I think this might be my favourite Dragon Quest game now, I loved it the whole way through. Usually Dragon Quest games have a fairly thin overarching story, but a great collection of little stories in each town you visit. I think this one still has the second, but they all tie in to a much stronger narrative. The game also has such a wonderful cast of characters, but Sylvando is a standout. He is just a constant source of joy throughout.
After around 60 hours I beat the boss which been the main enemy of the entire game to that point, and got the credits. It then asked me to save my game, I thought I’d load that save up to see if there was anything extra and it turns out there was significantly more story that explained a lot more of what was going on, had some really great character moments and then ended with a lovely tribute to the history of the whole series.
The only games left in the main series I haven’t finished are VI and X. X has never been released outside of Japan, and I game up on VI because I found it to be quite boring. I’ll probably go back an give it another try one day.