Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie

Or Realms of Revelation as it's known in the US

Dragon Quest VI, said to be one of the best and the last game for the SNES in the series, and pretty much for Nintendo for a long time until IX changed that.  It starts right of as you, the blue haired hero together with a carpenters son and some dancer charges Murdaw's castle, an evil demon. You reach the final room and... gets beaten and seems like turned to stone. Well, that was fast. You wake up in some mountain village together with your sister. A dream perhaps... or a vision of the future? Well, I already know since I've played the game. You are tasked to bring a crown for some important ceremony and heads to the neighbour town, but the crown maker is out so you follow him into the wild and appears near a hole in the ground where the crown maker is hanging on for dear life. You rescue him, but slips and fall into the hole. He appears to be in some strange world where no one can see him and eavesdropping he finds out about a well that apparently people disappear into. Jumping through he returns to his own world. Apparently he have discovered the Phantom World and in a vision is sent out to stop the evil that threatens both worlds.

Why does the japanesse hero almost always have blue hair? Either that or red?

Traveling to the Kingdom of Somnia he mets up with Carver, the carpenters son from his dream, but he don't know the hero... so was it a vision of the future? They enter the military and is told about Murdaw, the same they fought in the beginning and they travel to the Phantom World in order to get help fighting him. They find the girl from the beginning of the game, Milly and she helps them become visible, but Milly can't remember them either. They seek out an artefact in a tower where they meet Ashlynn a girl that apparently comes from their world as well, since no one else can see her. They fight their way to the demon lords castle, defeating him... or so they think. In reality it was the king of Somnia that have been turned into a decoy by Murdaw and the twist is revealed. The beginning happened and the hero and his companions were split between a dream personality and the real them. The game starts in a dream world where our hero is a loyal brother to a little girl, Carver is the fighter he always envisioned him to be instead of the carpenter his family tried to push on him and so on. Meaning not only do you have to defeat the real Murdaw, but also unite your true self. Our hero for example is the prince of Somnia, but his dream-self ain't. And what happened to their real self? The hero is actually now an amnesiac who live together with this orphaned girl who only wished for a family... manifested in the dream as the hero brother. Do you get how gut-wrenching it is to take away her only family? Again, Enix knew how to write emotional stories.

Milly, don't ask me what the bands are for

To reach Murdaws real castle you gather a ship from a town with a prophet called Neva who joins your party and fighting Murdaw again gives almost the exact outcome, but while you are brought back to the dream world, you uses the artefact you acquired and returns immediately and defeat Murdaw, but it's not the end since as in most Dragon Quest games, a darker power hides behind the first threat, the demon lord. You also meet Terry, a roaming sword-fighter you learn is Milly's brother that you can get to join after a series of quest, there's also the knight Amos that during full-moon (?) is turned into a monster and protecting this knowledge from him makes he join your quest (which actually goes against my honesty policy when playing the good hero, but they rationalise it that its the villagers wish to spare him the knowledge that he has been cursed since he pose no danger to them, but telling him would guilt him into leaving).

Carver with a purple mohawk

Anyway, you travel both the real and dream world which have certain differences between them. For example there exist a temple dedicated to class changes only in the dream world since the demons destroyed the real one, same goes for a kingdom of magicians that only exist in the dream world and is where Ashlynn hails from. There's also a realm above where the dragon lord sit, like in every Zenethian Dragon Quest game (game IV - VI with Zenithian armour and such) and basically an underworld where the demon lord exists. And I gotta say, that one is really creepy. A particullary place is where dead souls scramble to reach the bottom of a lake to get a chest, but they never reach it since their greed keeps them killing each other. Nightfall and the lake is filled with water and the dead goes to shore and awakens again and the circle repeats. Basically something inspired by Greek tales of the underworld like Sisyfos trying to get the stone up the hill and so on. All these are designed to drain them of hope and spirit that empowers the demon lord so by breaking the circle of hatred he is weakened. You then confront the demon lord and defeats him witch causes the dream world so separate. Since the hero, Carver and Milly found their real worlds they are free to stay, but if you noticed Ashlynn originates from the dream world and has to leave, and if you read the right party conversation she even confesses her love for the hero. God dammit, can't we keep the trend of happy endings of Dragon Quest games going?

Don't leave Ashlynn

Playing it the first time and figuring out what's going on is rather enjoyable and it actually took me by surprise since I'm more used to the vision of future story-telling. They also gets creative with it. Obviously I figured out that the hero is the prince of Somnia, they pull the exact same thing in Dragon Quest VIII with "Hey, you look like some royal person I know". In the real world the captain Rusty vouches for you as the heir of the throne, the evil chancellor sees his chance and ask what the prince sister was named. Well, I thought, and I guess it's designed that way, that the girl that lived with me in the dream world was my sister, but no. The chancellor have Rusty executed. Rusty's dream-self is still alive, Captain Blade who trained you when you joined the Somnia military and is the spotless soldier and loyal commander. What Rusty always envisioned... This gets me every time, and it's impossible to save Rusty. At least the king of Somnia imprisoned the chancellors dream-self as well so not even in his dreams he will escape the crimes he committed, even though it feels that the dream-chancellor was much nicer. Still, a problem with the game is, and this have occurred in IV as well, that there's to many characters. VIII and IX was better with a limited to just the standard party numbers since they are always there and I can listen to their story all the time. I guess it's replay-ability, but when each playthrough is 60+ hours for me, then it can get rather tedious I tell you. So I missed Ashlynn's love confession the first time around which really sucks, but then again, I replayed the whole game when I lost my chance to get Amos.

Unique for this game was that you could change classes (unique and unique, you could do that in DQIII, but it never came here anyway) and had to level up them one by one. Which probably explain the amount of time I spent here. You could also get slimes to join you, but already stated, when am I gonna use them with 6 ordinary characters, 4 slots to fill and Amos? The others at least have personality. And this was all Dragon Quest games I've played, well except from the Wii game since I've not finished it... maybe I've have time before they release VII. Dammit, cravings to play grow stronger.

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen

Yeah, show only the male main character when it doesn't matter if the hero is male or female

My second game in the series was Dragon Quest IV, which I've played twice, once as a male and the other as a female, since that is the only customisable choice you have in this game it can alter certain dialogue options or how you go around in one quest I believe. Originally the game was made for the NES, later remade for Playstation and finally remade for the DS and with that it even crossed over to Europe for the first time. And playing it gave me a huge interest in writing dialogue since the game was to me even more heavy on different dialects representing different countries within the world. For example you have a scottish nation, a russian one and even a french, and I could identify people from different parts of the world thanks to that. To me that was amazing, genuinely simple to get points across.

Only manly men wears pink

The story begin with a prologue as you are introduced in a small village with gives you the background, demons harass the world and you are the chosen hero, but must be in hiding due to being to young and need to train for the coming conflict, you are introduced to some towns people and the most important one being a shape shifter girl that is your best friend. Apparently you are the child of an angel and human. And that's it. Apparently this was in the newer version since the original game starts up with chapter 1 and you take control of Ragnar, a Burland warrior that is tasked to find the missing children of the kingdom. He teams up with a slime and discovers a plot by the monsters to find and kidnap the chosen child and the only way is for Ragnar to find the Chosen one himself before the monster does.

A fighting princess

Scene change and you now play as a princess Alena who want to fight evil, but are kept locked up by her father. She escapes, but are followed by her best friend/priest and teacher (?) and Alena enters an arena battle to become the champion. While fighting she hears rumours about Psaro the Slayer, a fighter beyond human strengths. As the final draws near and she is about to meet Psaros eye to eye. She waits... and waits... well, Psaros doesn't show up so she is declared winner by default. As her company returns home they find that the castle is completely empty and she has to set out to find her father and people.

An ordinary merchant that saves the world

Next is a small interlude as we follow Tallon, a buddying entrepreneur that wish for grander things in live as he works by selling weapons for the blacksmith. His wife and kids encouraging him to go out in the world and he's of. He begin by buying weapons in one town and selling them in the next, he starts lending money for enterprises that will pay a high return. He even comes across a village of foxes in human disguises. He sets up shop in another town and invites his family over and the next project is building a tunnel to the other side across the river to speed up trade routes. This is what I mean that Dragon Quest has a longer impact on people and people starts to appreciate the games more today. They have whole chapter dedicated to the sales person in an RPG, a merchant that works for his family's fortune and he is around 40 years old. It's pretty much unheard of. And it's basically Economics 101. I'm amazed at this, and it was in the original NES from the 90's? Not many modern games get this deep beyond brave hero of destiny or circumstance protect the world from evil.

Meena, the younger sister and fortune teller

Next chapter is about twin sisters Maya and Meena who set out on a quest to avenge their father that was murdered. Their father was a famed alchemist that tried to figure out the power of transmutation, evolving lead to gold, man to god aka the stone of sages (or I assume that is what they getting at). One is a dancer and the other is a fortune teller and they set out. First they locate their father's apprentice who can tell them that it was their fathers other apprentice, Balzack... should I censor that name? with this knowledge they storm the castle. It doesn't go as planned. Apparently he have been kidnapping maidens and is to much for the twin sisters as it turns out he evolved himself to a monster. The apprentice sacrifices himself so that they can escape and regroup (he doesn't die, but gets captured instead). They flee to a coastal town and journeys across the sea thinking about the next step.

And finally we return to the chosen hero. One day as he/she is training the townspeople hid the hero away under a building, the shape-shifting girl even go as far as impersonating the hero. Locked away underground the hero can't do naught than hear the battle and the victorious monsters that have attacked their hidden village, slaying the chosen hero that could have threatened them. Alright, motivation is vengeance. You set out and pretty much the first person you meet is your grandfather who condemned the love between his son (your father) and the angel. He lets you stay the night, but nothing else. Travelling the world you meet up with your destined companions. Maya and Meena you meet in the town they arrived in since the older sister used all their cash in the casino. You pretty much solve the problems they couldn't in opposite order as you played the game up until this point. The last one you get is Ragnar if I recall correctly. So what is the deal? The monsters are rallying under Psaro the Slayer as he seek revenge on humankind since they hurt his girlfriend who cried tears of rubies and finally killed her in their greed. That pushed him to seek out the power of evolution to become stronger . He entered the arena battles to slay the worlds greatest fighters so no one could stop him while his monster servants searched for the chosen hero of destiny. You travel around the world and even enters the sky to meet with the great dragon who lives in the sky palace surrounded by angels. And finally you and your comrades travels to the underworld where the monsters lives and confront Psaro in a long fight where he evolves in 4 stages I believe until he is defeated. And that is the game, Everyone is saved and peace is restored. The hero travels back to his desolated home town to look at once was, the hero stands at the grave built for the shape-shifting friend and suddenly she materialises and they embrace... does that have lesbian undertones if you play as female hero?

Of course there is post-credits content. You can actually recruit Psaro and fight another end boss, this time one of his lieutenants that actually gave up Rose's (the ruby elf) location, just so that Psaro would be pushed to exterminate humankind. So he is redeemed somewhat. He also looks cool in his white hair and black outfit. Overall this game is fun playing the different mode, especially when you pick up that it's not important to grind for cash, but instead weapons and armours that you can sell in the final chapter since that follows the characters, while money gets spent. I also recall casino token does and since we already know, to win you got to play the casino for the really good weapon and armours so we don't have to grind forever to reach a decent level. One irritating thing the localisation did, was removing the party conversation that really can flesh out the characters. Without them you miss certain hints like the priest/friend of Alena has a crush on her and so on. And it's really annoying when you have the command, but all they say is that none have anything to say at the moment. Before I read the explanation on the internet it almost drove me insane.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky

My introduction to the Dragon Quest-series

As the release date for Dragon Quest VII and VIII for the 3DS draws near as of me writing this I started reflecting of the other games in the series. I've already written a decent post about Dragon Quest V and I thought maybe I should write about the first game in the series I played, Dragon Quest IX. It may also be that I spent over 400 hours on the game and due to servers shut down I can't replay the story without erasing all extras so I won't even bother. The story start as you, an angel apprentice under Aquilla are on earth protecting it's people and collecting prayers basically. They gather them so that this tree will bear fruit and they can see the creator. As the starlight express appears their world in the sky is shocked as a beam of light flies from the world below them and it seems to strike against the creators palace above them. Your character falls down upon the world and everything goes black.

You wake up and it appears you are a normal human. You try to find out what happened and get back to the sky, but to do so you are guided by the fairy Stella in a quest to retrieve the fruits from the world tree that have been scattered across the world. A bit problematic since they often causes small friendly creatures turn into wild monsters. You get them back and discovers that an ancient empire that was destroyed long ago have been resurrected and are fighting you at every turn. Even an ancient dragon have been awakened and you meet up with the last light dragon and after the dragons quest (well, they needed to get it in there somewhere) are allowed to wear his dragon armour as you fly of to meet the dark dragon that he defeated a long time ago.

The reason for the armour? Since you can customise your character (hair, sex, skin colour and so on) they made you wear full armour so that only needed to animate one scene 

It doesn't go as good this time and the light dragon is slain and you end up captured at the capital of the empire. You uncover there the true twist of the game. Below the dungeons of the empire is another angel held captive. The master of Aquilla, Corvus, that disappeared long ago that Aquilla searched a long time for. Aquilla even shows up, happy to have find us both, but the happiness is short lived as all these years in imprisonment have made Corvus go insane, doesn't help that he believes he was betrayed by a human girl he met and loved (when it actually was her father who betrayed them both and was killed by the empire as thanks). Corvus has somehow resurrected the empire, destroyed the creator and now kills Aquilla. You hunt after him and defeat him. At this point a ghostly woman that have followed your adventure intervenes, it's the girl that loved Corvus. Apparently she was turned into a ghost, but suffered amnesia and wandered the world to find her love once again. The Master gives up and are reunited with his love and restores as much damage he could and then disappears from the world with his love by his side.

So the fallen angel was defeated with love, gotta listen to Black Sabbath's N.I.B. again

Of course, the game itself isn't over, since you can play other quest that flesh out the story or go dungeon crawling for resources to use in alchemy or just level up and so on since there is a lot to level up if you want to max every class. Thing is, I believe most of these are downloadable quest, meaning you can't play these today since the server is down if they don't remake the game. So even though I loved this game, enough to spend over 400 hours on it to finish it twice, it's not possible to play it. Otherwise it's like most other DQ games, although even more refined. You customise your party however you like in looks and class. Changing weapons and equipment changes the look of the person as well.  The music is classic DQ with some new arrangement like the theme in the sky which is melancholic and sad. Another thing with this game is that it also pushed the social networking idea. The idea being that you had the game on sleep mode and those who had the game as well could exchange maps and visits the inn with boosted the rewards you would get from the inn. Rewards necessary to finish certain quest as well (technically you could buy those items by connecting to the server special days and such, but you know, servers down) so what I really need is another game cart and DS/3DS so I can max the damn inn since no one else plays the game today... or at least not around me and with the stoppers functionality on the 3DS I can't have the game in sleep mode.... So SquareEnix, can you remake IX and get rid of the social stuff and let the players get everything on the cart as well as 2 saves so I don't have to erase 100+ of playtime if I would like to play the games story again? Cause some of us actually prefers single campaigns if you get my drift.

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne

I think I preferred the orc looking at me

So this is the expansion of the last game. Mostly it adds two new units a hero per faction, a merchant building and a higher roof on max army. So you get 100 units of food instead of 90. The definite version. New maps added and a possibility to hire mercenary heroes instead of going with the heroes the faction you play. But let us look at the campaign, the story tying this all together. And we start with a scene of Illidan summoning some sea monsters, the Naga. Illidan doesn't look like he used to. He got horns and hoofs so the skull of Gul'dan can't have been that good for him. But we don't play as Illidan, instead his jailer, Maeiv Shadowsong, a night elf avenger. Swift and with the ability to teleport short distances she can reach places no normal soldier can. They brilliantly use it as an exploration point. Leaving the army behind you can climb waterfalls, reach islands just outside of reach and so on. She hunts Illidan to a small fishing village and out to the sea where some unknown islands have appeared. Searching around you realise this is the islands that Gul'dan summoned during Warcraft II in search of the Tomb of Sargeras. Seeking the same artefacts as Gul'dan Illidan must be stopped. As you reach the tomb and go through it you find the writing of Gul'dan who goes more and more mad until he presumably dies. You are to late however to stop Illidan who claims the Eye of Sargeras and raise the tomb, trying to kill you, but using the blink ability you escape, but sadly leaves your troops behind. They even had one of the huntresses named as well, Naisha. Escaping Maeiv sends for help from Malfurion Stormrage who comes toghether with Tyranda, the one person Maiev blames the release of Illidan for. Hunting him to Lordearon Malfurion has to connect with the spirits so Tyranda and Maiev are left alone. They meet an blood elf commander for the Alliance and agrees to help protect their caravan if they in turn will help hunt Illidan. They agree and after almost making it safely away from the undead Tyranda stays behind holding a bridge that collapses and drags her away. Malfurion returns and Maiev tells him that Tyranda was torn apart by the undead and that his only chance for revenge is stopping Illidan. You fight of Illidan and stops his plan on destroying Northern, the arctic of Azeroth. It's then revelled by Kael'thas, the blood elf commander that Tyranda might be alive. Furious Malfurion releases Illidan so that he can help locate Tyranda since he also cares for her. They locate her and rescue her with the help of the Naga (who is night elves that were corrupted 10 000 years ago as their great kingdom fell into the ocean due to addiction to magic. Illidan is let loose and he takes a dimensional portal away from Maiev who's still after revenge.

Elves, night elves, nagas and now blood elves... how many elven races are there?

The next campaign is the human/blood elven one. Kael'thas arrives to Dalaran where his commander, Lord Marshal Garithos, a racist bastard if I ever seen one, berates him and order him to repair some observatories to scout out the undeads movement. They detect a massive army heading there way, but Garidhos takes command of all human and dwarf troops and leaves Kael'thas with only elves. A nice touch is that this is basically the troops that Arthas fought in the last game. They even made the flying unit part of the human army and they actually mention it if you designed your own map and gave yourselves the elven builder. But that isn't enough so a naga witch that helped you before of more support with troops to bolster your army and Kael'thas have no other choice. He wins the battle, but Garithos arrives and accuses him of treason and imprisons him in Dalarans dungeons. Vashi, the naga witch releases him and they break out and through the portal that brought Archimond to Azeroth. They arrive in Outland, what's left of the Orcs homeworld of Draenor. You rescue Illidan from Maeiv and you fight side by side to take over the fortresses of the Burning Legion to bolster your forces enough so that you have a chance to strike at the Lich King who is captured on the Frozen Throne in Northern. All this commanded by Kil'Jaeden, another demon lord. You win and Illidan starts his campaign to rid the world of the Scourge.

Meanwhile Arthas have returned to Lordearon, he confronts the remaining Dread Lords and takes back power from the Legion. As he is about to round up the remaining humans in the land he is suddenly weekend as the Lich King calls out for help. Arthas prepares to leave, but the Dread Lords stage a coup, but he is saved by the banshee's under his commander Sylvanas Windrunner who now serves him as an undead ranger. Sadly for him it's all a ruse since the Lich King failing powers have returned free will to Sylvanas that wants revenge. Kel'thusad on the other hand appears and save Arthas that leaves for Northrend. Sylvanas meanwhile establish the Forsaken and reclaims the lands of Lordearon for those like her, undead that have been given free will. She accomplish this by teaming up with one of the Dread Lords she defeated and Garithos who she released from a mind spell by another Dread Lord and promising Lordearon back to the humans. She of course back stabs him, but no one really feels sorry for him. Meanwhile Arthas arrives at Northrend and fight his way past Naga's and Blood Elves with the help of a Nerubuian undead hero that leads him through a shortcut under the mountain (geez, I wonder if they were inspired by the Moria section in Lord of the Rings). There you encounter the surviving dwarfs of Muradin and some unknown horrors of the deep, and it all ends with fighting a tentacled monster. You arrive outside and has to stop Illidan from entering the Frozen Throne. Succeed and a short battle between Arthas and Illidan occurs where Illidan falls wounded to the ground and Arthas ascend the stairs to the Frozen Throne and claims the Lich Kings crown, turning him into the new Lich King. And that is pretty much it for the rts campaigns.

He looks a bit like Darkwolf from Fire and Ice

Of course there is one more scenario, but it doesn't play as an rts. Instead it works as an rpg, where you control Rexxar, a Mok'nathal, half-ogre, half-orc that ends up in the founding of Durotan, the nation of the orcs in Kalimdor under the guidance of Thrall. You begin by giving a message from a dying orc soldier to Thrall and as you do small task for important people in Ogrimmar, the capital, you begin to discover that humans are harassing the wild life and your own people. Since the only humans in Kalimdor lives at Theramore Island under the leadership of Jaina Proudmore, Rexxar is sent out to investigate. Apparently these humans hail from Kul Tiras and occupy Theramore under their leader Admiral Proudmore... yes, the Admiral Proudmore that was one of your commanders in Warcraft II and Jainas father. So fuelled by hatred the only way to stop him is invade Thereamore with orcs, trolls, ogres and Tauren allies that Rexxar has gathered along the journey and the battle is tough, but in the end you slay the admiral and peace returns to Kalimdor and the truce between Orcs and Humans remains under the guidance of Jaina. This scenario is really fun and I suspect that it plays a bit like the mmorpg would play later on. You can't really die since there is resurrection stones scattered around the maps and you respond from the last one you were near. You see Thrall, Cairne and Jaina and even get to play with them at full strength. Sadly no Grom Hellscream, although he is mentioned.

There is supposed to be a demo campaign as well taking place after the prologue in the first game and the orc campaign and is about how Thrall ended up on a mysterious island occupied by Trolls and Murlocs. The Trolls aid them, but they are taken hostage by the Murlocs that plan to sacrifice them to a sea witch. Thrall rescues them, but their leader is killed and he makes Thrall promise to look after his people. Meanwhile the island is sinking to the ground. They escape and continues to Kalimdor. Basically it tells the story how trolls appear in the horde as they arrive in Kalimdor, even though Thrall says they aren't part of the horde in the prologue. No voices though. I can't find it and I don't know if you are supposed to win the game on hard or if it's hiding in some folder, but I don't care really.

Overall the story doesn't feel as good since it end with Arthas winning... he who clearly is one of the bad guys. Also, the stakes feels lower. It isn't about stopping the demons from taking over the world. It's about rescuing the one responsible for it in the first place. The Night elves and Blood Elves campaign works fine, but then again the final real level is the orc rpg and that work. Proudmore was hinted as well in the map designer since his avatar was there. I also know someone used him as a stand in for Boromir I believe in a map based on Lord of the Rings. The thing going for the undead campaign is the Sylvana chapters as well as the trek in "Moria". Sylvana who I can sympathise with for being turned into the undead as well as killing of despicable people like Garithos and the Moria segment is rather suspensfull together with some interesting lore tidbits about the faceless ones and primordial demons. Arthas, however, is still unlikable. Really wish they made another rts cause I don't have enough time to play through more than 10 years of updates and expansions for the mmorpg.