More Thoughts From Me #32: Quest For A Dragon

I haven’t always liked Dragon Quest. I was originally more of a Final Fantasy fan and could careless about Dragon Quest. But as Final Fantasy moved away from turn-based role playing games, Dragon Quest has continued to embrace old school rpgs and do it very well. For this More Thoughts, I want to talk about what my first Dragon Quest game was, what my favorite Dragon Quest game is, and why I’m super excited for Dragon Quest 7!

My first Dragon Quest was called Dragon Warrior. I played the very first game on the NES and…I didn’t like it. In fact, I didn’t like rpgs at all then. I was young. Give me a break! But years later, I happened to play Dragon Warrior again and…I still didn’t like it.

Why didn’t I like Dragon Warrior 1? I think that the game was much too simple. Yes, I know that’s how rpgs were at the time. I guess I’m not much of an old school rpg player. I find it very hard to get into rpgs that don’t have an epic storyline full of colorful characters and a huge good looking world to explore (I include SNES rpgs in the good looking category). But there is a Dragon Quest that I like a lot! Let me tell you about that game.

Dragon Quest 9 was the first Dragon Quest that I loved a lot. Sure, Dragon Quest 8 was pretty good and I’m looking forward to the 3DS version, but Dragon Quest 9 was super addictive. In DQ9, you created your own character, in fact you created you’re whole group, but there were tons of Non-playable characters that you encountered with wonderful personalities. Plus, the world you explored was huge and had tons of secrets. There was just so much to do in Dragon Quest 9. You could play the game for a very long time. I also loved that the game had local multiplayer. My dad and I teamed up for a lot of Dragon Quest 9 battles!

I’ve tried other Dragon Quest games since then. I played the remakes that appeared on the DS and thought they were ok. I do love the Dragon Quest series now, but I haven’t loved every entry in the series. I still think the series is a heck of a lot better than Final Fantasy at the moment! And I can’t wait to play Dragon Quest 7!

I’m very excited for Dragon Quest 7. The game’s gameplay and graphics look very good. I also love how the game has jobs like Dragon Quest 9 and it also has special random dungeons almost like DQ9 had! Plus: add in the casino, download bar, and hours and hours of gameplay (and time travel!), well, Dragon Quest 7 is going to be great. Yes, this next Dragon Quest could end up taking nine’s place as my favorite Dragon Quest game!

On September 16th, we’ll finally get to play Dragon Quest 7 for the 3DS. I wish it was September already. I wish I could just download DQ7 now! But we still have a little ways to go. Meanwhile, I’ve been replaying Dragon Quest 9 and having a lot of fun with it. I still wish I was playing 7 instead, but 9 is a very good stop gap! And I can tell you right now that I will definitely be doing a Dragon Quest 7 first impressions  for More Thoughts after the game comes out.

So what do you think of Dragon Quest? Do you have a favorite game in the series? Let us know in the comments! Bonus question: What do you think of Dragon Quest 7?

Next week: Animal Crossing amiibo festival! I’m a huge Animal Crossing fan. But we are just now getting our hands on amiibo festival. Next week, I’ll give you my impressions of the game!

More Thoughts From Me is an opinion column. The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. Slimes rule! Metal Slimes are the best!