I haven't ever played a Dragon Quest game (sorry for just now responding to your IM from yesterday in this thread @oldjersey) and I feel like I should but don't know where to start at this point
8 really does feel like playing a story book in the best way, but 9 is my fav. idk how it would hold up now that the online services are disconnected and you can't get all the dlc quests/items, but it was a wonderful game to party up with people on. the multiplayer was offline only but we had a big game night at a store i managed and we'd always play high level stuff. so much content.
4, 5 or 8 is the peak IMO, 11 will also be a good place to start. Like FF they’re all standalone, just recurring monsters/ideas/themes, etc.
That's good to know! As long as it's standalone I'll know to try one out and if I don't end up liking that one much I can pick up another
I've played around with a few Dragon Quests, like 4-6 and all were fun. What makes 8 so great to me is that I really like the characters and the storyline right off the rip. Art style is beautiful too.
Totally forgot I still had my ps2 stored away so now I'm gonna use this for backwards compatibility and go back and play some games I missed the first time around. Wish I didn't sell all those old games now though.
rough unordered top 10 (also only including one per series because that makes things easier, could honestly just do a top 10 of final fantasy or shin megami tensei games easily) because i don't feel like stressing over the order: vagrant story final fantasy tactics/6 (i lied, i can't just pick one final fantasy) valkyrie profile dragon quest 8 shin megami tensei 3: nocturne trails in the sky SC chrono trigger fire emblem path of radiance paper mario: the thousand year door suikoden 2 two honorable mentions go to the ys series as a whole for being incredible and having some of the most fun action combat in a jrpg and nier and nier automata for having some of the most creative stories and storytelling in all of gaming.
Final Fantasy, kupo playing: mobius final fantasy dissidia FF omnia opera ff7 ff9 played: ff explorers (got too repetitive, was fun, but had to drop it) finished: xiii xiii-2 lightning returns type-0 XV World of FF backlog: vi x x-2 xii zodiac age -- Oh and of course, I finished and absolutely loved Persona 5. Uhhh I also finished Pokemon Y. That was a good time. And I know it got some mixed reviews, but I watched some Lost Sphear and I think I'll pick it up eventually. It looks pretty fun. Probably also Tales of Berseria. Eventually. Uhhh. Yeah. I'm focusing on the FF games for the time being for the most part.
I remember my parents buying me Final Fantasy X on my 13th birthday and I secluded myself in my room whilst there was a party downstairs and had to replay the opening sequence with Auron, Tidus & Sin about 5 times because I was in sheer awe at the scale and scope of this game (and kept being interrupted). That game had some of the most fantastic story-telling and took up a HELL of a lot of my time, something I do not regret one bit. I haven't played a Dragon Quest game. The only other games or RPGs that have held this amount are the likes of FIFA, Dragon Age: Origins, Skyrim, Pokémon and perhaps Breath Of Fire IV and even Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty. The characters, the world, the battle system, the hidden areas, the silly games (even that one in the Calm Lands) to get the weapons. It opened up a whole new world of gaming for me and i'm sure everyone has a game like that. I started playing the "old school" after that, previous FF games, Dragoon, Tales Of, Star Ocean but none of them will hit me the way FFX did. Gaming is about the detail and cinematics these days, a good JRPG will always beat for me.
doesn't help that it's only three games, the third of which is a fairly mediocre spinoff, but yeah, the first two games are absolutely incredible, such a wonderfully unique series. i'd give anything for valkyrie profile 3 (it's a shame exist archive, the team's attempt at a spiritual successor wasn't very good) or at the very least a remaster/rerelease of 1 and 2.