Decade-Old DS Game Dragon Quest V Re-Entered The Japanese Charts This Week

I guess games have a longer "shelf life" in Japan?

Cex have it for a totally reasonable £60. It's a shame because I've been wanting to replay it lately. It's easily the best in the series, though I always forget just how long the childhood segment is, the fairy segment always slips my mind.

That's nice to hear, I think it's kinda the best of the mainline Dragon Quest games.

That’s quite interesting! I never played the game, but want to!

I've played every DQ title in the series, and V is by far the best when it comes to the storytelling. It's incredibly gripping for a 16-bit title, and I remember getting teary-eyed in a couple spots the 1st time I played it. If you're a fan of JRPGs and you've never played it, make plans to do so!

I'm surprised that there were still nearly 2,000 brand new copies available to buy!

@KamenRiderGENM Was £48 a couple of weeks ago in CEX and I thought that was too pricey for it. Oh how I wish I'd bought it.

Kinda blows my mind that Square-Enix didn't have an easily available version to tie-in with the movie's release.

Just...put the SNES trilogy of 4/5/6 in a Switch collection like Collection of Mana and profit in Japan!

Still own my copy, been considering replaying it.

@NintendoFan4Lyf hopefully alongside a Switch port of the game.

Though that still leave a "when" up in the air

I bought this when it came out, but still haven't gotten around to playing it.

@vincentgoodwin honestly I wonder why there -still- aren't Switch port of those games even in Japan.

Though perhaps they're only waiting for the Switch port of XI first.
XI on 3DS/PS4 is around when ports of 1-2-3 were released as a collection in Japan for those consoles and I hope the same happen for Switch worldwide with XIS.

Who knows, perhaps it might well happen since Nintendo is the acting publisher for Switch and they have a good background with localizing/publishing dragon quest games on their consoles for the west.

And with all of Builders 1/2 and suin Dragon Quest XIs ontop of the recent Smash DLC of the hero characters of 3/4/8/11... there's already a good foundation to make one hope it might happen.

I'd definitely like it if the Switch proved to be the generation that would finally make Dragon Quest a bit more mainstream in the west. It's basically the pre-pokemon of jRPGs(heck, it literally gave birth to jRPG as a genre that was literally itself a "mainstreaming" of them much more complex and niche obscure western RPGs).

Actually have the ios version on ipad. Horrible way to play it though.

You can still find brand new DS games in game stores in Japan, it's completely normal. I bought a few on my last trip.

I have the DS versions of 4, 6 and 9, but I haven't managed to find 5 at a decent price. :/ ... I actually have the SFC cartridge for 5 though, but I don't want to play it in Japanese my first time through.

Oh man, V, the best Dragon Quest game!

I need to replay this game again!

I suspect they'll have built more copies of the game and negotiated space in stores with retailers in anticipation of a halo effect from the movie launch.

And they were right to do so, by the looks of it!

I bought V a few months back from CEX for about £40 after seeing the trailer for the new film, realising I never played it.

I owned it when it originally released on DS but sold it sealed for a lot of money on eBay a few years back. Took me a while to find it for a reasonable price again.

Pretty sure I have this as a loose cart, but I haven't played my DS/3DS since Samus Returns came out was last time i touched it.

The DS-family are killing it!

It makes sense, considering that DQV is one of the best RPGs ever made and easily among the best DS games.

@KamenRiderGENM There's a decent mobile port of that version that's much cheaper. Touch screen controls for movement aren't ideal but it's a turn based RPG so it works fine.

So does anyone know any reviews of the Dragon Quest Movie? I'm a fan but wouldn't be surprised it it doesn't make it to the west

Yeap Japanese gamers are buying the game again cause of the marketing of the movie.

I LOVE this game and played it for the first time (DS version) a little over a year ago. Square Enix's North American online store actually had new copies of it and the other Nintendo DS DQ (IV, V, VI, but no IX) and mainline FF titles (III and IV) up until 2-3 years ago. I'm glad I nabbed it when I did as they no longer offer those DS games; the prices on places like Amazon are insanely inflated.

If any JRPG fan can find a copy for at least a somewhat reasonable price, I recommend that you buy it.

Actually, a few years ago this game was hard to find in PAL territories and its price in eBay rose. Good thing I grabbed before it happened. And it's my favorite Dragon Quest to date.

One of the very best Dragon Quest games. The story is truly unforgettable, even though i played it many years ago.

@bigcalsworld It's just going to keep getting more expensive unless Switch gets a port. I remember the Wii U VC release of Metroid Prime Trilogy and Xenoblade Chronicles reduced the price of physical Wii copies.

Selling nearly 2,000 copies is great - but I’m more surprised at how low the lifetime sales of DQV on DS are!

Did Square-Enix do another "Ultimate Hits" print of the game in Japan or something?

(I mean, they did their last PS1 prints in 2007, which was three years after the last Sony prints.
But still 10 years is quite a lot longer than that.)

Actually, it's kind of amazing Super Mario Odyssey got outsold by a 10 year old game. Evergreen games, huh, Nintendo?

I'm surprised Famitsu is still tracking NDS software sales.

Always loved this game. A really interesting shake up of the usual storytelling format by having you follow the life of the main character from being a child, meeting a girl, marrying her, having children and then continuing the game as those children. I can't remember if the main characters die or not. I remember they get turned to stone while you continue as the children. I wonder how they'll incorporate the bride decision in this movie or if they just flat out ignore them. Already looks like Bianca is the bride in the movie.

Weirdly I think I have physical copies of all the Dragon Quest games, barring X. Although based in UK I got the first three games from a local games shop in the early 2000s. 1 and 2 are on one GBC cartridge with 3 on a GBC catridge by itself. This was before Dragon Quest in the West was a thing, and actually called Dragon Warriors. Just as luckily picked up the first three Legend of Heroes PSP games in the mid 2000s from the same, a series whose last three Cold Steel games have just come out on PS4. Pity no more indie games shops around. Movie looks class too...

DQV is an amazing game. Not just my favourite DQ game, but one of my favourite RPGs.

that's...strange. The movie didn't adapt Toriyama's animation style at all. Or else it would look far more like DBZ

wooow the movie looks really cool tho, I'll watch this !

It's a great game so why not. Though I personally prefer 3 and especially 4 when it comes to this series.

It's a fantastic game and the DS version is pretty neat, so this makes total sense to me.

Don't know ponies about the Dragon Quest series, but that trailer looks good. Wonder if the movie will come out in the west eventually.

Its crazy there was this many copies still out there in retail. Must be quite different over there for that as you'd never find anything this old even in the used sections, let alone on the shelf (my local stores haven't accepted DS games as trade in for quite a while now).

@Quarth They got stores selling all kinds of old games. Dashie did a walkthrough of these stores in one of his videos.

This reminds me that I still need to track down a copy of DQV. I suppose I and II as well.

Are we sure they didn't add in digital downloads of the iOS/Android ports to that number?

The iOS/Android versions of IV/V/VI are nigh-identical to the DS versions.

@MysteryCupofJoe That's why I'd like to go to Japan one day.

DS games are everywhere in Japan. Aside from a few big stores like Yodabashi Camera that only stock current gen stuff, most stores I went into had plenty of DS games. Lots of sealed ones for like pretty cheap, too!

Very cool! Got very far in this game in the last year. This reminds me that I need to go back and finish it.

@Cotillion Not sure where you live, but in the US Gamestop is still a great place to get old DS games for a reasonable price. About a year ago I was able to find Dragon Quest IV - VIII for DS and 3DS, some of them brand new. You can also get some brand new DS games on Amazon for a decent price.

I’ll take a remake on Switch sqeenix, thank you!

So is this really better game than DQ IX on the same platform? Have played only the later and was pretty solid considering hardware limitations

Edit: I want a switch pro remake with graphics like the movie

@EarthboundBenjy When I bought a bunch of games at SquareEnix's shop (think it was Black Friday), they did have V, but not VI. Shame I never grabbed them when they were new I did manage to find VI at GameStop, but it was loose and cost me $30...hopefully it's not a pirate copy.

I recently bought a brand new copy of Klonoa 2 for the GBA from a seller on Amazon US! I was a bit dubious but it’s 100% legit (I opened up the cart) and 100% new: it was sealed, included all manuals and Nintendo power advert, and even had the cartridge baggie. No idea how they still have brand new GBA games (they had more than one, and it was a normal price) but it was glorious buying one in 2019, and such a brilliant game too