Dragon Quest V

Written by Tom Clare in SNES Game Reviews, Sunday 30 January, 2005

Time To Get Some Exorcise!

During the late eighties and throughout the nineties, a gaming rivalry raged in Japan. It divided a nation, became the topic of many a debate, and yet there wasn't a blue hedgehog or a fat plumber in sight. What rivalry do I speak of? The battle of the role-playing games - Dragon Quest versus Final Fantasy.

The latter of the two franchises is now little short of a global phenomenon - when Squaresoft released Final Fantasy VII upon an unsuspecting world, they couldn't have imagined the 15,000,000+ sales the game would clock up. The rest, as they say, is history. Refusing to budge from established Japanese and American territories has ultimately cost the Dragon Quest series (developed by Enix) the worldwide recognition it deserves, and is therefore almost completely unheard of over here. This doesn't mean it hasn't had its own success however…

Since 1992, there have been no less than nine new Final Fantasy games hitting the shelves, and yet only two Dragon Quest's. As each instalment of DQ tends to spend 4-5 years in development, they have a lot to live up to in their native Japan; Dragon Quest VII remains the most successful PlayStation game ever made, shifting a truly astonishing 4 million units in Japan alone. The fifth instalment of the series has been remade for the PlayStation2 format, and so I thought it would be a good time to see what it was like in its original guise.

Dragon Quest V (or Dragon Warrior V if you live in the U.S) is a role-playing game truly deserving of the term 'epic'. You think that games such as Final Fantasy VIII are gigantic until you play an older title like this, which simply dwarves it - the scale and ambition on display in a game of its age is breathtaking.

DQ5 may have been the series' first outing on the SNES format, but that doesn't prevent it from being a marvellously playable and highly-intelligent adventure. Whilst games such as Chrono Trigger have dabbled with the idea of time-travel, and Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Material's' trilogy of books play around with the concept of alternate universes, Dragon Quest V opts for telling a story that follows the central character through three generations and eighteen years of life; you'll get to see the world change for better or worse, and the same goes for the people - time stops for no man as they say.

Unusually, you begin the quest as a six-year old, travelling the world with your father Papas. Though the first generation of the game is little more than an extended-introduction, these first few hours of play cleverly capture the magical feeling you experience/d as a child - going off on mini-adventures without your parents knowing. Every new town you visit has a task for you to attempt before moving on to another area with Papas and his 'business duties'; they unfold almost like chapters in a story-book, and it's all very charming…

…But then Papas is killed. The hero (you have to name him yourself) is captured and taken to a high-security slavery camp along with a snobbish prince called Henry. They'll be rescued in no time, right? Wrong. The pair have to wait ten hard years before eventually seizing their chance and breaking out of the confinement. Your tasks post-escape include searching the Earth for the mystical Legendary Warrior who is allegedly sent to save the world in times of peril, finding your lost Mother who had been captured by demons many years earlier, and exacting revenge for your fathers killing.

The third and final instalment of the game, eight years later again, carries on much of what was left off at the end of the second, and cleverly reverses roles from those portrayed at the beginning of the game - you get to fight alongside your children rather than with your father, which is quite brilliant.

There are some brilliant little touches in here right from the off; it is quick to show off some small though classy touches; early on you get to visit a Faerie Kingdom that is accessed via a magical portal found in the town of Santa Rosa. But when you sleep at the Inn of the Faerie Village, you wake up back in Santa Rosa - so it this Kingdom real or not? A more significant touch involves a rotor of night and day within the game. It is a fantastic touch; at night-time new beasties come out on the prowl, villages are darkened with many of their occupants tucked up in bed, and there are even a few secrets to uncover after the sun has gone down.

The turn-based battles are very similar to that of the Final Fantasy's; perhaps a little simpler, though also quicker and more accessible - commands such as fight, magic and item usage are easy to understand and utilise, and fans of the aforementioned series will have no trouble learning the ropes here. The main difference between DQ's fights and FF's is the ability to 'recruit' various monsters you will encounter throughout your travels - there is a huge selection of creatures to slaughter/befriend at your digression, and after defeating them they will occasionally ask you if they can join the party, and if you accept, you can strengthen their fighting skills and even learn a few new spells along the way too.

It may look ridiculously basic by today's standards, though when it was released back in 1992, Dragon Quest V was a bit of a looker. Granted, it couldn't match Final Fantasy IV for presentation, graphical detail or overall sheen, but the general level design was nice, the sprites were varied and certain effects (such as a wonderful translucent waterfall later on in the adventure, and a cut-scene that shows the changing of four seasons in two minutes) hinted at what the SNES was capable of in the capable hands of Enix.

There is very little wrong with Dragon Quest V except for flaws that seemed to regularly blight role-playing games of that period - there were STILL no save points in dungeons, more surprisingly it lacks a run feature meaning that some of the larger environments become a bit of a trawl after a while, and most annoying is the system of each character carrying his/her own items, meaning that if you want someone else in your party to use a specific item, you often have to go through a number of menus just to pass the said item between members.

If you can overlook these small slip-ups, there is a dauntingly huge adventure waiting to be conquered. There are upwards of thirty towns and dungeons to explore, and with the three generations spread across eighteen years, there is a lot more to it than initially meets the eye. The game doesn't feature a clock so I couldn't be sure of how long it lasts, though my rough guesstimate would be at least fifty hours of gameplay to witness everything the game has to offer.

It's suitable for most, except possibly younger children (below the age of eight), as Dragon Quest V's admittedly great humour is not always totally subtle, and so inevitably the odd 'bugger' and 'b*stard' slip in. In terms of difficulty, the learning curve is nicely implemented as you are aided in the early stages by the computer-controlled Papas.

Overall, Dragon Quest V is a bit of a cracker. As it's very old and has never been released in Europe, tracking it down to buy would be very tricky, though I would recommend you either try the emulation version of the game, or if that doesn't tickle your fancy, wait for the release of the PS2 remake. Chances of that making these shores are akin to two snowflakes simultaneously floating through Hell, though we can all dream I suppose…

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