Board 8 > Which Dragon Quest games are worth playing?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've never played much of any but the Monsters series.

I've played a bit of 1 and it's a little bit too NES RPG for me.

I have 7 and 8 on 3DS and just never got around to them. I bought XI because it's on sale today.

Are 2 and 3 similar to 1? And I see 4/5/6 are on DS, are those good?
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4, 5, 8, 11 are all great. 9 was decent iirc

never got around to 6/7.
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VIII is great
XI is fun so far (Near the end)
1 is one of my favorite games of all time but I understand that it isn't for everyone
4 and 5 are great as well.

Haven't played 6 or 7
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1, 5, 7, 8, 11, and Builders are definitely worth playing.
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I agree with 4, 5, 8 and 11. Those are probably the most accessible ones in terms of consistent enjoyment.
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1- Basically the prototype for JRPGs. Incredibly bare-bones, but important for establishing everything that followed
2- Adds a multi-person party, but otherwise much like 1
3- The definitive early RPG. Just about every other JRPG up until the late PS2 era was based on DQ3.
4- Starts to bring in proper storytelling. Definitely worth playing
5- Much like 4, also worth playing
6- Haven't played this one yet
7- Or this one
8- Or this one
9- Suffers a little from feeling like a series of disconnected stories ("I wonder what problem this town has for us to solve and then move on and forget about"), but still good
10- Is an MMO and thus worthless even if we could understand it
11- Havent played it yet, but apparently it's great

Monsters series - Excellent
Heroes - Very good, despite trying to mix ****ing Tower Defense gameplay into Musou
Builders- One of my favourite games of all time. Buy it. Buy it now. And the sequel due early next year.
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Not 2
3 is an NES RPG but it's good if you like that kind of thing. 2 isn't.
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For the ones people haven't chimed in on much, I think 6 is fantastic but 7 is pretty whatever.

4 & 5
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All of them imo, but...

I can probably recommend 4, 5, 8, 11 without any asterisks. I think 6 and 7 are fantastic (my favorites in the series), but they're sort of divisive. With 7 the common complaint is that the pacing is slow (and it is), and with 6 I think it's that you aren't really given much direction (I didn't have any issues). 3 and 9 aren't as good, but if you like the other games in the series you'll probably like them too.

I enjoy 1 and 2, but they're NES RPGs and that really shows.
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V is the best one
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All but 2
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Cool, thanks guys. Think I'll give IV a try first, then.
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But really anyone who wants to play 11 and get the most out of it I would recommend playing 3,5 and 8 before that to see the evolution of the series
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ninkendo posted...

All but 2

This is honestly what I was thinking too.

But I have to give higher praise to V, VIII, and XI as the pinnacles of the series IMO.
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Note this is coming from someone that doesn't really like DQ as a whole but I'ma try to be as objective as possible (I've played them all except 6 and 7 though I've only finished 5, 8, and 11)

1 & 2: No, unless you really like old and super dated NES games. Even then they're not that good.
3: Its alright, if you're into early SNES era RPGs, it wouldn't be my first recommendation but I'd say try it out.
4: It's fine. Not a bad game as far as I played, just didn't hold my interest enough to finish. Still would recommend.
5: I enjoyed it enough to finish it. I like the systems they introduced here quite a bit. My favorite of the early DQs.
8: Really good. I'd recommend this to almost anyone. It was my first DQ game I finished and I still hold it in high regard.
9: I wasn't a big fan of this one in terms of everything BUT the combat. The combat was fine, but I didn't really enjoy anything else about the game.
11: The best one, IMO. It topped 8 for me. Highly recommended.

I have played all of them. All are great. But they were the remakes though.
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all worth playing
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7 is a massive game, but worth it. Not the best in the series (still think 8), but loved 7 for how big it was
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GranzonEx posted...

all worth playing

*with the caveat that X is not available in English (as someone playing FF11 and 14 the MMO factor doesnt phase me in and of itself)
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Isn't the 3DS version of VII supposed to have cut out a lot of filler? I'm fairly sure I remember reading that the super-lengthy intro/prologue sequence is shorter on 3DS, and there's a few other added features to cut down on the amount of backtracking and searching required.
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BlackMageJawa posted...

Isn't the 3DS version of VII supposed to have cut out a lot of filler? I'm fairly sure I remember reading that the super-lengthy intro/prologue sequence is shorter on 3DS, and there's a few other added features to cut down on the amount of backtracking and searching required.

The intro is definitely shorter (which is a downgrade to me personally, but probably better to the average person that isn't willing to wait 2 hours until the first battle). Iirc there are also features that help you find the shards you're missing, and they made it easier to master at least the basic classes.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

BlackMageJawa posted...

Isn't the 3DS version of VII supposed to have cut out a lot of filler? I'm fairly sure I remember reading that the super-lengthy intro/prologue sequence is shorter on 3DS, and there's a few other added features to cut down on the amount of backtracking and searching required.

The intro is definitely shorter (which is a downgrade to me personally, but probably better to the average person that isn't willing to wait 2 hours until the first battle). Iirc there are also features that help you find the shards you're missing, and they made it easier to master at least the basic classes.

I think they also changed up cross-class skills and using skills as other classes? Not sure, I never finished either version despite loving the hell out of both.
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Yeah, you only keep skills from the basic classes and monster classes permanently. They also made it so advanced classes have a ton more skills though, so I think it ends up being easier overall.
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5 and 8 are solid. 3 and 4 are fine. 9 is a bit... Weird, but not bad. 1 is just "old", 2 is bad, I've just never made the push into 7 for some reason so I don't have much to say, and I simply didn't care enough for 6 to get very far.
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assuming 1 and 2 are out:

3 is probably still my overall favorite dragon quest game, but it may be too NES for your tastes if you didn't like 1. maybe not. honestly, the dragon quest games don't really receive much in the way of major improvements so it might be that you just wouldn't like the series... period. uh, get the SNES version if you can, although I think the GBC version is pretty good too.

4 is very good and worth playing, and you can play it on DS so it will feel more modern.

5 is very good and worth playing. I personally prefer 4 over 5 but there are plenty who would argue the opposite.

6 is less good than 4 or 5, but I can't quite put my finger on what I like less about it. it's definitely designed and presented in the same vein. I just think the story and characters are all weaker, but that is subjective, so your mileage may vary.

7 I have never been able to get into. the beginning is super slow and I've heard it's a very long game, too.

8 was good enough for me to play all the way through even though I don't like modern games all that much. the fact that I consider a PS2 game to be modern should give you roughly an idea of the garbage systems that I still play regularly. anyway, uh, I think this one is fine. a lot of people liked it when it was new but I barely see it discussed anymore as a top game or anything.

9 is pretty cool, actually. it feels like they didn't want to make a port/remake of 3 so they just made 9 instead. it has a lot of stuff in common with 3 but it really is its own unique game. all that being said it lacks the simplicity and charm of 3. I was pretty enamored with it when I first played it but I couldn't even get through the whole game because it feels like it's trying so hard to be more than what it is. 3 works because it's simple. 9 keeps the same idea of having a simple party full of silent protagonists, with full customization, but it slows everything down and tries to make you care more about the story despite your characters having no stake in it.

don't know anything about 10+
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I found the 3DS version of VII to be very enjoyable. It's a very big game, but I had a lot of fun exploring all the various islands and talking to everyone to really flesh out the different stories. There's a genuine sense of mystery to a lot of them that I liked.

And job systems are cool too.
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I guess the first one on the NES is good for a novelty, but yeah just as that.

4 and 5 are good for the DS

7 is so damn long. I've tried twice and failed to get past 50 hours both times

8 is one of the best games for the PS2 (haven't played the 3DS remake)

XI is good so far (in act 2)

edit: I forgot all about IX. I didn't like it.

I thought VII 3DS was awful. I played for about 25 or 30 hours and it was a fucking slog. All the mini stories in the past were boring with the exception of maybe one. So much text for such mediocre writing. It's so slow. Everyone who likes the game would keep saying the game gets way better after something called Alltrades at the 20ish hour point and the game 'begins'. Definitely not the case. I think I did two or three more scenarios in the past and it was just as boring and uninteresting as before.

Other minor complaints include every town looking more or less the same, constant pop in of trees on the overworld, and the fact that the map on the bottom screen doesn't have any of the towns labeled. Good luck figuring out where to zoom if you want to go to a specific region on the map once you have more than a dozen options.
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Yeah, I should be clear that I didn't think 1 was bad. It just felt... Very NES. Little direction, little story, no party, and so on. Those struggle to keep my attention for very long.

I ended up starting 4 as mentioned, DS version. Enjoying it so far! Though I'm still early, so we'll see.

If I like 4, definitely gonna try 5 and 6. If not, might skip to 7 to see what it's like since I have it and decide from there.
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Love III and XI, and I miss all the costuming in IX
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Yeah, 6 is pretty similar to 4 and 5, but I feel the story and characters are weaker all around.
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redrocket posted...

Yeah, 6 is pretty similar to 4 and 5, but I feel the story and characters are weaker all around.

I disagree, but that does seem to be the common opinion! (Well, I think the story is better than 4s anyway, and I prefer the job system to fixed classes).
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5 is the best, 3 is second-best.
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3, 5, and 7 are god tier RPGs.

The rest are demigod tier. Except for 2, which is mortal tier, but not like a human mortal more like a badger or something.
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All of them.

My favorites are 2, 4 and 7, but if you're asking for accessibility, then 4 and 5.
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Im playing 7 right now and its a lot of fun.

8 was fun until a certain boss battle with a significant difficulty spike halted my progress. Some day I have to go back in and level grind.

I also own 1-6, but havent put much time into them so far. They seemed fun based on what I tried though.
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None of them

8 is an excellent game and absolutely worth your time.
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play more monsters imo
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The real answer is all of them including 90% of spinoffs but if you play this list youll be convinced

1
3
4
5
8
11
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Something no one has mentioned is that party chat is unavailable in DQ4's DS version, which is where a good chunk of the DQ series's humor and character development comes from. If you hadn't already started it, I would recommend the mobile version instead, which does have the party chat available. It's not exactly a breaking point, though, and DQ4 is still a good game even without party chat.

If you enjoy DQ4, I would recommend playing the DS remakes of DQ5 and DQ6 in that order afterwards (which also have the party chat, unlike DQ4). DQ5's plot and characterization are a step up from other DQ games, while DQ6 adds classes for a significant degree of character customization, absent from 4 and 5.

DQ9's the other main series game I've played, and I would say it's worthwhile if you enjoy DQ6's gameplay, but especially if you also have friends or family to play it with (locally).

OliviaTremor posted...

I thought VII 3DS was awful. I played for about 25 or 30 hours and it was a fucking slog. All the mini stories in the past were boring with the exception of maybe one. So much text for such mediocre writing. It's so slow. Everyone who likes the game would keep saying the game gets way better after something called Alltrades at the 20ish hour point and the game 'begins'. Definitely not the case. I think I did two or three more scenarios in the past and it was just as boring and uninteresting as before.

Other minor complaints include every town looking more or less the same, constant pop in of trees on the overworld, and the fact that the map on the bottom screen doesn't have any of the towns labeled. Good luck figuring out where to zoom if you want to go to a specific region on the map once you have more than a dozen options.

This. Im 70ish hours into this game and it has been a chore every time Ive turned it on. I think I actually hate this game. Ive been playing it for 2 years, and Ill finish it, but the only thing keeping me going is that I want to beat them all.

Anyways, I love all of them that Ive played besides VII. VI I thought had some pacing issues also, but nowhere near that of VII.

I - a must play. So simple but just a good time
II - I never played the NES version but I love the iOS port. More of the same but added party members
III - this was the game changer. You can start to see JRPGs evolutionize. I dont like job systems but I like this game a lot
IV - my second favorite in the series
V - my favorite in the series. I dont normally care about stories, but this is a great one. Also has probably my favorite music in the series
VI - wanted it to end hours before it did, but a good game still

Only played 5ish hours each of VIII, IX and XI but I cant wait to get back to them
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LordoftheMorons posted...

redrocket posted...

Yeah, 6 is pretty similar to 4 and 5, but I feel the story and characters are weaker all around.

I disagree, but that does seem to be the common opinion! (Well, I think the story is better than 4s anyway, and I prefer the job system to fixed classes).

This might be a good summation of why 6 just didn't hold me. It felt bland.
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All of them are worth playing!

But yeah I agree with the consensus. 1, 4, 5, 8, 11 are the most accessible.

VI is basically the middle step between 5's style and 7's style but I think the narrative was still really good. It has a job system but its not set in stone yet - they want to make it more flexible than 3s and they want the vibrant characters to remain in place.

7 is my favorite entry in the series. Fight me about it. Great narrative, Job system has found its feet, has a really cool story.

9 is super cool because it has 8's skill point system AND the Job System from VII. The narrative is weak and it was WAY cooler at release when you could play it with friends but still worth returning to.
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I think Switch is the right system for them to revisit IX

Anyway since we've got main games covered let's get into spinoffs. Skipping Monsters since you said you played it

Torneko: The Last Hope - A turn-based roguelike for Playstation, part of the Mystery Dungeon series. We actually got this one in English, oddly. All the English reviewers hated it because console gamers didn't really understand the roguelike concept yet. There is a previous game on SNES with translation patch available, but as the very first Mystery Dungeon game to exist, it's maybe a little too basic.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - fun, slightly Zelda-like top-down action game. Tank battles are super fun. Has a Japan-only GBA prequel and 3DS sequel, neither has a completed translation patch.

Dragon Quest Builders - You might take a look and say "it's just Minecraft with Dragon Quest" but (1) the Dragon Quest flavor/setting adds a lot to the game, and (2)it has a good amount more structure to it than Minecraft does, so if you struggle with finding something to do in Minecraft, this may work better for you.

Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2 - Dynasty Warriors, but with Dragon Quest. That's all I needed to hear to be sold on these. The first game is a little bit more Tower Defense-y than I'd like but it's still fun.

I've never played Fortune Street, but those typically feature DQ characters. There was also Dragon Quest Swords for the Wii. I haven't played it, reviews were pretty tepid. It is notable as a Dragon Quest game (perhaps the -only- Dragon Quest game?) that was NOT composed by Koichi Sugiyama, but rather by Mega Man 1 composer Manami Matsumae. Dragon Quest Wars is a DSiWare game by Intelligent Systems and borrows ideas from Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, but it is just too basic to be much fun. There's more that never came west that I have no experience with, like Theatrhythm and Battle Road and several of the Monsters games, too.
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I think that mostly turned me off to 6 and it really was the Super famicom version just looked like super generic SNES jrpg in comparison to two other games in the series. It's the same problem I had with the super famicom version of Star Ocean

Thankfully I find the DS version a bit more pleasing to look at although I still don't really like job systems all that much
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VI is absolutely amazing, but it also makes all the sense in the world to play IV-VI in order.

Speaking of I finally have my gaming PC hooked back up, time to buy XI and forget my worries for awhile.

I actually haven't researched this, but is the port to PC ok? I don't have any consoles at the moment.
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WazzupGenius00 posted...

I think Switch is the right system for them to revisit IX

Anyway since we've got main games covered let's get into spinoffs. Skipping Monsters since you said you played it

Torneko: The Last Hope - A turn-based roguelike for Playstation, part of the Mystery Dungeon series. We actually got this one in English, oddly. All the English reviewers hated it because console gamers didn't really understand the roguelike concept yet. There is a previous game on SNES with translation patch available, but as the very first Mystery Dungeon game to exist, it's maybe a little too basic.

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime - fun, slightly Zelda-like top-down action game. Tank battles are super fun. Has a Japan-only GBA prequel and 3DS sequel, neither has a completed translation patch.

Dragon Quest Builders - You might take a look and say "it's just Minecraft with Dragon Quest" but (1) the Dragon Quest flavor/setting adds a lot to the game, and (2)it has a good amount more structure to it than Minecraft does, so if you struggle with finding something to do in Minecraft, this may work better for you.

Dragon Quest Heroes 1 & 2 - Dynasty Warriors, but with Dragon Quest. That's all I needed to hear to be sold on these. The first game is a little bit more Tower Defense-y than I'd like but it's still fun.

I've never played Fortune Street, but those typically feature DQ characters. There was also Dragon Quest Swords for the Wii. I haven't played it, reviews were pretty tepid. It is notable as a Dragon Quest game (perhaps the -only- Dragon Quest game?) that was NOT composed by Koichi Sugiyama, but rather by Mega Man 1 composer Manami Matsumae. Dragon Quest Wars is a DSiWare game by Intelligent Systems and borrows ideas from Fire Emblem and Advance Wars, but it is just too basic to be much fun. There's more that never came west that I have no experience with, like Theatrhythm and Battle Road and several of the Monsters games, too.

Ooh, thanks for this. I actually did play Rocket Slime and loved it, now that you mention it. Also bought Heroes since I looooove Warriors games, but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Builders seemed interesting, so it's good to know it's got more to it than Minecraft. May give that a try as well.
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Better off playing FF imoo
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