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30 of 33 found the following review helpful:
At long last... a full review of Dragon Quest 6 DSFeb 17, 2011
By S. Kittsune Dragon Quest games used to be called "Dragon Warrior" in the United states. I was one of the people to have played the original Dragon Warrior for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). This was just the beginning, as eight more games have followed in the series, as well as many spin-offs. Dragon Quest 6 was originally released for the Super Famicom (The equivalent of the U.S. Super Nintendo), and was never localized for the U.S... until now with this re-release.
If you have played any Dragon Quest game before, you will know exactly what to do. You explore towns, talk to everyone you see, explore dungeons, battle monsters, earn lots of loot, get stronger, and repeat the process. Usually, the game will point you in the right direction in the major story events. The story progresses in a linear fashion for the most part, and even the world maps are designed to be somewhat restrictive to a linear path. This is typical of Dragon Quest games since the third installment. To advance, you will often need to go between the two worlds in much the same way as "The Legend of Zelda: a Link to the Past". If something exists in one world, they will likely have a similar counterpart in the other world.
Battles are identical to any other Dragon Warrior or Dragon Quest game since the second; you can Attack, use your character's skills, use items, defend, or try to run away. They are all turn-based, which means you can plan ahead for the boss battles (and you will certainly need to plan these out). In fact, the battle system is identical to the other two Dragon Quest remakes on the DS.
As far as the depth of the game, there are two huge worlds to explore, tons of items, a great skill-learning system with over 15 jobs, and a load of mini-games that can possibly lead to you getting the best items in the game. With so many mysteries to solve in both worlds, it's no wonder this game has the sub-title "Realms of Revelation". If you are a fan of role-playing games, Dragon Quest games, or even science fiction, you will probably like this game. I would certainly recommend this game.
26 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Dragon Quest 6: Where two worlds are greater than oneFeb 20, 2011
By Brian Shirk
"Brian"
Occasionally, it's nice to escape from the industrialized world. Some people do this through camping. Others kick a ball across an empty field. Those who like to experience an idyllic fantasy play Dragon Quest. On February 14, the latter group's dream was fulfilled, as the only Dragon Quest never to reach America, Dragon Quest 6, arrived in American retail stores.
Dragon Quest 6 isn't just special for being the last Dragon Quest to arrive - it's also a part of what many consider to be the golden age of RPGs: the 16-bit era. The SNES was home to legendary titles such as Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, and Final Fantasy 6, but only Japan experienced Dragon Quest 6.
Unfortunately, these classics are not Dragon Quest 6's only adversaries. It also faces fifteen years of technological and mechanical advancements in the video game industry. People who're already Dragon Quest fans likely won't care, as they often admire the series' simplicity, but other individuals may be averse to spending $35 on a 15-year-old game with minimal graphical and gameplay improvements.
If we pretend that it's 1995, would Dragon Quest 6 be considered amazing? Well, if one is to consider its storytelling alone, no. Dragon Quest 4 and 5 were critically lauded for being storytelling innovators. The former introduced a scenario system that allowed players to follow the lives of individual characters, while the latter put the player in the role of a hero who initially shadowed his father and eventually raised a family of his own. Instead of attempting another new storytelling method, Dragon Quest 6 puts the player on a guided quest for the game's initial hours then becomes a game of exploration - much like the original Dragon Quest.
Unlike the first Dragon Quest, however, the player journeys through two massive worlds with other party members (some optional) whom will chat with you when requested. Once you stumble upon the Dream World, you'll go back and forth between these realms, much like in A Link to The Past.
As with its story, Dragon Quest 6's battle system is more of an evolution than a revolution. Every few steps, you'll transition to another realm where only your enemies and text menus are visible. The backgrounds are composed of muddy 3D textures, while your foes are charming 2D sprites with simple animations. Each of your characters has different skills and statistics, which will change over time as you battle.
Unlike prior Dragon Quest games (DQ3 excluded), you'll eventually be able to assign your characters classes such as Warrior or Mage. Your party members don't begin as blank slates, so some are better suited for particular classes. The jobs and their skill-sets are thoroughly explained, so choosing classes isn't difficult as long as you have an ultimate goal in mind. It's especially important to plan ahead, as there are three tiers of classes. This accessible job system is one of the best aspects of Dragon Quest 6, but it did create a sense of déjà vu, as many of the game's abilities are from former Dragon Quest titles.
Dragon Quest 6's musical score left me with a similar impression. Many of its tunes are from prior Dragon Quest titles or feel so similar that they are practically indistinguishable from Koichi Sugiyama's previous works. The lack of variety in Dragon Quest 6's musical score is disappointing, as other RPGs from the 16-bit era had much larger (and more diverse) musical selections.
If you enjoy exploring massive worlds at your own pace, Dragon Quest 6 is an excellent buy. It's linear to a certain extent in that completion of particular events is necessary before new areas become accessible, but there are also many times in which you'll be able to choose which region to explore first.
Personally, I didn't mind all the aimless wandering, but having access to aerial transportation earlier or a lower random encounter rate would have expedited the process. A better map system with named locations also would have shaved some filler hours off my game time.
Finding a suitable destination was difficult at times, but Dragon Quest 6's final area was even more frustrating. Prior to this dungeon, I was able to defeat bosses and enemies with ease by picking suitable job classes and using appropriate battle tactics, but the final boss was unreasonably difficult.
Challenging final bosses generally don't bother me as long as strategy and dexterity are involved, but these were only difficult because I was under-leveled. In order to defeat my arch nemesis, I had to spend a few hours fighting enemies who awarded me with a paltry level of experience. Cheap final bosses have long been a part of Dragon Quest, but a little end-of-game balancing would have made for a more enjoyable experience.
If you're in the market for a 35-hour adventure that is heavy on random battles while providing little direction, Dragon Quest 6 is a worthy purchase. Those looking for a more innovative title would be better off checking out the DS' earlier Dragon Quest installments.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
great story and worlds, ok characters, bad class systemAug 01, 2011
By squirrel --REMAKE VS ORIGINAL:-- PROS: * Compared to the original, the graphics are improved. * Metal Slime can now be made a teammate easily. * Terry was powered up so that he has already learned all the martial arts skills. * According to other gamers, the monsters were made a little weaker and EXP higher compared to the Super Famicom version. If that's true, I'm very glad they did this because I didn't have to do as much leveling up as is common for a typical Dragon quest game (at least until the end).
CONS: * Ability to make many monsters into teammates was eliminated. * The additions of the slime game and dream exchange (yume kokuhaku) were pointless and no fun.
CONCLUSION: As a remake, this game is better than the original. It hurts that many monsters can't be made into teammates anymore, but the most critical ones (Heal slime and metal slime) can join the team, so I think the tradeoff was worth it. However, I do wish they had changed some of the flaws of the original game in this remake.
--REVIEW OF THE GAME ITSELF-- STORY: 5 of 5 The story was the one of the best I've seen in an RPG. I loved the fact that there are 2 worlds to explore, and how changing something in 1 world affected the other. Also, the secret ending is hands down the best secret ending I have ever seen. Very imaginative and made the hours of grinding I had to do well worth it.
WORLD: 5 of 5 It was really nice to have 2 worlds to explore. I've played Dragonquest 1-6 and 9, and none of the other worlds had 2 worlds this big - at most, they had 1 big world and 1 small world for the boss.
CHARACTERS: 3 of 5 Compared to past Dragonquest games, the characters in this game are not as memorable. Although I liked Barbara (girl with orange hair) and Tanya (hero's sister), the other characters were not memorable. Here are some more details:
Hassan: a very typical martial artist, fight first, talk later type. Nothing new. Alena from Dragonquest 4 was much more appealing because despite the fact that she was a princess, all she cared about was fighting tough monsters and entering martial arts tournaments. The contradiction made her very interesting; Hassan is too much of a prototypical fighter.
Mireyu: A dim shadow of Minea from Dragonquest 4. Both are fortune tellers, but what made Minea interesting was the clashing with her sister, who was the complete opposite of her (she liked the city and gambling, while Minea preferred peace and quiet and is still mad that her sister gambled away all her money earned from fortune telling).
Amos: He was okay. But I didn't like the fact that if you made the wrong decision, he would never join your team. If it wasn't for my guidebook, I probably wouldn't have gotten him to join my team.
Terry: He was okay. Although he was powered up in the DS version, he joined the team too late, with his stats lagging behind all of my teammates. They should have copied Final Fantasy 7 and adjust his level according to what my teammates were at.
CLASS SYSTEM: 2 of 5 Although this system was an improvement over Dragonquest 3's class changing system, it still has some serious flaws. First I'll go over the improvements from DQ 3, or the pros:
PROS: * class change is permitted at any time; don't have to wait till a certain level to change classes * when a character changes back to a certain class, you don't have to start from the lowest level again * The merchant finds extra money after every single battle, and the amount he finds goes up as his/her merchant level goes up * lots of new, useful, and/or powerful skills
CONS: And now for the bad points...
* it was very stupid that the characters Hassan, Mireyu, and Barbara were not automatically assigned a class when they became a teammate. It already takes long enough as it is to learn skills; this made it take even longer.
* Lots of useless skills. Considering it takes so long to learn a skill, it's very discouraging when you finally learn a skill, it turns out to be useless. It seems that the programmers were obsessed with giving every class 8 levels, but by doing so, they came up with some pretty stupid skills. There's nothing wrong with all classes not having an exact number; Final Fantasy 5 did that and it was no problem at all. In fact, by not forcing themselves to give each class a set number of levels, the producers of FF 5 produced one of the best class systems I've ever seen. And since FF 5 was released prior to DQ 6, there is really no excuse that DQ 6 didn't follow in FF 5's footsteps.
* It takes too long to learn skills. Considering that there are so many classes and so many skills, chances are the player is going to screw up by leveling up classes in ways they will regret later on. For example, since I like the Merchant, Thief, and Paladin, I had the Hero master those classes. Little did I know that by spending time on those classes, I would fall way behind on learning the hero's skills. In order to compensate for this mistake and others, I had to do hours of grinding to learn the Hero's skills and other skills and spells. Not fun at all.
* Some of the conditions for class change don't make any sense. I wonder why a character needs to learn a Priest's skills to become a Paladin, and why I need to learn a fighter's skills to become Magic Fighter (Mahou Senshi)? By doing this, I'm making a strong character weak, and shrinking the MP of a character who originally had lots of MP. If I could change classes anywhere and anytime like it was possible in DQ 9 and Final Fantasy 5, this wouldn't be a problem, but this was not the case. I always had to change classes before heading into a dungeon or tower, which was a hassle.
* Battle count makes defeating Metal Slimes pointless. One of the best features of the Draqonquest series is defeating Metal Slimes to get tons of EXP. However, by making a class system that only levels up based on battle count makes earning lots of EXP quickly pointless. Even if a character levels up, it's not that significant anyways (at least compared to DQ 3). This in turn makes some skills useless, like Metal Cut. They should have changed it so that defeating a Metal Slime results in more Battle count, similar to the ability system Final Fantasy 5 and 7 had.
* The Metal slime teammate and Metal Slime Scroll are received too late in the game. It took hours to level up the Metal Slime so he could be effective against the hidden boss. At the very least, the Metal Slime teammate or the scroll should be attainable much earlier in the game.
* Finally, because there are no limitations on what a character can master, all the characters can become the same, losing nearly all of their uniqueness. Since this was a remake, some kind of limitation should have been created so all the characters can't end up learning every single skill and spell there is (with a few exceptions). In this respect, DQ 4 and 5 are much better because the characters remain unique - some can only fight, some can only heal, some can only use attack magic, etc. If every character can do all these things, there's no point in giving them names or faces because they're just clones. In order to keep my characters from becoming clones as they did with my SNES version, I had to force myself to keep characters from learning all the skills by giving them no class at all after they had learned a certain set of skills. A good template for limitations would have been FF 5 and 7 - considering that over 10 years have passed since those games were released, something similar could have been added to this game at the very least. Considering that even DQ 9 had a restriction, seeing no restrictions after all this time was very disappointing.
FINAL CONCLUSION: Overall, this was a great game until I realized I leveled up the wrong classes and had to do an insane amount of grinding. In Final Fantasy 5 and 7, even if I screwed up leveling up spells and abilities, I could make it up in the end because there were certain monsters towards the end who gave a ton of ability points. DQ 6 does not have a way to make up for mistakes like that. In fact, Dragonquest 1-5 and 9 all have ways to learn spells and skills easier towards the end. DQ 6 has nothing. Very bad move on the part of the programmers that should have been changed.
I tried replaying the game so I could get it right this time, but since it takes so long (10 hours or more) to even begin leveling up a class, I decided not to. At least when it comes to replay value, DQ 3 and Final Fantasy 5 are heads and shoulders above this game because you can choose a class within an hour. Since making up for level up mistakes is nonexistent in this game, anyone playing this for the first time should have the leveling up process perfectly planned or you will end up wasting hours, if not more than 10 hours grinding like me because you can't make up for mistake(s) and replaying the game will be a huge chore. As long as you're careful about that, this game can be one of the best Japanese RPGs you've ever played; if not, expect many torturous hours of grinding from hell.
9 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Still Fun After So LongFeb 19, 2011
By S. Rhodes By now when it comes to Dragon Quest--the DS remakes in particular--we should know what to expect. Dragon Quest VI, much like Dragon Quest V was never released outside of Japan. Instead it stayed there and, like every other game in the series, became a ridiculous sensation, besting much of its competition. There's nothing Dragon Quest VI throws at you that you haven't seen before. The basic structure of Dragon Quest has often been why the series has been such a staple in Japan, and a part of the reason it's hardly done anything to change. This has caused Dragon Quest to have a bit of contention with western gamers. And true enough, Dragon Quest VI is more or less the same kind of game as all the others which came before it. If you weren't a big fan of Dragon Quest before, you're hardly likely to jump in now.
Dragon Quest VI, like just about every game in the series has hardly ever been about story. In fact, much like some of the games which precede it the story is quite forgettable. You begin the game as the hero who wakes up with a couple of allies, goes off to fight a dark lord and lose the battle only to wake up and discover it's a dream. The story, for the most part, lacks a lot of context and heart. The characters aren't really developed at all and there's a lot of time spent that actually isn't really focusing on story at all. This is not exactly stuff that's new to Dragon Quest. Many of their stories are forgettable. What they lack in story they usually make up for with expansive worlds, tons of sidequests and hidden goodies and usually just being all around fun. It works for Dragon Quest VI as well. If story is your kind of thing, Dragon Quest probably never appealed to you a whole lot anyway. These are games that have been largely about exploring huge fantasy worlds.
The gameplay has hardly been changed from anything Dragon Quest has ever done. For the most part you'll explore an overworld map and talk to characters to figure out where to go. By large, Dragon Quest VI is mostly non-linear. Not really telling you where to go, but rather letting you uncover it on your own. This sort of old school approach might turn away a few people who have been conditioned by more story focused RPGs, but it allows for Dragon Quest to shine in an area it's been very well known for: It's gameplay.
When not exploring you'll often be battling. This is where Dragon Quest can be fun. The battles aren't flashy by any means there's something strangely addictive about them. You don't view your characters strike the enemy, but rather you see things from a first person view. Then you select your actions and watch a round play out. Usually by seeing an enemy move to attack and then a slash come across them whenever you attack or a bump or something like that. It's all menu based where you can attack or cast spells or defend or run and what have you. It's simple, yet the game compels you to keep battling. Keeping true to its old school roots, Dragon Quest VI will beg you to grind from time to time. It is not an easy game by any means and if you aren't willing to take a break to boost your levels every now and then, it'll destroy you.
In spite of that, there's a surprisingly large number of things you can do in the game. The main quest in and of itself will keep you busy for a long time. Not just because of level grinding, but because you can easily get distracted from the beaten path and do something else. There's often something to do off the main path. There are also plenty of mini-games at hand too.
If anything what may drive some gamers away is the old school nature of the game. Whether or not Dragon Quest VI has aged well will be up to the individual gamer, but it's hard to get past the fact that a game made in 1995 still plays like it was made in 1986 to some degree. It fairs rather well in 2011, but some of its elements are bound to be a turn off to some gamers. The tedious level grinding, rather than pushing through might grate on some nerves. The menu system is also a little dated, as is the battle system itself. It doesn't mean it can't appeal, but something can certainly be said about Dragon Quest's inability to really go beyond much. For old school fans you'll probably actually really like this. I actually tend to. As I said, there's something addictive about the simplicity of Dragon Quest VI. In spite of some of its dated techniques, it's accessible to just about anyone because it's easy to pick up and play.
Going along with the trend, Dragon Quest VI also isn't the best looking game out there. But with the exception of the 2005 entry Dragon Quest has hardly been a game to play for visual appeal. If one is looking to Dragon Quest for superior graphics, they might want to check where they've been for the past twenty-five years. Dragon Quest VI may not be the most visually appealing game out there... but it definitely has character. It's certainly better looking than it's original Super Famicom counterpart, and it's nice to see the DS making use of both screens, but there are a lot of DS games that somehow look better. There are moments when parts of Dragon Quest VI look a little more pixelated than you want to. On the other hand, while it may not be able to handle 3D the sprites are still charming.
The music is also fantastic. Some of the best in the series, no doubt. The only thing that might have been nice is if there had been more music. This is another thing that Dragon Quest could use a hand with. Just giving the gamer more tracks. They're not bad by any means, but there isn't much variety in the music at all. For a four or five hour long game this isn't so bad. But Dragon Quest VI can keep you busy for well over 60 hours (I've heard of some gamers taking well over 100 hours to do everything). It's a good soundtrack, I just wish it were bigger.
With all this in mind, Dragon Quest VI is still a good game. It may be dated in some ways, but I think if you're already a Dragon Quest fan you're getting exactly what you expect out of it. It's not flashy, but it's strangely fun and charming in its own way. If you like JRPGs you'd do well to get a hold of Dragon Quest VI. The dated battle system and menu system are poor excuses to pass it up when you realize that you're exploring a huge world and getting sucked in. There's a charm there that's hard for some JRPGs to touch. It's a good game. It might not really appeal to strongly to those not accustomed to it's old school charms, but for those willing to look past it the only word to describe it is epic.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Dragon Quest VI: Realms of RevelationMar 21, 2011
By J. Diaz This game is awesome, if you like the dragon quest series, you should definitely get this game! I was wondering weather I should play DQ 4 and 5 first before this one, but it doesn't make a difference since the trilogy isn't really connected. I actually liked this game more than DQ9 because you are able to interact with the characters in your party, unlike DQ9 where they seemed more like ghosts following you around and helping you fight. Great story line aswell, I can't wait to pay DQ 4 and 5!
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( 22 customer reviews )
