I had played this one way back in high school and remembered having fond memories, though I never was able to gather the nerve to grind for the final boss, which I was drastically underleveled for. Now today, with the magic of emulation and the ability to speed up gameplay, I can finally say I have completed Dragon Quest V! I mentioned when I talked about Phantasy Star II how emulation has made so many of these older JRPGs a much more pleasant experience, and even when I account for the 2008 DS remake, that speed-up feature is just too good of a tool. I think it actually allowed for me to have more positive thoughts about Dragon Quest V than I did before. This is also coupled with coming off the pretty disappointing Dragon Quest IV on the DS. Where that game was horribly paced and made no efforts to characterize it's colorful cast, Dragon Quest V is paced almost perfectly, with solid writing to accompany it. You go through the life of the main character, starting as a child, all the way through to his young adulthood where you get married and have children of your own. Phantasy Star III did this type of thing first (and I'm sure some other games also did it), but that was kind of sloppy. What makes Dragon Quest V so cool is that each generation will fight together. As a child, you get to fight along side your father, and it all circles back to fighting the final boss with your children by your side. Really cool stuff. There are some big issues with the game, unfortunately, such as how grindy it get toward the end, as well as how limited monster recruitment feels. Megami Tensei came before this and felt like it had a better grip on this type of enemy recruitment. I do like how you can equip monsters with gear and have them continue growing, but actually recruiting feels random and the selection of monsters is pretty limited overall. Still, this is a fine old-school JRPG that holds up to this day, especially if you play it on an emulator. So play it on an emulator you cowards. 5/6