I've only played DQ IV so should I buy VII or VIII?

I've only played DQ IV so should I buy VII or VIII?

Dragon Quest thread

VII is fucking garbage, go with VIII
You should also play V

8 is a garbage port, play 7.

Hit me with some pros and cons of both.

7 takes 30 hours or so to get started and another 3 to unlock the meat of the game. It's also 90+ hours. It tends to be the last game dqfags get around to playing because it has everything the series is known for all at once.

8 is a bad port of a good game.

*another 30

I haven't touched 8 at all on ps2 so I have no expectations but I'm probably just going to track down a copy of V in any case.

As someone who is about 25 hours into DQVII right now (and played the original PSX release), I'd say go with VIII first. VII is essentially for the hardcore DQ fan, and while still a good game, is definitely not for everyone.

DQVII has some tight and fast gameplay, but the story and pacing are slow as hell (the intro alone is about two hours to get to your first battle if you don't know where to go or do). The main story alone without sidequests can last you well into the 100 hour mark, and it does have moments where it drags itself out.

DQVIII is great if you're still new to the series. It eases you into a lot of the mechanics, has a stellar story and balanced pacing, though is also a bit more streamlined and not quite as robust as VII. The game also suffers from load times between battles on the 3DS (about 3 - 6 seconds). Length should last you between 60 - 80 hours for the main story.

VII is still a great game, but it's one to play once you're more experienced with the series, to be honest. It's not hard. Just polarizing.

7 legitimately takes 20-30 hours to unlock the class system, and then another 20 for the story to start drawing you in. Past that though it's actually pretty amazing but what the fuck were they thinking.

8 is a bad port in terms of graphics and music, and they removed a lot of jessica's old outfits but content wise its much superior. New cutscenes, 2 more playable characters, more post game and instant alchemy available from the get go.

>about 3 - 6 seconds

Nigga I played Pokemon Diamond and was fine with it yet apparently Sup Forums's main gripe is that it does something similar.

I'm autistic not impatient but the stuff for VII you said about 2 hours to get to a battle does sound off putting.

I think for a lot of people, the load times gripe is because it's on a cart and not a DVD, so there should be no excuse. Doesn't bother me, but I can see why some people would have a problem with it, especially with DQVII having instant transition into battle.

As for VII, they shortened a lot of the story elements from the PSX release, which had a main story length of about 120 hours. The original opening took 5 hours to get to the first battle. As many have said before it takes about 20 hours to get the vocation system, and another bit for the main story to really heat up. If you want a lengthy journey with episodic like content, then I say give VII a shot.

DQ is shit. Play FF instead.

Well IV is my first and only so I'm fine with episodic and chapter 5 is a bit obscure with where to go at times so I did have to resort to a guide.

The estimate of 3-6 seconds is definitely overblown, there's a noticeable delay but the fact you can speed up battles compensates for it.

I play DQ8 on my hacked 3DS with the restored soundtrack and uncensored textures, and I set Luma3DS to unlock N3DS CPU + L2 Cache. It's possible this setting makes the battle scenes load faster but I don't know.

Only played 9 but got bored towards the end of disc 2 because it was just so fucking tropey I dropped it.

Only reason I like DQ is because I like Toriyama's art but I should give FF another chance sooner or later.

I don't get why people praise VIII story a lot. It pales in comparison to V (obv), IV, VII or even VI. Sure, the graphics is pretty, the skill system is better than VI and VII's class system, but the story is mediocre at best.

>8 is a bad port in terms of graphics and music
Aww fuck, I was planning on picking this up this week, what did they do to the music? I haven't played the PS2 version since middle school but I remember the music in the original being godlike

They use synth music instead of orchestral in the us/eur version. But if you have a hacked 3ds you can restore them.

Why? Is it a licensing issue? It's clearly not a technical thing if they used the orchestral in the Japanese release

Graphics are weaker due to the system limitations, and also having enemies on screen vs random battles in the original release.

The music uses the original synth scores from the Japanese PS2 (PSX version for DQVII), due to the fact that Koichi Sugiyama is one of the very few instances in game music where he owns the rights to his own music, and wouldn't license the orchestral scores outside of Japan. It was something beyond SE and Nintendo's control. I'm sure they could have rerecorded the score in the west, but that probably would have been expensive as hell.

Picked up VIII a while ago just because, never played before. Played it for 8 hours on the plane, enjoyed it a lot.

>tfw used quicksave and turned off my DS thinking it would save.
>Turned on a few days later and no progress
>Haven't played to this day
>:'(

DQVIII on 3DS is fine, i did not have time to play on the ps2, to have it in portable is marvelous.