Definetely Dragon Quest V was my biggest surprise of the generation & really shocked me because I loved it so much. I'd give it a 9.6/10 so I consider it to be better than most FF games & the 2nd best RPG of the generation.

It was my first dragon quest

DQIV was excellent, but I didn't like it anywhere near as much as I liked DQV

So I can't wait for DQVI Remake, DQIX & Eventually DQX

Its just no-one on VGChartz talks much about Dragon Quest...

@darth, thats cool. guess i need to start on them sometime soon then. its true, it seems only final fantasy and too some extent tales of games are the only ones which can sell outside japan and also for which ppl care about. in japan dragon quest is king, i wish more ppl outside japan cared about the series, then maybe the series could get the hype for its games that they do deserve. oh btw, how many hrs did u put into dragon quest 4 and 5 ?

Dragon Quest V is pretty much still one of the best RPGs ever made and that same feeling still is mantained on the DS. I loved the new interface, which captured the best from DQVII and DQVIII, while still mantaining the DQV SNES feeling.

DQIV I haven't played much yet, i'm still finishing DQIV

As Darth put it, it's a shame that almost no one talks about DQ in here, it's pretty much one of the best gaming series ever made. 

What party did you guys use for FF13, did you keep to the same party or interchange a bit,I myself used lightning,hope and fang as that seemed the obvious,if i do another play through i will definitely use the others, also what weapons did you favour.

I always used Lightning, Fang and Vanille, with Fang being the leader at all times. 

Actually, most of my strategies revolved around Fang's Highwind and her SYN enhancers, which were more powerful than normal SYN enhancements, but only lasted 55 seconds. 

What was THE first DQ game you played it shames me to say it was DQ 8, but i enjoyed it a lot, and that's why i was really looking forward to blue dragon and ended up disappointed.

@mjk45, mine group was : lighting/hope/fang the most. followed by : lighting/vanille/fang
i upgraded lighting's weapons 1st and then fang , lastly hope. before i started on anyone elses.

My first one was Dragon Quest II, when it was called Dragon Warrior II

It was pretty awesome back in the NES days, and since then the series only got better, with Dragon Quest V being the best DQ game ever created.

I loved Blue Dragon too though, probably my third favourite 360 RPG this gen  

@lestatdark,
You being super experienced DQ gamer do any of them compare favourably with chrono trigger i would be guessing DQV but haven't played it YET!
or is there enough difference in playing style to make that difficult

Well, each Dragon Quest game can be individually evaluated, given that they only share battle systems and name, as their stories differ. It's the implementation that makes all the difference. As for the first 3 DQ games and DQVII you have your average save the world situation, Dragon Quest V took a step down from that cliche and dwelved on the entire generational struggle of a single family bound to destiny.

Quality wise, I pretty much consider DQV to be on par with Chrono Trigger, because both implement the story and the nuances behind it in the same masterful way. Although, that's as far as I can compare them, because the rest differs too much.

Battle system likeness will be dependent to each gamer's palate, since it's perhaps one of the slower RPG battle systems ever concieved. You'll have to plan and ponder each individual action with much thought, or else you're chances to suceed, in even a simple battle against Slimes early on in the game, will be severely reduced. 

And DQ games, DQV also, rely too much on an insanely high random encounter rate, which makes things even harder. Sometimes it can be very unforgiving, like you surviving a particular hard battle against normal monsters, be left without much HP and MP, and then get into a random battle in which every enemy cast THWACK (instant party death spell, 50% chance to suceed) and it's game over.