Dragon Quest

My favorite Dragon Quest game is probably Monsters 2. Breeding is WAY too fun. I eventually had a party of three Rainhawks at level 99 and just went around exploring the random dungeons.

So, I decided to pull out Monsters Joker vanilla because I never completed the monster library. Tonight I got Orgodemir after two days(!!) of synthing. He has the third-longest synth chain in the game, after the Bonus Boss of VIII and the Final Boss of this game.

Congratulations! Is it any good in battle?

I really like Dragon Quest 8 on PS 2. The art is wonderful in that game. I hope Squeenix decides to give it the HD treatment, or at least releases it on PSN.

Dragon Quest 9 is pretty good too, although I haven't played much of it, and my motivation to do so is kinda diminished thanks to Nintendo shutting down the online features of the original DS.

edited 13th Oct '14 2:16:06 AM by Nysos

I have an Action Replay specifically for Dragon Quest IX's not-really-DLC, though it's quite a meaty package even without it.

He's pretty good; has Double Trouble and a good magic stat.

I now have a Gem Slime! Man was he a pain to get; you need two Metal Kings and two Metal Kaisers to get him, and since the only reliable way to get metal monsters is to start at the bottom with the basic Metal Slime I had to go through twelve of those.

Metal monsters are waaaaaaaay easier to get in the sequel.

... Y'know, I really should play a DQ Monsters game some time. The random beasties are easily the best part of most Dragon Quest games- Toriyama's human characters all look like his other human characters, but the man knows how to draw monsters.

I recommend Monsters 2 for GBC!

If you like SMT, you'll like DQM, I think. It sucks that we may never get another one coming outside Japan. Although, the second game of the main series just got a remake for IOS...

I'm going to use the Gem Slime tomorrow to make a Dragonlord!

Aaaand now I have Dragonlord! He's tenth-generation which is the highest I've got so far (Orgodemir is only ninth), but I don't think his synth chain is actually longer than Orgodemir's because I mixed up a few of the Metal Slimes earlier and had to correct that.

The last Final Boss I need is Rhapthorne. Surprisingly, he's actually easier than Dragonlord and Orgodemir due to not requiring any Metal monsters; I was deliberately saving him for last. I have a Dhoulmagus and a Zoma, and the only other "big" monster I need for him is a Nimzo, which is fairly simple to get.

Personally, my favorite is V. Namely, the DS remake. It gave me the warm fuzzies, and I hadn't felt as invested into a story since Knights Of The Old Republic. The fact that it had minor Mon elements to it just made it all that better.

Also, I literally sat at the "who will you marry?" decision for half an hour the first time. And I eventually went with Deborah.

I don't have V, but I read an awesome LP of it a couple days ago. For the SNES version. Great voices were given to the hero and his family, who actually acted like a family, and the marriage thing was actually portrayed as an agonizing choice despite being a non-choice in that version. Have a look.

edited 16th Oct '14 8:49:12 PM by HamburgerTime

5 was probably the best in the series. i loved 9, kinda annoyed with 8 but thought it was good, want to play more of 7 and 6 was...interesting but not up to 5's standard. 4 is the weakest of all of them past the first 2 imo.

also the monsters games are great. joker 1 and 2 especially, but caravan hearts and the gbc games arent bad either.

speaking of dq9, i think the quests may just be the worst part of the game by an excessively wide margin.

also incidentally i recently found a dq5 manga from the perspective of a deadbeat npc in the main character's hometown. it is...surprisingly good.

despite its name.

edited 17th Oct '14 5:29:25 AM by Tarsen

What was the name of the manga?

-cough-How I stalked some dude with an exposed nipple and stumbled upon the Zenithian Sword-cough-

dont look at me like that

edited 17th Oct '14 5:34:15 AM by Tarsen

It's really a pity how poorly IV has aged, because it's got a pretty neat cast for such an old game.

III is still kinda awe-inspiring to me for being an 8-bit RPG that nevertheless runs 60 hours, though, granted, at least forty of those hours are grinding.

edited 17th Oct '14 5:36:14 AM by Pulse

i'd probably love 3 if i could get into it, but i doubt that'll happen till im done with dq9.

bloody quests

I'm torn between V and VIII being my favorites. I was more invested in V's story, but I really loved the open world of VIII. I dunno, it just felt like it had more scope than the Final Fantasy games. Though this is also why I'm disappointed that Square has transitioned Dragon Quest to be a MMO-lite.

Rhapthorne yay!

He's fat.

Also he fights with his scepter, which I thought was a nice Continuity Nod given that was the MacGuffin of his game.

So now I have all the main-series final bosses. At least the ones that existed when Joker came out. It's dumb Joker 2 vanilla had no Corvus, I think.

Good job finding all those six or seven flavors of the Devil.

... DQ games seriously end on the local equivalent of Lucifer quite often. I mean, Nimzo is even just straight-up identified as Satan by his theme music.

Eight, actually.

One thing the Monsters games, at least the recent ones, like to do is stack the Final Bosses on top of each other, basically. For instance: here◊ is Dr. Snapped, the Final Boss of Joker. His synthesis chain in that game required both final bosses from the previous two main series games, Orgodemir and Rhapthorne (Orgodemir himself requires four of the six previous villains). In Joker 2, we get a new final boss, Rigor Mortex◊, whose chain requires Dr. Snapped. Joker 2 Professional brings in Corvus◊, who requires Rigor Mortex, and a new final boss, Hihyudorado◊, who requires Corvus.

Now, in the remake of the first game the final boss is this guy, Zemelgias◊, who needs Hihyudorado. And finally, the remake of the second game brings in Nergel◊, final boss of X, who needs Zemelgias, and is in turn needed for the new final boss, the Nameless King◊.

These synth chains get very long, in other words. Fortunately Snapped and Rigor have their chains greatly simplified between games.

I haven't played much Dragon Quest lately, except for Torneko No Daibouken, which is probably the most fun I've had punching out Slimes and outrunning Green Dragons XD.

Whoa! Big DQ-related scoop! You know how everyone says if you marry Nera in the SNES version of V, then Bianca would be hit with Diabolus ex Machina? Well, some people at the Dragon's Den Forums did some digging. Turns out that scenario is, was, and always has been an Urban Legend of Zelda. And it took until last month for the West to figure this out. Wow.

Time to go edit the DQV pages and everything related to that!