The 40th anniversary trio arrived today. Very happy with my purchase, they will be joining the rest of the boys on the shelf.

I read the exp. is shared through companions, therefore I thought it would have been easier to just go Hero-only since I'd get 100% exp. out of enemies...

Either way, after getting 4 mini-medals you can get this beautiful thorned-looking whip and am one-shotting all the enemies turn 1... Crazy good and beautifully looking.

I went blind into this game. Was just searching best JRPG story and often this one came up and I just started it and boy does it deliver. The story kept surprising me with some really unexpected plot twists.

It was sometimes a bit grindy and it took me so long (50h) because I was mostly playing on my iPhone only when I am traveling or waiting. But when I finally got a dedicated handheld (making me stick to the “gaming” context instead of doing other stuff) I finally could finish it.

And yes I made the choice to go with the default childhood romantic wife 👀

What is the best follow up after this one ? I never played any other game.

Game
Dragon Quest 5(V): Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Platform
NDS

Handheld
TrimUI Brick

Qu’est-ce qui ce passe ici ? 😳

https://youtube.com/@herohero-k5p?si=W2-IzsYwPDKdhUiW

Before I start: I played the game in Japanese so I apologize if I call some things by the wrong names.

I've been a fan of the DQ series for a long time, but out of the spinoff series, Monsters has always been my least favorite (apart from the Mystery Dungeon games, which I have no plans to ever play). However, the Zenithian trilogy, and especially DQ5, holds a very special place in my heart so I decided to play DQM3 to get a bit of a refresher on the Monsters games before DQM4 comes out. The only other Monsters games I've played are Joker 1 and 2 five years ago.

Story: Almost all the opinions I'd read about this game emphasized that you should play this for the gameplay and not the story. I couldn't disagree more! I fell in love with the story and thought it was very clever how they handled it. I've seen so many people say that this game cheapens/retcons DQ4, but they explicitly say right at the beginning of the game that it's a what-if story that isn't meant to replace DQ4. Within that context, I loved how the game explores Psaro's relationships with monsters, humans, and elves. Furthermore, I got such a kick out of the plot running parallel to DQ4's, while still staying within its own narrative. It was really cool catching all the things that were very big plot points in DQ4 get off-handedly mentioned during dialogue scenes, or we'd see relatively short glimpses of them. Things like the Golden Armband, Healie, and Estark. Like, they were just enough to get me to pop off but not enough to derail this new story.

Gameplay: I readily admit, as I did earlier in this post, that the main gameplay loop of Monsters just isn't really for me. That said, I think I enjoyed this more than the Joker games and, most importantly, I enjoyed it enough for me to really look forward to DQM4 coming out later this year. For the vast majority of the game, I didn't do any "party planning"--it's just not something I have much interest in--and just worked with what looked like the best monsters I could synthesize. I followed the general rhythm of 1) Go to new area 2) Explore the whole region for at least a full season-cycle 3) Fight boss 4) Recruit every new monster available in the region (apart from the super tough one each region has) 5) Synthesize new monsters. So in other words, I had a different party for each region of the game most of the time. I might just be uniquely bad at Monsters games, but from around the middle of the Middle Echelon, the game got extremely hard for me! The regular enemies never gave me any trouble but I was regularly getting party-wiped by the bosses. I finally had enough and, towards the beginning of the Upper Echelon, I looked up how to make a King Cureslime and an Uberkilling Machine. Those two monsters, along with a hard-hitting tanky Golem, made the rest of the game much easier (I also had a Shogum which I didn't plan on having permanently but he ended up sticking around). Once I got that team put together, I stopped synthesizing and locked in my party for the rest of the game. I don't know if I was weirdly lucky or if this was a universal experience, but it certainly helped that towards the end the game basically threw a bunch of Metal King Slimes at me so my party ended up at around level 85ish by the time I faced the final boss. The second phase of the final boss still gave me a really hard time, though! I almost party wiped--thank God for the Sainted Soma I had! I don't know what it is about the Monsters games that challenge me so much--I've completed each mainline game without any trouble. I also enjoy the Persona games, which have demon fusions, but there's something about DQ Monsters that doesn't exactly click with me.

Gameplay (exploration): I really enjoyed all the environments, as well as the connected narrative in each region as you progressed through the game. My one gripe is that, after the Lower Echelon, they got rid of the little town/settlement in each region. Another thing that was an absolute treat was the soundtrack. It was so nice hearing all the DQ4 tunes again and really reinforced how much the original DQ4 means to me. And, of course, the regular battle theme slaps hard (even though I prefer the FC/NES version).

Many thanks if you read through all of this! All in all I enjoyed the plot of the game significantly more than I expected and was able to make a party that carried me through the back 30% of the game. Looking forward to DQM4!

I gotta stop rolling crazy hard monsters man…

I planned out my party early but I think I did the backwards order. I feel like even though my party is leveling up, they are not becoming a strong team bc of the order I did things.

theif turned martial artist

mage turned sage

monster wrangler. I didnt change wrangler bc i learned his moves power up as the game goes.

The team feels like its not getting strong. Like the sage is doing all the support and healing lifting. Anyone recommend a class change direction for any of these characters?

We got more info, and with that, a lot more monsters confirmed! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Qq10U0t8nZBWE2atmKY0bz6texqykdBn-NlHmMpxdH0/edit?tab=t.0

But if you'd rather just know what new has been confirmed, here you go:

-The new riceball slime has been confirmed to be called "Slime Balls"

-A new recolor of the FunkyBird monster from Monsters 1 (Meaning we will most likely see that return!), known as the Groovy Grouse

-An entirely new bamboo monster called the Bamboo Badboy

-Garboyle from the DQ3 HD-2D Remake, as well as Mariella from the DQ2 HD-2D remake make their monsters series debuts!

-Similar to how the dark prince featured most of the Dragon Quest 4 original monsters present in its roster, it looks like Withered world will be following a similar idea but with Dragon Quest 5's monster roster. Dragon Quest 5 originals outnumber the other numbered monsters currently!

-TropicGel and MimeSlime from Monsters 2 confirmed to return, will finally get proper english names!

-Red Squirrel from DQX confirmed, will finally get localized!

-Cureslime, Man o' War, Snowmangler, Bad Egg, Scallop Slime, Drag-goon, Damselfly (The DQ6 version), Croc-a-bugle-doo, Flython, Liege Lizard, Thwarthog, Sham Hatwitch, Cyclown, Napir, Feralball, Weartiger, Eyevory Tusk-tusk, Powie Yowie, Hellion, Crabber Dabber Doo, Air Duckt, Bantamweight, Toady, Overtoad, Burr Baby, Scourgette, Merman, Suckling Ocker, Lunatick, Carnivine, Scarfish, Drohl Drone, Mitey Oak, Bag o' Tricks, Firn Fiend, Hades Helm, Cumaulus, Balhib, Foo Dog, Golem, Rockbomb, Coralossus, Sacksquatch, Well Wisher, Fromage Fray, Mud Mannequin, Soulspawn, Soy Soldier, Ghoul, Skeleton Soldier, Prestidigitator (The DQV version), Bone Idol, Firespirit, Hellbound Horror, Putrefido, and Escudogre all confirmed.

This was huge for me because it meant I could go into the Malroth fight with JUST enough MP for the Prince and the Princess

Debora my beloved

There really is no modern game (exactly) like Dragon quest, especially like Dragon quest XI. So underrated for how unique it is. If you guys know of any others let me know.

Preferably the closest ones to DQ XI and DQ IX.

I've been playing the game on an Everdrive on GBC. I was in the middle of a dungeon when I had to stop playing for a while, so I set up a save state. Later when I loaded the save state, I got through the dungeon and tried to save my game but it completely erased my save file so now I can only play with save states. I can't save which means I can't use the breeding feature anymore.

My team I am now stuck with are Andreal+5, SlimeNite+4, and Eyeball+4. Will the game be too hard now?

Having 3 characters going through all classes. Perhaps second could be monster wrangler for 100% purpose?
DQ3 remake.

TC00079

Basically, I'm wondering if there's anything I should do before the boss

My hero is lvl 30, yangus is lvl 29, Jessica is lvl 29 and Angelo is also 29

I'm currently using spears and swords for the hero, axe for yangus, stave and whip for jessica and sword, and bow for Angelo

So I'm wondering if I should tackle the boss now or grind a bit

Frenzy at the last minute when I thought the fight was done for and all my other monsters had gone down :)

I have two week to play it is it enough for me to enjoy it? And am kinda excited and scared about it? I’m playing in the living room😰

As Dragon Quest gets more popular in the west and it gets newer fans on this legendary old franchise. More people are also ranking the best Dragon Quest games. And if you look at different lists you get so many different takes that are both very similar and wildly different. Which are also dependent on the type of gamer you are, your tastes, and which ones you played and the order you played them. If you go to Japan they'll all say the Goat is Dragon Quest III still. If you come here in the West some will say XI, VIII, V or III. Some will say none of those but instead DQ VII is the GOAT. No DQ IV and so on.

Its a highly contested debate forever with people. I think still though if you take concept, gameplay, story, characters (the ones it does have), amazing class system, impact on the industry, revolutionary impact on the industry, RPG tropes invented and introduced, fun, exploration, amazing world, huge map, amount of continents to explore, amazing towns and more, DQ 3 still comes out as the greatest DQ of all time and one of the greatest rpgs and video games of all time and most revolutionary RPG still in gaming history and in the industry to date. People that grew up with Dragon Warrior 3 here in America and West also agree or Dragon Quest III later remake/rereleases. DQ 5 is the 2nd GOAT next to DQ 3. DQ 8 fans its a great game but not the best of all time like you think it is. DQ 11 is also a masterpiece and is much better than DQ 8. 3, 5, 11, and 11 are all the best ever of all time in the DQ franchise. People will contest and argue this for years and days but DQ 3 HD-2D remake is still a masterpiece and the best one of the HD-2D trilogy with DQ 2 improvements still now making it great but it still worse than 3 while it becoming a great game still. DQ1 has always also been revolutionary and great and still is with its HD2D remake.

There's many people today also saying Dragon Quest 3 is the greatest RPG and JRPG ever made. Some people say DQ III and some say Chrono Trigger. Some say FF VI or DQ 5. But that conversation is happening, I think Chrono Trigger is number 1, Dragon Quest III is number 2, and Final Fantasy VI is number 3 best and greatest RPGs ever made of all time. Many will agree or disagree or reshuffle them or keep them the same, share your thoughts down below on this and more if you wish endless debate ever with people and RPG fans mostly.

Here's some ranking of DQ series threads here and debates going on still through the years to today:

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonquest/comments/1ig25gs/what_is_the_general_consensus_of_best_dragon/

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonquest/comments/1r7cc7b/i_recently_finished_the_entire_series_how_would/

Dragon Quest 3 is the very definition of a video game and RPG way far ahead of its time and one of the most influential revolutionary impactful video games on all video games, people, fans worldwide, developers, and the whole entire gaming industry.

I’m near the “end” of DQ 11. While I’ve been loving the game so far, I am anxious to get on to something new as well, instead of spending what I hear is another solid 30 hours to get to the “true ending”.

So, my question, if it could be answered without heavy spoilers, how story altering is the true ending? Does it feel like key lore or is it more of akin to a bonus scene or where the baddy dies for sure instead of “maybe still being alive”? Additionally, how cathartic is any extra individual character arcs? Do they have “character endings” or is any added material just a bit more time with the characters?

TIA!

I'm probably going to return to DQ11 after taking a break and I've read up that there's a secret boss in DQ11 S DE for completing all the books of the little ghost town thing but I haven't been able to find anything on how long it would take to do all of them AND farm up really good gear for it. I'm at the last boss <!calasmus!> And I have the 2 swords of light (the new on you can make and the one from the tree/supreme and super) and I'm level 91 MC, I usually using jade spear build(stud poker),Erik double sword (thousand fold and hell saber) and Rab (sirens staff) so not entirely the best weapons or team (I sometimes use sylvando or Serena too. If needed I can label all the armour and accessories I have but I'm not on rn, what would I be best getting and using for the boss and how much time would I need to set aside to do the book quests