I've finished Dragon Quest IV. Where do I go from here with Dragon Quest?

[Roland]

To all Dragon Quest fans, I just finished Dragon Quest IV last month. I have to say, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought would, and I'm very interested in this series as a whole.

So, do any of you have any recommendations on which games I play next?

[Acacia Sgt]

I'd say, go ahead with V. As part of the Zenithian trilogy, it will have elements you'd already be familiar with; and won't be that much different in other aspects as well.

Well, depends on what versions we're talking about. Which version of IV did you played? If it was like the DS or mobile versions, then yeah, go ahead with V (DS or mobile, of course).

[Reality]

Go depending on taste or go for a 1 of each "subgroup"

1.  Party based job system - no incentive to reclass - 3
2.  Set party members with preset class archetypes - 2, 4, and 5  (2 not recommend)
3.  Accesible games with a more Final Fantasy like "skill" system instead of a "job" system. Fixed charathers. Dragon Quest 8 and 11
4.  Party based job system, heavy incentive to reclass, extensive postgame/or superboss - Dragon Quest 6-7 kind of DQ 9.
5.  Other mentions - DQ 1 is a single charather game with spells and some monster attacks acting as set damage. 

I personally recommend a playthrough of 3 and 8. I would say that the fans of 6-7 are very vocal, and cultlike- - but it's a game that's a little TOO much and 2 hours before fighting the first slime is NOT an exaggeration. 

My preference  3 > 8  > 11 >  1 > 4 > 5 > 7 > 6 -/////////////   9 isn't really emulatable, but would rate between 4 and 5 I guess, the postgame isn't really that satisfying since you have to level up the superbosses by fighting them, and beating them down 60 times (most of them are a joke before they learn wave of ice, etc) feels unnatural before you get to the point where they finally are interesting and force you to really damage race them. (the main game is on easy side and doesn't have any of the "one off difficulty spike" that something like DQ 8 does).

Edited January 3, 2020 by Reality