DQVI is one of the best looking SNES games I’ve ever seen. DQV isn’t quite as nice but was still comparable to FFIV and FFV. I can’t really speak to the relative merits of 1-4 since my eye isn’t capable from discerning good and bad NES graphics anymore, but DQ7 is the only one that seems below par graphically to me.
Yea, that is somewhat true. DQ6 looks quite pretty for a SNES game though. But DQ7 not so much on the PS1. 1-4 seemed barely indistinguishable on the NES.
But 8! Wow.
Someone on another forum mentioned that this might be the way SquareEnix progresses. The more traditional, less globally popular Dragon Quest series migrates to handheld consoles, as it had less of an emphasis on graphical power, and the ‘showcase’ [in more than one way], internationally loved, highly powerful and graphically intense Final Fantasy series becomes the ‘home console’ series. He believes this is backed up by the switch in mechanics in Final Fantasy XII- the game has become more complicated, and each Final Fantasy makes some significant changes to the battle system, making them well-suited to the larger consoles.
Conversely, Dragon Quest is a more conservative series [this is not meant as a criticism], and so is perfect for deep, portable games.
Addendum: Feel free to tear this theory apart.
It’s nice to see nintendo and SE getting closer again. First the mario basketball game (that did quite good in japanese sales charts) then the FF III remake, DQ:Swords and DQ:Joker and now DQIX.
How far off can a “mushroom kingdom hearts” nintendo-RPG be? They have to be making this, since it’s guaranteed money. Tons of it.
I don’t know if this marks a permanent move to portables, or just a move to the selling-like-gangbusters market of the DS. The DS has a chokehold on the Japanese market. It would be winning the console wars if considered a next gen console ala the Wii and PS3. I could easily see it moving back if the next Nintendo portable is not the destroyer of worlds that the current one is.
What are the DQ: Swords and Joker games?
Spin-offs like the recent Rocket Slime. Dragon Quest Swords is coming to the Wii and Dragon Quest Monsters Joker is coming to the DS.
DQ Swords is an on-rails swordfighting game. DQ Monsters Joker is the latest version in the better-than-Pokemon Pokemon-alike series.
From GAF:
What’s all this Japan crap? North American hardware sales for November:
NDS: 918K
PS2: 664K
GBA: 641K
360: 511K
Wii: 476K
PS3: 197K
Couldn’t find an exact number for the PSP, but it was about half the number of DS units.
Dude, you gotta frequent GAF more. That one’s way outdated… though still relevant!
This is the new black…
Who is the chick’s face? She’s getting the money shot? It looks vaguely like Elizabeth Hurley.
It’s one of the Wii models used in the commercials or the infomercial or something like that.
I’m most excited about the DQ9 co-op. I bought two DSes on launch day thinking Mario DS (which they’d called Mario 64X4 in all the pre-release hype)was co-op. And now I’m still waiting for a co-op game!
Heh, just read that 515,000 DS units were sold in the past week in Europe.
-Julian
Damn. Just as MS starts making inroads in the console market, all the hot, steamy action moves to handhelds.
Maybe that Zune money should have gone to an xbox-micro.
If Microsoft made an Xbox Micro you’d need a portable diesel generator to run it.
Damn, but it would have a great controller!
Ah! I had heard of the name, but didn’t hear that it was announced to be a cell phone game.
I wonder what they’re working on for the 360, then? At E32005 they had Square up on stage and blah blah Final Fantasy XI (yuck) and then they said their relationship with Microsoft is deeper than just FFXI, and showed a nifty real-time sort of rendering test thing that was pretty impressive.
Well they have that shooter for the 360 (Einhander sequel or something).