It's party time!
So, finished off Dragon Quest III and with that I have played every main Dragon Quest-game from I-IX and XI (I won't play X since it's a MMO and I don't play those) just released in the store for the Switch so I know how I will spend Halloween this year (as of writing it's mid-October). I've heard that this is seen as one of the best games in the series and apparently sold the best at release(?). Playing it now 31 years after its release and after experiencing the first two games I can see why. It's the first that feels like all the other DQ-games I've played. I don't know if it's later additions from the SNES and onward remakes compared to the first release, but you have day-and-night cycles, quick menus for healing and a bag that can store all your things. Fine by me.
Game starts with a quiz, you chose your gender and then answer question and take a test of personality that will give you a personality that affects how stats are leveling up (you can change them in the game by reading certain books), I got the lazy status, apparently I should have pushed the rock some more times in the beginning. Didn't matter, you wake up at your 16th birthday and meet the king that informs you that your father was Ortega, the warrior that set out to defeat the Archfiend and never come back so you are on a quest to finish what he started. And your first objective is to go to Patty's Place... wait, Patty's Place? From Dragon Quest IX?
It is Patty!
You create your team that follows you around. You can choose between Monks, Warriors, Thief, Priests, Mages, Jesters and Merchants. I created one of each but pretty much stuck with a team of the Hero, Thief, Priest and Mage, the Hero being the only available job for the main character so he was the brawn of the operation. You set out trying to follow in Ortega's footsteps and you very quickly circle the island you are on and get a key to open a portal that leads you to another continent and a castle where everyone speaks Italian. Travel around for more keys, you see a village cursed to eternal sleep, a pyramid out in the desert, towns harassed by the infamous villain Robin 'ood. A town with a a holy river... and besides it an island that looks like Japan that you can't reach until you get yourself a ship. While on the island you find a town where they speak akin to japanese and are being harassed by the dragon Orochi... isn't that the dragon in Okami that took place in Japan... Wait, how did the map look again?
Oh my GOD! It's our world!
Yes, the map looks fairly much like our own, with exception from the starting island which I would guess is a reference to the "lost continent" of Mu since it is in what would be the Pacific Ocean. And suddenly the world was at least easy to navigate. The Italians where in Rome, the boat you got from the Spanish city near Gibraltar. The Englishmen are the one that stole the pot from the Native Americans and the pirates live in Argentina. Once you get the boat it's pretty much a travel the world quest in order to find the 6 orbs that you will use to awaken the bird god in the tower on the south pole. Now, most of the orbs I just stumbled upon walking around the world and finding caves, towers and new places mostly without a guide, but I would recommend a guide regardless since there are a couple things that makes it harder than it should be. First, the echo flute is a joke. I forget to use it, most of the time (which is on me) but when I use it doesn't tell me in a way that makes me say "there it is". Worst example is the Merchant town. There is this old man that want to build a city in I guess New York, but you need to bring him a merchant, which I did and used the echo flute... and it didn't react. It didn't react because the orb wasn't there yet since only appears after you progressed the town to a certain stage. Which is hard to guess for something that just looks to be a side quest without pay-off. But you can't progress until it's done. Also, the thief has an ability that are pretty useful that is telling you how many treasures there are in a level. Fine for dungeons and such, but it also works in town which is good, if not that it separates stairways as different levels, meaning that if you don't test it at every room below or above ground level you don't know if you gotten all items. And the side companion spell snooping never worked for me so I can't see where the damn treasures are. Which is infuriating since I know there is a hidden item in Asham that I can't find... and the damn guide I used were for the remake on the SNES where it doesn't exist. Damn it!
Still, I got all the orbs. I awaken the bird god and now enter the castle of the archfiend fighting my way through spellcaster and other hellish beast until I reach him and... he promptly beats me. Again and again. Now, I check up the strategy and I could probably have used my anti-magic spell and sleep on him, but since my healing output was negligible I started grinding for the first time during this game. 4-5 levels until my priest had multiheal, rather easy in the archfiends castle since there were liquid metal slimes that occasionally decided to stay long enough for me to kill them getting 10 000 EXP. I then promptly beat the archfiend and returned to my home to soak in the attention from the king and then... some dude named Soma shows up and spoils the party. I return to a chasm guarded by two soldiers and jumps in and finds... the world from the first two games (mostly the part that appeared in the first game). The Soma guy resides in the dragon lords castle and you gotta redo the task of getting sword, armour, shield and amulet together with the staff of rain and sunstone to create the rainbow drop that will summon the rainbow bridge to his castle. Traveling the world you learn a few things, that it's a prequel since things are either built or exist that were referenced in the earlier games and then that your father Ortega is still alive in this world fighting Soma. After finishing gathering all the items and heading for the castle you enter and fight your way up with most things looking like the original castle map until you reach a bridge where you see Ortega once more fighting the King Hydra, but is finally killed. As you rush to him his final words is that someone have to tell his child he is sorry that he wasn't strong enough to rid the world of evil. Damn!
A hero he was through all his life!
Now it's personal so you find yourselves on the final floor where Soma summons King Hydra, then the Archfiends soul and lastly the corpse of the Archfiend. I dispatch them all back to hell, but my resources are mostly depleted when it comes to magic so I make a quick save and goes for the kill, half the party dead after the first round. I restart, I survive three rounds before it's pretty much pointless to continue when only main character stands. So I check the guide... which tell me what the sphere of light is intended to do. Restart, shuffle around the equipment and thief use the sphere, priest insulate and mage kabuff while hero omniheal the first round. Surviving the first round priest uses the stone of sages while hero and thief spams attacks and mage uses Oomph on the attackers. Unfortunately the MP on the mage is already depleted after a few short rounds and the stone of sages isn't that effective in healing so then priest and thief go down leaving hero and mage. The mage only deals 1 point of damage and then she's gone leaving the hero. The omniheals depleted the hero's MP so there isn't enough for a full heal so just spam attack. The HP is lowering and then... with another strike Soma goes down leaving the hero the only one standing as the castle begins to crumble. No magic left I can't resurrect anyone so I just leave, but falls into a chasm that opens beneath me spitting me out in the cave that would become the grave of the hero Erdick. As I leave the cave all companions return to life and I return to Tentegral Castle where I'm told the chasm to my own world is closed so I can't return home, but I'm bestowed the title Erdick and the tales of my adventure would be spread around the lands, setting up the first game.
I really liked this game, it feels like all the other Dragon Quest games and I get why it's one of the more popular entries. The throw-backs and the main quest of avenging your father is very powerful. A pity this version didn't have the intro where Ortega fights a dragon into the volcano, showing of the world and would give you "aha"-feelings as you find Ortega's helmet in the village and such, Now, there is a bonus dungeon after beating the game.. but I won't try that since I know I have to grind to get there. We have the different class-system here, but it has some problems which is indicated by that I never used it. Taking a standard team pretty much ensure you can't go wrong so that's nice, only grinding part was at the archfiends castle. The problem as I see it is that changing class takes the characters level down to 1 and you restart the leveling process. That goes also if you return to the old class, you start from 1. I think you get bonus if you max a class to level 99, but you can see it's a grind if I got to level 42 and beat the game. There is an advanced class of sage that would be useful, but I don't dare try it. Final Fantasy V got it right with separating normal level up and the class level so it was easier to change between the classes (if Dragon Quest V was first with that or something I wouldn't know since I can't remember right now) so that I don't feel I lose progress by trying some different tactic. If I ever replay it I could try some other starting classes just for the fun of it, but that means that the thief is the only one that I would dare change since healing and buff spells are pretty important in the end game. Now I'm itching for Dragon Quest XI.
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