Around the time that I ran out of steam partway through playing Final Fantasy VII, I decided to start another and equally grueling quest to play through all of the Dragon Quest games in order. I don't remember why I thought that was a good idea, but here we are.
I'm a few years behind on making this list, so here's where I am going off of my records.
Beaten 2016.
Here we have what seems to be where the JRPG genre became a thing. There isn't too much going on with this game. You walk around in an overworld getting into Ultima style 1-on-1 slap fights with a few small dungeons thrown in for flavor. The character and gear progression move at a steady pace, and really most of the engagement for the player is going to be in stat management. There's a couple of nice little goofs in the back half of the game, but overall it's a super old fashioned RPG with an extra layer of usability on top.
And really, that's probably the main point where this game diverged Japanese RPGS from the older and contemporary CRPGs. This game was meant to be played by normal humans with a two button controller. Maybe it could have been seen as "baby's first RPG" by grognards at the time, but the choice to streamline gameplay would open the door for later games to take the narrative-first approach that would define the genre.
Anyway, it's still somehow a fun little game, and I would recommend playing any of the updated versions.
Played on iOS.
Beaten 2016.
Here's the sales pitch: what if Dragon Quest but with THREE characters instead of one?!? Sounds cool until you realize that this game was undercut by FF1 which had four characters. Oh well.
But the game itself is an ideal sequel. It's bigger but not overgrown: the map is about twice as larger, there's way more dialogue, it's slightly longer, and has the aforementioned 200% increase in party size. The only other notable thing is a nice gag in the back half of the game referencing DQ1. It's a fun but forgettable little game.
Played on iOS.
Beaten 2016.
I almost ran screaming from this thing when I started it up and realized this is where the series introduces a job system. After overcoming my FFIII PTSD, I dove into this thing. In a step back from the previous game, there is barely a plot to speak of with most of the effort seeming to have gone into making the open-ended party building and job system work correctly; which they largely succeed at doing. The amount of grinding is probably twice that of DQII, but it doesn't feel as burdensome as the FFIII and FFV job systems. If I remember correctly, this is where the series got started with it's hilariously straightforward usage of job abilities: when a character learns a spell or skill from a job it stays with them even after the change jobs. By the end of these games you can end up with each party member having literally dozens of spells and skills at their disposal. This solves the problems that the Final Fantasy series kept running into at the cost of being absurd; I appreciate the trade-off. Other than that, the opening cutscene is the coolest part of the game and the world map is...questionable. This can probably be skipped unless you're a lunatic like me.
Played on iOS.
Beaten 2016.
This is where the series starts to pick up steam as far as characters and story are concerned, mainly in that there are characters and a plot. This thing is unique in that there is a rigid chapter structure where each chapter introduces different party members and the different story conflicts before putting it all together at the end and getting on with it. The quality of the chapters vary, but it does include my absolute favorite section of game that I have experienced in any JRPG: Tornecko's chapter. Tornecko is the best character in the franchise as far as I'm concerned. I could go on for multiple paragraphs about it, but suffice to say that his chapter is the most different experience I've seen from the NES/SNES eras of games.
Anyway, the game eventually gets on with it and proceeds normally, but with the largest cast of party members that the series has seen. Notably, this thing ends with a completely gratuitous 17-stage final boss battle.
Played on iOS.
Beaten 2016.
A lot of what people remember of this game is the weird bride picking choice at the mid-point of the game. While there is certainly some stuff to unpack from that, there is so much else going on in this one. Out of the entire franchise this game has the most compelling narrative. It follows the protagonist's various misadventures aver the course of about 20-30 years; starting him off as a kid, does some Fable stuff to him, sees him through as a young adult until he eventually gets married and has kids before getting tragically removed from events for like a decade, and ending with a family road trip for revenge. Also there's a whole Pokemon-esque monster training component that is just kind of there. The main downside is that the difficulty curve is all over the place, which frustrates investment in the story. With that said, this is the one worth looking at out of all of these games.
Also, Bianca is the only correct option IMO.
Played on iOS.
Beaten 2017.
I dunno. It's the biggest of the classic DQ games by far, with two large world maps and a lengthy campaign. There are a couple of interesting moments and it gets surprisingly dark at times, but I couldn't be bothered to remember any of the character names. It just doesn't leave that big of an impression and is probably the least interesting of the SNES era games, even though it's the most balanced and reasonable in terms of gameplay. Meh.
Played on iOS.
Abandoned 201X.
Ugh...Seriously though, UGH.
This game is torturously boring. I was interested when I learned that it had an island-of-the-week type of plot structure, but most of the island plots are monstrously dull. There's nothing to write home about with the gameplay either other than a few weird and frustrating difficulty spikes. There are a couple of effective story moments, but it's drowned in a sea of monotony. Having a wet fart of a story wouldn't necessarily be a deal breaker, but this game easily twice as long as the longest previous DQ game. I made it ~85% of the way through and just could not muster the interest in clearing the last few grinding hurdles. This thing isn't worth anything.
Played on 3DS.
Ongoing?
DQVII broke my spirit. I'll get to this eventually.
Played on PS2.
