Dragonquest

[Oregano]

Any fans of the series here on the boards, i've only played Dragonquest VII, VIII and Joker but I fell in love with the games, I'm actually starting to prefer Dragonquest to Final Fantasy(which have been my favourite series of games since I got FFVII back in '97). The balance has been tipped further when I got Revenant Wings and Joker at the same time, made by the same company, for the sae platform yet one's made of win and the other just fails.

So back to the original question, any fans in the playground?

[mentatzarkon]

Oh yeah! I love those games...they have all the play-style elements of the Final Fantasy series mixed with some puzzle elements like say Lufia but they're 16 times harder.

Anyway, I'd have to agree that overall Dragon Quest/Warrior games are better than Final Fantasy, but they just never made it to the mainstream in the same way...(It's not like there's a Dragon Quest movie :P) Edit: Okay, there's actually an anime.

[Oregano]

Woop, I'm glad someone else likes them I thought I was the only one, I prefer it being harder, I didn't use to but it's more fun when you're in a normal monster battle and actually thinking about strategy and stuff that's rare for an RPG in my opinion and it's one of the reasons I love the games.

Another thing I like about them is they don't take themselves completely seriously, and they're more about fun and less about covulation of a plot. God knows Dragonquest VIII would be boring without the comedy, especially Yangus.

[mentatzarkon]

So I highly recommend the other Dragon Quest games as well. They are probably very difficult to find legally nowadays, but all of the ones I've played are excellent, especially five for SNES. I think that you can get rereleases of the NES ones for gameboy.

If you can get past the fact that they have 20 year old graphics, they have all the gameplay elements that make the new ones so much fun.

[Oregano]

Yer, I'll look for them but I doubt I'll find them because I think 8 was the first one released in Britain(I played on 7 at a friends who had an american playstation). I'm really not bothered about graphics although I think Joker might be the best game for the DS because of it's superior graphics.

[tyckspoon]

So I highly recommend the other Dragon Quest games as well. They are probably very difficult to find legally nowadays, but all of the ones I've played are excellent, especially five for SNES. I think that you can get rereleases of the NES ones for gameboy.

If you can get past the fact that they have 20 year old graphics, they have all the gameplay elements that make the new ones so much fun.

IV is coming up in a DS update pretty soon; it's currently set for a September release. V and VI have titles registered with the ESRB. The Enix half of the company decided to get in on some of that sweet re-release cash Square's been pulling down. :smallwink:

[Oregano]

Awesome, are all Dragonquests being released on the DS now because I've heard that IX is being released for it and apparently will be multiplayer(yay!:smallbiggrin:). Final Fantasy IV being released for DS aswell and with voice acting, cool. But Dragonquest will be much better I think and I think it's a good idea, one of few Square Enix seemed to have.

[Khanderas]

I also have the cursed king one and I would like to add my voice to the group that says "bonus points for not being too serious".
The games first real boss... a multiple personality red octopus. Heck most monsters are silly in some way (a puppeteer mob who tells stories as attacks).
Love the accents too on the cast, especially Jessica.

Only up to slightly after visiting the cursed castle but every morning I toy with the thought of calling in sick to work so I can get the time to play it.
I never do though, but darn I'm tempted every morning just the same.

[Oregano]

That's a great part in the game, quite creepy if I must say so myself. Personally I got all the way to the end of the game but couldn't defeat the final boss, really annoying. So I've restarted but I don't know when I'll have a chance to actually play it. For some reason I'm subconciously grinding aswell, so that doesn't help.

[Khanderas]

That's a great part in the game, quite creepy if I must say so myself. Personally I got all the way to the end of the game but couldn't defeat the final boss, really annoying. So I've restarted but I don't know when I'll have a chance to actually play it. For some reason I'm subconciously grinding aswell, so that doesn't help.
Sounds like what I did with final fantasy 6 (the one with Kefka and CO).
Got almost in visual range of the last guy, so I deleted my savefiles so it didnt have to end. :smallbiggrin:

Anyways, as someone who played the game (almost) though once. What would you reccmend the levelup skillpoints be placed in ?
Boomerang for the hero, scythe for Yangus, Whip for jessica and sword for ...that other guy:smallannoyed: whatshisname.
Couldnt be happeier with the Boomerang and scythe does bring some nice heavy damage, but the whip seems sub par and I might have considered Bow for my templar.

[tyckspoon]

Well, trying to remember this without having to go load up the game.. I think I have Hero generally split between Courage and Sword. Then a little Boomerang to help work with large enemy groups, and almost nothing in Spear. Yangus was mostly in Axes, because Hatchet Man and its upgrade are really handy for getting rid of Metal Slimes. A little bit of Heart near the beginning, because it's useful for him to know Heal there- that can be ditched if you want a more optimized point allocation. Then Scythes, 'cause they're cool and get good damage. Clubs was ignored.

Jessica was mostly in Sex Appeal because it has Hustle Dance toward the end (no-MP group heal for 70-100) and then Staff to help out her magic. Probably could have been more effective by putting more points to Dagger or Whip instead of Sex Appeal (I would recommend putting points in Whip at least up until the double-hit ability Twin Dragon Lash.) Angelo got Sword, because Falcon Slash is awesome, Staff again for his magic, and whatever was left in his personal category (Charm?) I don't think I ever put a single point toward Bows.

It's hard to majorly screw up the Hero, although Sword and Courage are, I think, his intended focuses. All of his tracks are pretty good, and the major downside to focusing on one of the other weapons instead of Sword is that you miss out on the heavy damage you can deal to bosses using a high-tension Falcon Slash. Yangus does well with either Axe or Scythe; I think the Club abilities are a bit weaker, but you could do alright there as well. The major drawback in Clubs is that they're usually the weakest of Yangus' possible weapons. Heart has a number of support and healing-type abilities, which Yangus isn't really very good at, and some funky attacks; you may want to avoid it altogether.

Sex Appeal has some fun stuff for Jessica, but you can do without it. I would say Staff is probably the most essential skill track for her, followed by Twin Dragon Lash so she can beat up monsters a bit without spending the MP for a high-level Frizzle. Not much to say about Angelo, except that Sword is just as good for him as it is for the Hero and I don't know if Bow really has anything to compare.

[Oregano]

I'd recommend everything that tyckspoon said, also I'd recommend never using the hamster to attack, it's pretty pointless and you can do easily without. I like Yangus faux-cockney accent to be honest.

[Khanderas]

I totally missed out on staffs for Jessica. I got perhaps 3 points in it, problebly because I missed the "use staff = presetspell at no cost" (if I got that right) and with the lack of MP restoring items at first I thought more spells would be useful only rarely. Plus hits-all-enemies-in-a-group I read as hits-all-enemies (like the boomerang).
She is farily weak though, her whipping does help I grant, but it is problebly her weakest path. Even daggers (with the insta kill chance) might be a better option. What a pity, what a pity :smallwink:

Yangus and humanity dont really mix. Except get enough to get the first healspell, naturally.

[Oregano]

What about the monster arena, what monsters have you got/had? I can't remember because it's been ages but I remember having a Jargon and a Slime Knight called "One Knight Stand", haha classic. It could be a game on it's own.(which is more-or-less what Dragonquest Monsters is.)

[Quxelopqr]

The sex appeal was good since it gave monsters a 1/8 chance of just flat out not atacking you, which is a plus. I use staffs with Jessica since I think you recovered mp each turn. Angelo's a bit wierd, I used swords and bows with him, since bows got an mp restoring attack.

[Oregano]

Wow, it's seems there's only five fans on the entire playground, that doesn't say good things about the games but I think they're probably the best JRPGs out there now-a-days but there is other good ones.(I saw Suikoden V the other day, i'm going to buy when I have money so i can compare it with Dragonquest VIII).

What other games would make a good comparison with the Dragonquest series?