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I really enjoy JRPGs. I've played through much of the Final Fantasy series as well as the Chrono series and many others. I enjoy the epic stories and fun battle systems. I love the drama and tension in the stories as well as plot twists and turns. The music is often breathtaking and the visuals have prompted me to work towards a career in game development. Innovation is common in this genre, bringing new ideas with each new game. But one series took so long to innovate into something that is actually good, Dragon Quest.
Dragon Quest III caused people to call in sick to work and school just to wait in line for a copy of the game, so a law was created in Japan banning a Dragon Quest game from being released on a weekday. I found this out after playing the game. It is an awful game, even for its time. Dragon Quest games have often had poor simplistic plotlines and weak if not completely absent character development. It's all about the battle system, I guess? Even that is boring. A first person perspective is awful for turn based combat. Even the first Final Fantasy had a third person battle system. In addition, the battles are extremely tough. I'm talking about the normal enemies, the bosses are ridiculous. I have always had to do some sort of serious grinding in a Dragon Quest game, and that gets really boring. Again why is this series idolized in Japan? Are our cultures so different that they enjoy mindless repetitive tasks and little to no innovation? This cannot be entirely true because Japanese RPGs can be very unique and interesting. But then why was Dragon Quest VII the best selling PlayStation game in Japan? It received numerous awards and was hailed as pure greatness. I got that game for Christmas in 2000 and I was appalled. I'm not going to talk about the graphics as that would make me seem superficial. But the horrifically paced beginning drove me nuts. Also, why would a best selling game take place in a purely stock fantasy world? From the start I was introduced to yet another boring protagonist with no personality or backstory other than having a father who was a fisherman. And the character who did have a personality was a rebellious princess; haven't I seen this a million times before?
However the series finally got it right with Dragon Quest VIII, I loved that game. But why did it take so long to finally innovate and create a good DQ game? Could someone please enlighten me as to why this series is so popular in Japan?
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