Dragon Quest vs. Final Fantasy

I've recently been obsessively playing DragonQuest I, II, and III, through Google Play while, simultaneously, playing Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy VI. All on my smartphone, a Google Nexus 6P purchased direct from Google but using T-Mobile's network.

Now, if you've never played any of these before -- then this post is probably going to bore the fuck out of you and hold absolutely no interest at all, so you might want to leave unless you enjoy (possible) spoilers, in-depth game discussions about games you've never played, and super-technical blah-blah.

For those of you that have played these games. 1) Good for you! 2) Let's talk about why FF is so much more popular in North America than DQ.

Seriously. Both were groundbreaking games! Both featured revolutionary job systems, character design, battle design, artwork, etc. They are the definitive JRPGs (Japanese Role-Playing Games) we all know and love.

They feature turn-based battles, multi-party lineups, swords, sorcery, epic quests, Easter Eggs, treasures, and all the other hallmarks of awesome fantasy games. Indeed, the game-play of the two is so similar, that you could probably port the earliest incarnations and never notice the difference if you didn't get a title screen (and hadn't played the games before, obviously.)

Shoot, DQ has a likely edge on FF because the godlike Akira Toriyama provided the base artwork for DQ.

The controversy has spawned many articles across the web, with various theories as to the why's and what how's and huh's.

I mean, it doesn't help that one was developed by Square, and one by Enix, and they both underwent slight name changes, and then the developers became SquareEnix, and suddenly we entered the Age of Aquarius.

(That last part is only partially a joke.)

Then there are the differences that evolved. Like FF turning into more animesque artwork, more intense and artistic cutscenes that changed world vastly from its original roots. Whereas DQ has generally stuck to its core artistic concepts and even plot, while not recycling old ideas. FF recycles a lot of old ideas -- but they are good ideas! So hey. DQ also has an overarching world that is connected yet each game/trilogy (another staple of DQ) feels independent. FF games you could just rename them anything and half the time nobody would notice because they're too busy oogling Cloud and/or Sephiroth. DQ games don't have any standout gems, but an overall high quality. Conversely, FF has quite a few standout gems that remain resilient against the test of time and advancing gaming technology (e.g. FFIV, FFVII). Actually some of those gems even make crossovers -- a la Kingdom Hearts style.

Honestly though, the takeaway from this epic contest of titles should be thus:

GAMES IS GAMES AND AWESOME GAMES IS AWESOME GAMES. Something like that.

No seriously, the takeaway should be that great games share many overt similarities as well as key differences, but ultimately are great because they do something that other games simply can't.

They captivate the fuck out of us.

Whether we're talking the redemption of Cecil the Dark Knight in FF IV, or the continuous personality disorder changes of Hero and his gang in DQ III; the chocobo antics in basically every FF game ever or the constant shadow of apocryphal hero Erdrick from the DQ main series. Somehow these weird, random quirks of these games become beloved cornerstones of their appeal. When they could just as easily become sources of ridicule.

And that's because, in addition to captivating us, these games allow us to do something other games can't.

They allow anyone and everyone to be a hero.

Cheesy. Trite.

TRUE.

But that's just me. What do ya'll think? Are you down with DQ or are you FF forever?

I know, for my part, I'm going to be playing these games until my bones break when I'm around 100 years old.