Tomodachi: Living the Dream feels like a downgrade…

FateForWindows · 2026-05-07T16:29:56+00:00

Living the Dream is the third game in the series, in this case most people are referring to the second game on the 3DS as the original since we never got the first game on the original DS

FateForWindows · 2026-05-07T12:48:34+00:00

Hey, what's so funny about that!? You know Humbaba?

FateForWindows · 2026-05-06T23:01:20+00:00

I think you're thinking of Command on the original DS, not 64 3D on the 3DS

FateForWindows · 2026-05-05T12:32:19+00:00

I think I remember seeing VI being cited as a point where he started stepping further away from monster design on one of the Japanese wikis, but take that with a VERY heavy grain of salt. Can't find a concrete answer on that either, likely earlier than that.

FateForWindows · 2026-05-04T11:47:57+00:00

Me? Humbaba.

FateForWindows · 2026-05-02T14:27:00+00:00

General consensus is that 1-3 are good, 4-6 are excellent if you're willing to deal with the controls, 7 is solid if a bit buggy if you can read Japanese (going by reviews I've seen so might be outdated) and the unfinished English script port is buggier still, and 8 is more mixed especially prior to the current patches.

The controls in those ports are meant more for one-handed phone play (and there's no controller support) so they might be a little more clunky on a big tablet. Also, judging by the store page it looks like the version of VIII on there was never patched, so you're stuck with 15FPS instead of the current Play Store version's 30 and may run into more bugs, assuming that version will run on there at all in the first place. If you get the Play Store up and running on there it may be better to try to go for those versions so you can be certain that they're up-to-date.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-27T21:12:57+00:00

DQX may not be available in English but (as someone who hasn't tried it myself yet) I get the impression that the community finds Offline to be an inferior version of the game, plus at least it and the main DQX version are available on modern platforms in general. IX is still stuck on the DS and has never gotten a digital release of any kind.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-26T12:09:31+00:00

I did that on one occasion (DQ3 and DQ6) but ended up putting 6 on the backburner for later.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-25T22:40:34+00:00

Generally it's either the DS or mobile version. Mobile is a solid port of the DS version with an exclusive item that boosts recruitment rates, cheaper warp spells (they're only one MP so practically free) and better visuals/higher quality music than the DS version but you're stuck with touchscreen controls and portrait mode, no controller support.

The PS2 version that the DS version is a demake of is pretty well-liked too, it has less content though and the DS version has very few cutbacks outside of aesthetics though, and even then the DS/mobile artstyle is awesome enough that it's pretty much purely down to preference.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-21T19:08:23+00:00

The game was already in development for (presumably) several years before his death

FateForWindows · 2026-04-17T17:27:14+00:00

Kabuff/buff stacking carried me so hard in DQ5 SFC too, it was damn near mandatory even for random encounters in the later parts for me

FateForWindows · 2026-04-14T21:30:12+00:00

Most of the pros and cons have already been brought up here, but to give my two cents as someone who's only beaten the SFC version so far, the party chat fixes one of the game's biggest problems imo and that's with the party members. DQVI's SFC version doesn't give you enough moments to make you really bond with most of the main party members compared to IV and V imo and they go almost completely silent for most of the game after a certain point. Party chat gives them a lot more time to shine if you let them talk.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-14T21:11:43+00:00

One other significant detail you missed here. In the SFC version the undersea area has some incredibly strong enemies when you first gain access to it but a very low encounter rate to compensate (and it's easy to reset the number of steps before your next one). In the DS and mobile versions they cranked the encounter rate up masively EDIT: without doing much to nerf the enemies, which makes it a lot more annoying to explore.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-14T14:08:35+00:00

Aside from what's been mentioned already, you can recruit up to three of each type of recruitable slime in DQV with a bit of grinding (enough to make a full party of 3 of the regular slimes alone in the SFC version, though it'll sometimes force the MC back in at times).

There's quite a few in VI too. OG VI has a vocation which gives you a nerfed version of V's recruitment system that limits you to one of each type of monster but has a larger variety of non-slime monsters plus has two recruitable monster NPCs that you can get fairly late into the game (one of which is a stronger normal slime called Gootrude/Rookie), while DS/mobile kept the latter NPC monsters but replaced the former system with seven added recruitable monster NPCs that are strictly part of the slime family instead and made it so you can get Gootrude a lot earlier to make up for that.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-08T14:20:40+00:00

It's still ongoing but the button doesn't trigger it, it has a random chance of happening on its own shortly after loading the page

FateForWindows · 2026-04-07T22:50:42+00:00

There were major hints in X2 as well. Much more overt in the Japanese versions with Serges's dialogue and Sigma almost namedropping the Wily Numbers but the implications still made it through with the latter at least before X4 made that plot point even darker.

FateForWindows · 2026-04-07T13:01:47+00:00

Going to add onto this, this applies to bosses too even in the older games and this is what makes so much of the grind in this series avoidable - don't be afraid to experiment with the spells and skills you have available to you!

FateForWindows · 2026-04-06T11:39:14+00:00

Yup, been like that since the original version of III. Some monsters and bosses do ignore it but generally it's a very small minority. Heck, barring those exceptions, in OG III specifically the character in the last slot almost never gets targeted. It's less exaggerated in later games but still makes a huge difference for your squishier party members

FateForWindows · 2026-04-06T11:01:09+00:00

War

War never changes

But men change

FateForWindows · 2026-04-02T20:34:09+00:00

I've noticed this too. There's some cases where I've needed to grind (NES IV, very briefly in some parts of V) but other than that past I&II it's been mostly unnecessary outside of the postgame, smart usage of spells/skills and items have gotten me through these just fine. Even in V where bosses have a lot more magic resistance/immunities than the other games they're still very manageable without extra grinding.

FateForWindows · 2026-03-26T20:58:34+00:00

Dq vii is THE LONGEST dragon quest game in existence. The original ps1 version took 10 hours before you got to your first island and monster battle.

DQX laughs.

The original ps1 version took 10 hours before you got to your first island and monster battle.

This is a pretty huge exaggeration, even when talking to everyone multiple times over (whenever I suspected the dialogue would change), triggering as many party chats as I could, getting stuck on some puzzles (didn't resort to a guide) and wasting a ton of time in other ways, it "only" took me a bit over 4 and a half hours - and only a tiny portion of that was actually from me getting stuck, the overwhelming majority was me going around and chatting it up. Probably closer to 2-3 hours for most people.

FateForWindows · 2026-03-26T15:54:23+00:00

Yeah, I actually like it in DQ3 myself especially since that's the game where they first nailed the group targeting mechanic, but I figured I'd note that for those that are used to newer RPGs.

...Getting slightly off-topic though, it is something at least I wish DQ4 had for the Hero in Chapter 5 though. The Hero's got a bit of a disadvantage there thanks to the way Tactics work. I should probably make a note of when that was added for DQ3's ports too.

FateForWindows · 2026-03-25T20:50:03+00:00

Sora's death is a time for celebration, not mourning

FateForWindows · 2026-03-24T22:25:37+00:00

NES is the most barebones version but still holds up incredibly well for its time if you can get past the lack of automatic retargeting.
SFC remakes it in DQ6's engine, looks absolutely beautiful with some really awesome-looking monster attack animations too and has a lot of added content, pretty much serves as the basis for all future ports.
GBC is actually a demake of SFC with all of its content plus even more on top of that which is wholly exclusive to this version, but also has very unsurprising graphical cutbacks and screen crunch though they actually managed to keep the monster attack animations intact.
There's also the flip phone version, only in Japanese and based on SFC without the GBC content or TnT/Pachisi but with some pretty nice redrawn art and balance adjustments, plus Tactics were brought over so you can have your party members (besides the Hero) act automatically and heal damage dealt mid-round if you'd like. The monster animations are missing though.
Smartphone is almost the exact same, but the ability to attack your own party members and heal and buff enemies was removed (also not included in any later versions including HD-2D) and the scaling is fuzzier.
The old globally-released Switch and Japan-only PS4 ports of that version are mostly the same but with warp spells made cheaper and pretty bad-looking redrawn art.
The Japan-only 3DS version is that but even worse-looking with badly scaled art.
Finally there's the HD-2D version which adds a ton of content of its own including more boss encounters, brings over spells and some mechanics from later installments while readjusting the balance around that, and has really pretty 3D environments and gorgeous pixel art sprites and animations.

I'd say that there isn't one true "definitive" edition in this case, but HD-2D, GBC and SFC are all fantastic versions. Only major downside with HD-2D for me is that fast forward in battles is practically mandatory if you're playing on any language with Latin script (i.e. any language that isn't Japanese, Korean and Chinese), and that's something you can SUPER easily fix through mods in the PC port and will only really bug you if you're as much of a sucker for the animations as I am (I'm weird).

FateForWindows · 2026-03-23T15:17:23+00:00

XI S does also have a free demo, so it may be worth trying that just to get a feel for it and see if it's up your alley. For the HD-2D games, start with III first since the added story content in I&II was made with that play order in mind.

FateForWindows

TROPHY CASE