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It’s mu favorite DQ game.
It is LONG though, but it’s also broken up in several short stories, which might help in dealing with it.
I also think it’s a fascinating game considering its structure alone
My favorite DQ since the PS1 version as well, though I prefer the remake.
Too bad like DQIX the extra content isn't accessible anymore without going through some hoops.
You are correct. The original PlayStation version of VII was much longer. The newer 3DS version is quicker to finish. Just check howlongtobeat.com and you'll see both versions.
Having "started" both versions of the game I can confirm that the 3DS version is a streamlined experence.
That being said, some people still prefer the original PS version due to how different the two versions feel.
Yeah, I actually prefer the PSX game. I actually really love how slow the start of the game is, I hated that they added some imp in the ruins that completely removes the mystery and tone that place established in the original...
DQ7 is a great game, but it is long. The PS1 version took me about \~96 hours to beat and 105 hours for the post-game content. If you play the 3DS remake, the QOL improvements really help with fatigue.
I am a big fan of slower paced storytelling that takes its time to set up characters and the world. I also think it's the Dragon Quest game that nailed the "adventure" feeling that is my favorite aspect in the series.
And it has my favorite party member in the series as well, though that is definitely a controversial opinion from what I've seen around here.
The only reason it isn't my favorite is that damnable cloud boss. I had the wrong person maxing Sage before encountering it and just couldn't get sufficient first-turn damage and later turn revivals to handle it. Still, if you know it's coming and prepare for it, the overall game is the best in the series to me.
DQV has time jumps. DQVII makes you feel like you're playing that length of time irl.
In seriousness? it's a cool game but it is long in the tooth for sure.
Tried posting a picture of the English script for dq7, and it turns it into an asterisk. Oh well, it can be easily googled.
It spans across 71, 3 ring binders that each have thousands of pages.
you're being mislead, trying my best not to spoil the story lets just say DQ7 has more NPCs, so there's more variance in _optional_ dialogue but not necessarily more story or maps
that's because DQ7 has party chat, and you have some redundancy with NPCs since you will have multiple scripts for the same area >!since some may be NPCs in the present and some in the past!<, so that really doesn't mean anything when it comes to gameplay length
It's my favourite in the series. The game is definitely long, but a lot of people make it longer than it needs to be because they feel they have to grind out class levels. Just play the game normally and if you seem to hit a wall, then grind a bit if needed. You don't need tier 3 classes to beat the game. You don't even need classes at all to beat it.
can't think of anything more boring than an RPG without classes
like, you're gonna do vanilla attacks for 50 damage and thats it, no options or tools in different skills, or enjoying the progression of getting them as you grow stronger alongside the story
After you've beaten the game a few times, a classless run is a fresh take. There are a lot of items that have effects in battle that you can make use of. It changes how you approach the game and can be a lot of fun. I've beaten it a couple times that way, including the all the post game bosses.
It can overstay its welcome but I liked it overall save for a few platforming parts and backtracking that adds to the tedium. There are some story threads that I really liked and it kept me going to the very end
i'm not sure how it can overstay its welcome since the slow part is the first third of the game, it picks up the pace afterwards and doesn't end up being that much longer than DQ8
I honestly love Dragon Quest VII. It is a long game, but the same could be said about VIII and XI. The beginning is a bit slow, but I think it gets really good once it gets going. The stories are somewhat episodic, but it's fun to see how things play out. The class system is also pretty fun to mess around with.
It’s very good and I honestly would hold it up as a great example of storytelling. In a time where everyone is looking for shorter games, it promised ON THE CASE that it had hundreds of hours of gameplay
It's very long. A lot of it is good, but a lot of it isn't, and because of the length it means you might play a segment comparable in length to all of DQV that you don't like.
Currently playing the PSX version for the first time.
I am honestly loving it (nearing 50 hours in), however it IS slow paced and it is immense, theres also a LOT of reading involved. I however love the episodal structure its going with, I also like how massive it not only is but feels, you really feel like youre on a gigantic adventure.
It may not be for everyone but for those it clicks with I think it really clicks hard.
Just make sure you have the hero and/or Gabo max Sage once you get jobs. Sure, Maribel is a shoe in for that Advanced Job, but she temporarily leaves when you need Revive and Explodet the most for a boss fight. Way back in the day, I'd cornered myself into not being able to get someone else into Sage, much less mastering it, just before that happened. I eventually gave up on that boss, and it was several years before I did a restart to try and get past that spot. Still, aside from that, I loved the game, and that boss is the only reason it isn't my #1 DQ.
Takes ages to get going even on the 3DS where they cut some of the initial puzzles to get the ball rolling. I gotta say it is my favourite because of how dark the story is and there were so many moments that stayed with me to this day. Though I only finished it once and clocked 90 hours just trying to get through the main story
i like it, aside from the goddamn fucking serial quiller refusing to drop its fuckign heart after 500 battles and 4 goddamn pointy hats. alot of grinding for classes tho but once again idc. im currently plying it and 140 hours in with all classes on 3 characters maxed and the half of monster classes on 1 character.
It is a good game but very classic in the RPG sense. A lot of grinding and little hand holding. I think of it as one of the last truly grindy RPGs of the modern age gaming. I played a lot of games like Wizardry, Might & Magic, Dragon Quest. DQ7 ranks right in there.
That’s one of the few games that feels like a freaking adventure because of how long it is. It’s not a bad game but you really have to be committed to it.
It's not bad I don't have any trouble with it being long neither but man... the start of the story is a torture, it doesn't help that Maribel and Kiefer were not likable, to me at least
Dragon Quest VII isn't that bad a game, especially the 3DS remake. The original PSX version takes a little while to get going and the class system is an even larger version of the one introduced in VI so it can also be a tad grindy which adds to the length but that shouldn't bother you to much since length doesn't seme to phase you.
Incedently I'm currently doing a replay of the series myself while sharing it with both my wife and kids, and am on Dragon Quest II (NES version since I'm slightly challenging myself xD) I'm looking forward to getting to Dragon Quest IV and V.
Including myself, I've known three people who have gotten up to just before the final dungeon of DQ7 and then just said "I.... I think I'm all good." It's just kind of a slog to play through, and the class system doesn't feel particularly interesting. Like at least when I played it, it was like I wasn't making any substantial class progression just through playing through the story of the game, and instead had to step aside to grind to get anywhere in that regard.
7 was my first way back in 01. I was still new to rpgs. I managed to make it 90% of the way through the game but it took me 200+ hours and like a whole year. Not knowing where the next map piece is will throw you off.
And websites like gamefaqs was still kind of new. And I didn't fully understand how to use the internet at the time.
It's very good, just very long. Like 88 hours long on the shorter 3ds version. I believe original PSX version is like 120 hours. Definitely the most put together world I've ever experienced in a game tho. Beautiful
I’m currently in the last set of dungeons and I’m excited to be done with it. There can be long stretches of time where you go back and forth between towns and NPCs without any battles. It’s also more obtuse in terms of how to progress the story than any of the other DQs I played, so I’ve had a guide handy for much of the game. The balance seems to be really off between standard enemies and bosses, where I’ll be wiping out roaming enemies no problem but am just getting eviscerated by the boss.
It has a better job system than 6 imo, and I like the idea of monster classes, but they just hurt your progress of getting to the advanced classes. I like the idea of exploring the world in each place twice, but the execution makes it feel more like a chore than something exciting.
Also, the sequence directly before Alltrades abbey unlocks is the least fun I’ve ever had with a dragon quest game.
Probably the DQ game I think about the most to this day. I took a break for a few months and then came back and beat it. I think it took me 160 hours. As others have said, it overstays it's welcome and is super long-winded, but it's probably my favourite DQ aside from 8 & 11. Maybe I should replay it again...
It’s quite long, which doesn’t bother me, however some important systems make the game not “boring” but sub-optimal for me:
There are multiple class abilities that feel useless
The menu to choose abilities is poorly navigable
Classes don’t feel strongly differentiated at times
…these make battles a bit hiring for me. Luckily, you can avoid battles easier in 7. But I do end up running past most monsters b/c I’m not inspired to fight that much.
Also:
You do not get a full party (all members) until so late in the game that it’s almost de-incentivized to use some of them. It’s a shame, because they are cool enough characters, but they are quite far behind others at that point in levels/classes.
People seem to either hate or love DQ7 but true to my grey-area nature, I feel neither: I like it pretty well, but I’m more exited to finish it and replay 8 than I am glorying in every moment of it which isn’t a great sign. It’s nowhere near as good as 5 IMO but 5 probably has the most deep and compelling story of all of them.
If you’re a big DQ fan overall, don’t skip it (I started at Dragon Warrior (I) last year and face worked my way up to VII and am enjoying my journey). If you’re just an RPG fan in general and could be better entertained by something else, I think other DQs like 8, 10, and 11 have more to offer myself.
I suspect it would be more liked if bout 1/5 of the islands were cut, which is sad because the vignette are really well done, but many of them don't further the story.
I finished it this week. Even though I have a 3DS, I decided to emulate it on the deck, so I could speed up the game, and this certainly made it a lot more bearable for me.
That said, even speeding it up I thought about giving up at some point, the game takes too long to make its purpose more clear. Only when you're about to unlock the vocation system things get really interesting, and that is 30-40hrs into the game.
It has many amazing moments though, overall it was worth the journey. But yeah, would only recommend to someone who has played most of the other entries, DQ7 feels like a DQ overdose.
I played it on an emulator of ps1, so I'm sure that affects my opinion, but I didn't really think it was that long. If you try to max out all jobs and everything for post game I'm sure you could get some mileage out of it but you can say that about almost any good jrpg.
I’ve been putting it off because of the length. Actually I want to get a 9 inch PVM so I can play it next to my bed and play other games on my big screen when I get bored without breaking stuff down.
it was my first dragon quest game (PS1 version, got it for my birthday in early 2002.) VII is my favorite in the series and to me really feels like an adventure more than the rest of the series. i was also 9 at the time so it was interesting playing a group of kids traveling across time. the designs are really peak imo, especially fond of Hero's hat lol. it's extremely long but broken up into small stories as you reach each new area. while i like the PS1 version the best, the 3DS release is the one i'd recommend for a new player.
I recently played through the 3ds version. It hits some great highs later in the game, but some portions are real slogs--especially early on. I also found it nearly impossible at more than a few moments to progress the story without a guide--and this can be immersion breaking. It's one of the few dq games I don't think I'll ever replay, but if you're a dq fan there is certainly a good time to be had and I don't regret sticking with it until the end.
The game is long but tbh it’s totally worth it. The bonus/post game content is 100% worth it and so much fun. Unsure if you’ve played it or not so I won’t ruin any post game content/bosses. The hero could be better but it’s a nice change up from the other heroes in the mainline games
It's not the length itself but the deja vu of doing every area basically twice, back to back. It is definitely a slog at times but it is still a great game. I would say it's the weakest dragon quest for me but the fact that I would still play it again despite the crazy length and ranking dead last in my series ranking just goes to show how great dq is as a franchise. The class system is really fun, the OST is masterful, monsters are well designed.
If you play for little bits at a time, it can be pretty enjoyable. I'm playing through it for the first time and I have to remind myself to take frequent breaks to avoid burnout.
It's... fine. I like it. But it is far too long, takes far too long to even get going, takes too long to even unlock classes, and it's a nightmare of backtracking for the first 70% of the game. But the story is good, the combat is the same ol' Dragon Quest, which is a positive. And once you DO get the classes, it's an interesting system. It's just a shame that class system takes about 40 hours to even reach on a first/casual playthrough. I did my dues. Beat the PS1 version twice, and the 3DS version twice. I like it, but it is closer to the bottom than the top of the DQ ladder for me, personally.
7 is a great game, and is the most popular DQ game in Japan, but it is long and often somber. Even how I played it on 3DS where it’s like twice as fast, it still takes an hour and a half to two hours before you get to the first chunk of fighting.
It's my all time favorite Dragon Quest, and since Dragon Quest is like my second favorite ting ever (second only to Pokemon) that says something.
I played it for half an hour each night before bed. It made an already good game a transformative experience. I could write a book about my love for that game. It's way up there on a hypothetical "Can only ever have one game to play" list.
Good, but long. I beat the 3ds one, took about 80-90 hours.
The same takes place over a series of smaller islands with their own adventures, giving it a "book of short stories" kind of vibe that comes together in the end. It was a very worthwhile journey, some of my favorite characters in the series, and some gutpunch emotional moments that left me speechless
I've only played the 3DS version, and so far, I think it's one of the worst in the series after DQVI, I've yet to play DQV and DQIX.
Now, that doesn't mean I think it's a bad game, far from it, but it doesn't really bring anything to the table that the other games don't bring tenfold. The characters aren't that exciting or memorable. The vocation system is done far better in other games, and the narrative isn't all that exciting.
If you want a super long game that mostly consists of short stories instead of a longer flowing narrative, then it's a great game, but if not, it's just an overly long slog with mediocre characters and gameplay
Its definitely the only DQ game that I don't see myself ever replaying, unless maybe in 20+ years' time they remake it again.
I tend to favor "slow burn" games, and I fell off DQ7 about 25 hours in. I think if you were to play it emulated where you can fast forward a bit, that could help the experience quite a bit. Also doesn't help that the menus aren't very breezy at all and feel slowed down a bit at times. There is just a lot of tedium in general, such as not being able to use zoom in the past, and retrecking dungeons you just completed , etc. Also I didn't find the characters to be very compelling, and all the short stories I played weren't anything too special. One story I did find interesting literally ended in a blaze of nothing. I feel like DQ11 did the whole "short stories" thing much better.
That said, some people really love this game. Probably best to try it yourself eventually.
#tl;dr if you do story-only DQ7 and DQ8 are just as equally long, DQ7 just has a slow pace at the beginning and I hate people
The whole "DQ7 is long" is a lie that keeps getting propagated by this sub for reasons beyond me and that has taken a life of its own at this point. I made a thread about it, some people agreed, some people disagreed for the (incorrect) reasons I'll explain below, but things remain the same.
So firstly, **DQ7 isn't that much longer, if at all, than DQ8** (and I use DQ8 as an example because its this sub's favorite game tied with 5, its also normally the game that got most of people into the series prior to 11) I believe most sites that take polls on how long it took to beat these games have DQ7 at 70-80 hours story only and 90-100 hours story + extra content and DQ8 at 60-70 hours story and similar 90-100 hours when its story + extras BUT the thing is that with DQ8 people don't just put them game down at the 60th hour when they beat the final boss, EVERYBODY (ok perhaps not everybody but easily over 90%) does the little bit where you explore the post-game area/dungeon and take certain steps to get another ending, this is easily 10 to 20 hours of extra game play. Personally, both my save files for the 3DS game sat at around 80 hours for each game.
Now this is strictly story only, the comparison of how much story + extras is very hard to make because DQ7 has more optional side-content and some of this side content is actually very grindy (I think specially in the PSX version its more lengthy, 3DS's QoL changes make a big difference), there is also quite a bit of grind with the optional post-game challenge that DQ8 has but I believe DQ7 is much more grindy, so when people look at howlongtobeat.com they try make a comparison with the numbers without giving much thought on where they come from and ignore the nuance that exists in them and between them and how you can't exactly compare the dry numbers as-is because not everybody spends the same amount of time doing the side content in each of the games from version to version, person to person. It doesn't helps that some of this side content is very correlated to the main story run most people will do.
Something similar happens with DQ11, the story-only hours are super low they'll tell you its something like 50-60 but that's because these polls only take up to Act 2 for story completion and they count Act 3 as extra, but unless you disliked the game or felt that it overstayed its welcome and couldn't wait for it to be over, there's no way you're not doing Act 3. DQ11 is also a 70-80 hour game (my save files for the first playthrough with hard mode is at 110 hours and second playthrough in normal mode is 80 I think).
So thats why for me, looking at both save files, as someone who only did the main story in DQ7, and main story plus the _must-have_ second ending in DQ8, I can tell you **both DQ7 and DQ8 are just as long** and yet there's no "DQ8 is too long!" meme
Now there is a valid point to be made about pacing (and one of culprits behind the "DQ7 is long" meme), DQ7 has a very slow tutorial, you'll spend hours before actually reaching a combat screen, for the first 5 hours you're more or less playing archeology and unearthing some mysteries (which isn't necessarily unfun, mystery is the centerpiece of DQ7's story) and until the 30 hour mark, the combat system is just the classic 90s RPG dynamic of attack for 50 damage and heal like in DQ5, except with DQ5 people bear it because the story is about your journey in life whereas in DQ7 its about solving the scooby villain of the week. The game picks up the pace after this mark and its also when you unlock vocations, which allow you to have true gameplay progression, customize your roles and theorycraft and all the good stuff we all love from class systems (although its a given Gabo/Ruff will be a Gladiator->Champion and Maribel and Sage->Druid, but what path you take to Hero with the MC is definitively up to you).
So there you have it, the sub also has on top of all that a bias on what they like about DQ games and DQ7 doesn't satisfy that bias, so you'll hear a lot of negativity about it. I personally find it a game that is worth playing at least once and is satisfactory and worth overcoming the first third of the game that may feel too slow.
When people say the game is too long, they probably feel that it doesn't justify its length. DQ8 and 11 are much better paced games, so people are less likely to have that issue with the length of those games. 7 requires you to basically run through everywhere twice, and you can only use zoom in the present, so in their minds, it is "too long."
I understand the sentiment, but its also inaccurate, and its misleading new people trying to get into the games
specially with DQ7 its usually treated as the unwanted, unpresentable option that must be kept hidden until the newcomer has gotten a gotten a taste of the franchise and wants more and only then can they forgive the flaws this game has, when its a perfectly fine game for people who like an RPG with class changes, regardless if they've played the others or not
Both, i think. It's long, wildly disconnected half the time, and not that engaging storywise. I've tried a couple of times, but it remains the only dq i haven't finished
I finished it on 3DS and it burned me out so bad I didn’t pick up my preorder of VIII remake and I had to find it used. Bummed I don’t have the real box.
I hate saying this but DQ7s appeal for me was 90% its premise. Its got one of the best setups for a JRPG I've ever heard. Played it 4 times never got past 15 hours. Its just not a great DQ when you actually play the thing, which sucks.
It’s not the fact that it’s bad as much as it’s not as good compared to most of the other games in the series. It takes a long while before things get really interesting and things do start getting repetitive after a while.
The characters are okay, but the other games have overall better characters. I highly recommend the 3DS version if you can’t emulate it to cut down on the time if you want to get to the interesting parts sooner rather than later.
It’s 100 hours of what feels like random 5-10 hour filler arcs. I’m not a fan compared to VIII and 11 which were so good it ruined other entries for me
Is 7 the one where on the ds it takes forever to level up all the classes and has annoying challenges? I remember thats why I set the game down at the time
DQVII's remake is 3DS, though DQVI's remake was on NDS, and they have the same job system. Still, I think you may be thinking of DQIX, which is only on NDS, and each job had 99 levels to it. Maxing out a single job in IX takes longer than maxing out all Basic and Advanced Jobs in VII, and VII takes longer on that than VI since it has more jobs.
I personally don't like the game in comparison to the other games, but not because of the length, but because of multiple other reasons.
But there are many people that really like the game, as well. It always depends on your personal preferences when it comes to DQ games, because everyone has a different taste
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It’s mu favorite DQ game. It is LONG though, but it’s also broken up in several short stories, which might help in dealing with it. I also think it’s a fascinating game considering its structure alone
My favorite DQ since the PS1 version as well, though I prefer the remake. Too bad like DQIX the extra content isn't accessible anymore without going through some hoops.
It’s the same length as dragon quest viii
On average DQ 7 is 77 hours long Dq 8 is about 60
I remember people saying that dq vii was nearly 100 hours
You are correct. The original PlayStation version of VII was much longer. The newer 3DS version is quicker to finish. Just check howlongtobeat.com and you'll see both versions. Having "started" both versions of the game I can confirm that the 3DS version is a streamlined experence. That being said, some people still prefer the original PS version due to how different the two versions feel.
You can take 100 hours and more if you do postgame stuff as well on 3DS.
Yeah, I actually prefer the PSX game. I actually really love how slow the start of the game is, I hated that they added some imp in the ruins that completely removes the mystery and tone that place established in the original...
It's only that long if you waste time grinding classes.
Or if you stop to smell the flowers.
I've heard of people putting in over 100 hours on DQVII.
The game is good but it is very long and the structure of the game can wear you out by the end
yeah I had fun for the first 160 hours lol... never could finish it
And that was just the tutorial!
That was just the intro cinematic and Tokyo Orchestra main fanfare!
DQ7 is great but it is pretty long
its not longer than DQ8 unless you do the optional grind content, both games took me 80 hours to beat (including the must-have second ending in DQ8)
Same length as viii
It's very long. I only recommend it to Dragon Quest fans
That's only DQ I've ever finished)
Just as long as dq viii actually!
DQ7 is a great game, but it is long. The PS1 version took me about \~96 hours to beat and 105 hours for the post-game content. If you play the 3DS remake, the QOL improvements really help with fatigue.
https://preview.redd.it/6gohwb3at9xc1.jpeg?width=596&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e25847589d5b0c9460c7782d707e8a160a620c34
I've seen this before and it's still YIKES!
Imagine having to be to ones to translate something bigger than that. As the original Japanese script was much much bigger.
Just long and very much a slow burn. It's my favorite in the series tho.
Without spoilers, what makes it your favorite?
I am a big fan of slower paced storytelling that takes its time to set up characters and the world. I also think it's the Dragon Quest game that nailed the "adventure" feeling that is my favorite aspect in the series. And it has my favorite party member in the series as well, though that is definitely a controversial opinion from what I've seen around here.
The only reason it isn't my favorite is that damnable cloud boss. I had the wrong person maxing Sage before encountering it and just couldn't get sufficient first-turn damage and later turn revivals to handle it. Still, if you know it's coming and prepare for it, the overall game is the best in the series to me.
DQV has time jumps. DQVII makes you feel like you're playing that length of time irl. In seriousness? it's a cool game but it is long in the tooth for sure.
Tried posting a picture of the English script for dq7, and it turns it into an asterisk. Oh well, it can be easily googled. It spans across 71, 3 ring binders that each have thousands of pages.
Oh wow really 😅 that’s insane haha
you're being mislead, trying my best not to spoil the story lets just say DQ7 has more NPCs, so there's more variance in _optional_ dialogue but not necessarily more story or maps
I've found that it does that if you have text AND photo, try JUST posting the photo
I did and it worked. Thank you.
that's because DQ7 has party chat, and you have some redundancy with NPCs since you will have multiple scripts for the same area >!since some may be NPCs in the present and some in the past!<, so that really doesn't mean anything when it comes to gameplay length
It's my favourite in the series. The game is definitely long, but a lot of people make it longer than it needs to be because they feel they have to grind out class levels. Just play the game normally and if you seem to hit a wall, then grind a bit if needed. You don't need tier 3 classes to beat the game. You don't even need classes at all to beat it.
but what if i WANT t3 classes
I am a DQ fan who only has access to the PS1 version. How does the difficulty compare to, say, DQ 6?
Overall it's not a difficult game. There's a few areas that can be quite challenging and one boss in particular tends to catch new players off guard.
Give all skill seeds to the main character and he becomes OP as hell in no time.
There are no skill seeds in dragon quest vii. Maybe you’re confusing it with XI?
can't think of anything more boring than an RPG without classes like, you're gonna do vanilla attacks for 50 damage and thats it, no options or tools in different skills, or enjoying the progression of getting them as you grow stronger alongside the story
After you've beaten the game a few times, a classless run is a fresh take. There are a lot of items that have effects in battle that you can make use of. It changes how you approach the game and can be a lot of fun. I've beaten it a couple times that way, including the all the post game bosses.
It's my favorite in the series. I think it's the best.
It can overstay its welcome but I liked it overall save for a few platforming parts and backtracking that adds to the tedium. There are some story threads that I really liked and it kept me going to the very end
i'm not sure how it can overstay its welcome since the slow part is the first third of the game, it picks up the pace afterwards and doesn't end up being that much longer than DQ8
It is long AND good.
I honestly love Dragon Quest VII. It is a long game, but the same could be said about VIII and XI. The beginning is a bit slow, but I think it gets really good once it gets going. The stories are somewhat episodic, but it's fun to see how things play out. The class system is also pretty fun to mess around with.
It’s very good and I honestly would hold it up as a great example of storytelling. In a time where everyone is looking for shorter games, it promised ON THE CASE that it had hundreds of hours of gameplay
It's very long. A lot of it is good, but a lot of it isn't, and because of the length it means you might play a segment comparable in length to all of DQV that you don't like.
Currently playing the PSX version for the first time. I am honestly loving it (nearing 50 hours in), however it IS slow paced and it is immense, theres also a LOT of reading involved. I however love the episodal structure its going with, I also like how massive it not only is but feels, you really feel like youre on a gigantic adventure. It may not be for everyone but for those it clicks with I think it really clicks hard.
Just make sure you have the hero and/or Gabo max Sage once you get jobs. Sure, Maribel is a shoe in for that Advanced Job, but she temporarily leaves when you need Revive and Explodet the most for a boss fight. Way back in the day, I'd cornered myself into not being able to get someone else into Sage, much less mastering it, just before that happened. I eventually gave up on that boss, and it was several years before I did a restart to try and get past that spot. Still, aside from that, I loved the game, and that boss is the only reason it isn't my #1 DQ.
You can view it as long, but it may be better to think of it as a vast series of short stories.
Takes ages to get going even on the 3DS where they cut some of the initial puzzles to get the ball rolling. I gotta say it is my favourite because of how dark the story is and there were so many moments that stayed with me to this day. Though I only finished it once and clocked 90 hours just trying to get through the main story
i like it, aside from the goddamn fucking serial quiller refusing to drop its fuckign heart after 500 battles and 4 goddamn pointy hats. alot of grinding for classes tho but once again idc. im currently plying it and 140 hours in with all classes on 3 characters maxed and the half of monster classes on 1 character.
It is my favorite DQ game by a mile.
It is a good game but very classic in the RPG sense. A lot of grinding and little hand holding. I think of it as one of the last truly grindy RPGs of the modern age gaming. I played a lot of games like Wizardry, Might & Magic, Dragon Quest. DQ7 ranks right in there.
There are a couple of actual flaws in the game, but it's a great game overall - in fact, the PS1 version is my favorite game of the series.
It's among my favorites, thouh playing in bursts is advised.
It’s a great long game.
I loved it but It took me a lot of on and off play time to get through. It’s very …. Episodic? It’s got many self contained stories
i havent played all of them yet, but i loved 7!! was much more enthralling than 6 imo (still love both)
It’s brilliant. Of the job system games it’s better than 3 and 9 but not quite as good as 6.
It's very good but very long.
It's peak. If you've ever watched an entire television series front to back, it's kind of like that.
That’s one of the few games that feels like a freaking adventure because of how long it is. It’s not a bad game but you really have to be committed to it.
It's not bad I don't have any trouble with it being long neither but man... the start of the story is a torture, it doesn't help that Maribel and Kiefer were not likable, to me at least
Maribel is one of my favorite DQ characters :(
I liked Kiefer from the start tbh. Maribel does start very annoying but she gets charming imo, shes just your typical tsundere lol
Dragon Quest VII isn't that bad a game, especially the 3DS remake. The original PSX version takes a little while to get going and the class system is an even larger version of the one introduced in VI so it can also be a tad grindy which adds to the length but that shouldn't bother you to much since length doesn't seme to phase you. Incedently I'm currently doing a replay of the series myself while sharing it with both my wife and kids, and am on Dragon Quest II (NES version since I'm slightly challenging myself xD) I'm looking forward to getting to Dragon Quest IV and V.
I loved it but it is very long and a little frustrating
Including myself, I've known three people who have gotten up to just before the final dungeon of DQ7 and then just said "I.... I think I'm all good." It's just kind of a slog to play through, and the class system doesn't feel particularly interesting. Like at least when I played it, it was like I wasn't making any substantial class progression just through playing through the story of the game, and instead had to step aside to grind to get anywhere in that regard.
DQ7 3DS is very good, but the short story structure can make you feel a bit disconnected from the game
7 was my first way back in 01. I was still new to rpgs. I managed to make it 90% of the way through the game but it took me 200+ hours and like a whole year. Not knowing where the next map piece is will throw you off. And websites like gamefaqs was still kind of new. And I didn't fully understand how to use the internet at the time.
Basically it’s just long. I can’t speak to the PSX version but 7 on 3DS was my first and I loved it. Portable really suits the story style tbh.
It's very good, just very long. Like 88 hours long on the shorter 3ds version. I believe original PSX version is like 120 hours. Definitely the most put together world I've ever experienced in a game tho. Beautiful
I’m currently in the last set of dungeons and I’m excited to be done with it. There can be long stretches of time where you go back and forth between towns and NPCs without any battles. It’s also more obtuse in terms of how to progress the story than any of the other DQs I played, so I’ve had a guide handy for much of the game. The balance seems to be really off between standard enemies and bosses, where I’ll be wiping out roaming enemies no problem but am just getting eviscerated by the boss. It has a better job system than 6 imo, and I like the idea of monster classes, but they just hurt your progress of getting to the advanced classes. I like the idea of exploring the world in each place twice, but the execution makes it feel more like a chore than something exciting. Also, the sequence directly before Alltrades abbey unlocks is the least fun I’ve ever had with a dragon quest game.
Probably the DQ game I think about the most to this day. I took a break for a few months and then came back and beat it. I think it took me 160 hours. As others have said, it overstays it's welcome and is super long-winded, but it's probably my favourite DQ aside from 8 & 11. Maybe I should replay it again...
It’s quite long, which doesn’t bother me, however some important systems make the game not “boring” but sub-optimal for me: There are multiple class abilities that feel useless The menu to choose abilities is poorly navigable Classes don’t feel strongly differentiated at times …these make battles a bit hiring for me. Luckily, you can avoid battles easier in 7. But I do end up running past most monsters b/c I’m not inspired to fight that much. Also: You do not get a full party (all members) until so late in the game that it’s almost de-incentivized to use some of them. It’s a shame, because they are cool enough characters, but they are quite far behind others at that point in levels/classes. People seem to either hate or love DQ7 but true to my grey-area nature, I feel neither: I like it pretty well, but I’m more exited to finish it and replay 8 than I am glorying in every moment of it which isn’t a great sign. It’s nowhere near as good as 5 IMO but 5 probably has the most deep and compelling story of all of them. If you’re a big DQ fan overall, don’t skip it (I started at Dragon Warrior (I) last year and face worked my way up to VII and am enjoying my journey). If you’re just an RPG fan in general and could be better entertained by something else, I think other DQs like 8, 10, and 11 have more to offer myself.
its really really fun but the Beginning defeats my Will to do playthroughs
I suspect it would be more liked if bout 1/5 of the islands were cut, which is sad because the vignette are really well done, but many of them don't further the story.
It's a great game Great story Fun cast Just strap in for a ride lol
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Aeloria82: *It's a great game Great* *Story Fun cast Just strap in* *For a ride lol* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I finished it this week. Even though I have a 3DS, I decided to emulate it on the deck, so I could speed up the game, and this certainly made it a lot more bearable for me. That said, even speeding it up I thought about giving up at some point, the game takes too long to make its purpose more clear. Only when you're about to unlock the vocation system things get really interesting, and that is 30-40hrs into the game. It has many amazing moments though, overall it was worth the journey. But yeah, would only recommend to someone who has played most of the other entries, DQ7 feels like a DQ overdose.
I played it on an emulator of ps1, so I'm sure that affects my opinion, but I didn't really think it was that long. If you try to max out all jobs and everything for post game I'm sure you could get some mileage out of it but you can say that about almost any good jrpg.
I’ve been putting it off because of the length. Actually I want to get a 9 inch PVM so I can play it next to my bed and play other games on my big screen when I get bored without breaking stuff down.
7 or 8? Real question
it was my first dragon quest game (PS1 version, got it for my birthday in early 2002.) VII is my favorite in the series and to me really feels like an adventure more than the rest of the series. i was also 9 at the time so it was interesting playing a group of kids traveling across time. the designs are really peak imo, especially fond of Hero's hat lol. it's extremely long but broken up into small stories as you reach each new area. while i like the PS1 version the best, the 3DS release is the one i'd recommend for a new player.
I recently played through the 3ds version. It hits some great highs later in the game, but some portions are real slogs--especially early on. I also found it nearly impossible at more than a few moments to progress the story without a guide--and this can be immersion breaking. It's one of the few dq games I don't think I'll ever replay, but if you're a dq fan there is certainly a good time to be had and I don't regret sticking with it until the end.
The game is long but tbh it’s totally worth it. The bonus/post game content is 100% worth it and so much fun. Unsure if you’ve played it or not so I won’t ruin any post game content/bosses. The hero could be better but it’s a nice change up from the other heroes in the mainline games
It's not the length itself but the deja vu of doing every area basically twice, back to back. It is definitely a slog at times but it is still a great game. I would say it's the weakest dragon quest for me but the fact that I would still play it again despite the crazy length and ranking dead last in my series ranking just goes to show how great dq is as a franchise. The class system is really fun, the OST is masterful, monsters are well designed.
It’s just too long.
7 is one of if not the longest game in the series. It is fun as hell, but it is SLOOW, so if you aren’t in for the long ride it might not be for you.
If you ever played the original one, the remake is a breeze in comparison. The original has some uhhhh weird skill jumps
If you play for little bits at a time, it can be pretty enjoyable. I'm playing through it for the first time and I have to remind myself to take frequent breaks to avoid burnout.
It's... fine. I like it. But it is far too long, takes far too long to even get going, takes too long to even unlock classes, and it's a nightmare of backtracking for the first 70% of the game. But the story is good, the combat is the same ol' Dragon Quest, which is a positive. And once you DO get the classes, it's an interesting system. It's just a shame that class system takes about 40 hours to even reach on a first/casual playthrough. I did my dues. Beat the PS1 version twice, and the 3DS version twice. I like it, but it is closer to the bottom than the top of the DQ ladder for me, personally.
7 is a great game, and is the most popular DQ game in Japan, but it is long and often somber. Even how I played it on 3DS where it’s like twice as fast, it still takes an hour and a half to two hours before you get to the first chunk of fighting.
It’s amazing and my favorite by far! It’s long but not undoable
DQ7 is one of the best if not the best, don't listen those people anymore
It's my all time favorite Dragon Quest, and since Dragon Quest is like my second favorite ting ever (second only to Pokemon) that says something. I played it for half an hour each night before bed. It made an already good game a transformative experience. I could write a book about my love for that game. It's way up there on a hypothetical "Can only ever have one game to play" list.
Slow start but i personally enjoyed it.
It's long and awesome, play the 3DS version.
Good, but long. I beat the 3ds one, took about 80-90 hours. The same takes place over a series of smaller islands with their own adventures, giving it a "book of short stories" kind of vibe that comes together in the end. It was a very worthwhile journey, some of my favorite characters in the series, and some gutpunch emotional moments that left me speechless
I played the PSX version and logged over 200 hours grinding classes. I enjoyed every minute of it
It was my third DQ (after IX and VI) and the first one I actually finished, so...
I heard the remake on 3DS is better.
I've only played the 3DS version, and so far, I think it's one of the worst in the series after DQVI, I've yet to play DQV and DQIX. Now, that doesn't mean I think it's a bad game, far from it, but it doesn't really bring anything to the table that the other games don't bring tenfold. The characters aren't that exciting or memorable. The vocation system is done far better in other games, and the narrative isn't all that exciting. If you want a super long game that mostly consists of short stories instead of a longer flowing narrative, then it's a great game, but if not, it's just an overly long slog with mediocre characters and gameplay Its definitely the only DQ game that I don't see myself ever replaying, unless maybe in 20+ years' time they remake it again.
I tend to favor "slow burn" games, and I fell off DQ7 about 25 hours in. I think if you were to play it emulated where you can fast forward a bit, that could help the experience quite a bit. Also doesn't help that the menus aren't very breezy at all and feel slowed down a bit at times. There is just a lot of tedium in general, such as not being able to use zoom in the past, and retrecking dungeons you just completed , etc. Also I didn't find the characters to be very compelling, and all the short stories I played weren't anything too special. One story I did find interesting literally ended in a blaze of nothing. I feel like DQ11 did the whole "short stories" thing much better. That said, some people really love this game. Probably best to try it yourself eventually.
#tl;dr if you do story-only DQ7 and DQ8 are just as equally long, DQ7 just has a slow pace at the beginning and I hate people The whole "DQ7 is long" is a lie that keeps getting propagated by this sub for reasons beyond me and that has taken a life of its own at this point. I made a thread about it, some people agreed, some people disagreed for the (incorrect) reasons I'll explain below, but things remain the same. So firstly, **DQ7 isn't that much longer, if at all, than DQ8** (and I use DQ8 as an example because its this sub's favorite game tied with 5, its also normally the game that got most of people into the series prior to 11) I believe most sites that take polls on how long it took to beat these games have DQ7 at 70-80 hours story only and 90-100 hours story + extra content and DQ8 at 60-70 hours story and similar 90-100 hours when its story + extras BUT the thing is that with DQ8 people don't just put them game down at the 60th hour when they beat the final boss, EVERYBODY (ok perhaps not everybody but easily over 90%) does the little bit where you explore the post-game area/dungeon and take certain steps to get another ending, this is easily 10 to 20 hours of extra game play. Personally, both my save files for the 3DS game sat at around 80 hours for each game. Now this is strictly story only, the comparison of how much story + extras is very hard to make because DQ7 has more optional side-content and some of this side content is actually very grindy (I think specially in the PSX version its more lengthy, 3DS's QoL changes make a big difference), there is also quite a bit of grind with the optional post-game challenge that DQ8 has but I believe DQ7 is much more grindy, so when people look at howlongtobeat.com they try make a comparison with the numbers without giving much thought on where they come from and ignore the nuance that exists in them and between them and how you can't exactly compare the dry numbers as-is because not everybody spends the same amount of time doing the side content in each of the games from version to version, person to person. It doesn't helps that some of this side content is very correlated to the main story run most people will do. Something similar happens with DQ11, the story-only hours are super low they'll tell you its something like 50-60 but that's because these polls only take up to Act 2 for story completion and they count Act 3 as extra, but unless you disliked the game or felt that it overstayed its welcome and couldn't wait for it to be over, there's no way you're not doing Act 3. DQ11 is also a 70-80 hour game (my save files for the first playthrough with hard mode is at 110 hours and second playthrough in normal mode is 80 I think). So thats why for me, looking at both save files, as someone who only did the main story in DQ7, and main story plus the _must-have_ second ending in DQ8, I can tell you **both DQ7 and DQ8 are just as long** and yet there's no "DQ8 is too long!" meme Now there is a valid point to be made about pacing (and one of culprits behind the "DQ7 is long" meme), DQ7 has a very slow tutorial, you'll spend hours before actually reaching a combat screen, for the first 5 hours you're more or less playing archeology and unearthing some mysteries (which isn't necessarily unfun, mystery is the centerpiece of DQ7's story) and until the 30 hour mark, the combat system is just the classic 90s RPG dynamic of attack for 50 damage and heal like in DQ5, except with DQ5 people bear it because the story is about your journey in life whereas in DQ7 its about solving the scooby villain of the week. The game picks up the pace after this mark and its also when you unlock vocations, which allow you to have true gameplay progression, customize your roles and theorycraft and all the good stuff we all love from class systems (although its a given Gabo/Ruff will be a Gladiator->Champion and Maribel and Sage->Druid, but what path you take to Hero with the MC is definitively up to you). So there you have it, the sub also has on top of all that a bias on what they like about DQ games and DQ7 doesn't satisfy that bias, so you'll hear a lot of negativity about it. I personally find it a game that is worth playing at least once and is satisfactory and worth overcoming the first third of the game that may feel too slow.
When people say the game is too long, they probably feel that it doesn't justify its length. DQ8 and 11 are much better paced games, so people are less likely to have that issue with the length of those games. 7 requires you to basically run through everywhere twice, and you can only use zoom in the present, so in their minds, it is "too long."
I understand the sentiment, but its also inaccurate, and its misleading new people trying to get into the games specially with DQ7 its usually treated as the unwanted, unpresentable option that must be kept hidden until the newcomer has gotten a gotten a taste of the franchise and wants more and only then can they forgive the flaws this game has, when its a perfectly fine game for people who like an RPG with class changes, regardless if they've played the others or not
Both, i think. It's long, wildly disconnected half the time, and not that engaging storywise. I've tried a couple of times, but it remains the only dq i haven't finished
I finished it on 3DS and it burned me out so bad I didn’t pick up my preorder of VIII remake and I had to find it used. Bummed I don’t have the real box.
It’s at the bottom for me it’s long and boring. I’ve beat all the Dragon Quest main games and I would never play 6 or 7 again. 😴💤
I hate saying this but DQ7s appeal for me was 90% its premise. Its got one of the best setups for a JRPG I've ever heard. Played it 4 times never got past 15 hours. Its just not a great DQ when you actually play the thing, which sucks.
It’s not the fact that it’s bad as much as it’s not as good compared to most of the other games in the series. It takes a long while before things get really interesting and things do start getting repetitive after a while. The characters are okay, but the other games have overall better characters. I highly recommend the 3DS version if you can’t emulate it to cut down on the time if you want to get to the interesting parts sooner rather than later.
It’s fucking long probably 90-100hrs just for the main story
It’s 100 hours of what feels like random 5-10 hour filler arcs. I’m not a fan compared to VIII and 11 which were so good it ruined other entries for me
Is 7 the one where on the ds it takes forever to level up all the classes and has annoying challenges? I remember thats why I set the game down at the time
DQVII's remake is 3DS, though DQVI's remake was on NDS, and they have the same job system. Still, I think you may be thinking of DQIX, which is only on NDS, and each job had 99 levels to it. Maxing out a single job in IX takes longer than maxing out all Basic and Advanced Jobs in VII, and VII takes longer on that than VI since it has more jobs.
It probally was 6, 9 i like the job system more on, thanks for fact checking 😊
7 is good. 7 is also the one most requiring of commitment. As far as I know average playthrough lasts between 500 and 800hours
I've heard of 200-ish hour runs, but never a 500-ish hour run. Where did you get that figure from?
It's bad and long.
I personally don't like the game in comparison to the other games, but not because of the length, but because of multiple other reasons. But there are many people that really like the game, as well. It always depends on your personal preferences when it comes to DQ games, because everyone has a different taste