- May 25, 2011 21:37 PM PT
As we finally catch up with the latest Dragon Quest, we also manage to find the time to take one more look at the past and speculate wildly about the future.
You could say that Dragon Quest’s evolution has been fairly logical, if a bit slow in graphical prowess. Dragon Quest had been pushing the narrative envelope for years, all the while honing its mechanical underpinnings in subtle ways. But with Dragon Quest VIII, the visual sophistication finally matched the thematic sophistication, pushing Dragon Quest into the modern era.
Things took a sharp turn, however, when it was announced that Dragon Quest IX would be for the Nintendo DS. Putting one of the planet’s best-selling console series on a handheld may have sounded unheard of at the time, but this fundamental shift in strategy paid dividends and once again innovated the series to new horizons.
At the same time, Nintendo’s modern platforms have work hard to remind people why the Dragon Quest series is relevant in the first place. Hosting remakes of the first six entries of the series, the series that had defected to Sony has now come full circle. And with Dragon Quest X supposedly coming out for Wii sometime in the future, it looks like Dragon Quest will continue to thrive in the place it all began.
And so we give you the modern Nintendo era, complete with the Dragon Quest of the present, nods to the past, and a glimpse into the future.
Dragon Quest IV, V, and VI Remakes
Though we got a lot of the Dragon Quest games, there was still several holes to fill up. Dragon Quest IV was released too late in the life of the NES for many to have played it, and we never got V and VI at all. This is why the DS remakes were such a godsend. Not only did they bring three classic RPGs to a new audience, they did so with very little old-school jank. Utilizing a more advanced version of the engine used for Dragon Quest VII and the Japan-only PlayStation remakes, ArtePiazza managed to retain the charm of the 2D versions by utilizing 2D sprites in 3D environments.
More impressive was the Party Talk feature, where you can talk to your party members and they say different things depending on where you are and what NPC you spoke to last. Additions such as a town-building sim and slime curling were added, but the exciting part was just experiencing these gems for the first time in a visually pleasing package, giving context to the games we had already played of the series.
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Article source: http://www.gamepro.com/article/features/219682/history-of-dragon-quest-return-to-nintendo/
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