In this thread RT tries to sell Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride to you
 

As we hit start we see a man walking left and right inside a room. We see a throne in the middle, so we assume he's, at the very least, some kind of noble. Silence is broken only by the tick-tocking of a clock, punctuating the nervousness that overwhelms this character. As we wonder how long this will go on, a fat man with a thick Spanish accent brings us good news -the baby is born, and it is a boy. The new father goes back to his wife and congratulates her, then suggests a name. She rejects it, however, and recommends something else (something of our choice; let's say HERO). Daddy celebrates the idea and holds up HERO, only to realise something's gone wrong -silence permeates the atmosphere again, this time broken by the cries of the newborn.


DQV is the story of HERO. It's about HERO's life, from childhood to death (at least until he gets revived at a church, then it continues again), becoming an adult while saving the world in the process. While that may not sound entirely original to some, Dragon Quest has always been about the journey in-between, not the destination. And, believe, this journey in particular has a lot of moments like the one in the beginning.


Graphically, it looks pretty much the same as Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen does (review impending!). 2D sprites (gorgeous 2D sprites) overlaying 3D locales that allow for camera rotation by use of the L and R buttons. It somewhat reminds me of how Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King compelled you to stop playing and gaze at the environment. For a Super Famicom game, DQV (at least the DS version) features beauties of similar nature.

How does it play? It plays like every other JRPG of the era (like a Dragon Quest ripoff). You go to towns, buy stuff, go the overworld, fight critters, go to dungeons, find more stuff, rinse and repeat. Battles take place randomly, transporting you to a different screen and commencing a war of attrition between your party and your enemies. What DQV has going for it (besides the lighting-fast battles) is monster-recruiting.


Before Pokémon became a word, the developers at Chunsoft decided, one day, that it would be cool if all those neat Akira Toriyama drawings worked for you, not against you. And say what you will about Akira Toriyama's tendency to put Son Goku in every video game, but you cannot deny his monster designs are always funny/charming/fun to look at (ask Fifth about his experiences with lobsters in DQVIII). Boasting around seventy different monsters, there's a ton of options to choose from. Best of all, you don't have to do any of this if you don't want to (you will have more than enough human party members by the endgame), so don't get too overwhelmed by the immensity of the party roster.

Aurally, the game is a joy. The title's soundtrack encompasses some of the best tunes Koichi Sugiyama has ever composed, including what is my favourite battle theme in any JRPG, and, if that's not of your liking, some soothing music for traveling. It may not be orchestrated like DQVIII was, but the DS synthesisers are strong enough to give you a sense of the beauty of these pieces.*

I don't know what else to talk about. The game should be cheap enough already considering nobody bought it when it first came out, so the Square tax should be irrelevant. And hey, you fuckers spent forty bucks on a re-release of Chrono Trigger that you didn't even like! At least Dragon Quest V had never been sold outside of Japan before. Get fresh! Try something new (yet old)! You won't regret it.

*I still recommend getting the Symphonic Suite.

Dammit RT, I'm still trying to finish up DQ4's bonus chapter, I don't need you piling more games onto my to do list. *frowny face*

Sounds good, though. I was gonna wait until after I beat Final Fantasy III but I guess not.

I got this and, honestly, I didn't really like it. There's something about fighting monster groups that you can't target a specific monster that I don't like. I'd like to mention how crazy the shopkeepers are, seeing as the main character is 6 or 5 in the start of the game but they're perfectly fine with selling him swords and other pointy things. After having played DQV and DQVIII, I gotta say, I liked DQM:Joker better.

I liked 5 much more than I did 4, and I loved 4.

Thankfully you can talk to your party, as they were talking about cutting that out. Also, Bianca is my favorite bride.

I purchased it quite some time ago but haven't had the time to play much, mostly because I use my DS at work and we've gotten busy :sweatdrop

Well, that and Super Robot Wars distracted me.

And the fact that since DS games cost less than PS3/360 games they only multiply my bad bad tendancy to buy way more games than I could ever play :stressed:

Could be worse. Your character could end up slicing thin air if there's no target. Luckily Dragon Quest isn't that crazy.

Any more. XP I'm pretty sure the first three ported to GBC were my first RPGs ever.

Actually I should probably beat Vagrant Story first...
 

Yeah, but, in my experience, all your guys will attack the same monster if they're attacking the same group, so it never becomes a problem.

So, as per the game title, do we get to choose who HERO marries or does he only marry the heavenly bride?

EDIT: Another question- Is this the same game I heard about where you can get your fortune told and it says who you'll end up with and one of the possible answers is a guy?

I think one of the things I love about the series is that, from my experience, they don't screw around. You will buff, debuff, grind, and do everything you can to conserve MP and HP, especially in the end dungeon, and if you don't you are SCREWED.

You get to pick between 3 women in this game (Two in the SNES version).

They are pictured in the picture up there, and your kids have their mom's hair color. They do kinda shoehorn you into picking Bianca, but the other two are perfectly acceptable women.

Nera and Deborah are better party members, however. And Deborah's party chat is hilarious.