A warm bed in a cozy inn. A closet full of wares, fair for the taking. A smiling slime ripe for slaying and the jingling fanfare upon victory. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Quest is full of such charms, and while developer Square Enix isn't popping out mainline entries particularly frequently, any game in the series can be said to have stood the test of time.

Related: Dragon Quest 11: Every Party Member's Age, Height, And Dance Moves

Part of what makes Dragon Quest timeless is that the series nailed so many staples and conventions all the way back with the original Dragon Quest (known as Dragon Warrior in North America) released in 1986. This 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:traditional JRPG series hasn't fundamentally changed that much over the years, but that's because it doesn't need to. Dragon Quest is still one of the greatest video game series out there, and it continues to shine more luminously than other RPGs in some significant ways.

10 Using Tacti🤪cs♒ To Auto-Battle

combat with slime in dragon quest

Dragon Quest features a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:turn-based combat system, which—while traditional—is not everyone's cup of tea. Many other turn-based JRPGs these days feature quality-of-life options to speed up combat. Some have settings to allow you to auto-battle through encounters. Dragon Quest has been including this feature since 1990's Dragon Quest 4, which introduced a "Tactics" mode allowing you to have your party members auto-battle with specific play styles.

This has continued to be a feature in the series and gives you the option to relax if you wish and have some of your buddies make decisions for themselves. Sometimes you'll want to take control, but if you're just 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:grinding in the overworld, it's nice to sit back and just take in Dragon Quest's fantastic art style.

9 💖 The Art Of Akira Toriyama

Angelo, Hero aka Eight, and Red from Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King

Plenty of other RPGs, and JRPGs in particular, have distinctive and creative art styles. Take the Final Fantasy series for example, which has often commissioned the artwork of Yoshitaka Amano. His work sure is good, but his artistry doesn't always translate into what you see when playing any of those games.

Related: Final Fantas▨y Characters T🌼hat Would Have Slayed At The Met Gala

In Dragon Quest, on the other hand, the art of Akira Toriyama (most famous for his work with the Dragon Ball series) is everywhere. Especially in the modern 3D games, it's often like you're living inside one of his brightly imagined fantasy worlds. Art is, of course, a subjective experience, but it's hard to deny how great the art is in Dragon Quest, especially when art is quite actually spelled out in Akira Toriyama's name.

8 🌼 Towns Galore 🐎

Best Overworlds concept art of the Minstrel and an assortment of other characters from Dragon Quest 9 Sentinels Of The Starry Sky next to an Inn

Akira Toriyama's spiky-haired heroes are a sight to behold, but they would be nothing without a world to explore. The Dragon Quest series has some of the greatest video game towns in any genre. These lush and diverse communities work wonders to make the world feel like a fully-realized place.

There's often more than just your typical fantasy fare, too. For example, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dra🀅gon Quest 11: Ech❀oes of an Elusive Age has a numbered of towns modeled after real cities, such as Venice and Okinawa. They're always a delight to get lost in with inns and shops and plenty of citizens to speak to.

7 💙 Closet Tchotchkes 🐈

closet being opened by the hero in dragon quest xi

Many video games have optional collectibles of some sort. Sometimes these are shiny things out in the open (Dragon Quest, for example, frequently has mini medals as collectibles). Other times you have to do some digging. More often than not, they're in a treasure chest of some sort. There are treasure chests in Dragon Quest, too, but there are also plenty of valuables to be found in more normal places.

You'll want to check every closet you come across just in case there's a valuable piece of clothing inside. Even if the owner of the closet is clearly right there in full view of any pilfering, they won't really care. Few things beat the delight of opening up the doors to an armoire and finding a nice set of armor free for the taking.

6 Magic Doors ✅

Dragon Quest XI Red Door

Speaking of opening doors, one of the things the Dragon Quest series does exceptionally well is showing you doors you can't yet open. Gatekeeping in a game's design can sometimes be frustrating, but in Dragon Quest, you can always count on being able to come back later with whatever you need to get into that previously inaccessible area.

The reveal of these spaces is almost always well doled out as well. This creates a delightful atmosp൩here of discovery that many games try to do, but few do as satisfyingly.

5 𒐪 Judicious Side-Quests

A screenshot from Dragon Quest 3: The Seeds of Salvation on the Switch, showing the hero traipsing through a verdant town

Sometimes video game side-quests amount to little more than collecting a certain number of items, or slaying a specific number of monsters, with no real narrative weight or reason. In the most egregious examples, the implementation of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:side quests can actively impact the pacing of the main quest.

Related: 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Best Side Quests In Dragon Quest 9

Dragon Quest games never suffer this, though, as they almost all feature a smart balance between the main story and optional side quests. For a JRPG,ꦜ these games are often actually fairly light on the side quests, but the ones included areꦬ thoughtful and creative. It helps that the game itself is so luxuriously paced.

4 ꦓ Luxurious Pacing

Dragon Quest 11 Main Character and his horse

RPGs are often long. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:JRPGs are often very long. Dragon Quest games are often extremely long, sometimes including post-game sections that are basically entire sequels. They never feel bloated, though, or unnecessarily protracted. Instead, they offer extremely well (albeit🙈 languidly) paced narratives that unfold over dozens and dozens of hours.

Dragon Quest games also make judicious use of a semi-episodic structure, so it isn't always high-octane action. This lets players go about these games at their own pace without getting lost in Byzantine lore or an unnecessarily convoluted plot.

3 T🎉ime To Hit The Casino

Slime time at the Dragon Quest XI Casino

Whiꦅle Dragon Quest always has an overarching story with complementing side quests, there are also plenty of chances to hang out in these games. Some of the best places to do so are the frequent casinos found throughout these fantasy worlds. Few games do flashy lights and slot machine pulls as charmingly as Dragon Quest does.

Gambling in video games can certainly exacerbate real-world addiction problems—and any players concerned about that should avoid these casinos—but Dragon Quest does manage to make these 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:sometimes seedy seeming locations feel rather wholesome.

2 The La𓂃w Of Small Numbers 🗹

Luminary using Gigaslash skill Dragon Quest XI

In many RPGs, you'll often see numbers all over the place. These are ostensibly supposed to let you know how much damage you're doing, how much damage you're receiving, health and stats, and so on and so forth. So many games, though, use such large numbers that it's hard to actually wrap your head around what they mean.

Not so in Dragon Quest. In these games, small numbers reign sup⛦reme. This gives you a much 🍬easier time understanding the actual gameplay mechanics and allows you to do some math in your head. This also means even a couple of digits can make a big difference, making for both more digestible and more exciting battles.

1 ꦑ ☂ Exit Screens

dragon quest ix party art akira toriyama

No one can play video games all the time. Sometimes you've got to eat. Sometimes you've got to go to the bathroom. Sometimes you've got to go outside and get some fresh air. When exiting Dragon Quest, you often have to go to a specific location to first save your game—either a church or a sacred statue. This can be construed as a hassle, but it gives the game a chance to have the NPC you interact with wish you a farewell.

Not many video games thank you for playing or say goodbye these days, but more should! Unless, of course, you're playing on the Nintendo Switch, in which case you can just suspend your game and never have to see the delightful "rest in peace" message upon saving and exiting.

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