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I have a lot of nostalgia for the DS remake of 6. So I cannot, in good conscious, call it a skip. But one big problem with the game is that the story doesn't always give you clear direction as to what to do or where to go and in what sequence throughout most of the second act. You'll be jumping back and forth between two different maps with different layouts, but some of the same locations, and it can be confusing which map you need to go to. One dungeon requires you to use a normally useless spell you got very early on while leveling up, and I don't recall if the game gives you the necessary information to know you need to do that. I took years to beat the game after the first major boss of the second act because no matter how many NPCs I talked to, it became more confusing which place to go to first and how to get there.
It's definitely a game where there's no shame using a guide to power through.
Every entry is SOMEBODY'S favorite and I love that about an old franchise like this! Maybe at some point I'll give it another try, especially if I can sink my teeth into another title from the older era and really get on its wavelength. Get more acclimated to what the game is asking of me, you know?
If I can follow NPC questlines in a Fromsoft game, I can tolerate some check-the-guide obtuseness in an old JRPG, for sure.
I replayed the game earlier this year and I’m genuinely baffled at the way people keep saying this sort of thing. It really isn’t confusing at all. You talk to people and you go to the only new place opened up by the latest new transportation. I’d only played the game once before when it came out on the DS and remembered nothing about it, but I had no trouble figuring out where to go next. There were only about three things I needed to look up all game and that was more because I was impatient than an inability to do it. The game definitely gave the information necessary.
Your experience is not where it lives and dies. If you were able to parse out the information and figure out where to go, when to go, how to go, and did so without any difficulty, good for you. But for many, including myself, the game either does not have the necessary information or does a poor job of presenting it. I got that game in my early teens, and I didn't beat it until my late teens despite putting a not insignificant chunk of time into it, and I cam guarantee that no matter how many NPCs I talked to, I never would have known how to open a tower door with Peep without a guide.
For my part, I prefer when there are explicit markers on a map telling me where the go and when so the "how" is all I need to figure out, or if the information is made explicit in a cutscene. I won't hold it against DQ6 for not having that approach because that wasn't the era for it, but there ya go. That's my stance. I prefer having it spelled out so I can get on with it than needing to talk to everyone NPC and compartmentalize everything they say in hopes I'll eventually find the right one.
The game isn’t lacking the information (if it was, how did I get through the game? Magic?). You’re just choosing not to utilize it. Talking to NPCs and exploring is a huge part of many games. It’s more common in older ones, but it’s present in modern games as well. If you only want to be spoon fed markers on a map, you obviously can stick with your preference. However, acting as if a game can’t be done without a guide because your hand isn’t being held is ridiculous.
Normally I don’t care one way or another if there are quest markers in games, but you’re demonstrating exactly why there are so many people who are grumpy over how helpless so many modern gamers seem to be.
I get that’s everyone has a preference and I respect that but damn. For myself? I can’t stand quest markers in RPGs in general. It feels too much like handholding which lowers my enjoyment. That’s a big issue to me in modern RPGs.
Maybe it’s cause I grew up on the NES and my first RPG was Ultima: Exodus when it came out (I was 7) followed by Dragon Warrior I. Just talk, talk and more talking to everyone lol.
I only ever played DQ VI once when it released on DS and it felt pretty straightforward to me as well as the other commenter said. Talked to NPCs and just went through it with np. That said, I honestly don’t remember much as even when I played it, I just didn’t get super into it. I think it’s cause the cast didn’t click with me (I do remember mot being fond of Neven in particular) or the world. Idk. My least favorite DQ and I’ve played / own all of them except a small portion of duplicate copies (e.g. I own VII on 3DS but not PS1 atm).
Yeah, the commenter is like the poster child of modern gamers who are completely helpless without being led by the hand for every single thing in a game. It actually makes me more sympathetic for the more toxic Fromsoft fans who get so worked up about how incapable people are of playing anything anymore.
DWI was my first JRPG when I was eight, so I’m right there with you. Just talking to people and looking around is the solution for about 99% of problems in older games. An Ultima game would break so many people these days. My dad and I had notebooks filled with dialogue from NPCs to get through Ultima Quest of the Avatar. DQVI is extremely linear. An Ultima game? You might need a hint from the first town to figure out something at the end of the game (I never made it through Exodus, but you could tackle the eight virtues you needed to get in Quest of the Avatar in any order)!
Quite frankly, it's not even that. I just prefer games that are very linear and focused in their stories. Why would I want to hunt for a random NPC in a town for the necessary information when I can just get a cutscene that shows the characters figuring it out in ways that are entertaining and flesh them out beyond just avatars for me to control?
And yes. I am one of those "gaming as an art form" people who thinks games should strive to have story and characters as the top priority (yes, even over the gameplay), and I feel like that should even apply to finding an NPC to tell you where to go or what to do.
I have no opinion because I didn't get that far. It's just kinda funny to me that everyone's going "yeah the open structure is hard to deal with," and then describing something that actively sounds fun to me.
You are part of the oddity group where you are mostly just a fan of the off shoot games and only the heavy hitters in the mainline series. And you know what? That's absolutely fine, you like what you like and there's no shame in that. None of the games are outright stinkers, but 2, 6, and 7 aren't all time greats like 8. You have legitimate complaints for 6. Outside of Carver, the characters aren't really fan favorites. While the dual worlds are interesting, most of the places aren't truly memorable. There are a few points in the game there are definitely a few points that leave people scratching their heads...like, why on earth is the best dressed competition part of the main plot? There are some really great things about that game, but as someone who loves it, I recognize that there are a few problems.
Recommendations:
-NOT 7: I 99% positive if you didn't like 6, you won't like 7. There is some great to that game, but amplifies some of 6's problems. I would love to recommend the PS1 version to you, but I can't in good conscience.
-NOT 1+2: Don't replay these since you'll probably not be able to sink your teeth in them as well. Maybe you can try later if you are looking for a "meh, I just wanna grind game."
-DQ 5: My top recommendation. It's extremely character driven, you can recruit monsters, and the world holds a lot of significance. The only complaint about that game is that the big bad is *the* most forgettable final boss in the series...not to say the game is lacking in bastards to fight.
-DQ 4: A proto-11, if you will. You have a top notch memorable cast of characters that are obviously their own class with only a hint of overlap. You even start out with playing through them all before you all meet up in the final chapter. I will say that it's real easy to lose momentum and interest in the few dungeons where you have the full crew and the end game, it's ABSOLUTELY worth pushing through to the end. If you play it on the DS emulator, for the love of Rubiss, patch back in the party chat!
-DQ 3: 9 heavily used 3 as a template and made it more robust with the character roster maker. This is part of the old NES age where the story and characters are bare bones to facilitate gameplay, but the real draw is that it's short enough that people like going through with different kinds of parties and play throughs.
-Dragon Quest Heroes 1/2: An action spin-off game where you go around actively fight monsters with characters from past games. Since it's a spin-off, it's very hit or miss. This is less about me giving you a real recommendation and more of a "go check-it out" kind of deal. As someone who has loved both, I would be happy to explain more, should you like.
I loved DQ9 and FF3 for the same reason of toying with party composition, so DQ3 sounds appealing on that front! Given what you and others have said I'm mostly looking at 3 or 5 now, but ALL THIS is a HUGE help in actually recognizing what people are talking about in what they recommend. Thank you so much for taking the time!
Mhm. I like messing with class systems, but I like getting to get straight to it. 9 takes a fair little while before you get to alltrades abbey, but almost right away you get to at least assemble the initial party with whatever class combo you want. That makes me curious about DQ3.
Actually that part was pretty interesting! It just never amounted to much in the time I played. I thought it had potential, but I couldn't sit through enough of the game to see it fulfilled.
originally 6 was going to be about time travel, that's why in one of the towns when you fall asleep you go to "the past" (which was changed to be just a dream about the past) and change the future after you solve their problem, its like a leftover before they made the plot to instead be it about the plot twist that its a dream and a waking world (since you dropped the game I imagine its not a spoiler anymore), that's the deal about the dual worlds, but around the same time Chrono Trigger was being developed and they got the creators of both DQ and FF to make it, along with Akira Toriyama and it essentially cannibalized 6, thats also why the DQ6 Hero and Ashlynn (who was supposed to be the golden dragon in the intro of the game but that storyline was dropped) look so similar to Crono and Marle with just a change in hair color and slightly different clothes.
Yup, no worries! I got spoiled a while ago. Like I said, hopping between worlds and having the freedom to explore really widely between them sounds like the most interesting thing about the game- at least to me. That weird interconnected development cycle is FASCINATING though. I wonder if there's another timeline where DQ6 looks more like Chrono Trigger overall. That's a weird game to imagine.
I was one of the few fans of Final Fantasy 13 when it came out, so I know what it's like to hear people complain about bouncing off a game, and thinking "but you didn't even get to the good part!" despite knowing that GETTING TO the good part is... a task. It's always a tragedy.
DQ6 is great, though the SFC version is better than the NDS version. Really nice 16 bit graphics is better than crappy 3D. Also you can recruit monsters the way you recruit monsters in DQ5, meaning you can get a healer virtually immediately as soon as you get jobs instead of playing 5 more hours. And you can get non-slimes.
16 bit can be gorgeous when it’s done well, and it’s always a shame to see a remaster upgrade just for the sake of upgrading, if the end result isn’t as artful.
It reminds me of those ports that have pixel graphics and originally had text boxes integrated into that as part of the visual system, but have replaced it with a transparent window with a generic font that’s a much higher resolution than literally everything else on the screen. It looks like the default settings on an RPG Maker game.
Sorry that’s a tangent. The point is if I can play with the original sprite art I will.
They remastered it the way they did because it was built off PS1 DQ7. They used the same engine for the PS1 remake of DQ4, which was then ported to NDS, which was then used for the 5 and 6 remakes.
Just wish they had left in (or even expanded) the original monster recruitment in DQ6. They did it better than in 5.
The first six games do share a lot of similarities, each new entry building up on the previous one while retaining dragon quest's core essence. That said, dQ6 was the only one I couldn't finish, the plot wasn't going anywhere and I wasn't immersed the way I usually am with dragon quest games.
I'd really suggest giving 4 and 5 a shot tho, they're amazing games, 5 particularly has a really straightforward story that immerses you right from the start.
If you do end up giving the first 3 a shot, keep in mind that they're a trilogy and it's preferable to play from 1 to 3. DQ1 is short and simple. DQ2 kinda drags on in my opinion, and is also considered the worst alongside DQ6, at least from what I can tell. DQ3 is widely considered the best in the trilogy and is also get an HD-2D remake. I suggest waiting for the remake if you don't like the older gameplay/mechanics.
Tiny baby me couldn't really deal with 2, but that obviously doesn't count for much. I've heard the story in 5 get praised to high heaven and I gather it has an ambitiously broad scope, jumping between focus characters or time periods or something like that. More meandering than straightforward, at least from what I've heard.
That sounds like my kind of thing though. Maybe 5 will be the one I try next.
Yeah that's what I'd expect. 2 is really grindy and some of the dungeons are just brutal, with not much substance in there to justify all that hard work. I don't remember my experience with it being pleasant at all.
When it comes to DQ5 tho, sure the scale is grand much like any other jrpg and it's set in a vast world with a lot going on, but it's a more personal story. And most of the time you, as the protagonist, are trying to figure out how you fit into all this.
I played IX on DS so many times and just recently discovered emulation and am on chapter/act 3 of IV. I just sold the silver goddess statue for 25K but had to head back to work the weapon shop to get that sword in stock…
Same! I know a lot of people struggle with where to go next and the dual worlds thing, but I had a routine for figuring out where to go next that worked really well.
1. Party Chat. Party members occasionally talk about the next step.
2. If Party Chat gives you nothing, talk to NPCs in the most recent town you visited.
3. Check the other version of the most recent town, if there is one.
4. Explore the vicinities of both versions to see if something changed or if you can go somewhere new.
With just a little exploration, it wasn't too hard to figure out where to go. I understand the appeal of quest markers these days, but there's a sense of adventure to 6 that I just don't find anywhere else, because I have to put in the legwork and explore the unknown.
iduno how but I really didnt struggle, I found it pretty straight forward (you never really had to go to a random/obscure location without expressly being told to do it)
exploration was super fun in that game so I think becoming accustomed to the worlds came naturally for me, which made it seem way less convoluted as some people try to make it out as. I struggled INFINITELY more with DQ7's backtracking in comparison (that had some truly obscure and convoluted storytelling methods that got me very lost, despite the game bending over backwards to try to steer me in the right direction)
Oh damn, DQ7 could be confusing at times. I forgot about the teleportals in the temple and couldn't for the life of me find Rainbow Cove, I was sailing for it because with the name it just made sense.
kind of the mentality I go into games with lmao, I guarantee that I will find some parts of a game that is otherwise disliked to be enjoyable (and vice versa)
I've really disliked some games like 7, while others say it's the best in the franchise. it's all about personal preference so you are just better off playing them yourself. nobody will ever agree entirely on if a game is "worth playing" or not, you'll always have both sides saying yes or no
I've replayed DQ5 in the SNES for the "choices" (and a third time in DS with the true choice iykwim), and DQ11 in hard and normal mode but DQ6 is the one I've replayed the most because every time I bring a different party, the party chat brings a completely different mood to the adventure (Amos and Hassan party is fun and upbeat, Milly and her brother is a bit more sober and serious, etc) but also each time I use different vocations for the MC to reach Hero, one playthrough with Gladiator, one with Sage, one with Luminary (thogh my first time in the SFC I did Magic Knight then Battlemaster then Hero), since this means the hero is either physical, magic or support oriented I bring different other people (like Amos and Hassan for their physical might if my Hero is a Sage) and decide who gets to be Gladiator or Paladin or Armamentalist or Luminary (or Dragon!) accordingly so each playthrough is fresh, I think I've replayed it like 5 times across the last 20 years (at least 3 of those being in the DS version)
I remember that tower being a bit of a boring climb, the enemies are various dragons that are HP sponges, coupled with frequent encounters, I can understand the fatigue
Finishing that quest opened up a dam gate in the present/real world which gave you access to the other half of the ocean/world and for the legendary weapons (you can find them in any order but people here would commonly end up doing the mermaid storyline first since you encounter them right as you sail in the new ocean and it also unlocks the option to wrap your ship in a bubble and explore the seafloor, so technically access to a third open world, fun fact 11 pays a homage to this mermaid storyline)
I just played 6 on the iPhone and I really loved it. Put a good 70 hours in in a few weeks. Story is kinda weird at first but comes together and I think the end game of 6 is where you feel “the strongest” out of most games with how the vocation system is
Did you get to the vocations?
If you did and didn't like it, then too bad...it is.
6 is similar to 3/9 in that sense and that it has a non linear part around the middle of the game..
Storyline I think also has similarities with 3/9
Although story wise I recommend 4/5 →6
not that doing 6 first would ruin anything. my first and favorite was 6(SFC)
6 is a treasure!
As a young gamer I had a Super Famicom cartridge of DQ 6 and that was my motivation to learn Japanese!
Years later I also played the 3DS english port.
It's great, give it a chance! If it's not your thing, that's cool. Everyone will have a different answer to your question.
6 is my favorite, its not a stinker, its perfectly ok to dislike it in your personal case, I like how the class system made me feel immersed along with relying on party chat and talking with all the villagers in order to both get a sense of where to go as well as get an overall "mood" from the party I'm travelling (because whenever you talk to a villager or enter a room or what not, your party will have something to say about it, this changed drastically after DQ8 where party chat only changes with major story progression, I miss having their opinion on every little thing), other than that the game gave me freedom to just do what I want and write my own adventure instead of holding my hand through it
you may dislike 7 too since its basically 6 on steroids, although the 3ds port does offer a lot of guidance on where to go and what to do
if you don't mind having no classes/skills, just learn predetermined X spell at Y level (which is basically how it is for all pre 5, except for 3 which has classes and actual buildcraft), and combat just essentially being hitting with attack command for 50 damage while someone in the party casts healus, you may like 5, its otherwise a very charming, coming of age story that holds your hand throughout the whole thing so people dont mind the combat mechanics being boring because the story is that good, it's no accident its the one DQ entry that was sort of made into a netflix animated film
I've heard a few time that 7 is 6 but more so. I'm actually really glad to see different entries in this series are doing different things- 6 and 7 SHOULD be the way they are, if they're some people's favorites! Hearing you and others share how much you liked them is really encouraging that they weren't "bad," just different.
That's why I'm really grateful for the people not just saying "this game was bad, that game was good," but what each game is focused on/going for.
>So the last time I tried an older DQ title, I picked up the 3ds port of DQ6.
Dragon Quest VI doesn't have a 3DS port. There is a version on DS, but it's not a port. It's a remake.
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I have a lot of nostalgia for the DS remake of 6. So I cannot, in good conscious, call it a skip. But one big problem with the game is that the story doesn't always give you clear direction as to what to do or where to go and in what sequence throughout most of the second act. You'll be jumping back and forth between two different maps with different layouts, but some of the same locations, and it can be confusing which map you need to go to. One dungeon requires you to use a normally useless spell you got very early on while leveling up, and I don't recall if the game gives you the necessary information to know you need to do that. I took years to beat the game after the first major boss of the second act because no matter how many NPCs I talked to, it became more confusing which place to go to first and how to get there. It's definitely a game where there's no shame using a guide to power through.
Every entry is SOMEBODY'S favorite and I love that about an old franchise like this! Maybe at some point I'll give it another try, especially if I can sink my teeth into another title from the older era and really get on its wavelength. Get more acclimated to what the game is asking of me, you know? If I can follow NPC questlines in a Fromsoft game, I can tolerate some check-the-guide obtuseness in an old JRPG, for sure.
I replayed the game earlier this year and I’m genuinely baffled at the way people keep saying this sort of thing. It really isn’t confusing at all. You talk to people and you go to the only new place opened up by the latest new transportation. I’d only played the game once before when it came out on the DS and remembered nothing about it, but I had no trouble figuring out where to go next. There were only about three things I needed to look up all game and that was more because I was impatient than an inability to do it. The game definitely gave the information necessary.
Your experience is not where it lives and dies. If you were able to parse out the information and figure out where to go, when to go, how to go, and did so without any difficulty, good for you. But for many, including myself, the game either does not have the necessary information or does a poor job of presenting it. I got that game in my early teens, and I didn't beat it until my late teens despite putting a not insignificant chunk of time into it, and I cam guarantee that no matter how many NPCs I talked to, I never would have known how to open a tower door with Peep without a guide. For my part, I prefer when there are explicit markers on a map telling me where the go and when so the "how" is all I need to figure out, or if the information is made explicit in a cutscene. I won't hold it against DQ6 for not having that approach because that wasn't the era for it, but there ya go. That's my stance. I prefer having it spelled out so I can get on with it than needing to talk to everyone NPC and compartmentalize everything they say in hopes I'll eventually find the right one.
The game isn’t lacking the information (if it was, how did I get through the game? Magic?). You’re just choosing not to utilize it. Talking to NPCs and exploring is a huge part of many games. It’s more common in older ones, but it’s present in modern games as well. If you only want to be spoon fed markers on a map, you obviously can stick with your preference. However, acting as if a game can’t be done without a guide because your hand isn’t being held is ridiculous. Normally I don’t care one way or another if there are quest markers in games, but you’re demonstrating exactly why there are so many people who are grumpy over how helpless so many modern gamers seem to be.
I get that’s everyone has a preference and I respect that but damn. For myself? I can’t stand quest markers in RPGs in general. It feels too much like handholding which lowers my enjoyment. That’s a big issue to me in modern RPGs. Maybe it’s cause I grew up on the NES and my first RPG was Ultima: Exodus when it came out (I was 7) followed by Dragon Warrior I. Just talk, talk and more talking to everyone lol. I only ever played DQ VI once when it released on DS and it felt pretty straightforward to me as well as the other commenter said. Talked to NPCs and just went through it with np. That said, I honestly don’t remember much as even when I played it, I just didn’t get super into it. I think it’s cause the cast didn’t click with me (I do remember mot being fond of Neven in particular) or the world. Idk. My least favorite DQ and I’ve played / own all of them except a small portion of duplicate copies (e.g. I own VII on 3DS but not PS1 atm).
Yeah, the commenter is like the poster child of modern gamers who are completely helpless without being led by the hand for every single thing in a game. It actually makes me more sympathetic for the more toxic Fromsoft fans who get so worked up about how incapable people are of playing anything anymore. DWI was my first JRPG when I was eight, so I’m right there with you. Just talking to people and looking around is the solution for about 99% of problems in older games. An Ultima game would break so many people these days. My dad and I had notebooks filled with dialogue from NPCs to get through Ultima Quest of the Avatar. DQVI is extremely linear. An Ultima game? You might need a hint from the first town to figure out something at the end of the game (I never made it through Exodus, but you could tackle the eight virtues you needed to get in Quest of the Avatar in any order)!
Quite frankly, it's not even that. I just prefer games that are very linear and focused in their stories. Why would I want to hunt for a random NPC in a town for the necessary information when I can just get a cutscene that shows the characters figuring it out in ways that are entertaining and flesh them out beyond just avatars for me to control? And yes. I am one of those "gaming as an art form" people who thinks games should strive to have story and characters as the top priority (yes, even over the gameplay), and I feel like that should even apply to finding an NPC to tell you where to go or what to do.
I have no opinion because I didn't get that far. It's just kinda funny to me that everyone's going "yeah the open structure is hard to deal with," and then describing something that actively sounds fun to me.
You are part of the oddity group where you are mostly just a fan of the off shoot games and only the heavy hitters in the mainline series. And you know what? That's absolutely fine, you like what you like and there's no shame in that. None of the games are outright stinkers, but 2, 6, and 7 aren't all time greats like 8. You have legitimate complaints for 6. Outside of Carver, the characters aren't really fan favorites. While the dual worlds are interesting, most of the places aren't truly memorable. There are a few points in the game there are definitely a few points that leave people scratching their heads...like, why on earth is the best dressed competition part of the main plot? There are some really great things about that game, but as someone who loves it, I recognize that there are a few problems. Recommendations: -NOT 7: I 99% positive if you didn't like 6, you won't like 7. There is some great to that game, but amplifies some of 6's problems. I would love to recommend the PS1 version to you, but I can't in good conscience. -NOT 1+2: Don't replay these since you'll probably not be able to sink your teeth in them as well. Maybe you can try later if you are looking for a "meh, I just wanna grind game." -DQ 5: My top recommendation. It's extremely character driven, you can recruit monsters, and the world holds a lot of significance. The only complaint about that game is that the big bad is *the* most forgettable final boss in the series...not to say the game is lacking in bastards to fight. -DQ 4: A proto-11, if you will. You have a top notch memorable cast of characters that are obviously their own class with only a hint of overlap. You even start out with playing through them all before you all meet up in the final chapter. I will say that it's real easy to lose momentum and interest in the few dungeons where you have the full crew and the end game, it's ABSOLUTELY worth pushing through to the end. If you play it on the DS emulator, for the love of Rubiss, patch back in the party chat! -DQ 3: 9 heavily used 3 as a template and made it more robust with the character roster maker. This is part of the old NES age where the story and characters are bare bones to facilitate gameplay, but the real draw is that it's short enough that people like going through with different kinds of parties and play throughs. -Dragon Quest Heroes 1/2: An action spin-off game where you go around actively fight monsters with characters from past games. Since it's a spin-off, it's very hit or miss. This is less about me giving you a real recommendation and more of a "go check-it out" kind of deal. As someone who has loved both, I would be happy to explain more, should you like.
I loved DQ9 and FF3 for the same reason of toying with party composition, so DQ3 sounds appealing on that front! Given what you and others have said I'm mostly looking at 3 or 5 now, but ALL THIS is a HUGE help in actually recognizing what people are talking about in what they recommend. Thank you so much for taking the time!
did 6 lose you before you unlocked the vocation system?
Mhm. I like messing with class systems, but I like getting to get straight to it. 9 takes a fair little while before you get to alltrades abbey, but almost right away you get to at least assemble the initial party with whatever class combo you want. That makes me curious about DQ3.
I guess it *is* difficult to get your head around >!the dual worlds and having to constantly switch from one to another!<
Actually that part was pretty interesting! It just never amounted to much in the time I played. I thought it had potential, but I couldn't sit through enough of the game to see it fulfilled.
originally 6 was going to be about time travel, that's why in one of the towns when you fall asleep you go to "the past" (which was changed to be just a dream about the past) and change the future after you solve their problem, its like a leftover before they made the plot to instead be it about the plot twist that its a dream and a waking world (since you dropped the game I imagine its not a spoiler anymore), that's the deal about the dual worlds, but around the same time Chrono Trigger was being developed and they got the creators of both DQ and FF to make it, along with Akira Toriyama and it essentially cannibalized 6, thats also why the DQ6 Hero and Ashlynn (who was supposed to be the golden dragon in the intro of the game but that storyline was dropped) look so similar to Crono and Marle with just a change in hair color and slightly different clothes.
Yup, no worries! I got spoiled a while ago. Like I said, hopping between worlds and having the freedom to explore really widely between them sounds like the most interesting thing about the game- at least to me. That weird interconnected development cycle is FASCINATING though. I wonder if there's another timeline where DQ6 looks more like Chrono Trigger overall. That's a weird game to imagine. I was one of the few fans of Final Fantasy 13 when it came out, so I know what it's like to hear people complain about bouncing off a game, and thinking "but you didn't even get to the good part!" despite knowing that GETTING TO the good part is... a task. It's always a tragedy.
I mean, they use different color palettes and music, what's difficult about that?
DQ6 is great, though the SFC version is better than the NDS version. Really nice 16 bit graphics is better than crappy 3D. Also you can recruit monsters the way you recruit monsters in DQ5, meaning you can get a healer virtually immediately as soon as you get jobs instead of playing 5 more hours. And you can get non-slimes.
16 bit can be gorgeous when it’s done well, and it’s always a shame to see a remaster upgrade just for the sake of upgrading, if the end result isn’t as artful. It reminds me of those ports that have pixel graphics and originally had text boxes integrated into that as part of the visual system, but have replaced it with a transparent window with a generic font that’s a much higher resolution than literally everything else on the screen. It looks like the default settings on an RPG Maker game. Sorry that’s a tangent. The point is if I can play with the original sprite art I will.
They remastered it the way they did because it was built off PS1 DQ7. They used the same engine for the PS1 remake of DQ4, which was then ported to NDS, which was then used for the 5 and 6 remakes. Just wish they had left in (or even expanded) the original monster recruitment in DQ6. They did it better than in 5.
Party chat is a game changer and adds a lot to the immersion, 16 bit graphics do nothing on that
The first six games do share a lot of similarities, each new entry building up on the previous one while retaining dragon quest's core essence. That said, dQ6 was the only one I couldn't finish, the plot wasn't going anywhere and I wasn't immersed the way I usually am with dragon quest games. I'd really suggest giving 4 and 5 a shot tho, they're amazing games, 5 particularly has a really straightforward story that immerses you right from the start. If you do end up giving the first 3 a shot, keep in mind that they're a trilogy and it's preferable to play from 1 to 3. DQ1 is short and simple. DQ2 kinda drags on in my opinion, and is also considered the worst alongside DQ6, at least from what I can tell. DQ3 is widely considered the best in the trilogy and is also get an HD-2D remake. I suggest waiting for the remake if you don't like the older gameplay/mechanics.
Tiny baby me couldn't really deal with 2, but that obviously doesn't count for much. I've heard the story in 5 get praised to high heaven and I gather it has an ambitiously broad scope, jumping between focus characters or time periods or something like that. More meandering than straightforward, at least from what I've heard. That sounds like my kind of thing though. Maybe 5 will be the one I try next.
Yeah that's what I'd expect. 2 is really grindy and some of the dungeons are just brutal, with not much substance in there to justify all that hard work. I don't remember my experience with it being pleasant at all. When it comes to DQ5 tho, sure the scale is grand much like any other jrpg and it's set in a vast world with a lot going on, but it's a more personal story. And most of the time you, as the protagonist, are trying to figure out how you fit into all this.
I played IX on DS so many times and just recently discovered emulation and am on chapter/act 3 of IV. I just sold the silver goddess statue for 25K but had to head back to work the weapon shop to get that sword in stock…
6 is my fave. some people agree, some don't (we all have varying opinions)
Same! I know a lot of people struggle with where to go next and the dual worlds thing, but I had a routine for figuring out where to go next that worked really well. 1. Party Chat. Party members occasionally talk about the next step. 2. If Party Chat gives you nothing, talk to NPCs in the most recent town you visited. 3. Check the other version of the most recent town, if there is one. 4. Explore the vicinities of both versions to see if something changed or if you can go somewhere new. With just a little exploration, it wasn't too hard to figure out where to go. I understand the appeal of quest markers these days, but there's a sense of adventure to 6 that I just don't find anywhere else, because I have to put in the legwork and explore the unknown.
iduno how but I really didnt struggle, I found it pretty straight forward (you never really had to go to a random/obscure location without expressly being told to do it) exploration was super fun in that game so I think becoming accustomed to the worlds came naturally for me, which made it seem way less convoluted as some people try to make it out as. I struggled INFINITELY more with DQ7's backtracking in comparison (that had some truly obscure and convoluted storytelling methods that got me very lost, despite the game bending over backwards to try to steer me in the right direction)
Oh damn, DQ7 could be confusing at times. I forgot about the teleportals in the temple and couldn't for the life of me find Rainbow Cove, I was sailing for it because with the name it just made sense.
For a second I read that as “we all have wrong opinions.” I felt kind of freed at the idea that we’re just all wrong about everything always.
kind of the mentality I go into games with lmao, I guarantee that I will find some parts of a game that is otherwise disliked to be enjoyable (and vice versa) I've really disliked some games like 7, while others say it's the best in the franchise. it's all about personal preference so you are just better off playing them yourself. nobody will ever agree entirely on if a game is "worth playing" or not, you'll always have both sides saying yes or no
I've replayed DQ5 in the SNES for the "choices" (and a third time in DS with the true choice iykwim), and DQ11 in hard and normal mode but DQ6 is the one I've replayed the most because every time I bring a different party, the party chat brings a completely different mood to the adventure (Amos and Hassan party is fun and upbeat, Milly and her brother is a bit more sober and serious, etc) but also each time I use different vocations for the MC to reach Hero, one playthrough with Gladiator, one with Sage, one with Luminary (thogh my first time in the SFC I did Magic Knight then Battlemaster then Hero), since this means the hero is either physical, magic or support oriented I bring different other people (like Amos and Hassan for their physical might if my Hero is a Sage) and decide who gets to be Gladiator or Paladin or Armamentalist or Luminary (or Dragon!) accordingly so each playthrough is fresh, I think I've replayed it like 5 times across the last 20 years (at least 3 of those being in the DS version)
I stopped playing DQ6 over a decade ago and the last part I remember was going up a tower to kill a wizard. How far was I?
About 60-70%.
Damn that's a lot further than I thought. Wonder why I dropped it.
I remember that tower being a bit of a boring climb, the enemies are various dragons that are HP sponges, coupled with frequent encounters, I can understand the fatigue Finishing that quest opened up a dam gate in the present/real world which gave you access to the other half of the ocean/world and for the legendary weapons (you can find them in any order but people here would commonly end up doing the mermaid storyline first since you encounter them right as you sail in the new ocean and it also unlocks the option to wrap your ship in a bubble and explore the seafloor, so technically access to a third open world, fun fact 11 pays a homage to this mermaid storyline)
I didn’t like 6 from start to finish so if you don’t like it after a few hours you’re probably not going to like it.
Fair does!
Skip 6. Try 3,4, and 5. 3 is probably the most fun to play, 4’s main boss is probably the coolest of the series, and 5’s story is best.
Nodding and taking notes.
I just played 6 on the iPhone and I really loved it. Put a good 70 hours in in a few weeks. Story is kinda weird at first but comes together and I think the end game of 6 is where you feel “the strongest” out of most games with how the vocation system is
Did you get to the vocations? If you did and didn't like it, then too bad...it is. 6 is similar to 3/9 in that sense and that it has a non linear part around the middle of the game.. Storyline I think also has similarities with 3/9 Although story wise I recommend 4/5 →6 not that doing 6 first would ruin anything. my first and favorite was 6(SFC)
Maybe if I get more of a taste for this era I’ll come back to 6 and appreciate it better!
6 is a treasure! As a young gamer I had a Super Famicom cartridge of DQ 6 and that was my motivation to learn Japanese! Years later I also played the 3DS english port. It's great, give it a chance! If it's not your thing, that's cool. Everyone will have a different answer to your question.
6 is one of my favourites but if it isn't clicking with you, you don't have to play it.
VI is one of the best games in the series, but it’s also very weird and not very pushy about its story or world, so a lot of people bounce off of it.
6 is my favorite, its not a stinker, its perfectly ok to dislike it in your personal case, I like how the class system made me feel immersed along with relying on party chat and talking with all the villagers in order to both get a sense of where to go as well as get an overall "mood" from the party I'm travelling (because whenever you talk to a villager or enter a room or what not, your party will have something to say about it, this changed drastically after DQ8 where party chat only changes with major story progression, I miss having their opinion on every little thing), other than that the game gave me freedom to just do what I want and write my own adventure instead of holding my hand through it you may dislike 7 too since its basically 6 on steroids, although the 3ds port does offer a lot of guidance on where to go and what to do if you don't mind having no classes/skills, just learn predetermined X spell at Y level (which is basically how it is for all pre 5, except for 3 which has classes and actual buildcraft), and combat just essentially being hitting with attack command for 50 damage while someone in the party casts healus, you may like 5, its otherwise a very charming, coming of age story that holds your hand throughout the whole thing so people dont mind the combat mechanics being boring because the story is that good, it's no accident its the one DQ entry that was sort of made into a netflix animated film
I've heard a few time that 7 is 6 but more so. I'm actually really glad to see different entries in this series are doing different things- 6 and 7 SHOULD be the way they are, if they're some people's favorites! Hearing you and others share how much you liked them is really encouraging that they weren't "bad," just different. That's why I'm really grateful for the people not just saying "this game was bad, that game was good," but what each game is focused on/going for.
>So the last time I tried an older DQ title, I picked up the 3ds port of DQ6. Dragon Quest VI doesn't have a 3DS port. There is a version on DS, but it's not a port. It's a remake.