Dragon Quest: The Definitive Thread

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Fogel

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We're also comparing them now with all our knowledge to the beginning when we never played them, didn't have the internet for spoilers/maps. The games themselves came with little info as far as classes, spells, weapons, etc. I remember our first play through of FF1 we though black belts sucked because we kept giving them weapons. We had hit the class change and ours was still using a staff or some shit. Than one day we took it off for shits and giggles and than 8 hits crit 600 dmg one shot monster and we're all like "holy #%#($#"
 
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Armadon

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Yeah I remember the first Phantasy Star was 60 bucks because I had to clean the yard for 3 months before my parents would buy it for me.
 
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Rude

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No wonder my mom bought me like one game every 6 months when I was growing up. They were like $70 or $80! I remember Breath of Fire 2 in particular being one she just said no to because they priced it so high. Adjusted for inflation it's even worse.



That's been striking me a lot the last few years, how short some of these games are. When I replay things like Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, and Final Fantasy IV and beat them in like 8 hours, they aren't the sweeping epic marathons I remember. I played DQ1 on my phone during one workday a few years ago (final time was like 3 hours). Last month when I tried the FF1 Pixel Remaster, I set aside a few days to play it and then found myself looking at the credits on the first day (and the day wasn't even over yet)
Ron Burgundy No GIF
 
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Rajaah

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What part don't you believe? Whichever part it is, I could probably furnish proof via screenshots or something. I don't make shit up, bruh.

Yeah I remember the first Phantasy Star was 60 bucks because I had to clean the yard for 3 months before my parents would buy it for me.

Think about how cool it was when you finally got it though. That's one thing I miss, putting in a huge amount of work for a game and then finally getting to play it. Took me a while to finally be able to play FF7 after it released because I was told I had to finish the school semester first. I convinced my mom to get it for me in advance so I could at least look at it and read the instructions. I'd been playing the demo all year so I knew how to play it and was borderline desperate to fire it up. Around Halloween I ended up sneaking it into the PS1 and playing it all night very quietly and got to the Chocobo Ranch. The next day I showed a chocobo to my mom (she loved them in FF6) and told her it was "the demo". She was like "o rly" and clearly knew I was bullshitting and had cheated. I kept going and got Yuffie, but I felt really bad at that point and stopped playing, put it back in the case and put it away.

The good news is she went back on the "finish the semester" rule later and let me finally have the game around...Thanksgiving I think? It was well before the semester ended, whenever it was. For some reason this one track in FF7 ("Yuffie's Theme", I think) makes me incredibly depressed when I hear it because it reminds me of the point in the game where I felt too guilty and turned it off. So not only did I feel bad about myself, I was turning off the game I'd waited a year for.

Well, that isn't a very good example of good memories that I miss, but I can remember plenty of other instances where I had to work really hard for a game before I could have it, and the feeling of finally getting said game was something nothing can replicate as an adult. Like when I had to rake for a couple weeks before my mom got me Secret of Mana. I rented it and got up to the Fire Gigas fight and wanted to see the remaining 95% of the game. Welp, rake those leaves. So while I was raking leaves I'd listen to SoM music in my head and pretend I was whacking enemies in the field. To this day I still like raking leaves because it reminds me of that.

We're also comparing them now with all our knowledge to the beginning when we never played them, didn't have the internet for spoilers/maps. The games themselves came with little info as far as classes, spells, weapons, etc. I remember our first play through of FF1 we though black belts sucked because we kept giving them weapons. We had hit the class change and ours was still using a staff or some shit. Than one day we took it off for shits and giggles and than 8 hits crit 600 dmg one shot monster and we're all like "holy #%#($#"

There was a guy on AOL back in the day named REL FFKing who was the biggest FF1 expert (and FF6) that I've ever met. He explained to everybody how Black Belts worked, that they did not in fact suck, and so on. He knew the mechanics of things like encountering Warmech way before the internet was abundant with things like that. He also knew every little glitch and exploit about FF6 and had a way to turn Gau into an indestructible killing machine. Wind God Gau he called it, and I think the name later caught on. Was very active on boards and the proto version of GameFAQs etc.
 
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Rajaah

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Dragon Quest V (26).jpg

Very slowly going through DQ5 now. It's even better than I remember, and I remember it being great. They kept the story/character focus of DQ4 so I don't think there are any classes here, but it's okay.

Dragon Quest V (41).jpg

The story it tells is pretty damn good and doesn't pull any punches. It's basically DQ4 on 'roids. Anyone who missed this one back in the day owes it to themselves to check it out, probably in the form of the phone port seen here.
 
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Rajaah

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1631340836740.png

At the point in DQ5 Remake where I have to marry somebody. I think in the Super Famicom version I married Flora (Nera now) which is really pointless in retrospect since she isn't playable. Bianca was a way better choice. So I was going to go that route this time, only to discover that this new Debora character is pretty fuckin' hot, and also playable. Now I don't know what to do.
 

moonarchia

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I stand corrected, maybe Dragon Quest V wouldn't have been as much of a license to print money as I thought. It looks like RPGs didn't start becoming a successful genre in the U.S. until 1994 or 1995, and even then it was mainly Squaresoft that had said successes. Americans gave DW a try, but weren't into it:

U.S. Sales
Dragon Warrior 1 - 500k sold
Dragon Warrior 2 - 150k sold
Dragon Warrior 3 - 95k sold
Dragon Warrior 4 - 80k sold

Yikes
I accounted for one of each of those. Loved me some DW back in the day.
 
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moonarchia

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We're also comparing them now with all our knowledge to the beginning when we never played them, didn't have the internet for spoilers/maps. The games themselves came with little info as far as classes, spells, weapons, etc. I remember our first play through of FF1 we though black belts sucked because we kept giving them weapons. We had hit the class change and ours was still using a staff or some shit. Than one day we took it off for shits and giggles and than 8 hits crit 600 dmg one shot monster and we're all like "holy #%#($#"
Yup. Me and a friend were playing it together. Did warrior, monk, monk, red mage. The last weapon you could buy for monks were iron nunckucks. So we had to massively overlevel to get through all the dungeons. Then the last dungeon was kicking our asses to hell and back so we were out grinding xp, and I started to wonder if they had modeled black belts after kung fu monks who were supposed to be hand to hand. Suddenly they went from struggling to kill mobs to just wiping them the fuck out easily. Now that I am playing the Pixel Remaster version I am running that same group because nostalgia and feels, and it is a blast.
 
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Hateyou

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Yup. Me and a friend were playing it together. Did warrior, monk, monk, red mage. The last weapon you could buy for monks were iron nunckucks. So we had to massively overlevel to get through all the dungeons. Then the last dungeon was kicking our asses to hell and back so we were out grinding xp, and I started to wonder if they had modeled black belts after kung fu monks who were supposed to be hand to hand. Suddenly they went from struggling to kill mobs to just wiping them the fuck out easily. Now that I am playing the Pixel Remaster version I am running that same group because nostalgia and feels, and it is a blast.
For a true nostalgic journey you have to use weapons on the black belts until the last dungeon.
 
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moonarchia

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For a true nostalgic journey you have to use weapons on the black belts until the last dungeon.
Well, nostalgia literally means a painful return, so that would be fitting. But I am at Mirage Tower already, which is where we figured it out way back when. I know this because we were fighting T-Rexes.
 

Fogel

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Well, nostalgia literally means a painful return, so that would be fitting. But I am at Mirage Tower already, which is where we figured it out way back when. I know this because we were fighting T-Rexes.
Thats about when we stumbled on it too. Remember figuring it out on those armadillo things that have insane armor so we were struggling on them. Then we take off the staff and proceed to nuke the fuckers.
 

Rajaah

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Well, nostalgia literally means a painful return, so that would be fitting. But I am at Mirage Tower already, which is where we figured it out way back when. I know this because we were fighting T-Rexes.

Just posted my FF1 endgames in the FF thread. Suffice to say I've done everything except 4 White Mages and I want to leave something for The Future so I'm done for now:


As for DQ5 I think I'll go with Debora and I'll leave Bianca for my future SFC replay...because I'm definitely gonna replay the SFC version in the future.

So far DQ5 is every bit the S-tier game I remembered. Interested to see how DQ6 is because I barely remember anything from it and it brings back the class system which I love.
 

Rajaah

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Finished DQ5. MAN that game is good. If you never played the Japan-only (for a long time) DQ games, definitely check out the phone or DS port of DQ5.

I'm on DQ6 now and I was pretty excited going in because DQ5 left me on such a high. Unfortunately DQ6 has been a big letdown so far. The story is borderline-incomprehensible and it just isn't interesting compared to the rest of the Zenithia Trilogy. The characters look cool, at least, and it's a contemporary of Chrono Trigger which shows. I've actually fallen asleep a few times now playing DQ6 which never happened with the others. Maybe it'll get better once I get access to classes.
 

Rajaah

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I hope we get DQ10 single-player and HD console ports of DQ8 and 9 at some point. And DQ12 of course. If they announced all of those things as definitely on the way for US players, I'd be so happy. I've played the first six (and 11) to death and 7 is easily available on phones.
 
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Rajaah

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CORRECTION, 7 is NOT easily available on phones. Some Mandela Effect thing is going on here, but I am 99% sure I saw it available on the Play Store when I went on there to get DQ4-6 a couple months ago. Apparently it's Japan-only, so 7 is only available on PS1 and 3DS here. Laaaaame.

I need Switch ports of 7/8/9 now, sucks that I'll basically be out of DQs to play portably after 6. Not getting 3DS stuff, phone and Switch are my jams when out and about.
 

joz123

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I bought a New 2ds just so I can hack it and play DQ7-8. Hard to go from Switch screen to 2ds tho, size difference is crazy.
 

MusicForFish

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CORRECTION, 7 is NOT easily available on phones. Some Mandela Effect thing is going on here, but I am 99% sure I saw it available on the Play Store when I went on there to get DQ4-6 a couple months ago. Apparently it's Japan-only, so 7 is only available on PS1 and 3DS here. Laaaaame.

I need Switch ports of 7/8/9 now, sucks that I'll basically be out of DQs to play portably after 6. Not getting 3DS stuff, phone and Switch are my jams when out and about.
I found
dq7 + a working 3ds emu dled and running on my galaxy s8 in under 10 mins just now
if you are having issues.
 
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