So I should start off by saying that I've never really played a main series Dragon Quest game. I have Dragon Quest Builders as well as Dragon Quest Heroes. I enjoy these games well enough but I realize they're nothing like the JRPGs that their property is borrowed from. At one point I did own this game for PS2 and I played the first hour or so. At the time I remember thinking it was interesting but didn't get that far into it. Unfortunately I no longer own a PS2 nor any of the games I had for it as they mysteriously disappeared after several moves in college.

I kinda want to give this series a real try. After doing a little research, much like Final Fantasy, everyone has their personal favorites. And it seems that VIII is the one people hold the most regard for across the board with a littering of VII, V, and I think I remember a few IV's and VI's. Since this game just released on 3DS I figured this might be a good a time as any to give the series another shot. I was curious on what people's opinions were for the series and this port as well. I've heard a few things have changed, but mostly they were quality-of-life changes for the better. Is VIII a good jumping in point? Should I try another game first?

I should also note that I do have an iPhone and an iPad but after sampling a few of Square Enix's other ports to the platform somewhat recently I can't imagine it's the ideal way to play.

I have played 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9, and personally, 8 was the one that I enjoyed the most. They're all good games for their own reasons, but I think 8 balances great writing, story and mechanics the best. Regardless though, you have to really be down for a JRPG because they are all that at their core. You will grind and grind and grind some more, and if you want to do any of the late level shit, you will sink hours upon hours mashing the "A" button while you ope that you get hits in on metal slimes because no other battles garner enough experience to level up in a remotely timely fashion.

All told, it is a good game series with personality to spare and you can't really go wrong with any of them in my experience, as long as you are looking for and enjoy the grind that comes with a classic JRPG.

The series in particular IS the old school JRPG. Pretty much everything you know about the genre in terms of mechanics applies here. I haven't play nearly enough DQ but 8 has a very charming presentation and characters. It's a ridiculously long ass game though so just be sure about what you're signing up for.

@sethmode: Would you say grinding is very necessary to progress in these games, especially if I was to go with VIII? I can handle a bit of grinding but I'm curious to what level would I need to do so?

@matatat: Personally, I would say yes. I've never been super "good" at JRPGs, though, and have always kind of used the Vinny Caravella practice of overleveling to make up for that. So I might not be the best judge. That being said, I feel like I have beaten Final Fantasy games (like 4 and 6) while not really going out of my way to grind, while DQ8 I hit points where I was getting just demolished to the point where I had to go out and grind a bit just to compete. So, yeah, I guess my answer is yes, I think grinding is required, but some more seasoned fans may disagree.

What @liquiddragon said is also true...all of the games are just absurdly long. Most recently, playing through 7, I remember reading Polygon's review and them commenting on a moment where basically someone says "Your quest is about to begin!" and it being about 40 some hours into the game. So, yeah, they're a haul.

@liquiddragon: Yeah that was one of the more notable aspects of VIII that I noticed people saying was that it's particularly long comparatively. I don't know if I'd make it all the way through or if I did it would probably be a comparable experience to P4G where it takes me two years of on and off to get to the end.

Pretty much all of the main series DQ games are grindy and VIII is no exception. Especially early on you are going to want to grind a lot. Not just for leveling but also to get enough gold to buy the necessary equipment.

But yeah VIII is a great starting point. It's still an old-school type of JRPG but it's probably the most approachable one save for maybe IX. It has some fun sidequests and optional bosses too.

I never finished it but got like 60 somewhat hours into it so I think I was pretty close to the end.

This game is great!

THE Dragon Quest game is 3 though.

All DQ games are pretty approachable. 8 was my first and is a pretty good representation of the series' charm. That said, it is a pretty slow moving one, and the story isn't anything special. If you want something more concise I'd point you toward V or IX.

I've played about three hours of it. The biggest changes seem to be that encounters are no longer random - you bump into an enemy and that starts an encounter - and the music is now midi files instead of a full orchestra. They also put in voice acting. They say full voice acting, but what they really mean is that story scenes are voiced and random NPC's and shopkeepers and such are not. The voice acting has seemed fine so far, but it plays at a low bit rate so it doesn't sound great.

Overall, it seems like an excellent port. Wide open fields and huge caves full of waterfalls and enenies run without any performance issues whatsoever, no random encounters is great, and you can fast forward combat animations so grinding doesn't take so long.

And that leads to my final bit - this game seems like it's going to be really grindy. I don't have a problem with that, I need a game where I can do my grinding while listening to music/podcasts/UPF's/etc., but your mileage may vary on that.

@justin258: just to add to this: the remake of 7 also got rid of random encounters in favor of the same system as 8.

Thank you for posting this, OP! I was just recently thinking about jumping into the series as well. Now I know where I should start!

I finished my playthrough of VII on 3DS a few weeks ago, and just got started on this one. The lack of 3D is a big bummer, but the game still looks great and runs well. Its nice that I can started distributing skill points and specializing right from the get go instead of after 20 hours like in VII. For people concerned about grinding, I'd turn on the faster battle animations and use tactics so you dont have to select actions for your whole party durin each encounter.

Just picked it up, I remember trying to play DQVIII on the PS2 back in the day but never had the time to actually get invested in it. Having it on a portable system, with the added abilities of seeing the enemies and speeding up the battles is really great, I wish that they handled overlevelled battles like Earthbound did, where encountering an underlevelled enemy would just immediately cause you to win (but maybe that's in there).

In the DQ7 remaster, if you were above the zone's enemy threshold the enemies would run away from you on the map screen.