Jeez, I'm only at the part where all the townspeople are animals. I'm slow.  There's only one thing that annoys me about this game - the lack of NPC models.  All the NPC's look the same from town to town, and while I understand why they did it, it's one of my pet peeves.  Otherwise, it's a great game.  

I guess even VIII was like that too, but I didn't notice it as much back then. 

That's common through all the DQ games as far as I can remember

i think you're right.  the character models ARE cool though, especially the unique ones, I just wish there were more.  I love the monster designs too.  

Im currently working on that part. I died at the boss fight when you save the priestess. I hate that I have no abilities or magic. I died also when I almost had the fight beat too. Grrrrr.....

I just finished the Robot island and now am stuck looking for fragments to get to the next one. I'm in L'Arca (Italian town) and can't find the fragment there. Maybe it's in the past? I'm going to check that next. 

If the orb is pulsing when you are in the present that's where it is. Find a place that is pulsing quickly and make sure you rotate your camera to see the room from all angles.

Oh, I didn't notice the pulsing. That's helpful. In any case, I found my missing piece after systematically going through all the towns in the past 'till I found one with a glowing orb. Even then, I couldn't find it until I cheated a bit by looking at a forum post. I hate these doors on the back of buildings you can't see until you rotate the camera around. I should've known, though, because you can see the back door from inside the shop where the fragment was. 

There's also a choice in the menus that tells you where the next couple of fragments are located.

Oh shhhh... you're right. I didn't notice that in the Info section before. I didn't expect it. Phew, that makes things easier, although, I'll avoid using it unless I get stuck.