I love Dragon quest XI, and wanted to try getting one of the DS remakes. Is it worth paying $50 just for the fifth one? (Dragon Quest V)

Tough to say. On the one hand, it's one of the best in the series. On the other hand that's a totally rediculous price. Personally I'd just wait until Dragon Quest VI comes out in a few weeks.

I preordered VI, it looks good. Thanks!

I have recently been thinking about getting Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. Its just....I kind of really don't like the Castlevania games on NES so I never gave this one a second thought. That is until all the reviews of Shantae: Risky's Revenge started drawing parallels with Castlevania. I did some research and it turns out that Dawn of Sorrow is one of the most well recieved games in the series. So I need someone to convince me of this. I have a couple key questions:
1. How similar is it to Shantae. Like, if I loved Shantae (which I did very much), would I for sure love this game?
2. How is the length of the game? Will it last me a while or will I be able to blow right through it?
3. Is it obscenely difficult? I really don't want it if its so hard that it will knock me on my every 30 seconds.

If anyone could assist in pushing me off this indecisive cliff, I would be most grateful

@bboy2970 I highly recommend Castlevania. Don't play Dawn of Sorrow first. Play Aria of Sorrow for the GBA. Dawn of Sorrow has major plot spoilers for Aria since it's a direct sequel - and yes, the story does matter and it's very good. Aria is one of the best GBA games imo and its art style is typical of the series and far better than DoS and PoR's horrible anime look.

The Castlevania games have changed a lot since the NES days. They're a lot more sophisticated now so don't judge them by the older entries in the series.

1. Shantae isn't like the recent Castlevanias much, apart from the jumping and fighting. Shantae is mainly a platformer with action elements, whereas Castlevania is all about combat, exploration and RPG-esque upgrades. The RPG elements really improve the game and make it more varied and fun. I'd say the Castlevania games are much closer to the 2D Metroids with their expansive maps, focus on weapons and fighting, upgradeable abilities and so forth.

The story and visual style of Castlevania is much darker than Shantae. It draws a lot from gothic lore and mythology and there are some ugly, gorey monsters in the game. It is a game that centres around Dracula after all. However it's not a horror game. You won't get any sudden frights and nothing in the game is particularly scary, so don't worry about that. The monsters would probably scare children though.

Basically, Castlevania is kind of like if they took Shantae and extended it, focused more on combat, added in a RPG/skill system and gave it a gothic aesthetic. If that sounds appealing then you'd love it. If not, I still recommend you give it a go since it's not actually a gloom-and-doom kind of game. The action is thrilling and very satisfying, and there are a number of humorous moments in the games' stories.

2. Plenty long. I've never heard of anyone blowing right through a Castlevania game.

3. There are hard areas and bosses, but the difficulty curves in both Aria and Dawn are gentle enough. No worries about difficulty really, since you get a lot of abilities which help you out immensely. There are a few frustrating parts (here's lookin' at you Medusa Heads!) but not many and nothing you can't get past with a few retries.

@HM: Thanks so much for the opinion on the game. I think I'll definitely give it a go if I can actually find it somewhere for a reasonable price. Also, I'll just jump right to Dawn as I don't really play GBA games anymore and have no interest in jumping back like that. Off to find one on the internet!

Is Kingdom Hearts RE: Coded any good? I'm a huge fan of KH but only for a combination of story and action. The Game looks like it has action but what about story. It needs both for me to be happy.

Oh, if you're not interested in jumping back in the series then get Portrait of Ruin or Order of Ecclesia. They're more recent than Dawn and have less flaws. Dawn has some awkward touch screen stuff because it's an early DS game and Nintendo was really pushing the touch screen at the time.

Portrait of Ruin allows you to switch character between a more traditional Belmont-style character and a magic caster, and it has a lighter plot (lots of silly humour in it!) than the other Castlevanias. The portrait worlds give a lot of variety and some of them are genius. It's very enjoyable. Order of Ecclesia was extremely well-received for its dual-wielding weapon/rune mechanic and its return to a more serious story and visual style. It also introduces a lot of unique spells which you can combine that have effects that were never done in a Castlevania game before. Both have online co-op modes too, although I don't know if they're still active. Take your pick, they're both great games.

Oh, ok then. I think I'll start with Portrait of Ruin then. The more light-hearted story sounds like it would ease me in better. I'll go for Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow if I enjoy Portrait of Ruin enough. Thanks again man.

I've played a bit of Portrait of Ruin, and I even enjoyed it more than SOTN which I honestly wasn't exactly too crazy over although I found it to be a pretty solid experience overall but I just wasn't feeling it too much, I guess you could say I much prefer Classicvania.

Anyways, I think I'll skip the GBA games or maybe play them later on, but I wan't to experience DOS(which I recently got), POR and OOC. Oh and while we're on the topic of Castlevania hand held games, i suggest you check out CII: Belmont's Revenge for the GB, but then again if you didn't like any of the Castlevania Nes games, than you probably won't like that one either.

i need help pokemon black or okami den?

can't decide if i want to buy the new Pokemon game or not. My first Pokemon game was Pokemon Blue, but I was to little to remember much about them. My first "true" game was Pokemon Gold and where most of my of my memories are (and also with Pokemon Sapphire.)

Ever since the announcement of the Pokemon Black and White, I have been on the fence about it. So I wanted to ask this forum, to help me make my decision. To give you my perception about the game and to help me either buy the game or not, I made a Pro Con list.

Pro

New Pokemon Game(story, Pokemon)
New Feature(seasons, new battle look, city view, three v three)
Good reviews
Con
Bad Pokemon Names and they seem (extremely) different from past generations
Could stray too far away from Pokemon formula
No previous Pokemon in the main story

heck if they strayed from the pokemon formula I'd consider that a pro. I had previously only played pokemon red and I currently have pokemon platinum and I don't see the need for another pokemon for me since it strikes me as being more of the same. of course I don't have pokemon friends to trade with or battle with so that may be a big selling point.

those new features seem to be a good reason to buy it if you're a diehard fan.

Ok I am looking to pick up Pokeman Black and White one copy for me to play and the other for my son. The problem is I only have one DS and its the Original DS. I was looking at getting one of the Pokemon DS bundles but I am wondering has there been any announcements that I missed about the DS dropping in price here in a few weeks when the 3DS comes out? Cause if thats the case I wondering if maybe I should just wait a few weeks to pick up another DS instead of getting one now.

@Tasuki - If you're planning on getting a 3DS, it has backwards compatibility, but if you're not, I'd check and see if there's a Gamestop/EB Games in your area that has a refurbished DS, as those, while not nessasarily cheap, are cheaper than buying a completely new DS system that'll probably be all but obsolete in 2 years.

As much as I would like to get a 3DS I just cant afford one at this time. So as of right now I have no idea when I will be able to get one.

Thanks for the idea of looking for a used one I forget about that at times lol. I do know that Gamestop is running a special right now that if you trade in you DS system it goes toward the price of a 3DS so I am sure they probably will have a few DSes laying around. As for it going obsolete I dont worry about that as long as I have games to play on it which I do it wont be obsolete for me. I was just worried that after the 3DS came out in a few weeks the DS would drop in price here in a few weeks.

I'm thinking of picking up a DS game tomorrow before I head off on vacation for spring break, but I'm torn between Okamiden and Pokemon Black. Initially I was gonna skip out on Pokemon this Gen due to the terrible new Pokemon designs, but the maturer tone and positive reviews have me interested. Thoughts?

As a rule I suggest going for the lesser known game that will likely get rare and expensive as the years go by.

3DS

How long does it take to finish Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow on Average, and the same goes for the first Proffesor Layton?
Not sure which game I wan't to play next, and I'm not exactly in the mood to play something that's to leangthly...But it depends really.