First off, I haven’t updated this… at all. My initial plan, when writing the first post on the Legend of Heroes series, was to provide frequent updates and entries on my gaming experiences and, well, I didn’t follow through with said plan.
With that said, a lot has happened since the time of that first post. And while I’m not certain which games I had finished at that time, I know the number of completed games for 2022 has since grown a great deal.
Games finished in 2022:
1. Trails of Cold Steel III – 64:17 hours
2. Mass Effect – 12 hours
3. Xenoblade Chronicles: DE – 37:24hrs
4. Triangle Strategy – 23:19 hours
5. Disco Elysium: TFC – 24 hours
6. Dragon Quest – 5 hours
7. Dragon Quest V – 31:48 hours
8. Light Fairytale Ep.1 – 2 hours
The list above says it all. There’s some heavy hitters there — Mass Effect, Xenoblade Chronicles, Disco Elysium, and even the newly released Triangle Strategy. Each of those particular games were a blast to play through, with unique worlds and characters, excellent soundtracks, and varied forms of combat (or lack thereof *see Disco Elysium). And while I’m certainly proud of having finally played through the long-beloved Xenoblade Chronicles, especially in preparation for the upcoming third entry, I don’t think any of them compare to how good it felt to play through and finish both Dragon Quest and Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride.
At the time of this writing, I’ve now finished four entries in the Dragon Quest series. Having completed both Dragon Quest XI:S Echoes of an Elusive Age and Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen last year and the aforementioned first and fifth entries this year. Out of the four, my favorite entry is easily V followed closely by IV, then XI:S, and lastly I. Despite having clear favorites already, none of them were bad experiences and, in fact, were rather all delightfully rewarding and enjoyable to play through. The Dragon Quest series has absolutely become one of my favorite in the genre. And while IV was my standout favorite last year, V has swiftly exceeded it in championing the coveted #1 spot in the series. Furthermore, it’s actually rivaled the #1 spot for my favorite JRPGs of all time — that’s how good it was.
Dragon Quest V contained some of the most unique and deep features of any JRPG I’ve ever played. Everything from the generational structure that you play the game and experience the story from the hero’s perspective throughout his childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, to the seriously deep and impactful moments that occur throughout the surprisingly dark and trial-filled narrative. I won’t give up any spoilers here, in the off chance someone happens upon this post (if you’re here and reading this, and haven’t played the game, go do so, I implore you!) but needless to say, they struck me hard — there were multiple moments throughout my play through where I shed tears, allowing myself to feel the weight and impact of the events taking place before (or directly to) the hero. The world itself, brimming with unique towns and creative dungeons, charming NPCs, magical items, weapons, and forms of travel, to the amazingly implemented choice of marriage and subsequent raising and adventuring with the hero’s children were all so novel and engaging. The party chat feature blew me away with how many unique lines of dialogue each party member had in response to visiting new locations, before and after conversations with NPCs, etc — it made the hero and his bride and children, and other accompanying help feel alive and genuine. The emphasis in the story on the importance and strength of the nuclear family was something I have rarely, if ever, seen implemented in a video games narrative. It was wholesome and I loved every minute of it. And that’s not to mention the fantastic monster taming system, wherein the hero upon defeating monsters in battle, could sometimes happen upon a monster desiring to join the party — to which each had its own unique armor sets, weapons, and skills to upgrade as the player sees fit. My party at the end of the game contained several monsters I had gathered early on in my play through, the slime knight Goodian, the sabertooth cat Saber, and a recent addition to the party I had trained up in the last area (which had great EXP gains) Chromeo, the metal slime and the hero’s wife Nera (yes, I chose her over Bianca and I don’t regret it) and their children Rex and Sora. All of this and I didn’t even touch on the extremely easy to hate villains, the subversive twists and turns in the story that I didn’t see coming, and the satisfying victories experienced throughout. Dragon Quest V has it all — and I’m so thankful to have finally experienced it. As an aside, I enjoyed the movie Dragon Quest: Your Story which I thought recreated the story to the big screen in a fairly faithful manner that was a joy to watch — even if the twist ending undid some of the satisfaction it brought up to that point.
I’ve now finished Light Fairytale Ep. 1 (which was a very enjoyable, short, JRPG that reminded me of bits from the Tales of series, Final Fantasy VII, and The Alliance Alive) and I’m now currently finding myself in a state of “what now?” My previous plan was to go straight into Chrono Cross when I receive the Radical Dreamers Edition from Play-Asia, but it hasn’t come yet and my mind has already gone to other options: Grandia II or Dragon Quest VIII have long been on my mind these past several days and I honestly don’t think I could go wrong either way. There’s also 13 Sentinels, still sitting on my Switch with the 7 or so hours I put into it a week or so back, and plenty more on the backlog that I need to get to some day — Lunar, Wild Arms, Xenogears, Radiant Historia, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Torna, Golden Sun, Super Mario RPG, Sakura Wars: So Long My Love, .hack//G.U. Last Recode, Kid Icarus: Uprising, … I could keep going, but you get the point. There’s literally a hundred more games I could list. It’s almost endless.
It’ll probably be Grandia II or DQVIII. I’ll update this eventually and we’ll find out!
The Gaming Journal 