Probably BoF5 as well. I think they did the best they could with that game. Transitioning from PS1 to PS2 hurt many long-running series.
You're right, a lot of the original Team moved on but there was still a lot of the old guard still working on 5 as well. It wasn't my favorite out of the series, largely because of how the game's systems worked, and the combat felt very awkward to me. I get they were trying something new with more action-oriented combat, but i would have appreciated a more tradition turn-based game at that point, mostly because of how the AP system worked in terms of it costing movement, as well as attack and special actions, the game didn't do a good job of helping you figure out maximum draw distance.
You're right, a lot of the original Team moved on but there was still a lot of the old guard still working on 5 as well. It wasn't my favorite out of the series, largely because of how the game's systems worked, and the combat felt very awkward to me. I get they were trying something new with more action-oriented combat, but i would have appreciated a more tradition turn-based game at that point, mostly because of how the AP system worked in terms of it costing movement, as well as attack and special actions, the game didn't do a good job of helping you figure out maximum draw distance.
I never played it myself, but I did watch a playthrough of it not so long ago. It had a very "not the game we wanted to make" feel to it. Lots of games have good concepts and ambitious inceptions, but the realities of development are often cruel. They spent 5+ years working with the PS1 and had very damn nearly *perfected* pixel art with BoF4, only to have to shift gears and start working with polygons on the PS2.
It's more time-consuming, it's more expensive, people need time to adjust, but you still need to make something in the end and sooner than later. I'm very nearly positive DQ is not the game they wanted to make. The game we got is not because they wanted to try something new, but because it was the most they could do with what they had.