Snaplogging my feelings on the early parts of Dragon Quest V since I'm re-playing the game with the intentions of finishing it this time.
#GamingSnaplog is a series in which I talk about small stuff I encounter in video games. (Logs based on snapshots.)
A while ago I got Dragon Quest V on mobile. The android version is the first one of the game I buy, but I played both the SNES version and DS version with emulation before. Never finished them, though.
Dragon Quest V was one of the earliest RPG's I've emulated. Back in those days, I didn't understand how RPGs worked, and while I loved Chrono Trigger, I didn't have the mentality nor the English fluency to appreciate the story and the gameplay.
I remember back when it took 30 minutes to download a 3MB Rom file, I downloaded a bunch of SNES & GBA Roms. Surprisingly the English patched version of DQV was one of them. (The game was Japan-exclusive until the DS version came out.)
The game's premise is appealing: You play the life of a hero, since his birth through his childhood and adult life. You inherit your father's quest to find the legendary hero, you travel the world, find a wife and fight the evil mastermind of the world's ruin.
I found it interesting when I played the game for the first time that the protagonist is a child, but didn't think too much of it. When I played it on the DS, I found the fact you start as a child amazing. It helps that the DS version makes it clear early on, that your options are limited.
As a child, the protagonist can't travel long distance alone. His father does most of the fighting. When you're free to explore, you might notice that the player character can't even read at that point in the story. He's just a child, a normal human. A fresh difference compared to the other Dragon Quest heroes. Most of them start out heroic.
Yet, the game reminds you again, that you're a cool kid. The first major challenge of the game is to defeat ghosts at a haunted castle, because of a childish challenge over the ownership of a cat. The hero and Bianca (his childhood friend) go out at night, saving the ghosts royal family that have been trapped in an eternal suffering. All while their parents are asleep.
Another story is when the hero travels to the faerie land, a small separate world and helps saving it, without his father noticing him missing.
Dragon Quest series, despite having a silent protagonist, or maybe because of it has a lot of memorable characters. (Akira Toriyama's art plays a role here.) Dragon Quest V's protagonist is the most relatable one I've played so far in the series.
DQV is not my main RPG I'm playing these days, so it'll be a while before I reach the parts of the story I stopped at before, but I'm glad I have an official version of the game's that's not a $100+ DS cartridge. I'll probably get the game again if they ported it to Current-gen Consoles/PC now that I have money.
- All images are taken by me. Screenshots are cropped to best suit the article format.
- This Snaplog is also on Read.cash.
- For more #GamingSnaplog's here's my Digimon Cybersleuth Snaplog.
- I love it in RPGs when the protagonist is too young to read. (e.g. LiEat.)