One of the longest lasting RPGs around but overall a dissapointment, even for a fan...
I wasn't expecting a huge overblown plot in the ilk of Final Fantasy so reall that wan't what dissapointed me. I actually quite liked the charactors (for what little face time they got) and the premise of rebuilding the world by traveling back in time was interesting, but the real killer is the pacing. It was ahefty two hours before I even saw combat, and it turned out to be as unsatisfying as the graphics. To be honest I had a lot more fun with the older Dragon Warrior games combat than this one. It just felt too stiff and simply wasn't a joy to play and that can kill a game of this type. This being a Dragon Warrior game it meant hours of level building to power up your party so you can tackel the next challenge but that does nothing for you if the combat is this boring. To put it simply the older games in the series did it much better and with much more style. It seems their obsession with keeping to thier roots wnet a little too far. I must say though in the games favor it can easily last upwards of 100-200+ hours thanks to a huge ammount of content that can easily save the game for those who have the will to work for it. And it's not often you can call a game 100 hours long and actually mean it like with this game. In that way it is, in fact, unique.
Another major flaw is its por presentation. Past Dragon Warriors looked much better compaired to the other games on thier respective platforms. They tried to update the game atleast a little by using the method of the day in having 2Dsprites on 3D background but thanks to battle sprites that looked like theyr were drawn by a child the spite style just doesn't sit well. It's one thing ofr a game to not age well but this game looked old before it was even new.
The music is nothing special. suits the rest of the bland presentation, not much else to say. No truly memorable themes like past instalments. No voice over to speak of. Not much to say.
Overall it depedns on what you're looking for I guess. If you don't mind dull battles and an anchient interface in favor for some seriously hardcore extra content and longlife span then jump on eBay and hunt down a copy for yourself right now. But most people, including fans of the series like myself, will be dissapointed. Thank goodness Dragon Quest VIII is here and has become the game we all knew Dragon Quest would become.