To speak for the "..."

This piece is my attempt to speak for the unspoken - the silent protagonist. The archetype has been in a rough patch for a while, with countless more to come, no doubt, but there's value in the character. Playing the archetype "straight" in today's climate would likely cause more people to roll their eyes but there is space for subversion.

Dragon Quest V is that sort of wilful experimentation that only comes from years of exploring the same subject matter. The Silent Protagonist is always the hero? Then let's tear them down and force them to watch a chatty NPC replace "their" duties instead. Dragon Quest IV showed shades of this deconstruction with its focus on telling the stories of your comrades before yours, but Chunsoft and Yuji Horii really laid the despair on thick in Dragon Quest V. It's a fantastic game that everyone should play if only to realise that Dragon Quest has been, and always will be, more than "the same old thing".

After Pressing Start: Dragon Quest IV Chapters of the Chosen

Blurgh! Before I forget, I wrote two things this week! I know, right? Busy, busy, busy.

A typical complaint with the Dragon Quest games is that they're all the same. This is a surface level observation. Yes, in terms of genre trappings, Dragon Quest IV is intensely familiar to the ones before it, but it's in the broader details where the differences pop up. Each game is a reaction to the previous one.

Before Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest III introduced flexible, player-defined companion characters. Much like the original Final Fantasy, you built your team from the beginning from whatever class you wanted. You could have a full party of mages if you wanted. All dem' options!

So, Dragon Quest IV took player-defined companions from Dragon Quest III and applied personalities and aspirations to them. You were now playing your companions, and it was their stories that were important.

Dragon Quest V would also go on to do its own thing, but that's a tale for another day....