dragon quest iii&i&ii

I had to restart Dragon Quest III many times before the gameplay finally clicked for me. Overall, I don't care for DQ3's structure of a silent protagonist and a personality-less party. It is not terribly interesting to craft a party at the beginning of the game, nor did I find changing classes too engaging. What brought me into the game was realizing the battles were far more puzzle-like than, I think, Final Fantasy (which will always be my point of comparison, sorry to say). The groups and numbers of enemies influencing the choice of actions made some combat extremely frustrating and others extremely satisfying when figuring out how to "crack" the battle. I do wish Squenix would have pulled back from the first-person perspective, but that is understandably the style of Dragon Quest until it switched to action combat.

I'm not judging the game's story terribly harshly; I grant Dragon Quest its more lighthearted, fantastic storytelling and the nature of RPGs in the late 80s/early 90s. Although the plot moved fast with only the lightest storyline, it was ultimately satisfying, especially with the HD-2D's reworked and, in some places, expanded scenes. I typically hate flashbacks, but they felt very well used here to flesh out a character who is barely on screen. The reveal that the initial world was the "supernal" world and there is a world below was fun, especially recognizing that the second "world" is the setting of the first or second Dragon Quest.

Honestly, I think there's something refreshing about the brutally barebones setup of classical RPGs. The opening to DQ1, while the slight narrative framework is nice, really just sets you out on the map! Go find two locations and good luck! Playing the first game after the third, though, gives you insider knowledge, the location of the locations.

Frankly, I don't remember much about DQ1. I wasn't terribly engaged with playing either III or I. Anymore, I'm not much interested in storytelling, whatever the medium, if the characters aren't well drawn enough to drive the plot (which is not a particular criticism of early Dragon Quest, just an observation about my taste in general). The metanarrative additions to better tie the three games together are memorable and were well done, I think, and many of the individual scenes were engaging. The recurrence of Zalen and his commentary in the different parts of the world and the surprise incentive to follow along with that for Erdrick's helmet were really great.

Ah, I have reached the end of my dragon quest, it seems. The HD-2D remakes are charming and I adore the style, but ultimately, the particular lighthearted tone of the Dragon Quest series is a turn off for me. I'm not finishing DQ2, at least not any time soon, though I do like it the best of the three; I appreciate the cast of characters and their characterizations are quite good. That part of the game is very charming.

So I publish this as is! Just some thoughts on my good-hearted attempt to finally play any Dragon Quest game.