Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Best in series"

I really do love the Dragon Quest series a whole bunch, and if it wasn't for this challenge I don't think I be playing any of the games at this point. DQ5 is a particular gem that I would be very sad to see myself not play, now that I have played. It's just so different in terms of story in RPGs, and frankly it baffles me that Dragon Quest can be so revolutionary yet still the same to its predecessors. I mean, playing DQ5 still felt the same, the monsters, music, and battles are all similar to the previous 3 Dragon Quest games I have played, and yet the game presents itself so differently that I can't keep myself away from it. Just the fact that you pretty much play an RPG of your own life is awesome. You have a childhood and go off adventuring, become a teen and get married, then have kids and go off as a family to save the world. It's so surreal and wonderful how it's executed. The characters, mainly the wives, add so much charm to it too, and doing this run on the DS version I pick Debora as my wife because I'm a softy for women that are tsundere types. It's just amazing to watch her grow as a person when you're with her as her husband, she changes, and you can tell she does throughout the story. Just little things like that that make me love DQ5 all the more.

Course, DQ5 has its flaws, but there is only a minor and major one I see, but they are tolerable. Minor problem DQ5 has is in one particular area where it really isn't made clear what you're supposed to do. Like I literally had no problems knowing where to go till I got to this a certain point in the game, and bam! Stuck. The game just kinda loses ya because of how fast it's going. It got really annoying, but again it's a minor problem and it doesn't really happen again. The major problem I have with DQ5 though, the bias of the wives. While the game gives you a choice, it sure does guilt you do making the one it wants you to make. Like it really gets annoying with the amount of "you should marry Bianca" guilt, like is it really giving me a choice? Kinda like your parents giving you an option when clearly they want you to do one and not the other option. I mean, it gets to the point where it's shown in the gameplay, like the other two wives, Nera and Debora, you have to grind them to decent levels and even then they are then unusable for the majority of the game. Like why even give us a wife to use, when we can't even use her? I know it sounds like a lot of complaining for something so trivial, especially considering that this game pretty much invented pokemon, but I really did like the wives in DQ5. They were a really cool concept, and I suppose I didn't want the honeymoon to be over, perhaps I just have some issues to work out?

Conclusion: Dragon Quest 5 did something I really don't see RPGs do, and yet it still was the same game from the same series I grew to love. Aside from a few hand selected problems, DQ5 charmed me with its life growing story, interesting characters, and inspiring monster/ally system.