If you like the old-school RPG “flava,” than you will love Dragon Quest V. This is the first Dragon Quest game to appear on the Super Famicom, so it isn’t that innovative compared to the NES installments. The graphics are barely a step up from Dragon Quest IV, and the basic game engine is still the same (not that it has undergone much change at all to this day, besides the addition of a Job system in DQVI and DQVII).

The story revolves around the son of Papas, a famous man skilled with a sword. Of course, you play as Papas’ son. The beginning part of the game focus on your (mis) adventures as you follow Papas around while he carries out various jobs, at the tender age of six. This abruptly ends when tragedy strikes and your whole world is turned upside-down. After a time-skip, you embark on a much larger quest in adulthood. As an adult, you’ll have to deal with death, difficult life decisions, and other such problems the likes of which not seen in other RPGs up to the game’s release

One of the interesting things in Dragon Quest V’s game play that makes it slightly more than a beefed-up Dragon Quest IV is the ability to capture monsters after battle. Now, monster capturing does appear in all of the later Dragon Quest games, but it plays a much larger role in this installment, since for most of the game at least one of your two companions in battle will be a monster you captured. It adds a little depth to your battle strategy because anywhere that your carriage is accessible, you can hot-swap monsters in and out of the fight. This becomes necessary because monsters all have strengths and weaknesses that can either help or hinder you. And you have to choose wisely whom you take into dungeons and towers since you can’t usually hot-swap once you’re inside. You’re stuck with whom you take, so choose wisely.

All in all, this is a very enjoyable game. As of this writing, there are two translations available for the game, and both are well done and will see you through to the end.

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