Well in Dragon Quest VIII, it was used more of a 'ask for help' feature when you got lost or wanted to know about a town, etc.  It was still interesting to do as the characters were somewhat dry without doing it (especially Jessica and Angelo).

The DS games are just much better because they added the party chat feature.  Sadly, they cut this feature out of the western release of Dragon Quest IV (along with a lot of other things).  Either due to lazyness or incompetence, we shall never know.

Even if they had given it to them in DQIV the accents would have already mutilated the characters.

I thought DQ7 was a great jrpg. I like the class system. I like the monster soul/heart thing. (whatever it's called. Can't remember) But holy shit is that game really long as hell. I remember having to do a shit load of grinding to learn skills for my characters. I dedicated about 3 hours a day on average for 6 weeks to beat the game back in highschool (though I did do some extra things and I did do a lot of skill grinding). I can't invest that kind of time into one game anymore. It's a well designed game. It's just very, very time consuming.

@Ken

Why are you telling him to continue a very lengthy game that he is clearing not enjoying? He's already invested 50 hours into a game that wasn't enjoyable for him. And you're asking him to invest another 50 hours? He's better off playing something else than throwing so much of his free time down the drain just to get to the "good part". And honestly, I feel that if he doesn't enjoy the game 50 hours in, he's probably never going to enjoy the game. My memory is fuzzy but I take it he's already past the point where you are allowed to change classes and gain monster souls (or whatever they are called. You know, those things that allow you to learn monster skills) 50 hours in. I'm quite certain that comes much earlier on in the game. And that's (experimenting with class changes to customize skill sets for each character and hunting monster souls to gain monster-unique skills) is pretty much the meat of the game. If he doesn't enjoy that, then he won't enjoy the game.

I hate how it's common for jrpg fans to feel that you have to play through a game in it's entirety before you can have an opinion about a game. As if people are expected to soldier through something they don't enjoy for hours and hours just so that they can "earn" the right to have an opinion of the game in the eyes of the internets. Especially after investing something ridiculous like 50 hours. I used to force myself to brave through that time but then I just thought to myself that life was too short for that shit. When I played Star Ocean 4, after 5 hours of not liking it, I made the decision to drop it (good thing it was a rental). I see no point in forcing yourself to play something you do not like when there are so many games out there to choose from. If a game fails to grab the interest of the gamer immediately, the game is doing it wrong. Games are supposed to be about entertainment and fun. It's not a job. Unless you are a professional reviewer. Then yes, you have to brave through games you don't enjoy for that paycheque.

Wow, I didn't even know that DQ4 had the party chat feature. That makes me very sad, because I REALLY enjoy the light hearted story of DQ4, and I like the characters a lot. Hopefully it will make it into some form of a future release for this title.

By the way, I like the accents in DQ4; but I think that's mostly because of the way I read dialogue, I like to imagine exactly how the characters would be speaking.

DQ7, based on what's been said, it looks like a game I would play over a 6-18 month period. Usually I put in no more than 10 hours a week on console games; and I also like a bit of variety. Rune Factory Frontier is the only console game, ever, that I have played for more than 100 hours in a single play; that took me about 4-5 months to get to 100 I think (and I played it more frequently than any other console game I have played since probably Skies of Arcadia years ago on Dreamcast). That said, I have been meaning to give DQ7 a shot for the last decade, so perhaps I will sometime soon.

I'm not telling him to keeping doing anything.  However, he came off as stating the game was 'one of the worst games ever made' without even playing all the way through.  And, judging from his previous 'discussion' in a past thread declaring Chrono Cross to be 'the worst game ever made', it just sounds like he's frustrated with the game was was venting by coming on the forum to complain.

Long story short, he sounds like he just wanted to come on here to whine about a game he didn't like and clearly stated he didn't even finish the game.  And I called him out on it before we had a repeat of the Chrono Cross thread.

Technically it would be impossible for anyone to declare a game to be "one of the worst games ever made" because it's unlikely that anyone has played every game in existance. From what he's saying, we can tell that it is one of the worst games he played in his opinion. I don't think there's anything wrong with forming an opinion about a game before "beating" it. And "beating" is such a relative term anyway with games these days (with side quests and what not). Since we know he played 50 hours worth and he still doesn't enjoy the game, it's safe to say that he probably won't like the other half of the game. I can't remember all the details of the plot since it's been over 8 years since I played through the game but even if the plot gets better over time, it's unlikely he'll enjoy the game when the core gameplay is essentially the same as what he's experiencing 50 hours into the game. He's already had access to class changing. That's pretty much the meat of the game. It's like Final Fantasy Tactics on steroids. You can learn skills from 50+ different classes (most of them being monster classes). That appealed to me so I liked the game (aside from the fact that I personally found it to be a very long game. DQ7 for me would have been a lot better as a standard length jrpg). But if that doesn't appeal to him now, I don't see how the game would ever be appealing to him.

Sure I wouldn't recommend that he go on a forum declaring a game to be "one of the worst games ever made." I don't see that as good form. Considering that professional game reviewers are given such a hard time by fanboys with a low emotional IQ (Like this clown right here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEOGyzdJXzo ), nothing good can ever come from starting a thread in a gaming forum declaring that a game is "one of the worst games ever made."

In my defense, I did admit I have an irrational level of hate for that terribad game. >_>;

I LOVED Dragon Quest 7. So......yeah, I disagree with you......COMPLETELY.

Light-hearted story...?  Dragon Quest IV is definately the most depressing in the whole series... actually, it is probably among some of the most depressing games ever.  Sure, the adventure is very light-hearted and colorful, as are all Dragon Quests, but behind that happy gloss is a very deep tale of love, betrayal, and manipulation.

And yeah, it is very irritating that the party-chat isn't in the Western version considering how diverse the cast of the game is.