108: In terms of story and general appeal, it's the best
Dragon Quest game. Where
Dragon Quest IV was “clever” by splitting the story into four parts that came together,
Dragon Quest V is about one man's life, from his traumatic childhood as a poor boy, led around the world on a mysterious quest by his noble father. And before you know it, it's all about growing up, taking responsibility for one's legacy, and even starting a family. The Japanese version is as highly revered a
Dragon Quest game as
Final Fantasy VI is a
Final Fantasy game. System-wise, it lets you capture and raise monsters as members of your party, which was said to be one of the inspirations for the
Pokemon series of games. There is a
PlayStation 2 remake by
Arte Piazza and
Matrix, and it looks wonderful and smooth, with a slowed down encounter rate and slightly better balanced experience and gold bonuses per battle. (Though there are some weird little issues, like being unable to adjust the message speed after starting the game.) As far as I'm concerned,
Dragon Quest V is the best flat-out RPG experience on
Super Famicom (not counting
Mother 2, which is just something else), dated as the graphics might be. If you have an emulator, track down the English translation. Wonderful to play on
PSP, that way.