Posted December 1, 2008 As a heads up, DQ IV is £14.99 in GameStation just now on a half price sale along with FF IV. Mighty tempted to pick these up. Holy POOP! That is a bargain! For some reason that deal isn't available online so I hope they have some stock in my local store at lunch time, definitely be picking them both up to play at a later date. EDIT - Yay got them, had to hunt around as the store is small and for a second thought they didn't have any. With the VAT cut got them both for just under £30. What a steal!!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 1, 2008 Thanks so much, ShadowV7. I went into GameStation today. They only had Dragon Quest and the sticker said £29.99, but I asked them to scan it and, sure enough, it was £14.68! I do want Final Fantasy IV as well, but DQ is my favourite. I'm very grateful you pointed it out. Only reason I can't start it yet is this... Did you ever get VIII one the PS2 (if you have one)? That's probably one of the best games there is on the PS2. Worth every penny. The soundtrack alone would be worth the purchase. Couldn't agree more. It's my favourite PS2 game (Shadow of the Colossus is 2nd) and by far the best RPG I've ever played on any system (in fact, I might start a thread about it). I'm still doing the Dragovian Trials! As for the soundtrack, well Medea's theme is absolutely beautiful. The whole score is stunning. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2008 Incoming press release: London (2nd December 2008) – Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces that DRAGON QUEST®: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride™ will be released across PAL territories in Spring 2009, exclusively on the Nintendo DS™ handheld system. Following the fun and colourful path set by DRAGON QUEST: The Chapters of the Chosen™, the second instalment in the Zenithia Trilogy, DRAGON QUEST: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride now journeys onto the Nintendo DS as a high quality remake of the classic DRAGON QUEST V, packed with exciting new features and a truly genre defining story. Considered to be one of the best games in the entire DRAGON QUEST series; DRAGON QUEST: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride will finally make its much awaited debut in Europe. Look out for the next adventure in the trilogy – DRAGON QUEST: Realms of Reverie™ – coming to Nintendo DS soon. John Yamamoto, president and chief executive officer of Square Enix Ltd. comments, “With this new entry in the DRAGON QUEST series, we hope game players of all ages will enjoy the DRAGON QUEST experience, following our hero through a lifetime of limitless adventures and great surprises.†For more information about DRAGON QUEST, please visit the official website at http://www.dragonquest-game.com About DRAGON QUEST: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride Story An epic story involving three generations of one family. The story begins at childhood, as our hero travels around the world with Papas, his father. After many exciting encounters he grows into a young man. He is now ready to depart for the greatest adventure, with the courage of his father, beating strong in his heart. Awaiting him is an amazing world and the biggest choice he will have to make in his entire life… Features • The first appearance of a never-before-seen, classic DRAGON QUEST adventure in Europe! • Exotica Net allows you to swap items with fellow DRAGON QUEST: The Hand of the Heavenly Bride players, even with your console on standby. • Experience a unique, charming story that follows the life of a young boy on his journey to become a hero. Along the way you will meet various friends, enemies and even find a bride and start a family. • A vast, beautiful and colourful world to explore - with even more colourful characters to meet, monsters to battle and secret treasures to find. • Recruit monsters to your party and arm them so they join you in battle. • A complete audio/visual overhaul breathes new life into a classic with advanced 3D graphics and an arranged orchestral score. So its in for Spring. Pity its not gonna be slightly sooner but I suppose they didn't want it and Chrono Trigger to overlap too much... having said that, they didn't give a stuff about releasing DQ 4 and FF IV so close to each other, did they. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 2, 2008 Bah. I hate it when they announce vague release dates. I was hoping we'd get it in February with the US. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2008 Double post but whatever. I got an E-mail from Square-Enix, and it says DQV is out "Early 2009" rather than a Spring 2009, so maybe it's coming out earlier. Other games were listed as Spring 2009. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 8, 2008 Nice, even less off a wait. Here's hoping for DQ VI late in '09. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 27, 2008 I started playing Dragon Quest IV on Christmas day and, to be honest, I'm not all that keen on it. I'm on Chapter 3 and it's OK, but there's no way I'd realise VIII was so great if I hadn't played it. I suppose that's what happens when you go from a PS2 game to a remake of a NES game! I do have my doubts about what the DS can do for this series. As with most DS games, the 3D is low-res and hard on the eye (the 2D screens are lovely though). I can't help but feel that the DS will make Dragon Quest IX a huge step back from VIII. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 27, 2008 I wouldn't knock DQ 9 til we get to try it. DQ 4 is all about the charm. I agree that its difficult to get into as I had the same feelings coming straight off the back of the FF IV remake, but DQ 4 is a really good game. You overcame the old skool trials of FF III so this should be a joy to play in comparison! The graphics in these remakes aren't totally made from the ground up for DS either. DQ 4-6 were released on PS1 in Japan and its these PS1 games that are being ported to the DS for us now. Love them for what they are, but don't dismiss DQ 9 so quickly! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 27, 2008 You're right, darksnowman, I must remain open-minded about Dragon Quest IX. For some reason, I found Final Fantasy III a lot more refreshing than I've found Dragon Quest IV so far. I loved the job class system and didn't find there was any grinding at all for that (and hardly any in general). It was just that final stretch that could so easily have been frustrating if I'd failed. Other than that, I didn't actually find it too old skool (the post-game in DQVIII is really old skool!) I did expect DQIV to be quite primitive, technically, but I imagined more of the charm would be in place. Oh well, I'll still complete it and play V, VI, IX and X, it's just that after two or three days, it's not good enough to keep me playing it instead of the post-game in Dragon Quest VIII. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 27, 2008 I wouldn't knock DQ 9 til we get to try it. DQ 4 is all about the charm. I agree that its difficult to get into as I had the same feelings coming straight off the back of the FF IV remake, but DQ 4 is a really good game. You overcame the old skool trials of FF III so this should be a joy to play in comparison! The graphics in these remakes aren't totally made from the ground up for DS either. DQ 4-6 were released on PS1 in Japan and its these PS1 games that are being ported to the DS for us now. Love them for what they are, but don't dismiss DQ 9 so quickly! They were build from the ground up for the DS. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 27, 2008 They were build from the ground up for the DS. I Googled and got this. Its a bit lengthy, but worth a gander: From PS1 to DS: DS version plays faster in combat and has no load times. Different control scheme that I never got used to. Probably easier for NES-only players as most of the DQ releases since DW4 on NES have had different controls (1-3 on GBC, 7 on PS1, 8 on PS2). Was really awkward using the d-pad to move but I got used to it eventually. On PS1 I move around with the analog and use the d-pad in combat (think I do that in DQ and FF). Graphics similar but some effects were removed (doors) and some were added (monster idle animations) but I stopped noticing them after awhile. I was anticipating stuff similar to DQ8 I guess and got wiggling. MANY items hidden on the ground are now perfectly visible as they sparkle on-screen. I don’t really see the point of the remirama spell Brai has in this one..the stuff that’s hard to find just sparkles. Battle screen has some new features. The top screen having the HP/MP and what the characters are doing I guess is good, but I didn’t look at it too much since it’s on another screen and I’m still not used to looking up there. The HP bar on the main screen was pretty useful I thought. The bouncing numbers I rarely looked at since it just said the number in the text box like usual. The little portraits were kinda cool though. 2 screens make dungeon exploring easier since you can see so far ahead, but you can’t rotate the camera as much as in the PS1 version and sometimes I got confused trying to use both screens. Different inventory menu..didn’t really like it due to there being 2 screens per person and only 6 items per page in the bag. I’m better with a list. I couldn’t manually move stuff in the bag, either. Item bag present in all chapters, makes some parts easier since you can just put extra stuff in the bag to get in Chapter 5. Want 99 Medical Herbs, Antidote Herbs, Holy Water, and Chimera Wings? Just buy them with no problem in Chapter 3 then put them into the bag and you’ll have them in Chapter 5 when Torneko joins. Buying tons of ‘Swords of Malice’ in Chapter 3 also makes money no object for most of Chapter 5 if you do this. You could store 8 in the NES one and 12 in the PS1 one which made things easier, but not as easy as compared to having up to 111. Immigrant town is in, but it’s quite nerfed in comparison. You go look for 1 person in 1 area at a specific point in the game, then have to wait until another point to get another person. Because of this, you can’t get the final form of the town until after the game is over vs before entering the Tenkuu Tower (I like having a Falcon Sword at that point). You can’t make all the various final town forms in the DS one I guess unless you do wifi trading stuff after the game is over. On the flip-side, it is far less annoying getting townspeple in the DS version, but it comes at a cost of not being able to complete it until later in the game. Final town form in DS one has some stuff from some of the alternate final forms which makes things easier. You can make townspeople or something with some new options that confused me. I winded up making some regular woman in an orange dress and named her Penelo and she said konnichiwa probably spelled incorrectly ingame. Didn’t know what I was doing there. Aeana said there’s some sidequest that can be done in the town now and I may have done it, but don’t know. Can save in the town and the town’s name comes up in the warp list instead of a generic title. Didn’t like the composition of songs in DS compared to PS1. I could let the Heaven Castle song from PS1 play for hours while writing a paper, in this one I was disappointed in how it sounded, same with sisters battle and some other songs. Sailing song was not as loud in this one, but the soundtrack as a whole sounded lower quality I thought. And don’t say to use headphones; PS1 with headphones would sound better to me. Bonus dungeon altered. You get most of the same stuff and fight the same monsters in there, but the dungeon seemed more repetitive in the DS one compared to the PS1 one which used various floors from DQ7 areas and DQ4 areas (like the bonus dungeon in 3). In the DS one it was too cavey I thought but it did have variety later on in the dungeon (and some similar layouts to the PS1 floors). Medals are pretty similar..I was able to get a Metal Shield before beating the game (I think I had exactly 52 which is what’s needed) like in the PS1 version and was able to get the last prize in the bonus dungeon, which is the same as PS1. Quicksave option available that can probably be abused. I never figured it out though. That’s what I can think of offhand. None of the changes in the DS one I thought were any better aside from it playing faster. Everything else I preferred in the PS1 version. I have PS1 DQ4 songs recorded..I could record some DS ones for comparison if people are interested. I think the main thing I didn’t like about sisters battle was the very start of it and when the song got very quiet between ‘verses’ or whatever. Dragon Quest IV DS vs NES vs PS1 Also, another snipped I noticed through Google: Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen marks the first time that the popular PlayStation update of the NES original has reached American shores. CNET review Dante is not infallible after all! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 31, 2008 I took your advice to heart, darksnowman, and I'm really enjoying it again. Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted December 31, 2008 Glad you're enjoying it again- I need to get it finished off still! I just read that DQ V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is due out here on Feb 20th- we need to try and finish DQ 4 before then. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 1, 2009 Glad you're enjoying it again- I need to get it finished off still! I just read that DQ V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride is due out here on Feb 20th- we need to try and finish DQ 4 before then. UK release in Feb? Where did you hear that? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 1, 2009 Can't remember if it was via GoNintendo or NeoGAF but the source is Nintendo-online.de which also shows the Dutch version of the boxart. Aus der Produktseite zu Dragon Quest: Die Hand der Himmelsbraut geht hervor, dass das DS-Rollenspiel bereits am 20. Februar 2009 in Europa für den Nintendo DS erscheinen wird. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 1, 2009 Can't remember if it was via GoNintendo or NeoGAF but the source is Nintendo-online.de which also shows the Dutch version of the boxart. I take it they are reliable then? I'm glad we are getting it close to the US though. Can't wait. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 8, 2009 Play.com has the game listed to be released on the 20th Feb, so it looks like the date is true. GAME still haven't added the game yet. And here is the UK boxart! Edit: aw, the boxart is all squished Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 8, 2009 Funnily enough I was looking on the Game website earlier for Chrono Trigger but its not listed either- and its out a few weeks before DQ V. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 8, 2009 I was lucky enough to be gifted a copy of Dragon Quest 4 for Christmas but I've not yet had a chance to uwrap and play it. (Still working on Ranger 2') Does 4 and 5 follow on-or are they different stories totally? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 8, 2009 DQ 1-3 are a trilogy as are 4-6, I dunno about 7-9. I can't really say what the specifics of the links between 4-6 are but I've heard them dubbed the "Zenithia Trilogy" so I'm guessing that at the very least, Zenithia features in all three titles. I dunno if you'd be advised to play 4 before 5, Gentleben, but it can't hurt! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 10, 2009 Just got an e-mail from Square-Enix and it confirms the release date is indeed the 20th Feb. Just nice to have 100% official confirmation. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 10, 2009 Thanks for posting that Ike. You're right, its nice to have official confirmation. : peace: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 17, 2009 Here's a few vids of DQ5 that were over at Neogaf. http://www.siliconera.com/2009/01/16/dragon-quest-v-movies-approach/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 19, 2009 DQV is up for pre-order at GAME! Pre-ordered mine! *Ike casts Happy Dance* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
