Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride Game Review - Nintendo DS

OUR RATING:

8.4

GREAT

TANGIBLES:

Gameplay:		8
Visuals:		8
Audio:		8
Value:		8
Quality:		10

Why you should buy it: Dragon Quest V is a game that has never been released outside Japan, and its gameplay and well-crafted story have stood the test of time.

Why you should rent it: To you, maybe $39 is a little much for a handheld game where graphics aren't the first priority.

UNIQUE RATING:

8.4

SUGGESTION:

Buy It

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Written by: Danreb Victorio | Tags: Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, Nintendo DS

February 25,2009 - Dragon Quest has always been the premier series for the Enix half of Square Enix. Despite that, RPG fans often write the series off because of its so-called lack of true creativity and inability to really evolve with the times. With the recent release of Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride on the Nintendo DS, never has such a statement been so wrong.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is a remake of the Super Famicom classic of the same name. But while it may be a glorified port, keep in mind that the game has never been released outside Japan—so if played it legally, it’s probably safe to assume that players never understood a thing that was going on.

The game begins by forcing you to name the Hero, and then it continued to show the baby of royal lineage being born. Soon after that, the mother dies and the game fasts forward five years to where the Hero is 6 and going on a journey with his father— a traveling warrior named Pankraz. Seeing as how the Hero is only 6 years old, there isn’t much to do away from the helping hand of Pankraz. The few adventures that are had are all with the Hero’s father’s help but a few hours into the game, players will come across a rescue mission with the stereotypical “unwinnable” battle. Following that, tragedy ensues, and ten years later players will find the Hero working as a slave for the good of the world. The Hero then finds a way out, and that’s where the adventures truly begin.

Those who have played the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV will be in pretty familiar territory because the graphics and visual style, menus, and gameplay mechanics were virtually unchanged. Players that haven’t should know that Dragon Quest V is your standard Japanese RPG that focuses on exploration, conversing with locals, plenty of random battles and grinding while equipping and un-equipping various weapons and armor, as well as the expected share of dungeon crawling. While all that is the same, this game is much more engaging, mostly due to its rather unique plot—even in this day and age.

Unlike other games in the genre, it’s not all about revenge or saving the world. Players simply get to see, firsthand, the struggles and experiences that the Hero goes through over more than twenty years. Not only does he experience all sorts of tragedy and hardship, but he experiences the good things in life such as the love of his father, the sacrifices his parents made for his existence, and even the love of his family. In other words, yes, you can get married in this game.

While the game’s predecessor did a good job at meshing the connection between each playable character in the game, it lacked the ability to really keep things interactive. Sure, everybody followed the leader, bur players really weren’t given the opportunity to see them interact with one another. In Dragon Quest V, simply pressing the B button anywhere in play will cause your party members to speak, and oftentimes (especially when you’re stuck) the things each party member says will help make the journey that much easier.

The main addition in Dragon Quest V not included in IV is the ability to recruit monsters to join your party. When players get to a certain point in the game, they can obtain a wagon that will help hold party members during the journey. When fighting random battles, sometimes an opposing monster will acknowledge the strength of the party and ask to join it, and from there—it’s smooth sailing. Odds of monsters joining are fairly and, each monster has its own abilities and characteristics that makes each one different from others. This not only adds more depth to the gameplay, but it also somewhat revolutionized the nature of the RPG genre and helped spawn the creation of the series’ main spinoff, Dragon Quest Monsters. (Oh yeah, and Pokemon too.)

As stated, virtually nothing has gone unchanged with the visuals when compared to Dragon Quest IV, but it is definitely a big upgrade when compared to its Super Famicom counterpart. Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball and Chrono Trigger fame, lends his skill to once again provide beautiful artwork that captures each mood in the game flawlessly. Environments may seem 2D to the naked eye, but not only can the Hero walk diagonally, players can use the left and right shoulder buttons to move the camera around and unveil different areas—as well as prove the game is 3D.

The sound is vintage Dragon Quest. When selecting the game file, the same music heard in other Dragon Quest games is present, as well as the same beeping noises that is used when selecting different options in the game’s plain black menus. Koichi Sugiyama has also once again composed every piece of music in the game, and they all sound wonderful. The soundtrack is not as breathtaking as anything in say, Chrono Trigger, but it definitely is a solid soundtrack that keeps the quest memorable and epic.

What makes Dragon Quest V so good is the fact that while it remains true to the entire series with its basic role-playing mechanisms, it provides enough of a unique experience to keep players engaged for hours upon hours. As stated, the game is about a man’s life throughout many adventures, and the changes that happen throughout the land over time definitely help make the overall plot one of the best, yet basic plots in the genre. This is one of the few RPG’s that truly make the player feel like he or she is playing the role of the hero, and it’s seriously been a while since an RPG has had that kind of impact.

In North America, the Dragon Quest series was known as Dragon Warrior because of a trademark conflict with the role-playing game DragonQuest, which was published by veteran wargame publisher SPI in the 1980s until the company's bankruptcy in 1982 and purchase by TSR. In 2003, Square Enix registered the Dragon Quest trademark in the US, making the Dragon Warrior name obsolete.