Oh Vacation...

So I found myself on vacation last week and instead of continuing with the Summer of Phantasy Star (which will happen) I wound up playing through Dragon Quest V for the DS. Strike that. I suckered myself into playing Dragon Quest V for the DS. You see, while my experiences with the DQ series isn't that extensive, every time I think it may be a good idea to start one, I find myself bored stupid within the first few hours of the game. Somehow, somehow, I slog through it anyway to completion; all the while thinking to myself, "they can't possibly take this game that much further if this is all it is". And there I sit; wrong every time.

I'm not a very vocal opponent of the DQ series, really. I respect that it's big business in Japan and that the original Dragon Quest is the founding father of what we know as console RPGs. But after decades of development and various sequels and spin offs, there just isn't that much of a clear evolution of the series outside of aesthetics. In fact, you could say that the DQ series represents everything wrong with console role playing on a technical level: you find yourself in a location, locate the nearest town, level grind, conquer a dungeon, get to the next town or location. That's it. There's a story in there someplace, but really, in an endless cycle of RPG rinse-and-repeat it gets pretty meaningless awfully fast. They make me feel every minute of the experience as opposed to sweeping me off of my feet like, say, many Final Fantasy games try to (in their way, I suppose).

But wait! Are Final Fantasy games -the only real competitor to the Dragon Quest series (even though they're published by the same company- better? Why do 2.3 million people buy DQ games in the first week? Why do Americans tend to drift more to what seems more Final and less, um, Dragon-y? So after some brief bathroom meditation, I present you the major differences between Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and what, potentially, might make the former better than the latter (at least to those wacky Japanese, God love 'em).

1. The Plot is Rarely Incomprehensible Trash It seemed unfair to rag on Dragon Quest V for being as straight up as it is, or really, the entire franchise. Never has an amnesiac kid from an orphanage (built by his future enemy) grown to wield unreasonably absurd weapons before massive plot twists happen (because he was the dream of dead people all along). While there's something to be said about more involved stories -and really, the FF games have them- DQ games are all about one thing: good guys and bad guys. And I'm gonna make those bad guys pay. Over time, it's fair to say that the Final Fantasy franchise has tried to outdo itself with each numeric entry, only to have their epic and grandiose stories fall flat by the end. Sure, there are tons of those that love a specific FF game and its cast of characters, but they just end up trying too hard to be transcendent of its genre. Not DQ, where it's just a fun romp through a fantasy world. I have to respect that.
   
2. The Mini Games and Side Quests Are Just That Too often, Final Fantasy games either end after several (meaning multiples of 10) hours of backtracking and side questing for either completion's sake or to find those crazy extra weapons that, in reality, take away all semblance of challenge anyway. The newer entries are worse offenders than others (I'm looking at you, FFXII), but the focus is just about lost when the end is nigh. Now, I'm completely behind wanting consumers to get their money's worth out of your product, but Dragon Quest V had, perhaps, 2-3 real side quests to it. This meant that I, in absolutely no way, was going to overpower the end boss and finish the game as a god. After a whole lot of RPG conditioning, I was pretty put off by this, but when it finally came down to killing the end boss with just my wits and what was left over in my inventory, it was pretty satisfying delivering the killing blow, and just as exciting that all of my party members lived through the fight. That, friends, is a sense of accomplishment.
3. Charm That's right, charm. While some of the recent FF games have been much, much better about this, I find myself reflecting my ire a little and blaming them for everything that's wrong with console RPGs on an artistic level. Overly cheesy and ridiculously chirpy anime characters were built by the dynasty that is Final Fantasy while Dragon Quest is perfectly content remaining as, basically, a somewhat British adventure drawn by manga legend Akira Toriyama. Characters speak in cockney accents and the setting is always decidedly medieval. Sure, credit is due to the Final Fantasy games as evolving popular RPG tropes past sword-and-sorcery, but it's a little difficult to give too much respect to them knowing how absurd those settings and stories are now. Final Fantasy XIII, whenever the fuck it comes out, seems to be basically Final Fantasy VII with a fresh coat of paint and a unwieldy- sounding combat system (it may sound like I'm judging it, but I'm not). Final Fantasy games can't fall back on their simple charm anymore, and Dragon Quest will/ does, and it works for them.

So thems the berries. I'm still very excited for FFXIII when it launches next year, and probably won't start playing another DQ game anytime soon. But it does go to show that it pays to step back and be a bit more critical.