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Paced poorly? Yes. Quest flaggy? Absolutely. Bland? What? No. Seriously, there are some valid complaints out there about 7. Bland isn't one of them.

Dragon Warrior VII is contender for the absolute best game of all time, tied with Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Dragon Quest X ONLINE: Rise of the Five Races

Surprised nobody mentioned Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The main hero actually says he likes Dragon Quest and the game makes numerous little jokes / references towards Dragon Quest. Very excited and very happy that they will be having turn-based combat in this new Yakuza installment. Sega is just the best it has ever been right now... I'd even say that they have all the means of going back to console making business.

I've written several essay posts on this. Deleted each of them. I'm not sure if I really want to get into this without overcomplicating matters. Dragon Quest VII is my favourite game with good reason. It's a HEAVILY flawed game, and sadly, while the 3DS version is my favourite, while it addresses many flaws in the original, it creates whole new flaws on its own. The beginning of the game is slow on purpose. It's meant to be a slow burn built around the curiosity and intrigue of an island in the middle of a huge empty ocean. The ONLY island, and it's a veritable paradise. No one dies, no fisherman is ever recorded having been lost at sea. They always come in with a harvest of fish. There are some stories of monsters in the past, but no direct history of Estard actually having a monster invasion since its founding. Nor any wars to speak of. It is in every sense, a literal Eden. The issue I think a lot of people have with the start, is the excessive dopamine addiction probably 80~90% of the population in the US and EU have. Whether it's because of social media, whether due to the nature of commercials and the well studied effects of short-term attention spans created by excessive TV watching. Whether it's created by the multitude of Freemium games that use simple-yet-sadistic skinner-box mechanics to hook people into them like addicts, or the cheap one-time purchase games with added content you need to repurchase that utilize skinner-box dopamine hits at a higher rate than most games, or the sad reality of loot-box games that started with Diablo, and which most MMO's hooked and dragged to them, over time with each subsequent MMO making those drops easier and easier to obtain, generating more and more consistent dopamine hits (especially with WoW, which was the first MMO to virtually guarantee rare drops from bosses, creating the need to "roll" for said item or pass it up depending on who needed/could equip). This was a drastic shift from maybe 1 in every 100~1000 battles for the good truly rare drops, and matched more closely to Diablo 2's model of constant, but not too constant, rares, especially from bosses. Then you have another intrinsic issue some people have with DQ nowadays that wasn't an issue in time's past. The ability to put oneself in the shoes/mind of the protagonist at will, without the story generating so much emotional draw, trauma, and non-stop action and suspense to force that connection. With the advent of CD games, this changed the nature of RPG storylines, especially since FF7. That created the Cinematic RPG, and it's a trait WRPG's have adopted almost wholesale, with a few minor exceptions in that it's only a slight adoption (Fallout New Vegas, Knights of the Old Republic, looter games with stories like Dungeon Siege and Torchlight). This is something Dragon Quest, despite general presentation, doesn't adopt, despite each subsequent game, especially starting with DQ7, drastically increasing the number of cutscenes (and except for a few here and there, almost ALL of them are in-game engine based....dear lord DQ7 PSX's 3 FMV cutscenes are cringe beyond cringe, memorable, but like an Ed Wood movie is memorable). Most gamers just lack that ability to tap into that. Then again role-playing in school in its old form, of roleplaying different jobs, or roleplaying different scenarios, isn't as prevalent. It's more about roleplaying different "races" or "sexes," which doesn't allow for the fantasy of a different world, a different way to look at life. Nevermind the cutting of arts programs in schools in the US especially, since the 1980's. Now sports programs (and schools get about 3~10x the amount of money now than they did then...makes you wonder where it all goes). There's also the kids growing up in the 90's and 00's, and how many of them lacked parents, and were in daycare centers. These kids inherently lack the ability to identify with others, including with other types of roles, such as a job, and do not generally seek to do so. Meaning their creative center is essentially cut off. I'm sure that has to factor greatly into the ability to isolate the self and transmogrify the brain and sense of place into the game without being forcibly swept along with a constant dopamine adrenaline rush storyline. Something DQ's just cannot create, as they're slow adventure's with some cutscenes in between a lot of traveling. It's very old-school in that sense, and 7 more than any other with traveling back and forth. Then there's time, and how many gamers are busier now than at any point in the past. Houses are made with more easily destroyed materials, causing a lot of breaks and fixes (which is good in that it keeps aspects of the economy going, and there is at this point, a sense we've taken this too far, and should be making slightly more durable materials, as the overwhelming number of required fixes is beyond both the number of people who can afford it, and the number of people able to do the job...such as the reality at least 3 in every 10 houses has a water leak due to broken pipes underground, which can be VERY expensive, over 10~15k, in some areas over 50~80k due to HEAVY regulations). Then work, kids, family issues. More grandparents are in a state of perpetual sickness and inability to function, and at FAR earlier ages than in generations past (a lot of 50 and 60 year olds today look like 80+ year olds pre-depression, and are even LESS able to handle normal life functions than a 90 year old in the depression era). So it's a lot of time, weight, and limited patience. This probably has the greatest impact on older gamers. @Bob_the_Almighty pointed out to me in several conversations, and at several points on these forums, as well as others (like GameFAQs), that he's no longer interested in a 70+ hour game. He doesn't have the time, and would rather play a 20~40 hour game, even if he knows he wouldn't enjoy the experience as much. He'd rather games be more compact and get to the point, while telling a good story, have solid and fun gameplay, etc. So I think this as well plays a significant part. One has to WANT to sit down and slowly play through a game that clearly indicates from the getgo, that this is a long haul. Nevermind tacking in kids, the various bills we now pay (how many insurance agencies do we have to consider now, and how many "protective" services do we pay for now compared to 10 years ago, nevermind 20+?). There's a LOT to pay attention to now, a LOT more to take up our time, and drain our energy in just daily life. Nevermind all the "threats" left and right people have to consider and account for, and budget for, and prepare for future events. This game isn't conducive for that sort of lifestyle unless you willingly choose to engage. At least the 3DS does allow tracking, but some people still won't want that continued play to last that long, so I'm sure for some it becomes more frustrating as they'd rather things move along more speedily. There's a general lack of awe, of curiosity, of wonderment in today's society. Everything is so fast paced. So overwhelming, and full of constant dopamine drips. Nevermind general mindsets crafted in the forge and fires developed for the younger generations when I was in High School, or the precursors to that when I was a child. It's an uphill battle to climb for a game like DQ7. One where just 20 years ago, this game would have been praised for the 3DS version (especially if it had the puzzle elements from the PSX version restored, and easier transit to and from islands in between time zones...like Zoom spots in the past, and automatic Zoom locations for each past-location that appears in the present). ====== I won't get into other complications, such as certain people's needs for EVERY game to have a grey area (complex motivations for every bad guy, and little to no acceptance for something to be evil because it enjoys it...it's like no one believes Psychopaths actually exist, nevermind the concept of Demons and even just entertaining what they are, beyond how Atlus portrays them as potential allies, which is more acceptable apparently, than the historical context in literally every single culture since the dawn of time, because it's a grey area mindfield rather than black and white). There's a LOOOOT of various elements in human psychology I could cover, that is more consistent with today's world, and how DQ7 especially, but DQ in general fits in with that, but I'm not. I do want to get back to doing stuff, and this has taken 4 hours out of my day so far with the multiple rewrites. ======= Issues with Dragon Quest VII (both versions) from a gameplay perspective (I had a long as fudge list before I started writing the above, and it now escapes me): Very limited information on how classes work. Especially the nature of upper classes, monster classes, pre-requisites, hybrid skills for the original 3DS opening being streamlined is a VERY good thing, however, the lack of the puzzles which introduced much of what was to come, including some foreshadowing elements of the later storyline, oversimplifies to a point of literally dumbing down the original intent (this was almost certainly due to lack of time to complete...they only worked on DQ7 3DS for 3~4 months, compared to DQ6, which is less than 1/10th the actual size in terms of general content, having 10~11 months...it took them that long to rewrite the PSX code, then revise the dev kit and tweak it to maximize the 3DS, and likely a very strict development period/cost). Shard finding in the original was a hassle, which the 3DS fixes with multiple avenues to pinpoint, including the game map on the lower screen. 3DS lack of Padfoot, and no Vanish-like spell makes it very difficult to navigate dungeons without getting into constant battles (PSX battle counts per dungeon crawl are considerably lower). Combine this with a +50% EXP rate, and a much faster human class growth rate, and you've got a recipe for being overpowered fast. The adjustments to enemies in the 3DS do not account for any of these changes, rendering any challenge virtually impossible. It might be very streamlined, but several sections in the original, especially concerning Dune/Al-Balad, are confusing for a lot of players. The first post-game dungeon requires finding a special shard in a well during the ending sequence, in Estard castle, which is EASILY overlooked, and in the original PSX version, that shard had to be taken underground in Estard, and placed in this lone chest on a ledge. It's a fairly long ending sequence, and in the PSX in general, a fairly large final dungeon with puzzle rooms (good puzzles, but one of them takes awhile to get through as you touch certain parts of the wall that automatically carry the party to particular positions, and if you take or accidentally touch the wrong one, that can take awhile to get back to the start, and choose the right path again). At least the 3DS version just requires picking up the Shard/Fragment. No explanation for the interplay of functions, such as which special weapon attributes work with what. There's a LOT, and a LOT of surprising function exchange. As well with damage buffs. Given the sheer volume of skills, it's hard to figure out for most players, and the game offers no guidance or even awareness this is so. Though this is DQ in general, and only since DQ9 have we seen any attempt to address this, and it's through quests...unfortunately a lot of people do not pay attention to these quests and fail to grasp the nature and purpose of the gameplay teaching quests...most of which is to encourage experimentation as they clearly indicate this is just ONE option available of many. DQ's since 6 have a LOT of layers of gameplay stacking, surprising amounts, especially in 7 and 9, that almost no player, even major DQ fans, are even aware of (thus people like me are needed, lol, and it seems a common thing in Japan to unlock abilities). Less an issue in the original game, more in the 3DS. The need for a Zoom function in the past, and carry-over of Zoom places into the present. The PSX original has a world map (in the 3DS, the map used for vehicles) that is about 1/4 the size of the 3DS map in scale. However, the actual area map in the 3DS where characters run, is about 500x larger than in the original game. Even accounting for running speed, it takes MUCH longer to get from place to place. So without Padfoot, without Vanish to cut down on enemy spawns in the past, and with the one shoes that boost running speed only boosting it by about 20%, the lack of instant Zoom really exacerbates the game's requirement of returning to old haunts a second time in the Present. Not that this is a bad thing to have that return, as you'd clearly have new items to find, but it takes so long each time, after each repeat, that it becomes a bit tiresome for most. I love it, but if I'm in a hurry, it's not fun, if I'm able to take my time, I thoroughly enjoy it. Doesn't help that the map layout is overly simplistic, unlike DQ8, and each island spawns on its own, so resource management is very inefficient (they load all battle data along with the islands in 7, in 8, they flush and reset them in RAM...and this would be a non-issue if they patched the New 3DS to make use of the extra RAM and processing power for both games, nevermind the extra buttons). A lack of purpose in some present day towns. Some have a bit of story or some fun mini-game (or for some, an annoying simple mini-game that leads to maybe something useful, like the Big Book of Beasts). Would have been nice to have a scenario like in DQ6's first lower-world town, such as the temporary Kidnapping event. Or a monster attack on some town (like after the Dig Site opens up, there should have been some towns that needed help for some extra items). 3DS extras, the tablet creation system, is rushed and needs a lot of work. Would be nice to have stuff like upgrade stones won from battle, and boss level factors into what stones etc. Would be a nice way to include the style forge -> alchemy pot -> DQ11's forge into DQ7, and give a grander purpose to the tablet system. As well as expanding on boss powers and abilities (and base monster abilities). No tying of wisdom to magical damage/healing. Would have been nice to see that addition from DQ8 brought into DQ7 and 6, as magic is just not up to snuff in those games, especially middle and late game. ...so many, if I recall the original list I had in my head, I'll write up some more. It's a great overall game, but a very flawed game. Quite enjoyable though, and the vignettes especially, the way they're written and the details and variety of storylines makes for a very intriguing and for me, a very engaging emotional ride. Even now I find myself tearing up at a few lines here and there (like Sharkeye's lines about his son).

Dragon Quest VII (PS1 version) is one of my favorite games of all time. The 3DS version is pretty decent, too. The overarching story and all of the supporting vignettes are pretty damned good. If anyone said it's boring or bland it's most likely due to a general dislike of the Dragon Quest series. The class system in the PS1 version is amazing.

Dragon Quest 7 is to me one of the best games in the series and is my personal favorite game from DQ. It isn’t perfect, but the game has so much to see and do and has some of the best town vignettes of the series. Seeing the world constantly grow thanks to your actions is very satisfying and makes your quest feel worthwhile. Definitely worth playing. But I’m a little biased towards it since I like it so much. 🤣

...People say that? Where? I like DQVII, it's fun. I do think it tries too hard to be DQVI but bigger, but that doesn't mean it's a bad game on its own.

Hi Den, I submitted my first guide to GameFAQs yesterday and it got accepted!!! *squee* https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/switch/272749-dragon-quest-ii-luminaries-of-the-legendary-line/faqs/78327 It's a comparison guide about the stat and name changes for DQ2, mostly our English versions on the NES, GBC, and iOS/Android/Nintendo Switch. I wade a little bit into the original FC version, but not so much for the SFC or its fan translations. A lot of stuff didn't change or you can find it in lists for specific versions, but I wanted to see a side-by-side comparison. I think the only really new information is probably the increased experience values for monsters in the iOS/Android/Switch versions. I didn't see them anywhere (English or Japanese websites) so I recorded them during my recent Switch playthrough (so much more fun than on my phone, god knows why).

The picture was a total joke. Just thought it would be funny after that big old essay post of yours. 😜 You know me. I can’t help but joke and somehow manage to cause a change in conversation. It’s part of being a legendary bandit.

Hey lads, I recently finished uploading and organize a lot of DQ music to my youtube channel and I wanted to share it with you guys. I've got all of the mainline game soundtracks (excluding 10's) and their symphonic suites + a couple extra like the monster games, mystery dungeon, slime morimori etc. I know there's a couple other channels with this stuff but I always found it hard to find one that had everything in one place. Link to the channel here. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-bWHZ5h5-1hnphA4UhnrbQ A benefit to this is that I was able to organize all of the games' music and make playlists for occurring themes in the series, like tower themes, town themes, etc. I have a channel introduction that explains this a little more, but here's a document that shows all of the tracks organized by their theme. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wiofl_Q9kOIMeJ9tfmfYp-OgzInXoohv/view I hope you guys find this all useful in some way, let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. Credit to mufasaa here on this site for his mega collection of DQ OSTs by the way, 95% of my uploads came from his mega.

Googling stuff from Reddit is a great way to hear the absolute worst news about anything. It's devisive among fans sure, but subjectively horrible? No. Maybe listen to us talk about it more in depth instead of reading Reddit headlines...? [emoji8] https://anchor.fm/dqslimetime/episodes/Episode-007---Yangus--DQVII-e8sb02

Haha Thank you! I'm glad you liked my little DQXI display there!

I visited last night and took this awesome pic of the full DQXI prizes! I also rented your druid, Cranberry.

Oh, they already are. Lately more and more people seem to view masks as more of a safety blanket. Wearing a mask, but the nose is still exposed. Wearing a mask, yet sipping from a Starbucks cup. Yesterday I was headed to Target and a lady just walked into the middle of the road as she was putting on her mask and gloves. That may protect you from Corona, but not CAR-ona!

Yes! This is a 100% Walkthrough that contains

I imagine it's so much worse in other multi-year established mobile games like this. I honestly have done all of three to four 10-pulls since the game came out. I've been lucky enough with doing my daily pulls that I've accrued a metal weapon for my party members. Gear has basically not mattered to this point for me as I'm not focusing on the super high level stuff. I don't think I've had a full party wipe more than once or twice, even doing the Legendary Dragon Lord/Malroth fights. The game doe not punish you. You just need the levels. It's a very generous mobile game. Edit: My point is that these guys are being total entitled jackwagons about a free game.

XI. I was browsing a news website and didn't really think about it much, just saw the news about it, then the trailer and got it day one. My main worry (and one of the reasons why I almost didn't purchase it) was that the game did not have Japanese voice-overs + English subtitles option, or any J. voice-over in the first place. I kept thinking how should I play it since I generally dislike English voice-acting (especially in Japanese games) and eventually decided to play with the voices off, the way it released in Japan. I'm happy I chose that way. That's where I started and fell in love with the series. The next one was DQ Builders, then Heroes and then I started the previous main titles, Monsters...

Alright guys, we're back on track! More Dragon Quest VI 100% Walkthrough!

The Dragon Quest Builders 2 origami comes courtesy of Square Enix during the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to download and/or print the Dragon Quest Builders 2 origami.

I just figured@YangustheLegendaryBandit was invoking the "picture says 1000 words" saying to stay in neighborhood of Iggy!

I think the more important question is, and you should ask yourself as this relates to the psychology of nihilism; why do you, and so many others, feel a need to empathize with a villain? Why does a villain in many modern beliefs, only stand as a well designed villain if one can garner sympathy on some level? The point being, in the general past, there wasn't a desire to do so, as harmful actions were seen as having direct ramifications. There are various points in time with complex origin stories, but once vilified, a warrior, king, even a god becomes permanently a force for evil, and the motives for this always something petty at the start, and never something to find alignment with, or sympathy for, or even understanding of in lieu of putting oneself in those shoes and finding common ground to grasp why the reader/player would follow a similar path. Vampires in Chinese lore tend to be more akin to Eastern European. Bad harmful people who are reborn to suck dry the essence of a person. Only in the East it is the spiritual/mana/prana, while in the West, the physical blood (which was inherently believed to be WHERE the spiritual strength of a person resided, and why blood letting was so common as a way to remove bad spirits and dark thoughts). What does it say about a person when the only reason today we even have sympathy for the devil, and see things through a grey scale, is because of the adoption of Nihilism, which even for Nietzsche was merely a pre-condition when one begins to see the yoke of humanity striving in vain for a better world without striving for himself to become a better being first. Essentially society has adopted wholesale as truth, what Nietzsche himself saw as a first step, which eventually becomes a lie, as the belief taints the soul, as one who adopts such thoughts, through cognitive bias and cognitive dissonance, will ignore good deeds and see only ill deeds and for those doing good deeds, darker motives. One becomes trapped in a vicious cycle they cannot escape from. This stems initially from seeing the filth in ones own life, and their own dark works, generating a sense that even oneself is polluted, and finding the source, the teachings and machinations of the larger societal construct. His solution was a progressive governance run in a strict regimented way that would enforce good behaviour and learning, developing constantly through scientific rigor using the best people to eventually develop a perfect regimented system that through fire and brimstone, would force the general population through hard toil to seek to become better, and in escaping the system, develop the tools of the ubermensch, and with this grander understanding from those trials, and the superior tools and mindset, the nihilism would fall away as one sees the world only through sound reason. Not that I agree with Nietzsche's proposition, but the man is fount of most of our societal beliefs in the West, and the general play by play of left versus right politics...which is a whole other thing, and connects to spiritual paths (magickal if you want to be more specific...the paths of the Magi in Jewish Mysticism, Boaz and Jaochim...which you can see as order within, chaos without, or order without, chaos within, the goal to play both sides to find the center path which leads to the God-head....this is where political branches of Right and Left originate). If you guessed which side holds the greatest sway as the left, and the moral ambiguity it brings, such as a desire to find common ground with a villain as much as a hero, stems from ones sense of self being rather low, and ones connection to the divine being nearly non-existent (and no I'm not talking about crazy church people speaking in tongues and frolicking back and forth, or wild dances in the jungle with certain tribal groups, getting into the rhythm and flow, though this does have a correlation...it's just a primitive form of attempting to breach the veil to reach the essence and grandeur of something beyond this world). ====== Another aspect I hadn't considered until now, is the world of the West is based on the court system, and justice of damages done. What I think most people usually want to know about a person's actions, let's say theft, would be why they took that action. What brought that about? Not for any other reason than most people cannot see themselves doing such actions, even if they could, because anyone who has ever recalled those moments where the line was nearly crossed, recalls that there is a VERY fine line that determines taking a bad action or either not doing anything or doing something good...usually just bad or nothing. I tend to find a lot of people either don't want to recall those moments, especially if they took the wrong route, and the lessons they had to go through, or the guilt they felt in taking that action (why feel guilt at all, even if such an action wasn't explicitly taught being another aspect?). Or they dissassociate. Yet some part of the mind always has that connection to the dark side, the curiosity of it, as we are inherently dualistic, there's always that desire to know as a way to reconnect with that darker half without actually internally facing our own demons in the mirror. Thus, with a nihilistic approach to most modern story telling, with the basic premise that because we can, some of us just will, or we don't care and overlook the actual bad things we somehow do (carbon footprint, which is a lie, as we all breath out CO2, but it's used as a tool to tie us down to the idea we're inherently bad and cannot do anything about it, the very act of living...then there's stuff like eating animals, when even breathing will kill organisms, and plants are living organisms as well who also release poisons into their cells when we eat them, just as animals do when they die, that in turn rots the food and harms us in the process of digestion). Further pushing the notion we should sympathize with the devil. Afterall, we ARE the devil in modern society. We ARE the plague on the planet. The parasite that was seeded to this world from outside, not truly part of it. Or so we're constantly bombarded with such messages through various media at various points in time (more commonly TV and certain mainstream shows that appear online for streaming). That has to play a role in guiding us towards wanting to feel as though a better written villain is a victim, just like us, a victim who is also evil, but who we can see as being superior to us if given the right motivations and righteous reason to enact his/her vengeance upon the scum of humanity. Notice how the prime "god-tier" villain has decided to wipe out all of humanity because of the actions of a VERY SELECT few, and a total misinterpretation of the one human he came to love. A VERY petty, very low-grade motivation (wrath) treated as righteous by someone who obviously feels humanity itself is worth burning to the ground. That even he/she, the author of this graphic, feels unworthy of life being human, and feels as though the direction of Corvus is correct, so they resonate, and raise Corvus to the top tier, not because he has motivations, but because Corvus aligns with THEIR innermost desires of self-destruction. Which again falls back on the first point, and the affects of nihilism on the world. ====== The other factor is that it's not why a villain does their evil that is the only aspect of story that needs be told to be a good story. In this case the idea of control to force people to align with good deeds somehow being a higher level thought that would amount to positive outcome. There are many other facets to a well written story, and a well written villain. Does the villain ever pursue, and in either case, why? What actions does the villain take? How does this affect the Hero? I'm too tired to think of other questions...I wish I wrote them out when I was working, but I didn't. I had a few extras that were fairly good, and another aspect of storytelling that isn't linked to motivations, that define a good villain. This will do, but my apologies. I found a few. Do they attempt to do harm to the Hero's homestead? To capture him/her? What further specific actions are taken throughout the course of the story that define that villain. THIS more than anything, SHOULD be the more defining element of a good villain. Not the motivation, which is helpful and useful at times, but only if one wishes to find common ground, which I find makes sense only in context of someone who is like us. A mortal, a human or human-like creature that we can relate to. A god, a demonic lord? Why do we need to work out the machinations that guide the hand? What does that gain us to put ourselves in that role within the context of the story, as in forcing us down the constructed narrative of motivations? Isn't it more fun, if we're talking about someone who isn't human, or an unstoppable monster, to roleplay that being to figure out what that would be like, and if we want to create a motivation beyond just...this is fun, yeah, let's take over that world, or let's kill that person, or let's see that town burn down...woo, then let that be up to the imagination of the player/user/reader? Do we know what Sauron's motivation is? Oh right, it's the ring of power so he can rule, because he wants to. I don't see people complaining about that. Or Ungoliant, who simply wishes to feed on everything, to devouring the world as a whole? How about Nemesis? Nemesis might have once been human, but once becoming a specialized Tyrant, as far as we know, it just does what it does because that's all it is. It's Jason or Michael Meyers. Do we really need to understand the mind of Michael Meyers for him to have been a good villain? No, and the act of trying to do so polluted the original narrative, creating a grossly inflated script and movie that took us out of the context that Michael Meyer's is a monster who kills because he likes to, because he can, and because it's a game to him. A child's mind locked into the idea of killing his family on Halloween. It removes the fear factor of Meyers when we develop sympathy for him. Thus disengaging the fun of watching the original movie, or the new movie. It's too complicated now, because HE is too complicated, and the concept of horror is undone. Similarly with Cosmic Horror. I do not see people complaining about not understanding Cthulhu's feelings and why he desires to devour souls and bring about the destruction of this world, driving it into an eternal cycle of madness. Yet he's a great villain? Why? We don't know anything about WHY he does what he does, or why he seeks to become the level of god he wants to be? What about the other Cosmic Horror beings and the old ones, etc. in H.P. Lovecraft. What if Lovecraft games started coming out, do you really need to know WHY beings beyond our understanding desire to torture and set humanity to flame for them to be good villains? We certainly have Soulsborne, and Soulsborne borrows almost 1:1 from Lovecraft's universe. I see no complaints on the discussions of each monster as the game comes across them, or the lore behind them. Yet nothing is related to a motive, a need to define a desire to explain the nature of these beings. So why does DQ require this to have good villains? What really makes a good villain is far more complicated than one element alone, and do you not think it intellectually obtuse to define a villain on the merits using only ONE factor? That all things hang on that one detail to feel they've been handled well? I sure as #$*! do not.

Everywhere.

Show us on the doll where Final Fantasy hurt you.

Tier 1 - DQ Villans, all of them Tier 2 - RPG Villans, all but... [emoji90] Tier - Final Fantasy Villans That's about the gist of it. I decided long ago that if Final Fantasy can have its rabid fanboys that [emoji90] on everything else, so can DQ.

I don't disagree, but I think my main point is, sometimes it's fine to experience stories without moral ambiguity. Something we've forgotten and lack appreciation for in modern times, is that there are absolute morals. They actually govern the world, and there is such a thing as Karma, which isn't a grey-area system, it's just a basic governing system, and there are people who actively choose at many points to go negative because they want to, no motivation. That boogiemen do actually exist, and not every individual requires any grand motivating element except that they can (almost all serial killers have the motivation that they can, and no one has stopped them, so they'll continue doing something that they find enjoyable...scale this up to people in real seats of power, which certainly exists, and you have a human being on the level of a Dragon Quest Daimaou). When nearly every videogame story is grey, or has some semblance of grey motivation and an attempt at complex antagonists sometimes black and white should be considered "different" and one should be open to it. Something quite a few players aren't, as it's a common complaint about Dragon Quest antagonists, with almost the sole exception of Psaro (to a far lesser degree, Mordegon, and even less for Jasper). They want more of the same, and yet complain about the lack of variety in their games, when there are only so many motivations that can work, depending on context and how its told, or complain about shallow motivations (like Jasper's pure jealousy and envy, ignoring that most complex villains stem from similar roots, only with more padding). Which speaks volumes about the lack of imagination in a lot of players, or willingness to expand on things using nuanced clues and prefer detailed very obvious development or backstories that lend credence to such actions, even if they devolve to little more than envy or greed most of the time, and envy seems to be the favourite, while I find greed is generally the least accepted motivating factor.

My first DQ game was Dragon Quest V on the DS. I was actually aware of the series for a long time since I was a kid, having read about the series on Nintendo Power, but I didn't get into it then because they were hard to find. Since then, I had forgotten about the series until I got interested in RPGs in my teens, and reading about the history of JRPGs got me into checking out Dragon Quest, a series that I knew as a kid but never got into for various reasons. DQV on the DS happened to be the most recent release at the time, which made it easy for me to get, and, well, I've never been more glad to become a fan of a new series.

I think it’s fair to say the bulk of the criticism Dragon Quest as a series gets is that it’s too old school. This obviously doesn’t bother us but it’s an issue to other people. Most new JRPGs try to do something different. Dragon Quest XI has been uniformly praised for blending the old and new. That being said, I went through the Reddit thread “Goddamnit Dragon Quest 7 is extremely boring” and the bulk of the negative response isn’t about anything inherent to Dragon Quest. Mostly, people criticized the slow start. The more positive spins on this criticism is that it gets better 20 hours in, which is a long time to invest into a game. Almost every post comments on how much they love Dragon Quest VIII (a guy towards the bottom even misread the title and thought the topic was about VIII and he said he liked it).

I remember around the time DQ7 3DS came out I found an article from Kotaku (gags) about how the church was an awful thing in DQ7. The writer complained not only about it being used to save, but that you had to use it all the time to remove poison and revive party members and how it was a terrible system. Now, obviously this person never got far enough or never bothered to see that stores carry antidote herbs to cure poison, you get the Squelch spell to remove poison for a few MP, you eventually can learn Zing... What was funnier yet is that the screenshots the guy used were from the very first town you visit in the past. That’s only like an hour or so into the game, depending on how quickly you play the 3DS version! The whole article read like he just straight up didn’t like RPGs much anyway.

I remember the post to the 3DS subreddit you showed in the image. The complaints were pretty much about things that made it a Dragon Quest game. It was clear that the people criticizing it didn't like JRPGs.

You do find those people on there who genuinely have level headed opinions and can have good gaming conversations with, but yes, the majority of folks are negative about everything. I’ve always felt like this line from Star Wars fits GameFAQs all too well: “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

Fixed that for you. GameFAQs is good for 3 things: 1. Walkthroughs/FAQs 2. Quick answers to specific questions, like where to get items, quest info & such 3. The most toxic opinions around

The file upload size limit has been increased from 2MB to 20MB on the Dragon Quest Wiki. There are a lot of images hosted on the Dragon's Den, as well as other places on the internet that can now be uploaded to the wiki. I may consider increasing this size even more if there is a need to do so.

Vocal minority in the fanbase. Likely less a minority in general as probably few fans made it to the class system in the PS1 days. Is one of those races named Skywalker? I see a DQ/Disney acquisition in the future!

Austin put up a blog today showing how you can transition from the Easy Play to having a SE account without losing your progress. https://geektogeekmedia.com/geekery/dragonquestaustin/how-to-play-dragon-quest-x-once-the-free-trial-ends-nintendo-switch/

This is what you want. Do you see this on your screen?

Invite sent. ANNOUNCEMENT: The team is nearly filled to capacity. This weekend I will be deleting inactive team-mates. I will be going off the in-game last login display. If it shows you have not been logged in for a very long time or has no record of when you last logged in, you may find yourself deleted from the team. If you are deleted and wish to return, submit a new invite. If you have your last login hidden, consider changing that. If I can't determine when you last logged in, you are assumed to be inactive.

Hi ROM. I see your team invite request. I'll process that today. First make sure you are logging into DQX on the Nintendo Switch. As long as you are playing DQX on the same Switch account that is connected to the E-Store you don't need to do anything special. When it's time to renew your license DQX will be able to access the E-Store and see the points. If you want to buy something from the Hiroba shop itself, I am not aware of any way to convert E-Shop balance into Crysta or to have it access the E-Shop for hiroba purchases. As far as I know only your subscription can be paid for with E-Shop funds.

I took five semesters at a community college and then some time later I took a break from it.

The graphics between Switch and PC, at least, look indiscernible to me. Switch has the obvious pro of being handheld. To me, pointing my phone at the Switch screen for translations is way easier than getting up and walking over to my TV every few seconds. But for an American, paying on Switch is way easier because you can buy Yen eshop points from PlayAsia. Edit: The Switch doesn't force you to take all character slots. That's only the PS4 version, as far as I'm aware.

No such thing exists. I've spoken to a few Enix employees over the years on several occasions. None of them ever mentioned of a build existing. This is likely because the coding company disbanded before any significant English work could've been done an inserted. Now...the translated Dragon Quest VI as Dragon Warrior V? THAT I want. It does exist! Probably only one test cart stowed away in a garage in Seattle, but it does exist.

I've got one! They're little books that listed all the different DQ merchandise. Awesome little bit of history.

There is a discord channel to discuss the Dragon Quest Wiki. Click the link below to join. I've also added this to the wiki homepage. https://discord.gg/CarvsMS

So there’s apparently a new Paper Mario game coming called Paper Mario: The Origami King. Just found it on the front page of the eshop this morning. You know, I REALLY wish Nintendo would get the hint that people want to see a Paper Mario game more in line with the first two. Hell, Super Paper Mario was drastically different in gameplay but still had the same approach to the character and world building the first two games had. Having replayed the first three a lot when I was growing up, it’s really disheartening to see the Paper Mario series continues to move away from what made the games so much fun and interesting in the first place.

Hello again Den, I rolled the dice and the next game to play came up DQ IX. I'm typing up text while I play -- 'cause I'm the gamescript girl -- and also 'cause I'm stupid and I didn't download Tom-Servo's text dumps before his site went down. (He has a bunch of links in this thread that are all dead now.) If anyone happens to have them, could you hook a girl up? Anyway, I also tried to figure out how to rip sprites, 'cause screenshots on my emulator are rather ... unsharp. And after much google-searching I found this brilliant tutorial. So after a little work last night and this morning, I have a few sprites to share with you good folks. What do you think? Don't they look pretty cool!?

The Epilogue is going well in Red Dead 2. I’ve been slowly exploring the new part of the world that’s opened up since you previously can’t explore it safely, and I’m seeing how this will tie in with the first game. Other than Red Dead 2, I’ve been in a fighting game mood. Took advantage of that and finally unlocked all the Gallery items in The King of Fighters XIV. I’ve slowly worked at unlocking all the Gallery items since I first got the game, and thankfully a run through arcade mode nets you 10 items at a time. Having the full gallery unlocked now, it’s great to see how much artwork from the series SNK included. There’s definitely a dip in art quality when you get to KoF2001 - 2003, but never the less you still get a huge amount of art to admire from the entire KoF franchise. It’s been a long time coming, so I’m glad to have everything unlocked.

I'm caught between pointing out that ballet is boring as #$*! and admitting that this is the closest western DQ fans have ever come to taste.

Okay, but only until I get around to actually drawing something.