Too Big For One World!!!!! – DRAGON QUEST VI Review

There are only a small handful of games that I have played in the past (a very small handful) that are as encompassing and downright GIGANTIC as the almighty Dragon Quest 6! It is with a heavy heart that I am writing this review today, not only just because I just beat the game and as always the feelings and emotions I've endured through this, believe it or not, 70+ hour main story are still very fresh in my mind, but rather it's the sad realization that with only Dragon Quest 8 remaining, my initial journey will soon be at an end. But let's not dwell on that for the time being and lets instead dwell on the majestic majesty that is Dragon Quest 6! As I've mentioned before, this game is S-T-U-P-I-D HUGE, with a main campaign of around 70 hours, and perhaps around 60 hours if you absolutely rush through it, and would be very surprised to see it finished in an even shorter time than that. I of course have been playing all of the games in the Dragon Quest series in order so the last one I've played was obviously DQ5, so it goes without saying that my expectations for going into DQ6 where insanely high, and yes big shocker...Dragon Quest 6 completely shattered those expectations in nearly every conceivable way. First off I would like to talk about the story for a little bit. Dragon Quest 6 without a doubt has the most complex and even confusing at times storyline to date. With a game spanning over multiple different realms and worlds, the main two of which are the real world and the dream world, and it is within these two realms where the games robust yet still graspable story unfold. With a plethora of different quests to undertake in both realms, the scope of different things to happen in the game when you complete a certain quest in a certain town in one word, and have its corresponding town in the other world be affected accordingly, the massively creative interweaving storyline really start to have an impact. Now I'll admit, while I didn't find Dragon Quest 6's initial story to be quite as intimate and heart wrenchingly beautiful as DQ5, it MORE than made up for that with its viscerally engaging complexity and larger than life size. Have I mentioned yet how friggn' huge this game is yet? Oh I have? Oh well I guess I'll just have to say it again...THIS GAME IS FRIGGN' HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE!!! As I stated before it was over seventy hours of playtime before I saw the credits roll, as opposed to DQ5 which was only around 50 hours. And believe it or not there is still a TON of stuff left to do including the bonus dungeon behind Alltrades Abbey, which brings me to my next subject. Yes that's right Alltrades Abbey returns in this game with a much larger variety of job classes and possibilities than was previously available in Dragon Quest 3. First of, unlike in DQ3, your stats aren't cut in halve and you don't return to level one every time you choose to change someone's vocation, and along with DQ3's very small array of jobs to choose from, I only made use of the abbey one single time throughput the entire length of the game, whereas in Dragon Quest 6, with the more than double the amount of different jobs to choose from than in 3, and without your party members level being reduced back down to one and their stats halved, I've made use of Alltrades Abbey this time around dozens of different times withe each and every character. The job class system this time around is more reminiscent of the job class system if Final Fantasy 5, where you can master each individual job class to learn each job's vast assortment of of different abilities, which add up and can be used no matter if you decide to change job classes. The more jobs you master, the more spells and abilities you can learn, and let me tell you, it adds up fast! There are so many Friggn' different spells and abilities in this game it's unreal!! I mean this has got to be without a doubt the largest assortment of spells and abilities I have ever seen, for this game to have originally hailed from the early 90s makes it that much more mind blowing and incredible. I thought that the monster recruitment aspect of DQ5 gave birth to a wide array of different playable tactics and techniques, but it is absolutely nothing compared to Dragon Quest 6 my friends. There are so many things going for this game that it would be nearly impossible to adequately describe them all, and the story is too complex to describe without spoiling, I never thought I would play an RPG of this magnitude for as long as I would live. And while I couldn't help myself to compare it to the various ins and outs of DQ5, like the tearjerking moments in 5, and the much larger casino scene it had as well, and probably the one thing that bothered me was the lack of day and night cycles. I don't understand why they'd omit them in this game considering that 3,4,5 and even DQ8 feature day and night cycling. I suppose they makers of the game thought that it would simply be too much, and I would have to agree. All things considered, there was never a dull moment in DQ6 as well in the way of side stuff and mini games. Even though there were only a few small underground casinos in 6, there were other wonderfully entertaining and engaging things like Slimopolis!!! Which is kinda like the monster arena in previous games only you can use your own slime that you can recruit later in the game, and with the Alltrades Abbey, yes even your monsters can get a taste of the vocational action and be available to the same wide assortment of spells and abilities as their human counterparts, which makes the Slimopolis arena so much more interesting an exciting than the stuffy ol' monster arena. I mentioned earlier in the review that I was sad that my initial Dragon Quest experience was coming to a close, and while that may be true, I will not ever soon forget the absolutely unbelievable and life altering journey I have embarked on with this wonderful series!Final stop...DQ8!!!!!!!!!
Review by UncleSlam Temple on DRAGON QUEST VI.