VIII or XI

 

[Jimnymebob]

If you have a DS, IX is fantastic. It's light on story until the last act (it's basically structured like a villain of the week TV series for most of the story), but it picks up in its enormous amount of post game content.

 

[KtotheRoc]

I keep seeing peuple recommanding DQ4 but i've played like 6 hours of it on DS and found it really bland, what's so special about this one ?

Also it's my only experience with the series so far but i'm a big jrpg fan, I should really try VIII or XI

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The party. It was the first Dragon Quest game that really put emphasis on the rest of the party as characters. They put the spotlight on one (or a few) characters before they meet up with the Hero/Heroine.

Ragnar in Chapter 1.
Alena, Borya (Brey in the NES version), and Kiryl (Cristo in the NES version) in Chapter 2.
Torneko Taloon in Chapter 3.
Maya (Mara in NES version) and Meena (Nara in the NES version) in Chapter 4.
With the Hero/Heroine being introduced in Chapter 5. (Although later versions added a short prologue with the Hero/Heroine.)

It was pretty special in its day, and still rare to set up the narrative like this today, but maybe it's not as special if you're just coming into the series for the first time after playing many other JRPGs.

 

[TranseKuja]

The party. It was the first Dragon Quest game that really put emphasis on the rest of the party as characters. They put the spotlight on one (or a few) characters before they meet up with the Hero/Heroine.

Ragnar in Chapter 1.
Alena, Borya (Brey in the NES version), and Kiryl (Cristo in the NES version) in Chapter 2.
Torneko Taloon in Chapter 3.
Maya (Mara in NES version) and Meena (Nara in the NES version) in Chapter 4.
With the Hero/Heroine being introduced in Chapter 5. (Although later versions added a short prologue with the Hero/Heroine.)

It was pretty special in its day, and still rare to set up the narrative like this today, but maybe it's not as special if you're just coming into the series for the first time after playing many other JRPGs.

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Do you think the loss of party chat in the ds version broke that aspect for me ? Maybe i should try the snes or mobile version

 

[.exe]

XI dude. It's really, really good. You can play it right now with super crisp graphics and a high fidelity orchestrated soundtrack, or you can wait for the Switch version that'll have some extra content.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Do you think the loss of party chat in the ds version broke that aspect for me ? Maybe i should try the snes or mobile version

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I don't know. It's possible. I remember a few people saying how much they hated the loss of Party Chat in the English release of the DS version. The Party itself is supposed to be a big selling point of the game.

 

[Deleted member 57758]

I'm playing through VIII again, and I'm having a great time.

I'll just add on to the pile of V and VIII both being fantastic starting points. I'd honestly really recommend playing both if you ever find the time.

 

[Samanyolu]

Dragon Quest V, my personal favorite. It's absolutely amazing!

 

[Hero of Legend]

Just wait and get DQXIS on Switch. Seems the 100% most obvious first step thanks to Smash. It's literally the definitive edition of a highly regarded, most recent mainline DQ title.

 

[Thuddert]

As long as you avoid 2 you're fine.

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This kinda shit can go. DQ2 is a very important step forward from DQ1 and makes DQ3 that much better as a whole.

But the game also has its own merits, just being fun to explore and fight. Few moments that surprise as well. Game is short as well, so giving it a try is not gonna hurt anybody.

DQ2 made Itoi feel inspired to make a game on his own and that became the start of the Mother series.

 

[Mozendo]

This kinda shit can go. DQ2 is a very important step forward from DQ1 and makes DQ3 that much better as a whole.

But the game also has its own merits, just being fun to explore and fight. Few moments that surprise as well. Game is short as well, so giving it a try is not gonna hurt anybody.

DQ2 made Itoi feel inspired to make a game on his own and that became the start of the Mother series.

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Okay?
This is a thread about getting someone introduced to Dragon Quest, and a character/plot focused Dragon Quest at that which DQ2 is not a great entry point nor is it character/story focused.

 

[Kraq]

Go with DQ11.

I've played and completed DQ games prior to that and they were all (mostly) very good, but not great games. DQ11 however is a great game. The game has some flaws, with a poor selection of music as the most major, but it just has so much charm that you don't see in many games nowadays, especially JRPGs.

You can work backwards from there.