It's not II at least?

I have to start off by saying that no Dragon Quest game is really that bad. (II, not even you) However there are certainly better and worse DQ titles and I think this one falls into the latter.

First released in 1995 and then later introduced into the DS world around the same tie as the re-installments for IV, and V, in 2011 it rounds out the Zenithian trilogy of IV, V, and VI.

If you haven't played any other title, I wouldn't start with this one, but then again, if you start at the bottom you've got nowhere to go but up. That said, there are a lot of people that trash this game, and I'm not going to go that far, but it does seem like a departure on the series as a whole.

They did try a few things here and there that we'll mention, but overall for a Dragon Quest title it felt a little underwhelming. Let's talk about it:

Music

You know the drill, it's Koichi Sugiyama. Legend, rolemodel, Japanese musical genius. The music is one of the few things about this game that is honestly thoroughly enjoyable. Sure, on the DS you do lose a little bit of the orchestral bits that could've made it even better.

Overall though Mr. Sugiyama's brilliance keeps shining as the series has progressed. There is enough variety that these songs will probably get stuck in your brain, and that's not necessarily a bad thing for this game.

Every cloud has it's silver lining, that silver lining for Dragon Quest VI is Sugiyama. A little bit darker, a little more dramatic, but every bit the airy fanfare and journey-esque (is that the right term?) pieces of music that we've grown to love throughout the series.

Music 4/5

Graphics/Animation

Yup. Mhm. Once more we have the famed Akira Toriyama. Now this is in no way a slight to Mr. Toriyama as we've seen him produce character and monster art after character and monster art and he hadn't stopped boasting a 238 monster count for this edition.

The character art doesn't fail to impress either, and so it's not Mr. Toriyama's work that is the downfall of this title either. If anything it's the way they are employed in the graphics and animation departments. With IV it was done really well, a couple years later with V it was done pretty good. Another could of years and now we have VI... and it's not bad.

I mentioned in a previous review that the DS was in fact capable of producing really high renderings and amazing graphics as seen in other titles, and so it felt a little lackluster

Graphics/Animation: 3.5/5

Plot

Okay. Hmmm. Okay. The plot was. The Dragon Quest series has never been plot champions by any means. However. When you go from IV, to V, to VI it seems like they tried to come up with the games all at once and they were just plain running out of ideas by the time they get to VI.

There's parallel dimensions, you fly on a bed, it just. Everything feels messy like my sentences in this section. There's a lot that feels disjointed, there were a few plot holes, that while normally in a DQ title I'll be like, okay whatever you didn't tie up EVERYTHING, there were quite a few in this title.

Is it the worst plot that I've seen in a videogame? No, is it the worst in the DQ series? I would argue yes.

The redeeming qualities for the plot are the characters. In this title we get one of my favorite characters of all time! My boi Terry. There's a reason his character design is enveloped into Super Smash Bros. There's also a reason he gets his own title sort of (Dragon Quest Monsters) with his sister playing a significant role.

Terry is awesome, Carver is such a cool pink haired version of Android 16. I think Millie is a cool magic casting Android 18, Ashlynn is badass, Nevan kinda comes out of nowhere but he's fun too! Well, and Amos. We don't talk about Amos. These characters all share one basic trait. They're fun! More than that they have a chemistry that doesn't really take place in a lot of the DQ games, with notable exceptions (VII, and VIII)

They are the saving grace of the plot. If for no other reason than you like the characters, you should still play this game if you're a DQ fan at heart.

Plot 3/5

Gameplay

As with the other parts of this title, there's nothing inherently wrong with the gameplay of this title, but there's also nothing exceptional.

Worth noting are a cool feature of catching and raising slimes, which if you know my affection for that basic idea, is awesome. However when you transition from V to being able to capture all sorts of monsters, and then move to VI to only being able to capture slimes it feels like the wrong direction.

I will put out there that the slimes are way more customizable than the monsters in DQ V, but all the same it feels like they watered down the concept, so much so that we don't see it in VII. This may have to do with the fact that Dragon Quest Monsters became it's own series with interesting plot and characters and the directors may have wanted people with the Pokemon itch to play that game instead.

Additionally the class mechanics make a come back that are a nice change of pace, due to the fact that they don't exist really at all in IV, and V (for good reasons but still)

It's a mix of mediocre and good, which is better than bad... right? Right!

Gameplay 3.5/5

Overall

Once again, this isn't the worst Dragon Quest title, and even the worst would be worth playing as a solid entry into the Dragon Quest series and JRPGs as a whole. If you've played the other two in the Zenithian Trilogy you probably owe it to yourself to play this one as well. It's not like you won't have fun playing it, you just might not be over the moon with excitement after you're done. With around 50 hours of gameplay it's lengthier than it's Zenithian brothers and does bring a few interesting things to the mix. So, if you find a copy do yourself a favor and still pick it up.

My Final Score: 3.5/5 - Not bad - Definitely playable!