**Caution: If you haven't played it yet, this post contains spoilers for Dragon Quest V.**
ARS: The mid-to-late 1990s and early 2000s were a tough time to be a Dragon Quest fan living in America. The venerable Japanese RPG series was (and still is) popular to the point of ubiquity in its home country, but lackluster sales for the first four games (all released for the NES under the Dragon Warrior moniker) combined with the shuttering of publisher Enix's North American branch in 1995 meant that American gamers never got English-language localizations of the series' Super Nintendo games.
That's a real shame, too, because Dragon Quest V and VI are two of the strongest entries in a franchise that hits more often than it misses—it's the fifth entry that I want to draw your attention to. Before it was finally released by Square Enix on the Nintendo DS in early 2009, the only way to play Dragon Quest V was to learn to read Japanese, or to play one of the fan translations of the game that cropped up on the Internet in the early 2000s—this is how I was introduced to what remains one of my favorite games, and an excellent example of what an old-school role-playing game can be.
Today Square Enix made two new Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride action figures available for pre-order as part of its Bring Arts brand.
With bold framing and an epic story, Dragon Quest V asserts itself as one of the most impressive RPGs of all time.
Role-playing games are one of the most flexible genres because unlike shooters or platformers or sports games, they are less identified by what the player does and more by how the player does it.
Turn based holds a special place in my heart. But, when an action RPG is done right, it can be really amazing.
I like both as long as the game, mechanics and story is well designed. I liked the last Dragon Quest game turn based system and I think it be better.
Definitely turn-based, especially when its a battle system like Trails of Cold Steel, Grandia 2, and Persona 5. These battle systems have so many different aspects, attacks/abilities, and strategies involved.