Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

I got this game a few days ago after having reserved it. I am absolutely in love with this Dragon Quest title. It's one of the few ones I haven't played (and I prefer Dragon Quest/Warrior over Final Fantasy) and I am already hooked.

I'm at Chapter 3 with Taloon, just about to finish. I love the way the game is set up in different chapters, with each characters having their own stories to tell. The game is really quick, compared to, say, Dragon Quest VIII, where random battles can take a really long time. I'm curious if Square Enix/Level-5 can do Dragon Warrior VII on DS, seeing as how the graphics are practically identical to Dragon Quest IV on the DS, which is a port of the Japan-only Playstation remake, especially since V and VI are being ported to the DS and were PlayStation 2 games.

I'd like to know what people think of the game if they've played previous versions of it.

--------------------

"You underestimate the strength of a Jedi's mind, Brejik. A mistake you won't live to regret, " -Bastila Shan(Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

I beat the DS version yesterday, and I used to own the NES version.

Basically, it's the best version of the game, and the new visuals, audio, and content are gorgeous. The localization, though, leaves a lot to be desired. It was localized by the same European localization team that did Dragon Quest VIII, but this time there isn't the excellent voice work to match the difficult-to-read accented English text. Also, there were WAY too many spelling and grammatical errors. "The enemy are defeated!"

Also of concern is the lack of Party Talk. Party Talk is a feature in Dragon Quest VII and VIII where you can chat with your party members. It was put into the Japanese version of DQ IV DS, but they removed it from the American version. It gave each character literally several dozen more lines of dialogue, and as a result the English versions have a third to a half of the dialogue in the game removed. Bad show, Square-Enix, bad show.

But I still loved it. The new mini-quests like the Immigrant Town, the gorgeous visuals, the camera rotation, the new character and epic bonus dungeon, it's really fun. It's also really short, but I won't complain about that too hard. Of course, it's only going to get better when Dragon Quest V, possibly my favorite game in the series, comes out next.

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Oh, my gosh, I love Immigrant Town. It was one of the most unique features about Dragon Warrior VII and I can't wait to participate in making my own town again.

Yeah, there's something to be desired from the game. Notably, the complete lack of touch screen support. Everything in the game looks like at some point, the developers wanted it to be touch screen friendly, but they gave up near the end. The interface in battle and the menus are pretty huge and would be fitting for the stylus.

I personally don't tend to use the stylus if it's not necessary, and perhaps this is for the best, actually. The touch screen capabilities from Final Fantasy IV DS are absolutely dreadful. Trying to move with the stylus on FFIV DS is like trying to play the game blindfolded.

Edit

I'm actually surprised at the game's length, as well. There's 6 chapters (5 originally on the NES version), and I'm already on the 4th chapter. I haven't devoted all of my playing time to Dragon Quest IV and I'm nearly at the endgame, apparently. I'm not complaining, though, because Dragon Quest games are obscenely long. Dragon Warrior VII alone took me more than 100 hours without doing extra dungeons and such.

This post has been edited by Aether Master on 21st September 2008 20:49

--------------------

"You underestimate the strength of a Jedi's mind, Brejik. A mistake you won't live to regret, " -Bastila Shan(Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)

OK, the new ending is about 100% more satisfying than the original ending. Definitely worth checking out. The new character, however, is broke as hell. He has a bunch of spells that are normally character exclusives (Kazing, Oomph, lots of great stuff) and a bunch of other spells that were never part of the Dragon Quest series until much later on (Dragon Slash, Metal Slash, Thin Air, plus more). He also gets a set of exclusive equipment that are WAY better than the Zenithian set and on par with the Metal King set. His stats are also balanced and very high. Basically, he's the best healer, tank, and attacker in the game. He'd be the best nuker in the game too if he knew Kafrizzle or Sap (he has Kaboom and Kacrackle). His only weakness is that he gains levels very slowly, but that hardly matters when he's still better than everyone else despite being seven levels lower than they are.

One of the most broken RPG characters in recent memory; right up there with Orlandu and the Divine Majin.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 27th September 2008 21:49

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER