In your opinion, what's the best game in the series?

[Chaos 混沌 カオス]

As this is the only one I've played.

[ShockedHearts]

they all have amazing things about them. but from my personal experience the best game (to me) is DQ9

Ive always been about gameplay more than story, and even then i love the story for what little it provides. as well as the endless amazing post game and diverse gameplay it provides in comparison to all the other games.

building your own team and seeing your own faces with their own outfits with the weapons YOU gave them makes for an unique experience everytime you play.

can do a full playthrough with only priests if you wanted. or by yourself Hero only! (which was super fun) etc etc. by far my favorite and the one i put the most time intoa close second being DQ11 or DQ5

[Tim Allahn SnAckbarr]

Oh, I love these topics. Here's my ranking (followed by metacritic score by highest-scoring platform/port):

1. DQ8 - 89% (PS2)
2. DQ3 - 95% (NES)
3. DQ5 - 90% (iOS/Android)
4. DQ4 - 86% (iOS/Android)
5. DQ11 - 92% (DE, Xbox)
6. DQ9 - 87% (DS)
7. DQ7 - 81% (3DS)
8. DQ1 - 78% (SNES)
9. DQ6 - 86% (iOS/Android)
10. DQ2 - 82% (GBC)

Best Overworld: DQ8
Best Story: DQ5
Best Characters: DQ4

[m_brent]

Personally, DQ 11 is my favorite, followed by DQ 8, then by DW 3&4. I feel this series is gaining major momentum and excited for future title releases.

[Chaos 混沌 カオス]

From an objective, mechanical point of view, is 11 the best one?

A lot of people got into the series due to 8, at least in the west. But what I hear is 11 is basically an improved 8.

[Tim Allahn SnAckbarr]

İlk olarak Chaos 混沌 カオス tarafından gönderildi:

From an objective, mechanical point of view, is 11 the best one?

A lot of people got into the series due to 8, at least in the west. But what I hear is 11 is basically an improved 8.

I'm sure folks would find this disagreeable but...

11 is only "objectively" better in terms of graphics, the way I see it

8 is basically 11 if...

11 had a more engaging storyline that actively pulled you into the adventure the further you went along.

11 had a better cast of characters. Sure, 11 has Sylvando but then 8 has Yangus. Jessica is basically 3 one-dimensional characters (Veronica, Serena, Jade) rolled into a single well-written 3-dimensional character. Angelo is a playboy who has a huge sibling rivalry with Marcello. (Marcello is basically Jasper with a far more compelling backstory and motivation). Then you've got King Trode, Medea, Red, Dhoulmagus

11 had a silent protagonist done RIGHT (something 11 gets a lot of complaints for -- you can still do character development with a silent protag! 8 is a perfect example of this)

11 had a huge, sprawling open world. People who have played 8 complain that 11's world feels smaller than a game made in 2005... Not to mention, you can't even land Cetacea anywhere on the world map -- imo a huge downgrade from Empyrea in 8 (Ramia in 3, the balloon in 4, and... just about every prior entry in the series)

------

Though for 11's few shortcomings, it does a lot right. Content-wise, they're pretty comparable, with the DE version of 11 putting it a bit over the top.

I'm still left feeling that 8 was a lot more memorable at the end of the day.

[Chaos 混沌 カオス]

Interesting, Sylvia is actually my least favourite character, but I realize I wasn't the target audience that that kind of character was meant to appeal to. In spite of that, he still grew on me, he's very well written.

The story is pretty standard JRPG shounen, but it's still engaging enough for me to put 500+ hours into the game as of this writing. My steam review of the game says "In this game, you gather the 6 Dragon Balls in order to defeat the evil purple King Piccolo".

I actually like the girls of this game, but meh.

Can't comment on the silent protag thing.

8 has a larger world?

I should note that I've only played 11 S, so I can't actually compare it to vanilla 11, and you can't buy that version (easily) anymore.

[Gaunter O'Dimm]

Only played 8 and 11. Love both, but like 11 better.

[Chaos 混沌 カオス]

Now that I think about it, the worst, and worst, I mean less bad and more wasted, character is Emma. She should've been a party member, otherwise, she and Martina could've easily been one character.

[ehs03y3ol]

DQV is a masterpiece. DQI and DQII are solid games as origins of genre. DQIV is also great.

DQIII and DQVI are more -grinding- oriented mechanics with jobs systems.

[Ebon Wolf]

Watching people still fanboy over 8 is pretty funny. Nostalgia and rose tinted glasses are strong. 8's world is barren and the best thing about it was the monster hunting. Dungeon design was absolute trash too. It felt larger because of the character perspective but it was empty non the less.

Outside of their small arcs the characters in 8 weren't all that. They def had cooler designs tho not gonna lie. Angelo is probably the best party member imo. 11 characters stayed with me longer, were far more varied (motivations, backstory, etc) and I have massive nostalgia for 8.

Leveling was trash with the randomized stats and the grind was absolutely ridiculous and necessary to progress past certain bosses/areas. And the post game? I never thought anything could beat 8 but I was wrong. So my main point is 11 does most things better than 8. Gameplay, leveling, dungeons, main cast, smithing, and story at the halfway point-ending/post game. 8 has better music, tension system (nothing beats going SSJ), way better pacing (especially in the beginning), way harder difficulty if we compare BASE games and not draconian quest, better NPCs, and a larger but empty world.

None of this matters tho because like the person above me said, DQV is goated.

[Chaos 混沌 カオス]

"Leveling was trash with the randomized stats"

Whoa whoa whoa am I reading right?

[Tim Allahn SnAckbarr]

İlk olarak Chaos 混沌 カオス tarafından gönderildi:

Now that I think about it, the worst, and worst, I mean less bad and more wasted, character is Emma. She should've been a party member, otherwise, she and Martina could've easily been one character.

Emma/Gemma was a huge missed opportunity, and that feels like the case with a lot of 11's potential (more on this later). If she had been more central to the story or quests throughout the game, I would feel more connection to her character (hence her marriage option would feel more meaningful).

Compare this with Medea in 8, who travels with you throughout the adventure. You regularly see them in cutscenes, you feel for their plight, and you want to see them returned to normal.

I think in the case of both these characters, it would have been nice if they were actually playable in some form. Gemma comes along with you for about 5 minutes on your adventure (as an otherwise automated battle NPC), but would've been nice to have her along more, even if she still wasn't super useful (lol).

İlk olarak Ebon Wolf tarafından gönderildi:

I can agree with a lot of your points, actually. Though there are some caveats.

11 has:
-A much denser world, although it can be a little too much imo as the game rewards you a little too frequently for very little "exploration".

-More meaningful progression: You'll finish 8 before even reaching level 50 (the Dragovian Quests in postgame, however, require extreme grinding). Not sure about "randomized stats" (?), though

-More means of travel: 11 has a bunch of monster mounts, although they're only ever used in a handful of otherwise one-off situations. Still beats having just the sabrecat in 8.

-More playable characters: this varies up the gameplay much more than just the 4 in 8 (PS2), Morrie and Red (3DS version) may make this more comparable.
--I'd still contend that the character development seemed better in 8, though that's easier to do with fewer main characters to keep track of. However 4 did the best of any of them in terms of characters, and it has 9 playable in the remakes

-More dungeons (I think?): without going through them on a 1-to-1 basis, i'd give 11 the edge here just by sheer numbers.
--8 has: Waterfall Cave, Tower of Alexandra, Ruined Abbey, Wisher's Peak, Swordsman's Labyrinth, Trodain Castle, Royal Hunting Ground, Dark Ruins, Rydon Tower, Ice Cave, Pirate's Cove, (SouthEast) Empyrea Mountain, Black Citadel, Dragovian Path, Heavenly Dais
--I'll let you count 11's (lol). I still consider all of 8's as being very unique and more "memorable". I'll let others be the judge of whether "more memorable" is just nostalgia (8) vs recency bias (11)

-A larger "postgame": Though I take one issue with 11 in that I do not consider the last 1/3 of the game to be a "postgame". To me, it did not feel like the full game without Act 3 -- there were too many loose ends and the end of Act 3 felt like the only satisfying conclusion.
--8, on the other hand, felt complete without the postgame. The Dragovian Trials was just gravy on top of an already (more-or-less) complete adventure. Sure there were some major reveals upon the completion of the first trial, but it didn't feel like it was a huge chunk of the game I would have missed out on. Beyond the first attempt, the Drag Trials were rather repetitive.

-Forging: Way better than the alchemy pot (8). Though finding the recipes could be fun in 8, 11's element of having this extra "minigame" and getting better "rarities" of equipment as a result was a blast.

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

All that said, Definitive Edition changes things a bit[sites.google.com] as it also adds Tickington (2D Mode), QoL improvements (such as Forge Anywhere), etc. Which does a lot to add content and up the overall experience.

And then, consider that 11 has a much more robust modding scene and it pretty much addresses everything else:

Music -- https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonquestxisdefinitiveedition/mods/5
Tension -- https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonquestxisdefinitiveedition/mods/117
Postgame/Difficulty -- https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonquestxisdefinitiveedition/mods/106
Playable Characters -- https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonquestxisdefinitiveedition/mods/2
Mounts Anywhere -- https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonquestxisdefinitiveedition/mods/1
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2309481155
...and much much more

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I base a lot of my opinion on the original (OG) release and the vanilla experience without mods.

[solidap]

Was DQ3 ever remade or ported, or is it still NES only?

[Absolute beggar]

İlk olarak solidap tarafından gönderildi:

Was DQ3 ever remade or ported, or is it still NES only?

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake inc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmfiqydPjVk

[Tim Allahn SnAckbarr]

İlk olarak solidap tarafından gönderildi:

Was DQ3 ever remade or ported, or is it still NES only?

DQ3 is probably the most ported game in the series at this point: NES, SNES (Japan only, but there's a translation patch[www.romhacking.net]), GBC, Mobile and on Switch (which is really very similar to the mobile port)

Then (as stated above) there's HD-2D, which is likely coming in the next year or two:

İlk olarak C. tarafından gönderildi:

Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake inc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmfiqydPjVk