Ever since I completed the main story in DQ IX, I began reading Dragon Quest Dai No Daibouken. It’s one of the few mangas that were adapted from the original DQ games, and while it has been completed in 1996, translated scans of it are still being released online on a regular basis.
I must say, reading this manga as you playing along with a DQ game does increase the enjoyment one can derive from it. It’s yet another of those typical shounen mangas that follows the track of the usual DQ games; Hero fights against evil empire to save the world. I’ve played 4 DQ games and I’ve still not gotten sick of the same old thing that appears in all of them.
As I read the manga, I felt myself immersed in the Dragon Quest world, as though I was part of the team in the adventure. Maybe it’s because I’ve been playing too much DQ IX. Hell, I’ve already clocked 79 hours, and there’ll be more soon.
Before DQ IX, all the DQ games that I’ve played were English translated versions. Hence, the spell names weren’t retained, but renamed into other spell names. That got me a little confused when I first embarked on DQ IX, but I soon got used to the Japanese spell names. Reading the manga helped too, since the original Japanese spell names were present in it.
Out of all the characters, the one whom I can relate to isn’t Dai, the main character, but rather Pop, the mage.
He often sees himself as inferior to the rest of the team, and is often the first to run away from a battle. Yet, he always ends up returning to fight anyway. Also, his unrequired love is something that’s totally understandable. I think I’m a little like him, in the sense that I tend to possess an inferiority complex. Also, it seems like I have the tendency to fall into a one-sided affair situation.
I doubt that anyone who is reading this is a DQ fan, but I recommend this if you like good old shounen manga from the 1990s. It’s strange how Dragon Quest is like a religion in Japan, while almost no one gives a damn about it beyond the land of the rising sun.
I only read the later part of this manga during my secondary school days.
I like the story and the mage.
I trying to find the whole complete manga set too.
Bring back my memories during those days. ^.^
I didn’t read this, but I did read a Dragon Quest sidestory called Dragon Quest Monsters+. It’s like Dragon Quest, just that the main character fights alongside monsters. Chuang Yi did release it.
If you’re lucky, you might still be able to pick it up in one of those dirt cheap bazaar sales. Best thing about it, it’s only 5 volumes long. Well… I thought it was quite a good shounen manga, at least.
I didn’t realize until well over last year that the guy behind that sidestory was actually Mine Yoshizaki, most famous for Keroro Gunsou.
I have the TW version of that manga. It follows the Dragon Quest Monsters storyline, and DQM happens to be one of my all-time favourite games.
I read this manga series when it first came out a long time ago and thought it was awesome. Yes, Pop is one of the best characters to come out of Shounen manga ever. Some of the new techniques drew up in the manga I’d love to see implemented in a DQ game.
This manga (and not any other) gave the skills and jobs present in DQ a lot of character. It sucks that DQ9 doesn’t have a yuusha class. They really stripped down some of the classic DQ elements (casino, fashion shows, recruiting monsters, confusing dungeons, interactive characters) in favor of new ones (visual enemies, network play, quests). Not that I’m complaining of course.
I guess they stripped off the classic elements and replaced it with the wifi stuff and quests. At least treasure maps are present. They remind me of DQM2.
have you read bloodline of roto yet?