The hero of Dragon Quest III, Erdrick, joins the battle!

[Teeb147]

I have never played Nakoruru's game, but she looks like she has some interesting moveset potential.

Samurai Showdown? Definitely one of the more fun fighting games, imo
It's a bit niche now, but it was pretty decently big during the arcade days.

 

[Sari]

I have never played Nakoruru's game, but she looks like she has some interesting moveset potential.

Yeah her hawk alone has a ton of offensive and mobility potential.

Samurai Showdown? Definitely one of the more fun fighting games, imo
It's a bit niche now, but it was pretty decently big during the arcade days.

We're getting a reboot this year so hopefully that sparks more interest in the series again.

 

[AustarusIV]

what female characters do you want playable that aren't in yet?

Terra (Final Fantasy VI)
Dixie Kong (Donkey Kong Country)
Elma (Xenoblade Chronicles X)
2B (Nier Automata)
Ayumi Tachibana (Famicom Detective Club)
Lyn (Fire Emblem)

Oh, and Erdrick, of course!

Since I never see people mentioning outside of Japan, I'll add her in my list.
Shiori Fujisaki from Tokimeki Memorial as Konami rep.
If Dragon Quest is the grandfather of JRPG, then Tokimeki Memorial is the grandmother of galge or dating sims.
Both genre are super important to Japanese gaming culture.
I see her name pops up in Japanese smash community sometimes.
But she won't happen since Sakurai doesn't prefer those types of games.

Come to think of it, we still have yet to get a character from a visual novel series in Smash, let alone one from a dating sim. I wouldn't mind seeing her get in, if only for the historical significance her series has in Japanese gaming culture. She could probably have a moveset designed around and inspired by visual novel gameplay, with the player employing strategic thinking and stat buffs over the course of the match (since they would start off weak in the beginning). In a way, she could probably take some inspiration from Phoenix Wright's moveset in UMvC3.

Also I had this hilarious thought of Konami's playable cast of three macho manly-men...and a cute anime schoolgirl. And now I'm disappointed that her series is still Japanese-exclusive.

 

[NomadLuminary]

I think a VN character in general would be a nice change of pace.

EDIT:

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[Yatanagi]

Sorry for been absent from here those days, my brother will marry his fiance today so the things in home got a bit busy.

 

[Deleted member]

Teeb147 was talking about how she'd like some more female characters playable, which made me curious: what female characters do you want playable that aren't in yet?

I'll make a small list. You can include characters that have the option for multiple genders as well as female ones.

• Dixie Kong (from Donkey Kong Country)
• Reporter and Wrestler (from the most well-known Rhythm Heaven minigame)
• Shop Assistant (from the Style Savvy games. "Shop Assistant" is just what Smash Ultimate calls her in her spirit, she doesn't have a canon name)
• Pauline (from both Mario and Donkey Kong games)
• Toadette (from Super Mario Bros. She can be an alt of Captain Toad (who I also want in), or even an Echo Fighter.)
• Captain Syrup (from Wario Land)
• Ashley or Mona (from WarioWare, Inc.)
• Zelda (the Breath of the Wild version, I appreciate ALttP / ALBW Zelda but I wanted BotW Zelda more, oh well)
• Midna (from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)
• Krystal (from Star Fox)
• Caeda (from Fire Emblem, specifically Marth's game)
• Lyn (also from Fire Emblem)
• Viridi (from Kid Icarus: Uprising, I just want another Kid Icarus goddess to use some of the moves Palutena had back in Smash 4 that were lost forever in Ultimate due to custom moves being left behind)

As for third-party ones...

• Chun-Li (from Street Fighter)
• Erdrick (duh)
• Jill Valentine (from Resident Evil, Leon could be an Echo Fighter)

My list isn’t exclusive for Ultimate due to some picks:

• Coco Bandicoot
• Pauline
• Cynder
• Mach Rider
• Linkle
• Impa
• Captain Syrup
• Dixie Kong
• Roll
• Lara Croft
• Mona
• Adeleine

 

[shinhed-echi]

Well one of my pipe dream character hopefuls is Ekoro from Gal Gun which is half visual novel half rail shooter.

Would be hilarious if her final smash was Doki Doki Mode where characters caught up in it go into a cinematic where the camera pans around them, and the player must shoot at their... doki doki spots to rack the most damage.

If you manage to make them reach peak .... "happiness" you'll be able to KO them early. (But if you hit the wrong spots, you actually recover them).

It would be sort of like a parody, but I know it's not going to translate how it appears in my head, and it'll probably look dirtier than it should.

Other than that, she'd play like a mix between Megaman and Pit.

 

[Rumble Red]

I was digging around earlier for some material to maybe throw together a DQ voice actor trivia post, and discovered that sweet old grampa Chalky from DQXI is voiced by Timothy Watson, who also voiced... Metal Face? That's some serious versatility. Remember that one next time you fight on Gaur Plain.

 

[KoopaSaki]

Has Erdrick ever been featured in 3D before or is smash going to be his first ever 3D render we’ve ever seen?

 

[Deleted member]

Has Erdrick ever been featured in 3D before or is smash going to be his first ever 3D render we’ve ever seen?

Spoiler: Spoilers of a DQ game.

I think he appears at the end of DQXI.

 

[Rumble Red]

Has Erdrick ever been featured in 3D before or is smash going to be his first ever 3D render we’ve ever seen?

He was in Battle Road Victory, but that's one of the only times.

Spoiler: Erdrick in BRV

Erdwin from DQXI is... close enough. Gives you some idea what he might look like if they closely emulated DQXI's style.

Spoiler: Erdwin & co.

Spoiler: Spoilers of a DQ game.

I think he appears at the end of DQXI.

Spoiler

He does, but it's from behind, with him in bed and under a blanket. You only see just enough to be able to tell it's him.

 

[NomadLuminary]

Got this at my local convention.

 

[shinhed-echi]

Got this at my local convention. View attachment 213323

My wallet just had a stroke. But dang is that one fine figure! Congrats on your find!

I hope that if Luminary was an alt, they’d release an amiibo of him as well.

 

[NomadLuminary]

My wallet just had a stroke. But dang is that one fine figure! Congrats on your find!

I hope that if Luminary was an alt, they’d release an amiibo of him as well.

Only Dragon Quest figure in the entire convention. It destroyed my life savings. But I'm glad I have it now. And yes I do too, after all, we all need Jesus kun in our lives

 

[Yatanagi]

The wedding went well, now I officially have a younger sister too. Sending this from the party.

Only Dragon Quest figure in the entire convention. It destroyed my life savings. But I'm glad I have it now. And yes I do too, after all, we all need Jesus kun in our lives

Indeed he is beardless young sword Jesus.The Hero Class always had this Messiah trope going with it, even some spells reflect this.

 

[NomadLuminary]

The wedding went well, now I officially have a younger sister too. Sending this from the party.

Indeed he is beardless young sword Jesus.The Hero Class always had this Messiah trope going with it, even some spells reflect this.

Congrats dude!

Also in Alberta land, met David Hayter at my convention (literal god) and is now in the middle of a snow storm. Because god hates canadians

 

[shinhed-echi]

Congratulations! Hope you had fun at the wedding party too!
(Had I been a DQ fan just

The wedding went well, now I officially have a younger sister too. Sending this from the party.

Indeed he is beardless young sword Jesus.The Hero Class always had this Messiah trope going with it, even some spells reflect this.

2 years earlier, I would have chosen the DQV bridal waltz to be my wedding waltz. Still, I chose Rosalina's Observatory, so at least there's that).

 

[Yatanagi]

Congratulations! Hope you had fun at the wedding party too!
(Had I been a DQ fan just

2 years earlier, I would have chosen the DQV bridal waltz to be my wedding waltz. Still, I chose Rosalina's Observatory, so at least there's that).

As a DB junkie, my brother choose Dandan Kokoro Hikareteku to start the party, it's like their song. If there's a universal good point of GT is it's OST xD
I want in mine to enter the church with the main theme of DQ, the opening bit is just too powerful and fitting for a triumphant arrival. (And of course been dressed in full Roto Armor done in steel.) Just need to find a bride first, that's the hard part xD

 

[shinhed-echi]

As a DB junkie, my brother choose Dandan Kokoro Hikareteku to start the party, it's like their song. If there's a universal good point of GT is it's OST xD
I want in mine to enter the church with the main theme of DQ, the opening bit is just too powerful and fitting for a triumphant arrival. (And of course been dressed in full Roto Armor done in steel.) Just need to find a bride first, that's the hard part xD

That’s a great way to start a party!
Dragon Ball music is usually amazing. Except for a few ones based on kid Gohan. And the instrumental music is underrated as heck.

Oh, well best of luck then! Hopefully you find one! Better yet, one who wears a wedding dress based off Princess Medea’s!

 

[NomadLuminary]

That’s a great way to start a party!
Dragon Ball music is usually amazing. Except for a few ones based on kid Gohan. And the instrumental music is underrated as heck.

Oh, well best of luck then! Hopefully you find one! Better yet, one who wears a wedding dress based off Princess Medea’s!

Definitely. A great thing that matches the armour is a woman that surpasses all your expectations.

 

[NoOtherPersona]

He was in Battle Road Victory, but that's one of the only times.

Spoiler: Erdrick in BRV

Erdwin from DQXI is... close enough. Gives you some idea what he might look like if they closely emulated DQXI's style.

Spoiler: Erdwin & co.

View attachment 213288

Spoiler

He does, but it's from behind, with him in bed and under a blanket. You only see just enough to be able to tell it's him.

every time i see Erdirck he just looks like he's here to just f-stuff up and go home so cool

 

[NomadLuminary]

Fan art time bois

There was a problem fetching the tweet

There was a problem fetching the tweet

『絶好調テリー』
テリーと少年テリーの共闘が嬉しすぎて描いてみました。がんばれライバルズ#ドラクエラクガキ#ドラクエライバルズ pic.twitter.com/ra5As72jYU

— コモス (@cosmo8823) April 27, 2019

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[Deleted member]

Fan art time bois

There was a problem fetching the tweet

There was a problem fetching the tweet

『絶好調テリー』
テリーと少年テリーの共闘が嬉しすぎて描いてみました。がんばれライバルズ#ドラクエラクガキ#ドラクエライバルズ pic.twitter.com/ra5As72jYU

— コモス (@cosmo8823) April 27, 2019

There was a problem fetching the tweet

All of those are great!

I´m still hyped about the DQ5 movie too, which I hope gets released outside of Japan.

 

[Rumble Red]

every time i see Erdirck he just looks like he's here to just f-stuff up and go home so cool

He hasn't got time to mess around; he's late for a party!

I´m still hyped about the DQ5 movie too, which I hope gets released outside of Japan.

I'm sure it'll end up on Netflix or something. It looks too expensive to not try to wring every possible dollar out of.

I wonder if it'll be dubbed in the style of the games. That'd be my preference, and Square Enix seems pretty particular about making everything consistent, but who knows with the other parties who might be involved. It'd be pretty funny if Bianca and Nera were voiced by their English game VAs, since they were recast in the Japanese version.

 

[NomadLuminary]

He hasn't got time to mess around; he's late for a party!


I'm sure it'll end up on Netflix or something. It looks too expensive to not try to wring every possible dollar out of.

I wonder if it'll be dubbed in the style of the games. That'd be my preference, and Square Enix seems pretty particular about making everything consistent, but who knows with the other parties who might be involved. It'd be pretty funny if Bianca and Nera were voiced by their English game VAs, since they were recast in the Japanese version.

Who would you want if they dubbed it?

EDIT: Yatanagi full profile

So here full body of Luffy as Loto/Erdrick from Dragon Quest III (Famicom). pic.twitter.com/5f2oSMB5Is

— Poros Neustein (Commission OPEN) (@keke_094) April 28, 2019

映画ビアンカ pic.twitter.com/rJeLFgrBFH

— こらふ@ver7.0済 (@korafu198ninjin) April 9, 2019

 

[Rumble Red]

Who would you want if they dubbed it?

Nobody in particular, just actors drawn from the same pool that the games already use. Bianca and Nera's VAs from Heroes would be nice to have back, but nobody else from DQV already has one.

They seem to be taking some measures to make the movie feel like kind of a separate thing from the games in Japan, with the different art style and live actors doing the voices, but I think it'd be smart to make it as consistent as possible over here to capitalize on the marketing opportunity.

 

[Yatanagi]

Who would you want if they dubbed it?

EDIT: Yatanagi full profile

So here full body of Luffy as Loto/Erdrick from Dragon Quest III (Famicom). pic.twitter.com/5f2oSMB5Is

— Poros Neustein (Commission OPEN) (@keke_094) April 28, 2019

映画ビアンカ pic.twitter.com/rJeLFgrBFH

— こらふ@ver7.0済 (@korafu198ninjin) April 9, 2019

I saw that yesterday. I already put it as my Discord pic, and was going to put it as my pic here too today, but almost forgot. Thanks for reminding me. Really would like to see Oda doing a original Dragon Quest themed one-shot sometime.

 

[Naoyatodo]

Hey, y'all. I wanted to show you a WIP of my Smashified Erdrick fanart. I figured I should post it here for validation constructive criticism before I make any irreversible changes.

Spoiler: Erdrick fart

I also made this image for fun.

Spoiler: Dumb meme

 

[shinhed-echi]

Hey, y'all. I wanted to show you a WIP of my Smashified Erdrick fanart. I figured I should post it here for validation constructive criticism before I make any irreversible changes.

Spoiler: Erdrick fart

View attachment 213534

I also made this image for fun.

Spoiler: Dumb meme

View attachment 213535

#1 That’s REALLY good!!!

#2 Not sure what’s going on, but looks promising!

You guys are inspiring me to make my own fan art.
(But drawing Erdrick’s so hard...)

 

[Teeb147]

Hey hope all's doing well here.
One Piece is actually up to episode 882 now, crazy right? I haven't watched for a long time because the story is spread over so many eps, but it's still a really cool anime. Yatanagi just in case you might be interested, when you go to edit your avatar, you can drag up or down the picture to easily scroll the image. Just mentioning in case you wanna scroll to see more of luffy in it.

Naoyatodo I'm impressed, your smashify art looks so high quality.

 

[Yatanagi]

Now I remembered that the clip from the music of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V opening and the one of Fairy Tail 4th opening have some inspiration on Dragon Quest. Can't remember if I already post about it.
https://youtu.be/ovD4Bd0hShc
https://youtu.be/-5BXWqQMWSo

Hey hope all's doing well here.
One Piece is actually up to episode 882 now, crazy right? I haven't watched for a long time because the story is spread over so many eps, but it's still a really cool anime. Yatanagi just in case you might be interested, when you go to edit your avatar, you can drag up or down the picture to easily scroll the image. Just mentioning in case you wanna scroll to see more of luffy in it.

Naoyatodo I'm impressed, your smashify art looks so high quality.

Thanks ^^ Is that I'm on my phone. When I use my PC I will fix that.

 

[shinhed-echi]

I think you have to ask a mod to delete it. Not sure I’ve ever deleted one, I usually just write “accidental double post”. But asking a mod works best I guess.

 

[NomadLuminary]

Hey, y'all. I wanted to show you a WIP of my Smashified Erdrick fanart. I figured I should post it here for validation constructive criticism before I make any irreversible changes.

Spoiler: Erdrick fart

View attachment 213534

I also made this image for fun.

Spoiler: Dumb meme

View attachment 213535

That looks so good!

EDIT: So I found this

父の日ギフト「お父さんが勇者になっちゃう装備セット」ただいまご予約受付中です〜！

あの伝説の装備が現代の装備に姿をかえて帰ってきました。お父さんに装備させて勇者になってもらおう🗡( ･ㅂ･)🛡✨

ロトのラッピング袋とメッセージカード付きです！ #ドラクエ https://t.co/DMFeQkWqbA pic.twitter.com/KCW2zu3jl8

— 青海 亮太 / Ryota Aomi (@aomix) April 29, 2019

I thought it was adorable that you can dress your father into the legendary hero. It's also another example of "Erdrick is still important and relevant in modern entertainment" much to other people's chagrin

 

[Naoyatodo]

That looks so good!

EDIT: So I found this

父の日ギフト「お父さんが勇者になっちゃう装備セット」ただいまご予約受付中です〜！

あの伝説の装備が現代の装備に姿をかえて帰ってきました。お父さんに装備させて勇者になってもらおう🗡( ･ㅂ･)🛡✨

ロトのラッピング袋とメッセージカード付きです！ #ドラクエ https://t.co/DMFeQkWqbA pic.twitter.com/KCW2zu3jl8

— 青海 亮太 / Ryota Aomi (@aomix) April 29, 2019

I thought it was adorable that you can dress your father into the legendary hero. It's also another example of "Erdrick is still important and relevant in modern entertainment" much to other people's chagrin

Huh. Is that art new? I guess we have an expectation of what Erdrick will look like.

Also, thank you!

 

[Deathcarter]

I have to get this off my chest but does anybody else here think Erdrick, deservingness aside, doesn't really capture the general tone and charm of Dragon Quest? Like Dragon Quest isn't far removed from Mario to the point the two have crossed over but Erdrick is basically as serious and bland as say Ocarina of Time Link. He's certainly not a badly designed character and he "fits" Dragon Quest enough but you can tell that he's basically never been designed to have any emotional range beyond "ready for battle stern look" and "proceeding to lop off your head angry face" due to being a 2D character with static official art who never had a major 3D role and never needed to be redesigned like Five did for the movie. Its a similar experience I had with say Crono, Marle, and Ayla where how there official art along with the box art contrasts the often lighthearted and sometimes comical tone Chrono Trigger has.

He's like the one character imo who'd benefit from a hypothetical reverse Roy as far as Smash goes where he be redesigned with younger feature and larger eyes but still closer to his established design than his NES one. I'm just not into the whole "DBZ" look all of the NES and SNES protags Toriyama designed ended up with, at least as far as a potential Smash character goes since most of my positive views of Dragon Quest as a franchise have never really been about "cool" moments. I'd personally prefer somebody like Eight who's designed with less focus on looking cool particularly since most of the male anime styled fighters already in Smash barring Pit and the kid Links already lean hard in that direction.

You all are much bigger DQ fans than I am (only played 7 on 3DS so I hardly consider myself any sort of authority on DQ) so I'd love your opinion and whether I'm wrong or not.

 

[NomadLuminary]

Huh. Is that art new? I guess we have an expectation of what Erdrick will look like.

Also, thank you!

From what I recall, that art was seen in the Dragon Quest museum a year or so back. It might be the most recent Erdrick has ever appeared in. Looks like a combination of his Battle Road Victory model and his SNES design.

I have to get this off my chest but does anybody else here think Erdrick, deservingness aside, doesn't really capture the general tone and charm of Dragon Quest? Like Dragon Quest isn't far removed from Mario to the point the two have crossed over but Erdrick is basically as serious and bland as say Ocarina of Time Link. He's certainly not a badly designed character and he "fits" Dragon Quest enough but you can tell that he's basically never been designed to have any emotional range beyond "ready for battle stern look" and "proceeding to lop off your head angry face" due to being a 2D character with static official art who never had a major 3D role and never needed to be redesigned like Five did for the movie. Its a similar experience I had with say Crono, Marle, and Ayla where how there official art along with the box art contrasts the often lighthearted and sometimes comical tone Chrono Trigger has.

He's like the one character imo who'd benefit from a hypothetical reverse Roy as far as Smash goes where he be redesigned with younger feature and larger eyes but still closer to his established design than his NES one. I'm just not into the whole "DBZ" look all of the NES and SNES protags Toriyama designed ended up with, at least as far as a potential Smash character goes since most of my positive views of Dragon Quest as a franchise have never really been about "cool" moments. I'd personally prefer somebody like Eight who's designed with less focus on looking cool particularly since most of the male anime styled fighters already in Smash barring Pit and the kid Links already lean hard in that direction.

You all are much bigger DQ fans than I am (only played 7 on 3DS) so I'd love your opinion and whether I'm wrong or not.

When it comes to the general tone and charm, I can definitely see where you're coming from. I started with 11 so to me the tone and structure is vastly different then what is seen in 3 (storywise anyways). However, I don't necessarily agree that Erdrick doesn't really capture it. There were plenty of silly moments in 3 and serious tones that are equivalent to those seen later in the series. He does have some silly expressions in some of his artwork as seen here

To me, Erdrick is the 'first' hero, being generic is kind of his schtick as he is the reason why later heroes exist. So your description of comparing him to OoT Link isn't a bad thing. I actually see it as a compliment.

 

[Deleted member]

I have to get this off my chest but does anybody else here think Erdrick, deservingness aside, doesn't really capture the general tone and charm of Dragon Quest? Like Dragon Quest isn't far removed from Mario to the point the two have crossed over but Erdrick is basically as serious and bland as say Ocarina of Time Link. He's certainly not a badly designed character and he "fits" Dragon Quest enough but you can tell that he's basically never been designed to have any emotional range beyond "ready for battle stern look" and "proceeding to lop off your head angry face" due to being a 2D character with static official art who never had a major 3D role and never needed to be redesigned like Five did for the movie. Its a similar experience I had with say Crono, Marle, and Ayla where how there official art along with the box art contrasts the often lighthearted and sometimes comical tone Chrono Trigger has.

He's like the one character imo who'd benefit from a hypothetical reverse Roy as far as Smash goes where he be redesigned with younger feature and larger eyes but still closer to his established design than his NES one. I'm just not into the whole "DBZ" look all of the NES and SNES protags Toriyama designed ended up with, at least as far as a potential Smash character goes since most of my positive views of Dragon Quest as a franchise have never really been about "cool" moments. I'd personally prefer somebody like Eight who's designed with less focus on looking cool particularly since most of the male anime styled fighters already in Smash barring Pit and the kid Links already lean hard in that direction.

You all are much bigger DQ fans than I am (only played 7 on 3DS so I hardly consider myself any sort of authority on DQ) so I'd love your opinion and whether I'm wrong or not.

That's pretty much just the nature of silent protagonists; be it in Dragon Quest or other JRPGS, that they're meant to be stand-ins for the player. They're like that for the sake of leaving it to you to fill in the blanks.
In DQ3 specifically, you have a *whole party* of silent characters of your composition (similar to the first Final Fantasy game), so as for Erdrick specifically I can see where you're coming from.
As for how this would translate into Smash, I think it would take some improvisation on Sakurai's end. What makes Erdrick unique from this hypothetical angle is how open to interpretation (and thus making many possibilities for a Smash character) he is in terms of how he fights, etc. DQ8 and DQ11 I think could be good points of reference though, with how their protagonists act in battle.

 

[shinhed-echi]

I have to get this off my chest but does anybody else here think Erdrick, deservingness aside, doesn't really capture the general tone and charm of Dragon Quest? Like Dragon Quest isn't far removed from Mario to the point the two have crossed over but Erdrick is basically as serious and bland as say Ocarina of Time Link. He's certainly not a badly designed character and he "fits" Dragon Quest enough but you can tell that he's basically never been designed to have any emotional range beyond "ready for battle stern look" and "proceeding to lop off your head angry face" due to being a 2D character with static official art who never had a major 3D role and never needed to be redesigned like Five did for the movie. Its a similar experience I had with say Crono, Marle, and Ayla where how there official art along with the box art contrasts the often lighthearted and sometimes comical tone Chrono Trigger has.

He's like the one character imo who'd benefit from a hypothetical reverse Roy as far as Smash goes where he be redesigned with younger feature and larger eyes but still closer to his established design than his NES one. I'm just not into the whole "DBZ" look all of the NES and SNES protags Toriyama designed ended up with, at least as far as a potential Smash character goes since most of my positive views of Dragon Quest as a franchise have never really been about "cool" moments. I'd personally prefer somebody like Eight who's designed with less focus on looking cool particularly since most of the male anime styled fighters already in Smash barring Pit and the kid Links already lean hard in that direction.

You all are much bigger DQ fans than I am (only played 7 on 3DS so I hardly consider myself any sort of authority on DQ) so I'd love your opinion and whether I'm wrong or not.

In my case, it’s quite the opposite. Everything about DQ3 bleeds Dragon Quest. If there’s one game in the series that I feel captures the DQ charm perfectly, it’s DQ3. Well, 8 too, because 3 lacks the party member interactions.

You probably feel this way, and I don’t blame you, because it’s hard to make an 8 bit game (and a strict recreation in 16-bit) have expressions in the characters.

Also, playing devil’s advocate, but they wouldn’t give more expressions to a character that is supposed to play “you” (or vice versa) if they don’t need to. It’s like their design philosophy.
I haven’t really seen any main character be expressive tbh. Eight and Luninary are probably the only expressive ones.

As for design... well, it’s all subjective, but I find Erdrick’s outfit and accessories to be iconic. That tiara alone is emblematic.

And on a personal level, Toriyama artwork is quite the opposite of “generic”. I don’t understand why people keep saying it’s generic. It’s extremely distinctive from every other anime/manga artist.
From clothes, to hair, to eyebrows, to accessories, to vehicles, to monsters, to robots, etc.

 

[NomadLuminary]

In my case, it’s quite the opposite. Everything about DQ3 bleeds Dragon Quest. If there’s one game in the series that I feel captures the DQ charm perfectly, it’s DQ3. Well, 8 too, because 3 lacks the party member interactions.

You probably feel this way, and I don’t blame you, because it’s hard to make an 8 bit game (and a strict recreation in 16-bit) have expressions in the characters.

Also, playing devil’s advocate, but they wouldn’t give more expressions to a character that is supposed to play “you” (or vice versa) if they don’t need to. It’s like their design philosophy.
I haven’t really seen any main character be expressive tbh. Eight and Luninary are probably the only expressive ones.

As for design... well, it’s all subjective, but I find Erdrick’s outfit and accessories to be iconic. That tiara alone is emblematic.

And on a personal level, Toriyama artwork is quite the opposite of “generic”. I don’t understand why people keep saying it’s generic. It’s extremely distinctive from every other anime/manga artist.
From clothes, to hair, to eyebrows, to accessories, to vehicles, to monsters, to robots, etc.

People often confuse generic with recognizable. Quite a lot sadly. I feel like they might give Erdrick the 'Mega Man' treatment.

 

[Rumble Red]

Thinking a little more about spirits, it bums me out that Toriyama's never done illustrations of Ortega or Rubiss. I don't know which is weirder: that Ortega has never had an official design despite being so important, or that Rubiss does have official artwork, but it's by Mutsumi Inomata and doesn't fit Dragon Quest that well. Very pretty, though.

Patty really dodged a bullet by having a big enough role in DQIX to warrant a real design.

I have to get this off my chest but does anybody else here think Erdrick, deservingness aside, doesn't really capture the general tone and charm of Dragon Quest?

I kind of agree, but it all comes down to how exactly he's implemented. The safest possible interpretation could be very dull, but there's plenty of room to give Erdrick some personality in his animations, and honestly I wouldn't mind if he was voiced too. I'd personally love to see him played as kind of a goofball, more like Pit than Link or Marth. The face of DQ should definitely be upbeat and fun.

He's like the one character imo who'd benefit from a hypothetical reverse Roy as far as Smash goes where he be redesigned with younger feature and larger eyes but still closer to his established design than his NES one.

This version is pretty much what you're asking for. It's the design I like the best, at least for Smash's purposes. Probably not what we'll get, though.