Crazy how long it has been. Great impressions, can’t wait to play it myself.
Strategy in battle is starting to come into play as well. I have one of the Draconian Quests in play so I can't run away from any battles, and that kind of insurers I don't let myself get too sloppy in battle, and just press attack repeatedly. I've already had to learn that lesson once the hard way, when I ran into a larger group of enemies than I was used to seeing, and we actually lost the fight. Thank God for auto save in this game.
Oh, and one other little note. The game let's you start off with the hero from Dragon Quest 8's costume if you want it for the main character of this game. Gives me hope that we might just see a full-fledged version of the game. I'm sure the 3 DS version of Dragon Quest 8 was fine, but some games deserve to be played on a big screen.
Dang, I meant to write up some more impressions this morning, but then I decided I'd play for an hour or so just to get a few more things down. 7 hours later I finally got in front of a computer. I'm now 20 hours in, I've got a boat, and my party is full assembled, as near as I can tell. I've got the 7 characters that the game has been promoting, but it seems like there could be room for an 8th. Probably not, but it would be cool if that happens. The story has really been knocked out of the park. The events that occur in the game's prologue have more or less been fleshed out, so there's not much "hero with a cloud past" crap going on anymore, which is great. I like that it's been resolved and we get to move forward with the story. Granted there's one big motivation that's been left unconvered, but that's pretty much what's driving the game's current path. Anyway all is well.
The town designs have really been good and are worth mentioning as well. They're all basically pulled from our world, but they commit down to the archicture and accents. So far we've had a traditional English kingdom, a small Japanese mountain village, a Venice-like Italian port town with canals, an Arabian desert kingdom where horse racing is popular, and I just showed up at a small Hawaiian fishing village. Oh yeah, and there was also a tower city in the mountans that was really into MMA. That one was pretty original to it's credit. Anyway, got to go play more.
Nice impressions.
This thread should be at least 100 pages by now. What the hell is wrong with you people?! Of course I don’t have the game myself so I shouldn’t talk. 
I'm reading this thread. RPGS take forever, will play when have time.
I don’t have the game so I didn’t feel like I should post. I have been reading the thread though.
Jade and I are currently in a small shack near Dundrasil separated from the rest of the party.
There. I contributed!
😬
Yay!!! You're playing too!! You're not too far behind me either, though I've reached a point where the game becomes less linear so I'm doing more exploration more than anything else at the moment.
I’ve been following your posts. I was way ahead of you until a day or two ago... While you were getting Veronica and Selena, I was already fighting on the Mister Universe stage... You must have found a few good hours to play somewhere. I always plan on posting stuff, but I’m always on my phone. 😓
PS I <3 Sylv.
That is all.
I'm playing Persona 5 right now. About 40 hours in. Game is a blast once you get past the first 5 hours of tutorial. 
Feels much more streamlined than the older titles. And they had to go and put a hot Finnish girl in my party who dresses like a dominatrix. From what I understand, I'm not even halfway through the game at this point.....the average playtime I looked up was about 100 hours. So it's going to be awhile before DQ gets my love.
After I'm done with Dragon Quest, I'm actually thinking about going and doing a second playthrough of Persona 5. There may be a lot of RPG burnout at that point, so who knows, but that actually is my plan at the moment.
I'm about 50 hours in and I believe I'm entering the end-game (post-game content aside). I just got access to a flying vehicle... of sorts. Usually that sort of signifies that the end isn't too far off. They've also gone ahead and made the link between this game and DQ3 pretty damn clear (if it wasn't already). That's an extra bonus in my world, as it's one of my favorites.
I just sashayed through the gayest JRPG scenario ever!
As I posted in the Completed Games thread, I have finished the main game. The post-game has already started so time to tackle that. I do have a few things to say about the main game though.
- Gameplay was fine but could have been better. The running around of the battle field seems to have been completely meaningless. The super saiyen combo attacks were pretty cool, but I wish they were a bit easier to pull off. A lot of them were pretty worthless too, though if nothing else the presentations were quite enjoyable.
- The story was quite good. Lots of it was typical Dragon Quest, and they sort of drop the ball a bit in the second half of the game, but there were still a couple cool twists and some very unexpected moments. There was also a collection of completely bizarre story ideas in the game that made for some neat surprises.
- Exploration was also a little bit of a let down. Once you had your boat and flying thingy I thought it would be more like DQ8 where you were pretty much bound by nothing, but that wasn't really the case. For as big as the world was, it was still rather restrictive, so that was kind of disappointing.
Anyway none of this is the final word, as I'm still working on the post-game which looks like it could continue for a while. And I will also say the post-game event (or what's triggering the event) was a pretty innovative idea. It starts off as something very typical, but they do something very different with it, so I'm kind of digging it.
Nine years. God damn, nine years since we've had a numbered Dragon Quest game in this side of the world. If it were any other series, I probably would have pulled my hair out, but as a long time fan of the series I'm used to this shit. Anyway, after about 11 hours I'm happy to say the game is wonder and right up there with the best installments in the series. Big, bright, and beautiful. That right mix of newness and nostalgia. It's frustrating really, because we haven't seen a game like this since Dragon Quest 8 on the PS2. We could have had games like this, but noooooo we had a handheld (which to its credit was damn good), and an MMO that despite being available on like 8 systems was never released to the West. But once again, we've got it now and god damn it's good.
Here are my gripes so far. The music is pure Dragon Quest, but so far nothing has really stood out as an impressive song. It sounds like it belongs in the series, but very generic. Maybe if it was that full symphony score it would have sounded better, not sure. Still, kind of early in the game, so who knows what lies in wait. The combat is also kind of strange. They have a real-time battle feature where you can run around the field during the fight, but from what I can tell it has no effect on anything. It's still pretty much turn-based combat, but you walk around during it. I don't quite get it. Maybe I'm missing something.
Still, there's good stuff in the combat too. The AI is actually pretty smart, and letting your teammates fight their own way seems to work pretty well. They also pretty much stole an idea from Chrono Trigger and and allow for double and triple combos. As you and your teammates learn new skills sometimes you can do some pretty great combos attacks, if you're in "pep" mode (kind of like the tension mode from previous games). Enemy animations are also better than ever too.
The story is really strong too. Dragon Quest stories are a little hit or miss, but there's no question that this one is a hit. It's way too early to say for sure, but I think it's going to match up with DQ5 in terms of overall story and I've considered that to be the best in the series. The set-up and prologue are pretty somber, and so far they've done a good job of reminding you just how much of a shitty situation the main character is. But it's still a Dragon Quest game, so there's no shortage of lighter moments to balance that out.
The exploration is top notch. It's so great to wander around a big world, and it's all a pleasure to just look at. It's easy to avoid combat if you want to, so you can really explore all the nooks and crannies if you want, and like most other DQ games, it's always worth your time to do so. Treasure chests and items for forging new weapons and items are often hiding behind corners. The landscapes have also been expanded for vertical exploration. It's not Breath of the Wild level by any means, but your character can jump, and if you look around you can find ways to climb up and reach new areas to find more loot.
There's also been a couple interesting action segments to the game too. Nothing jaw dropping amazing, but I've raced horses and run from a giant dragon. It's good stuff to break up the game with and comes along just enough.
Anyway I'll update as time goes on, but this the Dragon Quest game everyone has been waiting for since DQ8. It's everything that was, with brighter colors and more detail, and more to interact with.