That special game!

There's a lot of people who have a close relationship to a game and remember it for the rest of their lives, without that giving any dirty thoughts to your mind. I'd like to tell you about this one game, even though it really isn't that old, since it was originally released in Japan, July 11th 2009. And a year after in US and Europe.


This is one of many great Dragon Quest games that I've completed. Sure, It may not have the greatest story. But it grows on you. There are likeable characters in this game, though this game is focused on multiplayer. I had a blast to play it alone with my own party. Since it let's you customize a party to your liking. Even though the party is kinda like a crowd that follows you, they don't really have any sort of personality, unlike the other games. But you can always think of a backstory for the characters in your party.

With that being said, this game is a turn-based old school RPG and is -dare I say it- considered to be harder than its predecessors. But here's the catch, there are no random encounters in this game. Enemies can be avoided if you want. And that is a great addition. You start off the game by making your own hero, selecting appearance and so forth. And then you see the standard ingame cut-scene. There are also some really nice looking anime-style cut-scenes, but they don't appear that often. Ohh, and you start off with one "class" or rather "job"(default class being the Minstrel) and about quarter way of the main story, you unlock quests to get more jobs, or you can change your current job to bacic classes like: Priest, Mage, Thief, Warrior, Minstrel or Monk

Anyways, I haven't really tried the multiplayer, so I can't say anything about that. But the game allows players to have a cooperative wireless multiplayer experience with up to four players; it does not, however, feature multiplayer capabilities via Nintendo Wi-fi. So, only local multiplayer.

The reason this game shines in many aspects, is because it has about everything. A LOT of side quests, humour, end-game dungeons(which are really fun and every dungeon is randomly generated, fits really well if you have friends and this game), a lot of gear, when you equip gear you can actually see what you've equipped. Nothing like a battle with 4 guys wearing only but speedos. Now that's manly! or rather, erm.. nevermind.

It even has DLC, which include new end-game quests, leading to either end-game dungeons or gear. And rare items you can buy, to make crafting a bit easier. And if you check weekly, new items and gear might be there. So that's a really nice bonus!

This game can be really hard at times, as mentioned. But that's when a little grinding should do the trick, and yes, this is -what many people would call- a grinding game, and I partly agree with them. But I always had fun with the combat, even though it is turn-based. And I always had fun searching for metal slimes, since they are rare, and give loads of exp. It kinda makes it worth your time, unless they flee.. which they do about 80% of the time.

I am about 76 hours in this game, and I still barely have any end-game gear. I could've had more hours ticked in, but I have both the Japanese version of this game and the European. I've played about 40+ hours on the japanese version, despite my bad knowledge in japanese and the fact that I didn't get too much information of what was happening, I still enjoyed it back in 2009. Then finally, a year after, I got the European version.

And every now and then, I still play both versions. Searching for that perfect dungeon and equipment.