Forums > Submission Feedback > honestgamer's Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride review

I agree this is a good review.

I guess you could go it alone but the monsters can become friends if you believe. They will level up with you and you can name them. Think of them sort of like a pet who travels with you and helps out.

Age is a condition not a state of mind.

The game would be extremely difficult without the monsters, as I found. You'd have to level up like crazy, grind like crazy... it really wouldn't be worth it. Personally, I found it easy to grow attached to the monsters. By the end of the game they're no longer strictly required (spoilers prevent me from saying more), but at that point I still had a hard time choosing which monster(s) had grown on me most and justified their place in my party.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

There are three phases to the game. In the first phase, there's no monster recruitment. The second phase emphasizes monsters the most, and it'd be difficult to clear it without them. In the final phase, you are given a lot of human team members right off the bat, but you can still choose to keep and develop monsters.

As far as "attachment" goes, one of the monsters you recruit has an emotional connection to the main character, and is really more of a character than a random beast. There's also plenty of human characters to get attached to in the story itself, both playable and non-playable.

JOSEPH VALENCIA was able to build this sig IN A CAVE…… WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!

That's one thing that's great about DQ V...how you have to adjust from needing monsters to not necessarily needing them. Makes it feel more real. You're a loner who needs the help of recruited beasts for a while, then you find powerful human allies gradually and have to make tough choices as to what you want in your party.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

It would be difficult to put personality into every monster you could recruit that is why I would say you need to give them that. Like I named my cute little bouncy Slime Smuckers because he (there are she-slimes as well) reminded me of jelly and so with a name like that it has to be good. It is after all an RPG and sometimes it is fun to make up personality. What about the hero that never speaks? You provide his/her personality and I guess it is pretty close to the same thing for monsters in this game.

Age is a condition not a state of mind.

I agree with Ben. The Silent Hero is the one that the game and story and events are happening to. The pets he fights with... well, I don't get attached to the swords and bows I use. They are just tools.

Pokemon is a little different for me, but I don't know quite why. Maybe it's because they are so specifically designed for growth and customization. Or maybe it's because the designs are so different that you really feel you're picking your "favorites." Or maybe it's all the work you put in to catching them.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."