Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

"The best in the series"

The Dragon Quest series has always played second fiddle to Final Fantasy, at least in the United States. Final Fantasy games have always been about topping the previous entry in the series with better graphics and innovative battle systems, while Dragon Quest tends to stick with what works and take baby steps towards innovation. Dragon Quest IV, released as Dragon Warrior IV in the United States for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992, was the only game in the series to be released in America for nine years until the seventh entry reached the PlayStation in 2001. Recently, Square-Enix has committed to right that wrong by releasing the Zenithian Trilogy of DQ 4, 5, and 6 for the DS as enhanced remakes. The fifth entry is considered by many to be the definitive game in the series, and for good reason. Yuji Hori, the creator of Dragon Quest, has even declared Dragon Quest V his favorite. What makes this role playing game so good?

Although Dragon Quest has often been accused of sticking too closely to tradition, each entry has made its own small step forward. In DQ 5, it's the generation system. You start the game as a six year old boy traveling the world with your father in search of your mother. The game does a great job of using this fairly brief segment to introduce the characters and lay the groundwork for the game. The game really starts to pick up when you reach Coburg and meet Prince Harry. After he is kidnapped, you and Pankraz set off to rescue him. This is the beginning of the best part of the game, in my opinion. The game becomes a little darker after Pankraz is forced to let himself die at the hands of a couple of monsters. It shows the extent of Pankraz's love for his son, and it really hits home the pain he “stoically endures” as it actually puts you in his perspective in a battle, as he is beaten slowly to death, unwilling to fight back because of the deep love he has for his son. You and Harry are taken into slavery for ten years, and Harry really matures. He is my favorite character because he is the only truly dynamic character. He begins as a spoiled brat, but his experience as a slave turns him into a noble, selfless young man. I became attached to Harry and was genuinely sorry to see him leave my party after all we had been through together, mainly thanks to the incredible party chat system.

Cut from the DQ IV DS version, the party chat feature allows you to talk to any member of the party at any time. This has been done before, but what really makes it amazing is the plethora of dialogue. Literally after talking to any NPC, each main character will have something new to say. This goes a long way towards character development because, as usual in the series, the protagonist remains silent throughout the entire game and the others don't talk much either in the main course of the game. But as the party chat feature demonstrates, they are not a reticent bunch.

The pacing of the game is great. The battles fly by, loading is almost nonexistent, and you never feel like you're in one place too long. However, the game really starts to drag after the third generation begins. The objective becomes unclear, and you basically have to just wander around until the next objective is found. The story also becomes much less interesting, resorting to the standard “open the portal to the dark world, kill the bad guy and restore peace to the world” plot of pretty much every DQ game. This is fine, but after such original quests like going to a faerie world, escaping from slavery in a barrel, and getting married, it becomes quite dull and disappointing. It seems like the developers put a lot more effort into the first 2/3 of the game, and the last third is definitely inferior.

The battle system is the same tried and true DQ battle system that has remained fundamentally unchanged since the first entry in the series. The original DQ 5 for Super Famicom allowed only three members, but the DS version has increased it to four, but there are more enemies to compensate. DQ 5 is credited for being the first game to have catchable monsters, laying the groundwork for Pokémon. After the wagon is obtained, monsters will randomly ask to join your party. They have names, can equip equipment, level up, and learn spells and abilities. There are a ton of monsters to get, and it can be fun experimenting with them, but I only chose to use one, my golem for most of the game. It's a tribute to party chat that I generally avoided using monsters because they had only one phrase, such as Adams the one-eyed apple repeatedly assuring me that he was not tasty, and that I should refrain from eating him. The game is pretty easy, and the only time I had to grind for any significant amount of time was before the boss of the bonus dungeon.

The music, like every other entry in the series, is composed by Koichi Sugiyama. There are some great tunes, such as the always pleasant town music. The best track is the battle music, which I believe to be the best in the series.

The localization of DQ 5 is fantastic. The script is great, and while the accents can get annoying and stereotypical, I found them generally amusing. It must have been quite the task to translate all of the text with all the party chat dialogue as well, but the translator did a fantastic job, and everything reads really well. The other nice touch is all the clever monster names, ranging from obscure words like lickspittle to risqué puns like mother ocker. Characters speak with different dialects, such as Rodrigo being Italian and the villains being Russian. I can always count on a Dragon Quest game to teach me a variety of new words, and the fifth entry does not disappoint: adit, lea, prestidigitator, wheal, dowager, and aspersorium are among a few of the words I didn't know before playing the game.

After careful consideration, I declare Dragon Quest 5 to be the best Dragon Quest series, though I have not played number six because I'm waiting for it to be released on the DS. If you're in the mood for a fantastic old-school RPG, Dragon Quest V is perfect.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/09

Game Release: Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (US, 02/16/09)