Dragon Quest V

The DS version comes out in stores tomorrow. Who else is getting it?

I’m totally psyched about this one! :smiley:

I’m not expecting much from it, but like DQ4, it will be my first time playing it. I anticipate enjoying it. Finally I get to play a game that isn’t incredibly embarassing to play in the subway. Right now I’m about to play Luminous Arc 2. Anyone that knows anything about the game understands why that is not something you play in public. Before that was god of war psp, which wasn’t too embarassing but before THAT was disgaea. All my disgaea characters were named after parts of the female anatomy or acts relating to it. It was esp funny when this little kid watched me play for half an hour on the way to work and his mom thanked me for letting him.

I won’t be getting it yet, due to still having Dragon Quest IV DS to finish (and Chrono Trigger, and Ecclesia, and Retro Game Challenge…), but believe me, I WILL be getting it.

I played through the SNES translation years ago and loved it to death. A lot of folks consider it the best game in the series, and while that’s a big statement to make I can certainly say it’s ONE OF the best. It’s absolutely worth buying for any RPG fan.

I still haven’t picked up Ecclesia. I’ve been playing TWEWY and loving it, but I’ve already finished a lot in it; so, I’m excited about having something new-ish for play.

TWEWY is excellent. Ecclesia was a big disapointment.

Another game that goes on my “to play eventually” list.

Same here.

TWEWY is quite excellent. I love buying threads. I still can’t believe I had trouble with the frogs in the beginning… now, it’s those stupid frogs at the end that absorb psychs and just won’t hold still long enough for me to hit them. :smiley:

I have to remember to get Best Buy cards from work tomorrow so I can get a little “discount” for my new game!

I plan on playing it sometime soon. Just gotta finish up Ninjatown (Foothills are a bitch), and decide whether to play Retro Game Challenge.

But I did play the SNES version some years back, and I really enjoyed it. This should be a great improvement on an already great game.

On a related note: There’s also some guys out there working on translating the PS2 version that never made it over here. (Who just happen to be the same group working on the SNES DQ3 translation, which is supposed to be finished by the end of the month.)

I never understood the lure of DQ games. DQ8 was passable, but that was largely because of the presentation and dialogue, not story or gameplay. I can’t see myself actually enjoying any of the previous installments.

Despite my recent burnout I’m still anticipating this one since it’s said to have a really good storyline (following the same protagonist throughout the course of his life isn’t something that occurs very often, which btw, seems like a heinous crime if you ask me). Plus all I have left is this, III, VI, and VII to complete.

Also, I heard that they learned their lesson and kept party talk for this one which should help a lot.

Hah! I wondered if anyone besides me felt that way about Order of Ecclesia.

All I need to say is that a large proportion of the level were straight fucking lines. I mean WTF?! This is symbolic of the sloppiness of the design of the game. The DQs are a bit of an acquired taste.

Heh, I definitely agree on that, but my main beef with Order of Ecclesia is that it takes like four steps backwards in the innovation department. Aria of Sorrow invented the soul system, and Dawn of Sorrow perfected it. So, what the fuck is the point of Order of Ecclesia, which is just a less-developed version of the soul system? Now, you have one spell instead of two, because your first one is just a damned weapon…which takes MP to use.

In the end, not only does it create the feeling that I’ve seen it all before (you probably know that constant refining of a game system is something I’m a huge proponent of), but this game treads old ground while being LESS interesting than the old ground it treads upon. I admit that I liked Dawn of Sorrow way better than Portrait of Ruin, but I’m positive that SOMETHING could have been done to refine it, if not just coming up with a new innovation altogether. Instead, we got a backwash version of the previous two 2D Castlevania installments. What a bunch of bullshit.

I personally liked PoR quite a bit. A lot of people complain about the 2 character thing, but what drew my attention was the amount of maneuverability there was to the combat, particularly with the guy. It made the fights, esp the boss fights, a lot more interesting. I felt the game didn’t simply have the character act as a solid unmoving wooden block that periodically throws out spikes. It added variety. I honestly don’t remember much about Dawn of Sorrow…I know I played it though. It didn’t strike me much. I do agree with your point about the regression.

My biggest beefs with PoR are the character art (granted, DoS had the same style, cheap saturday morning anime art), and how the last group of levels were effectively wasted. Not only were they carbon copies of the first four, just with a different layout, but they were all located in the same room. I liked searching the castle for different level entrances, it made the castle feel more like a level itself and less like a hub. (Granted, I DID like the two inverted ‘ruin’ levels, those were interesting)

And while I normally hate to take the side of ‘Japanese voices are ALWAYS BETTER, WAI YATTA DESU NE etc’, the english voice acting in PoR can go fuck itself. It’s not even unintentionally hilarious like SOTN’s was, it’s just bad. Ecclesia is a little better in that department, and I greatly prefer the art style.

Though, I agree with the comments that the combat system feels like a watered down version of something better, and the level design is kinda eh.

I agree, PoR’s final four dungeons were a waste. Possibly even worse than the Inverted Castle in SOTN.

Ecclesia was disappointing to me as well, but I can’t really put my finger on why. I don’t demand innovation in my Castlevanias and I liked the world map conceit. I still didn’t enjoy it as much as some of the others. Maybe because it was so much harder. X-X

While I didn’t like PoR as much as DoS, I think it was a good innovation; I just thought it felt somehow unrefined. Still, I had hoped Order of Ecclesia was going to pick up with the idea from where Portrait of Ruin left off. Instead, it took Dawn of Sorrow, took a step back to Aria of Sorrow, and then took another step back.

Even with Order of Ecclesia, I have to say…it’s really hard to DISLIKE a 2D castlevania game because of how easy they are to play. Still, it’s not the lack of innovation so much as it is an out and out regression. Mega Man is a lack of innovation. Mega Man where they remove the slide function that he’s had for nine games in a row is an out and out regression. Oh yeah, I went there. :stuck_out_tongue:

…amazing how we managed to get from DQ all the way to Castlevania. Though I don’t really have an opinion either way. Never finished DoS, and never touched PoR. Though wasn’t Ecclesia overhyped as the next SOTN? That may be one factor in some people’s dissapointment.

As for the Mega Man thing, I beleive MM9 was supposed to be a “what if?” true sequel to MM2, thus no sliding. Though it seems kinda redundant, seeing as it’s been in most MMs since MM3.

As for finishing DQs, I still got II, III, and VII to beat. Though I can’t ever see myself trying to play through VII. Maybe if it gets remade someday. That could be likely, as it could be redone on the DS. But that’s wishful thinking on my part.

I still haven’t finished VII, and I really doubt I ever will at this point. You know, I never finished II either…

Certainly had nothing to do with MY dissapointment. For one, I didn’t play SotN until like 2004-2005, so I’d long since played other Castlevania games, and I thought Aria of Sorrow was better by a longshot. If someone hailed it as the next SotN, that would have been even more underwhelming for me, I think.

As for the Mega Man thing, I beleive MM9 was supposed to be a “what if?” true sequel to MM2, thus no sliding. Though it seems kinda redundant, seeing as it’s been in most MMs since MM3.

I’m not sure where you even got that idea, considering that it shows characters that weren’t even introduced until long after 3. Moreover, that’s no excuse to make a gameplay regression - at least, not a GOOD one.

As for finishing DQs, I still got II, III, and VII to beat. Though I can’t ever see myself trying to play through VII. Maybe if it gets remade someday. That could be likely, as it could be redone on the DS. But that’s wishful thinking on my part.

Guhhh…I missed ONE freakin’ shard, maybe 3/4ths of the way into the first disc. I even picked up an FAQ that had every possible shard I could have gotten up to the point where I was at, and I had got ALL the ones listed in the FAQ. Fuck that game.

EDIT: The only DQ games I ever finished were the first one, and the fourth one on DS.