Dragon Quest V is my favorite in the series. VIII is fantastic, and XI is probably one of the greatest RPGs of this generation. Something about V though has always stuck with me. I mean, the story is just SO good, not to mention the whole aspect of marrying a lucky gal, the story spanning several generations, and just generally saving the world with your own freakin’ family. When I think ‘Dragon Quest,’ this is the first game that comes to mind for me.

The PS2 version is actually the last version of this game I’ve played even though this translation has been out for a decent while now. Played a translation of the SNES version WAY back in the day and then the DS one many, many times before this one.

This translation compared to the DS one in particular makes me realize how ‘localized’ the DS’s script is. The translation for the PS2 version seems pretty faithful to the original script, while whoever did the script for the DS version clearly had some fun. Sancho in particular talks pretty normal in the PS2 game but has a stereotypical Spanish or Mexican accent in the DS. There’s a lot more characters like this too. Whether this bothers you or not is obviously up to tastes as DQV is pretty damn enjoyable no matter what console you play it on. Official DQ scripts have always been like this though, so to me, it’s not that big a deal, but the PS2 version here might be good for anyone out there who may not have like the DS’s script.

I’ve run into no glitches/bugs/translation errors while playing this patch and have generally had an enjoyable experience re-experiencing this game on the PS2. This version is missing some features from the DS version (mainly the third girl you can marry) but other than that, it’s pretty damn good. The graphics aren’t great anymore (especially upscaled in PCSX2), but other than that, there aren’t any major complaints I have with either the game or the translation patch.

Whether you go with this one or the DS version is kind of a toss up. Like I said, the DS version has some extra content, but the graphics on the PS2 are in full 3D. It’s pretty cool seeing all the monsters, towns, and NPC with polygons instead of sprites.

There are two version of the translation patch. One is more faithful to the original Japanese release of DQV in terms of names, while the other is for people who prefer the ones from the DS version.