20/09/2018

Dragon Quest V: Mixed middle stages


20 hours of play under my belt, and things are getting a bit sour between me and DQV. The honeymoon period is over, and the game's flaws are starting to rear their ugly heads and to ever-so-slightly spoil my run. Mind you, the grinding is still soothing, the exploration is still thrilling, and the atmosphere is still enthralling; and then you have all those magical little moments that only DQ can provide, such as that glorious fight in which I vanquished two metal slimes with two critical hits. Glorious, indeed. I still love the game very much, really; but I undeniably love it a little less than when I started it, and here's why.

No boss fight for hours on end: I honestly cannot remember the last time I faced a boss. Grinding is all well and nice, but it somewhat loses its edge when the game doesn't offer you mighty bosses to use as touchstones. I know bosses are bound to come back before the end of the game (like, literally), but that long boss-less stretch is a bit disturbing nonetheless.

The choice that never was: The only thing I knew about DQV before playing it was that you could choose your wife; and while I certainly didn't expect any kind of active romancing from a DQ game, I at least expected to be given a real choice. However, the game frames that 'choice' in a mighty biased way that totally defeats the purpose of letting the player choose. Let's first discard Debora as the obvious added-in-remake troll she is, and let's focus on the two original girls (minor spoilers!). So we have Bianca, our childhood friend we just reunited with; not only is she blatantly is love with us, but her ailing father begs us to take care of her. And then we have Nera, a complete stranger who shows nothing but polite disinterest towards us; not only is she clearly in love with a local knight who loves her back, but she tries to get rid of us by hooking us up with Bianca. If this is not the game actively trying to shove us into Bianca's arms, I don't know what is. There's just no fairness here: one choice feels like Destiny, the other feels like forced mariage. One choice makes you feel like a gentleman, the other makes you feel like a heartbreaker. If the writers wanted the hero to marry Bianca that badly, they should have made that mariage a scripted event. Mind you, I had decided to tie the knot with Bianca from the get-go; but I would have loved a more balanced choice that didn't make me feel like a saint or a scumbag. (End of spoilers)

The kids aren't alright: So, the game ultimately dumped my kids on me so that we could all roam&grind together. That certainly fits my hero's role as a father; but pray tell, what am I supposed to do with those wimps as a player? They are painfully underlevelled, which means that I have to waste tons of time grinding if I want to use them in battle. Why would I do that, when I have my already levelled-up feline team at hand? For now, the kiddies stay in the wagon and reap XP from battles; we'll see if they join the party once they reach decent levels.

Where do I go next?: Yup, that dreaded old-school RPG trope is alive and well in DQV. While early quests always explicitely told me where to go, current quests are much more elusive, giving me only the faintest of clues and letting me figure out by myself where I'm supposed to be headed. Mind you, this wouldn't be so bad if the world map hadn't fully opened at the same time, giving me countless opportunities to get desperately lost. And yes, I did check walkthroughs once or twice because hey, I have metric tons of other games waiting to be played and I cannot decently waste precious hours scouring every pixel of a game world.

In a nutshell, I mourn the loss of the game's initial simplicity. DQV feels a bit less magical since its map opened up, and the concurrent ramp-up of the narrative stakes doesn't help its case. I loved being a kid busy with discovering the world and saving his own hide; but now, it seems that we're headed towards yet another case of Saving the Bloody World. Mind you, I like DQV's story, and I really enjoy the way it's told special mention to the stone statue episode, which made me feel genuinely desperate as a spectator and as a player worried for the future of their party. It's just that I had this crazy hope that maybe, just maybe, the game was going to keep things domestic and treat me to a family epopee while giving the world a break. Oh, well. We'll see how the whole thing plays out, I guess. I'll see you soon for more DQV tidings, dear fellow gamers; and as usual, thanks for reading, and be my guest anytime!

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