Dragon Quest V
At the opening screen, Square Enix attempts to make it a virtue
of slow loading by having the player wait for the title to slowly descend from the top screen to the bottom.
After a long wait you are an observer to the story of a birth of a royal son.
The screen moves on to the royal bedroom to a conjugal bed with baby and wife.
So far, with the doll-house quality of the environment,
could almost be a girl game. Will that put a kibosh on it?
This is a role-playing game that has been around for the last 20 years.
Basically turn-based battles - voyaging through the world exploring towns,
dungeons, fighting and recruiting monsters.
The last is what makes the game engaging.
The monsters get most of the graphic attention and they are more skilled
at fighting than the humans.
You don't have to collect them all like in Pokemon but you want to have a good assortment in your wagon.
The story is complex and interesting - perfectly geared to girl's likes.
Starts with the birth of the main character, follows his development
into his twenties when he gets a choice of his "heavily bride",
raise a family of twins and continue, as a family, to continue to fight evil.
There are many nice touches to the game: a 360 degree view with the
left shoulder button, zoom with the Y button, no game over - find the nearest church,
confess and be restored;
three different choices of brides result in three different game experiences;
an excellent in-game bestiary; an impressive symphonic musical score that
seems wasted on the everyday action;
and the ability to control message speed, good addition with all the text going on.
We have long since had the technology to allow dual roles in a game.
Girls to play the game in this case as a heroic daughter.
It gets better with the birth of the twins - one boy, one girl,
but I am tired of playing as a male character.
Reviewed by: Editor - 04/09
Ages: Everyone +10
Fun Factor: A RPG with an interest approach
Female Factor: Could have had a female protagonist for players to choose.
Player Friendly: Good manual - easy enough to be considered as a starter RPG