Dragon Quest V offers addictive gameplay along with an amazing dual-screen presentation.
In the fifth installment of the Dragon Quest franchise you follow a journey that crosses three generations of a families legacy. Within progress you will explore different landscapes, get to know likable characters and lots of various monsters. Sounds like any other PRG? Anyways, where Dragon Quest V really stands out is the plot: What starts as an childhood adventure of a young hero and his father quickly leads to an amazing RPG experience of a young man travelling through the world while he has to make decisions that directly influence the future. As you proceed you may recruit many monsters and even choose your own wife!
Basically Dragon Quest V looks like DQ IV on the DS. Which doesn’t mean it’s bad. The graphics create a nostalgic feeling and they are very colorful. In addition to that you might rotate the camera 360°. Unfurtunately occasional slowdowns might happen. As both screens show ingame graphics you will hardly miss anything of interest onscreen. However, as you come to the worldmap you will see a 2D visual design.
The game delivers classic RPG style and therefore it has a classic turn based combat system as well. You encounter enemies in a first person view, so you won’t see your heroes fight. It is very similar to Dragon Quest IV and it offers random encounters, too. But fighting is almost never boring thanks to enemy selection. Foes vary due to continent, region, and time of day. To that enemy attacks vary a lot and have different animations.
What makes Dragon Quest V better than average RPGs is its great monster taming system, where you recruit more than 50 monster types by defeating them in combat. All of them might wear equipment, cast spells, and of course gain Experience points. After filling all of your eight party member slots, you can send any new monsters which you recruited off to a monster daycare. There you can store more than 70 creatures.
Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is an amazing remake that approaches on the DS delivering addictive gameplay along with a great presentation. It has a great plot and the monster taming system offers high replayability. As you will play 40-45 hours through the main story the gameplay will keep you busy for more than that. The twists in the storyline add even more replay value. It is a gem on the DS which I recommend to anyone who likes RPGs and if you enjoyed Dragon Quest IV you will like Dragon Quest V even more.