This is a review I wrote 12 years ago from another site I don't use anymore so am transferring it over for my own memories sake
There are two groups of gamers when it comes to ports and remakes. Those who see the company as milking assets and want to see new titles and those who are grateful to get a second chance to play a title they missed. I fall in the latter where it comes to Dragon Quest games as the first one to be released in Europe was Dragon Quest VIII.
The plot to Hand of the Heavenly Bride spans many years of the hero's life from childhood through to a full adult. Though certainly not pushing boundaries in any way the storyline is full of family moments, drama and twists to keep the game intriguing. Generally speaking the game feels a lot more personal about the hero's life than about any world saving quest which I found slightly different as well as sort of touching in a lot of ways.
The gameplay is essentially the same as it's previous installment Dragon Quest IV though with some minor tweaks to keep things interesting. As you would expect from a Japanese RPG from the SNES era all combat is a turn based affair with character information on the top screen and the enemy and battlefield located on the bottom screen. Dragon Quest V has a nice cast of characters with varying abilities as you would expect but most interesting is the monster recruiting system newly available to the series. Defeating monsters will occasionally have them request to join your party. Each monster has access to certain abilities as they level up and can also be equipped with varying weapons and armour. The variety of enemy types is fantastic and any you aren't using can be stored in monster daycare giving you a large cast to choose from.
Monsters vary from area, dungeon and continent and can gain experience from battles even when not in your main party when traveling with you in your wagon making your party balance far less tedious. I had one monster I kept in the background solely to heal my main party between battles though he still leveled up getting better spells and more MP. Useful needless to say, as it saved my main party's magic for when I needed it most. As just demonstrated Dragon Quest V can be quite tactical and even allows for characters to be given tactics and then just fight on auto allowing for easier enemies to be crushed without constant selection of "attack" over and over.
The visuals are excellent, not just in monster design but also in detail and colour. All the character designs like with all Dragon Quest games to my knowledge were done by Akira Toriyama of Dragonball fame which is fairly obvious by his unique style. The soundtrack has also been enhanced and reworked from the original SNES version and are generally as good as the DS hardware can allow. Overall the presentation is excellent.
The hand of the Heavenly Bride lasts for a good 40+ hours with plenty of hidden items to collect like mini medals, monsters to try and recruit, gambling in casino's as well as some re-playability based on who you choose to marry, one of these ladies is entirely new to the DS version of Dragon Quest V.
So to sum up, Interesting plot, excellent colourful visuals and plenty to do. Dragon Quest V is a perfect example of Japanese RPG's at the peek of their genre and any fan of RPGs or Dragon Quest should really do themselves a favour and pick this game up.
+ Excellent Presentation.
+ Monster Recruiting is excellent.
+ Great value for money.
+ Plot is quite personal.
- Little similar to Dragon Quest IV
There are two groups of gamers when it comes to ports and remakes. Those who see the company as milking assets and want to see new titles and those who are grateful to get a second chance to play a title they missed. I fall in the latter where it comes to Dragon Quest games as the first one to be released in Europe was Dragon Quest VIII.
The plot to Hand of the Heavenly Bride spans many years of the hero's life from childhood through to a full adult. Though certainly not pushing boundaries in any way the storyline is full of family moments, drama and twists to keep the game intriguing. Generally speaking the game feels a lot more personal about the hero's life than about any world saving quest which I found slightly different as well as sort of touching in a lot of ways.
The gameplay is essentially the same as it's previous installment Dragon Quest IV though with some minor tweaks to keep things interesting. As you would expect from a Japanese RPG from the SNES era all combat is a turn based affair with character information on the top screen and the enemy and battlefield located on the bottom screen. Dragon Quest V has a nice cast of characters with varying abilities as you would expect but most interesting is the monster recruiting system newly available to the series. Defeating monsters will occasionally have them request to join your party. Each monster has access to certain abilities as they level up and can also be equipped with varying weapons and armour. The variety of enemy types is fantastic and any you aren't using can be stored in monster daycare giving you a large cast to choose from.
Monsters vary from area, dungeon and continent and can gain experience from battles even when not in your main party when traveling with you in your wagon making your party balance far less tedious. I had one monster I kept in the background solely to heal my main party between battles though he still leveled up getting better spells and more MP. Useful needless to say, as it saved my main party's magic for when I needed it most. As just demonstrated Dragon Quest V can be quite tactical and even allows for characters to be given tactics and then just fight on auto allowing for easier enemies to be crushed without constant selection of "attack" over and over.
The visuals are excellent, not just in monster design but also in detail and colour. All the character designs like with all Dragon Quest games to my knowledge were done by Akira Toriyama of Dragonball fame which is fairly obvious by his unique style. The soundtrack has also been enhanced and reworked from the original SNES version and are generally as good as the DS hardware can allow. Overall the presentation is excellent.
The hand of the Heavenly Bride lasts for a good 40+ hours with plenty of hidden items to collect like mini medals, monsters to try and recruit, gambling in casino's as well as some re-playability based on who you choose to marry, one of these ladies is entirely new to the DS version of Dragon Quest V.
So to sum up, Interesting plot, excellent colourful visuals and plenty to do. Dragon Quest V is a perfect example of Japanese RPG's at the peek of their genre and any fan of RPGs or Dragon Quest should really do themselves a favour and pick this game up.
+ Excellent Presentation.
+ Monster Recruiting is excellent.
+ Great value for money.
+ Plot is quite personal.
- Little similar to Dragon Quest IV
3 Comments
@thealexmott - I used to use Gamespot many, many years ago. They had unions where you could make your own private forums, I made a lot of friends all over the world. When they rehauled the site and got rid of them we all abandoned it and started our own forum for a few years. Everyone grew up, had kids, life got in the way until there were only a handful of us left. So I moved here. I still talk and game regularily with a couple of them though who I'm close friends with. One lives in my country so we meet up a couple of times a year for drinks and shenanigans.
That's wild, I didn't realize Gamespot had a community space like that. Glad you made your way over here though!
thealexmott
11 months ago