This was a DQ game that I never really had high hopes for, and I don't even know why I always felt that way about it. Looking back after beating this amazing game, I realized that prior to actually playing the game, I had no idea what the story was about. This is a story that spans over a decade as you follow Abel, son of Pankraz, who sets out to find the hero to avenge his father and find his mother. I feel like the party members in this game mean so much to me because they're family. The story means so much to me because it's about family. It makes it that much more impactful when things happen to your party members in the story because of who they are. What I really didn't expect from the story were all of the big twists across the multiple acts. It made for such an interesting story that I would gladly play again in the future. It was rather linear (despite the fact that it doesn't exactly hold your hand at times), but that means that it's lacking in fluff and unnecessary plotlines. I love the main cast and I think it's subversive story about having to find the hero instead of playing as him was a great change of pace. Ladja was an interesting enough villain, but I felt that he could've been a little bit more involved in the story at times. It's not the biggest deal to me, but he could've been a little more fleshed out at times. Overall this is a rather perfect RPG that I would highly recommend to any fans of DQ or RPGs in general.