I'm thinking about picking up Dragon Quest IV and V on the DS, but I was wondering what the difficulty is like. I don't mind a challenge, as long as it's not cheap. There's a difference between a game being challenging and cheap in my opinion, and that's the only thing keeping me from picking them up. So is the difficulty bad? And feel free to include your overall opinion of both games too if you'd like!

I only played Dragon Quest IV. Didn't find it too hard, I did die a couple of times, mostly on bosses. I also leveled up a bit to make I would not have a too hard a time, but not very much.

The game is definitely hard as I recall. V more so than 4 in a lot of spots. I wouldn't ever really describe it as cheap though save for the final boss of the games. Even then the bosses both have ways to completely neutralize the cheap aspect of them and just make it a really long and hard fight. The games are absolutely amazing too. Well worth playing. IV absolutely hooked me on the series. I am eagerly waiting for VI and IX to be released.

It's not hard at all. And you'll be tempted to grind a little, just like anybody, so it'll be even easier.

Alright, I'll give the first one a go and see how I like it! I suppose I could always use a guide if I ever got stuck.

I personall love the DS remakes of these games. They remain faithful to the (s)nes counterpart and I've never found them incredibly difficult.

I'm not sure I died at all during my playthru (wait...scratch that, I died once, but i went for a boss fight I had no reason to be going for at that time.) It's not an easy game by any stretch, but it is a fair game.

Yeah, I'm playing Chrono Trigger right now and was originally planning on moving onto Pokemon after that (that Suikoden game looks nice as well). I knew Dragon Quest was pretty popular on these boards, so I read a few reviews and like what I read, and I know that these go in and out of stock quite frequently, so I figured I'd ask about the difficulty, as I'd seen it mentioned as an issue in FF III and IV, so I was just wondering if it was here as well. Definitely pretty excited for this now. Is VI getting a Western release as well?

I don't recall DQ6 being announced officially for the west, though I'd be surprised if they don't bring it over. And it's one of a few games from S-E that I'm still awaiting to come out.

As for difficulty, I'd say medium. If you thought many of the later FF games were hard, then this will tear you apart. Conversely, if you find SMT (non-Persona) games to be easy, then this might be a tad too easy for you, but they're still good games.

The DS remakes for Dragon Quests IV-VI are the best remakes I have ever played; my only quarrel over changes is that the DS version of IV allows you to control your party, where on the NES you had to tactically predict their moves. To balance this change, monsters stats and items abilities were changed to better suit full control rather than partial control... :(

Most people prefer this change, but personally I liked the forced lack of control...

Dragon Quest IV's battle system still requires a lot of planning and thinking, with every character being unique as they are, but it just doesn't shine like it did on the NES (the NES version has the best battle gameplay in the whole series :D). Oh well, I can always go and play my NES version whenever I feel like it.

Also, they announced all three for the West at the same time, but Dragon Quest VI has yet to get a release date.