Dragon Quest III: HD-2D Remake (Switch)

 

The father of JRPG:s!

So the long awaited remake of the third Dragon Quest game finally came around. I played one version before, the mobile port they added to the Switch. I recall liking that so I was a bit itching to play it again, and this time in SquareEnix HD-2D engine they used for the Octopath Traveller games. It starts like normal, some personality quests and once again I got Lazybone... I mean, he only wants me to push the rock once, why would that make me lazy? I can also choose difficulty affecting how quickly you level up and how much gold you earn. Since this wasn't my first time playing the game and since I gotten a taste for classic challenges from RPG:s I went with the Draconian Difficulty (the Hard mode that is).

Glad I did since I ended the game with the Hero having a level of 54 and I can't say I grinded that much in comparison (maybe getting a thief from level 1 to 40 to check all the areas for treasure might have had something to do with it). Still, the game starts of as usual, get your party and head out. I chose the classic combo of Hero, Warrior, Mage and Priest. No class change. On one hand, a really good combo for battles since you have everything you need, but the additions of mini medals, secret areas and monster collecting makes the choice a bit harder. I should probably have taken a Hero, Thief, Mage and Priest since that allows you to find secrets, sneak up on monsters and using healing and attack spells like no other. 

They've also added the monster wrangler as a new class that has a very easy time getting the monsters since it bypass all the other problems, like using musk to hide your scent, evade to make yourself invisible and Padfoot sneak up on them. It's worth getting the monsters since fighting in the monster arena gets you great stuff (and finding things with the thief does as well, no problem with money this time). I didn't fight in the arena until the second world when I had pretty OP party. Got me through all the battles in the first world, couldn't get through in the second world. 

Played the game to fight of Zoma in 74 hours which is a bit longer than in the first version I played and there is much more, besides the other things I've mentioned you also have secret areas that doesn't show up on the map, but contain recruitable monsters and/or items the thief can help you find. And going around the world with a thief to find them all after the fact probably added up (I also trained the monk up to level 39 or so at the same time just to see it). You also can have a constant reminder where to go next which I believe activate when you here information to that affect, but I'm not sure. You also have a recall function where you press X and the latest conversation is recorded to look up in the menu, great for keeping track of hints in the game (wish I got that in the beginning and not when I ended up in the second world). 

Still, even with all that I'm still too dense at times, like forgetting that the destroyed town should probably have something to say at night so I went back there several times wondering why I can't get the orb there. Or trying to traverse Soma's Castle and after almost giving up finding the hidden passage below the throne. Still, it is fun playing it and compared to the Final Fantasy games I've constantly have to wrestle with which version to play, this is the best version as of now. I heard there was some controversy since they put shorts on the female warrior (not mention that it isn't called male or female, but type A or type B). Now, I'm a man that can appreciate the exposed skin of 2D characters, but this scandal(?), is just in bad faith. I mean, I spent the final portion of the game with my male hero and his three supporting female characters all decked out in bikinis because those where the best armor for them. Why are then the Internet complaining about some shorts on the female warrior when I can use the "blessed bikini" on her? What's even the problem? Other people are ****ing insane!

The ending then, they put in a too be continued for the next games that will come in 2025 which I'm already waiting for and apparently they are gonna give you some bonuses for clearing the third game so I'm ready. They also made a twist in the ending with the dragon lord egg left by the dragon queen. Apparently it's protected by the priest Hargon... which was the big bad for Dragon Quest II... implying that the dragon lord in the egg might be the dragon lord you face of in Dragon Quest I? I'm excited. I wonder if they are gonna add the party system into the other titles or if they are gonna stick with the original intent of the games which is fine, but kinda makes the games less varied. Still dread the kamikaze monkeys in the second game. Anyway, I got the end-content dungeon to traverse in this game left to meet the Almighty and get some wishes. First encounter was no problem, the trolls I just brute forced, the second encounter went to hell with Barmosa wizards spamming Kaboom several times killing the party before I could react... this will take some time, but Fantasian Neo Dimension comes out next week as of writing. Choices, choices! Hope I don't have to finish the extra content to get bonus for the other games. If I would repay this game, I would probably go for a Hero, Thief, Mage and Priest line-up and after getting all the stuff for the the Thief class change it to a warrior since the damage is rather needed. Or should I do it the other way around since the Thief passive stealing ability is kinda useful for farming seeds... as stated, choices, choices.

Happy Christmas everyone! When this went up I was asleep waiting for Santa as it is Christmas Eve in Sweden and we celebrate Christmas the day before everyone else.

Dragon Quest Monster: The Dark Prince (Switch)

 

Missed opportunity to not have the one-eyed monster behind the age rating.

Continued with the Dragon Quest games and it was part of the Dragon Quest Monster spin-off series. I haven't played the other games in this particular series. It's a side-story for the 4th game in the main series and chronicles the story of Psaro the Manslayer, the main bad guy from that game. It starts with him as a kid as the second son to Randolfo the Tyrant and his human mother dying. He gets too Nadiria to get help to his mother, but Randolfo instead curses him to not be able to hurt monsters, but Psaro is saved by the Zenithian dragon that tells him that his mother has died. Psaro returns to the world and is told by dwarfs how to wrangle monsters so that they can help him fight other monsters since he himself couldn't do it. After entering a tournament he meets Rose, the elven girl who cries ruby tears and saves her from the slavers. And together they set out to be the very best, like no ones ever known.

They travel across the lands of Nadiria and meet Toilen Trouble, a human pickpocket that joins you. You also gets help from an unknown master that push you on. The different circles lead to different stories, like the fire circle tells the story of the Brimstone Boys as they are trying to resurrect a fire bird god from the volcano that you gotta stop, the futuresque city tells of Sir Percival that stood guard outside Rose's tower that you first beat up and then help depose of the mad king sitting at the top. And at times we shift back to the main story of the main game. You watch the destruction of the Chosen's village at the hands of Dolph the Destroyer, your older brother, the kidnapping of Rose and the awakening of Estark. The kidnapping shows the bad ending where you plays out the original ending of the main game where the Chosen cuts of your every limb and you become more and more gruesome. It is undone by Toilen having stolen the Sands of Time and brings you back to the moment where the choice was finding the real Rose after the kidnapping. It also tells us that the master behind you, Aamon was the one behind the kidnapping and this tells the story from the main game when Aamon lured Psaro into the war with humankind... and incidentally become the main bad guy in the post-game content for the DS version of the game. 

With all that Psaro challenges his father after the Chosen helped defeating Dolph. An intense battle as my main team fell one by one, except my trusty Dark Slime Boomph which I had dumped a lot of seeds on. Using my healing herbs I held him alive until he did the final strike and felled Randolfo the Tyrant. Psaro don't take the throne and leaves. The gang is picked up by the Zenithian Dragon that returns them home. Credits roll. The game continues in the post-game with the third Estark demon that hides in Whisper Wood so you go there with the youngest brother Ludo. I didn't beat him so I quit the game for now.

Overall a fun game. It's basically Pokemon, but you gotta breed them to better and better versions. I don't like the amount of choices you had and it was just flukes that made me realize that the Dark Slimes breath attack actually hurts (and kills) Liquid Metal Slimes in one attack so I began farming that to keep my main team somewhere around 40-70, wish I had upgraded the healer slime I used to get Omniheal a lot sooner. So basically brute forced my way through it. I got that a higher grade meant better monsters, and a bred monster is better than a caught one due to getting more skill points. But hey, it's finished. Small nitpicks is like why can't I sort the bestiary after new entries? It annoys me that they show there is, but you have to manually look through the damn book over and over since the red dot can meld into the monsters.

Dragon Quest Treasure (Switch)

 

We're gonna have a land of our own, Plutonia!

While writing this it's Monday after the news broke that Akira Toriyama had passed away so I obviously went into some kind of Dragon Quest mode. I thought of replaying XI again, but in 2D the whole way, but I didn't feel for putting in another 100 hours. I got Dragon Quest Monster for the Switch, but then I recalled I had Dragon Quest Treasure which I started when I got it back in 2022, but dropped off after something like 17 hours into the game. So 5 hours later I was finished with the main quest and could call it quits.

Story is a prequel to XI where Erik (the thief from XI) and his sister Mia as kids rescues some strange animals the pirate vikings captured, a flying pig and a flying cat. They show them an island where two daggers exist, the siblings take one dagger each and with it they can understand the creatures that wants the siblings help in order to find the 7 stones so that they can be un-cursed by the gods and return to heaven.

So you begin by finding an abandoned train station that you fix and with the train it take you to the railway headquarters in the middle between the floating islands. You name your island and I chose Plutonia like the song from Albert Bouchards album Imaginos II. Then it's off finding treasures, fight monster, recruit monsters, restore more train stations and find more islands to travel to in search of the seven treasures of the old dragons. There's gangs of treasure hunters fighting you at every turn, big monsters, deep dungeons and an evil pirate captain that stand in your ways. And the treasure you find is all connected to the history of Dragon Quest, either items from the games, characters from the game or things like playing cards from our world. 

It was a fun game really, more hack'n'slash than an rpg, but it works. Still, after getting 4 of the main treasures I just tuned out. The grind got to me. Going place to place wouldn't be so bad if you didn't constantly got a warning after a set amount of time about another rival gang that you either have to fight off or get back to the base so that you can dump your treasures into the vault. But that still isn't enough since then your base can be attacked so you have to fight off the invaders. I just want to explore the islands and take my time! So I probably got a bit burned out. So two years later I just went straight for the final quests to get the 3 remaining treasures and then fought off the pirate captain and watched the credits and then started up the post game and just saved before calling it quits.

It was kinda sad seeing the credits since not only had Toriyama passed away, but this was apparently the last game that the composer Koichi Sugiyama worked on as well. No in memory off in the credits if I didn't miss it. Maybe that is saved for Dragon Quest XII or the remake of Dragon Quest III. A fun distraction and only took me 22 hours as a whole to finish, not 100 %, but I can't be bothered with that. Other games to play.

Dragon Quest XI part 6

We will follow you to the end of time Veronica.

So was that really the end? Yes and no, you can continue like any other game to clean up quest you didn't do and some after winning bonus... but the after bonus takes the game from 60 hours to around 120 hours. Basically at a reunion at Veronica's grave you all begin to talk and discovers a tale of how one possibly could alter time. It leads to that tower with all the spirits. A special key opens it up and as you enter the dark spirit from the Erdwin's lantern follow you. Inside you meet a spirit towering above all the others that explain the idea behind the time bubble it guards. Only the luminary with the sword of light can break it and doing so will throw the luminary to chosen point of time he/she want to change from their own time. Only an event they themselves lived through and only the sword of light can go through with him... or in this case the sword of darkness, that is the sword of light, but reforged? It was a bit hazy on the details. The act wasn't 100 % either so a person could get lost in time turned to one of the spirits I guess? But everything we now know would disappear. So what are we to do?

Of course we do it at the prospect of saving Veronica and the rest of the world from the cataclysm. We take goodbye of all, especially Hendrick that didn't have his turn to the good side until afterwards. You break the time bubble and is transported back in time to the day you climbed Yggdrasil in Arboria. At the temple I see Veronica alive again, praying for their success. Damn game, you knew how to hit me *sob*. Emotional scene... and all characters are set back 20 or so levels to what they where at the time. That stings too. Game proceed the same again until you are about to grasp the sword of light and be struck down in the back again. Knowing it's coming, the luminary steps away from the dark orb and battles Jasper with the sword of darkness that neutrlizes the barrier around Jasper, enabling the party to defeat him, sir Hendrick arrives with Cornellian to show the truth of Jasper. Mordegon in Cornellians body realises he can't defeat the luminary now when he has grasped the sword of light plays obtuse of Jasper darkness and kills him before he tells them his master have always been Cornellian. The king invites them to Heliodor castle to celebrate.

At the castle the Cobblestonians are released and a great feast is on the way. During the luminary's sleep Mordegon sneaks in to try take the sword of light, but the dark spirit from Erdwin' lantern stops him and awakens the luminary and forces Mordegon to flee to the throne room as sir Hendrick and the others now are shown who really pulls Cornellians strings... this really is the biggest problem with a silent protagonist. He knew who Mordegon was, but seemed to keep it hidden from his companions, which I remind you involve Rabb, your grandfather and old friend of Cornellian as well as Jade, Cornellians daughter? Even worse, he didn't appear to take any precautions that Mordegon might steal the sword since that is what allowed him to destroy Yggdrasil in the first place? Still, you fight Mordegon and releases Cornellion and everything is saved. Heliodor isn't destroyed, Cobblestone isn't turned into a fortress, and no ones suffer the cataclysm. All's well that ends well... wait, what happened to the dark spirit?

Ah, there you are, this couldn't been possible without your help you know!

Wait, what are you doing?

Huh... guess the game ain't over!

Turns out that the dark spirit is actually Calasmos and it was his body that was sealed away in the lantern that now enabled him to take his form. So out you go again to save the world. Basically you have to redo most of the things you didn't after the cataclysm, but do it right. So for instance the dragon in Hotto don't kill the lord and you are able to uncurse him with the power of the mirror. Other things just change the scenario, for example Octagonia isn't overrun by demons this time around, but instead the corrupting influence of Calasmos resurrect the spider-demon so you team up with the champion to fight of the crazed wrestlers and spider-demon once and for all. This time with Hendrick in your party since King Cornellian ordered him to fight with you as the world needed heroes to save it. On one hand it's rather satisfying saving everyone, you even are able to save Michelle the Mermaid... even though I thought she died before I reached Arboria? And that is the small thing, it feels too simple. It's like the theory of Final Fantasy VIII where Squall actually dies after disc 1 and the rest of the game is him in his last moments imagining a better end if it had been a fairy tale. And I can't shake it here for all the side quests as if the temporal shift didn't work or something like that... but still, Veronica lives.

The most interesting part here is that due to the flying islands not crashing all of the keepers survived and could tell the whole story of Calasmos. This evil demon was apparently about to be vanquished by Erdwin, but as Calasmos fell, the dark desires of the sorcerer Morcant was corrupted by Calasmos so that he killed Erdwin and become Mordegon. The sage Serenica and the warrior Drustan sent Calasmos body to the lantern and went their separate ways. Drustan created a kingdom that became Svaardrust and hid a trial for the luminary in order to prepare them to fight Calasmos. Serenica studied and found the Tower of Lost Time and tried to break the bubble herself, but was unable as she wasn't the luminary, and with that grief that she couldn't save her love Erdwin, fell down lying on the floor as the spirits turned her into the guardian of time spirit that sent the hero back to save Veronica. Finding Drustan's trial is like the special section of Dragon Quest VIII, beating a special boss that gives you wishes like a super weapon, a special racetrack in Gallapolis, getting an Ogler's Digest #1 and... the ability to chose a wife for the luminary? FINALLY! Gemma and the luminary wedding here we go!

What, no wedding ceremony? Just, "hey, married now"? Ok!

That's pretty much the last thing I do before tackling Calasmos and it was an irritating fight, since as usual I forgot the first time that you obviously had to use the sword of light to dispel all the damn protection barrier and what not around Calasmos and then fight him. And I was at level 99 with several characters. Still, beat him true ending and feeling rather satisfying. Turns out that Yggdrasil was formerly Yggdragon, a great dragon of light that fought Calsmos and lost, but thanks to the keepers was able to give birth to the world and then help Erdwin fight a returning Calasmos and then you again. Then the luminary restored Serenica and sent her back in time (?) so that she could be with Erdwin again... it's a bit unclear since in that case she would only relive the past, but if she changed the past it would have a huge impact on the present with a millenia between Erdwin and the luminary. What... there's more after this? Yes, only after beating the true ending can you finish the spirit side quest where you play through parts of every mainline game in the series. And then fight of some super bosses. And the very last one works just like the Almighty at the end of Dragon Quest VII, beat him before a set number of turns or try again. Hate that, so I'm done now and that includes this... 6 part series. Good God! And now they revealed they working on Dragon Quest XII? I'M HYPED!

Dragon Quest XI part 5

*SOB*

Of course it continues with a funeral for Veronica, Serena cuts her hair and receives all Veronica's magic in a dream and turns into the real reincarnation of Serenica that helped Erdwin. With that the elder tells of the ancient creature that gave Erdwin the power of flight and gives the hero a flute. Playing the flute on a certain points awakes a flying whale that can let you travel to points indicated by some golden light. Mostly there are one or two hidden areas to the normal areas where you can fight certain monsters and find material spawn points or locked away treasure chests. After going around checking everything and finding some kind of weird temple I can't enter our hero travel to a floating island above Octagonia. Arriving you find a building that looks eerily similar to a crashed building in Octagonia that appeared after the cataclysm. Apparently it just to be a floating town for the keepers, the guardians of knowledge since time immemorial. And now there is only one left, the youngest and he tells them about how Erdwin forged the sword of light. So it's a quest for getting another sword to defeat Mordegon with. You also get some lantern with holy fire so you can travel to a flying mining rock where you get some orichalcum, them travel to Gallapolis to get a hammer in order to bang the metal into shape. And then it's off to Hotto.

Now, Hotto is at the grip of a dragon and have turned into sacrificing to satisfy its hunger. But the ones preparing the sacrifice can't get there since a monster is blocking the way and the protector of the town can't fight it with her injured leg after fighting the dragon in the battle that took her son. So you get hired. Apparently it's the kids for the mother chosen as a sacrifice trying to save their mother. She claims she saw the protector speaking with the dragon and feeding it. As you go to the volcano and confirms this you confront the protector as the dragon appears. The lord stops you from hurting the dragon and promptly gets eaten. Well you beat him, and he escapes to the volcano. You go to the lord's room and reads her diary where it is revealed that the dragon is her son, turned into a dragon by a curse which was the reason the dragon reappeared all the time. She tried to cure him with the mirror of Ra (that have been in several Dragon Quest games), but she couldn't do it without more training... game... I haven't recovered from Veronica yet and now you throw this at me? You get the mirror and kills off the dragon for good, not able to save him, but turn him back to human before he dies. Goddamit game.

You get a key to the inner sanctum of the volcano where you unlock this ancient smith where Erdwin forged the sword of light and now you are able to do the same. So now I just finished sidequest until confident in attacking Mordegons castle. Reach him in his dark castle you have to once again fight Mordegons generals that had the orbs, ending with a fight with Jasper that tells the reason for his betrayal. And it was his jealousy for Hendrick which he felt overshadowed him, leaving him behind as Hendrick became the hero to the people. Well, sucks for you. Defeating him leads to anther awesome scene as you all try to enter the teleporter to Mordegon and all generals appear once again trying to occupy the heroes comrades so that he has to face Mordegon alone, but the power of friendship prevails, destroying them all. You fight Mordegon and kills him, taking the sword of darkness. The world is at peace and you travel around it seeing everyone coping after the cataclysm. And it ends with all surviving heroes standing at the grave of Veronica, taking a drink in her memory for making the sacrifice to save the world... 

So that was Dragon Quest XI. I really liked this game. It was fun and at the same time hitting you in the feels constantly. With 60 hours in it just about the right amount of time... wait, what happened to that strange tower with all the spirits around? Is there endgame content?

Let me just open this door and check!

Dragon Quest XI part 4

Time for a world tour!

Having Hendrick as the voice of the party is actually really fun. He is the most serious of all characters, but at times there is cracks for example when he realises who Sylvando and it strikes him like lightning or when he finds Lord Rabb's Oglers Digest #1 and seems to have a fair bit of knowledge about it. From hated adversary he became my favourite character. So you set off travelling to find your comrades. The bad news is that all the commotion with the falling world tree and all have disrupted the magical transportations of your spells so you gotta travel the world again.

First up Phnom Nomh where Sylvando's Soldiers of Smile have gone to in order to find out what happened to the people. Apparently a dragon appeared and took everything that every one loved, anything from jewels to actual people. Story mostly centers around this boy that runs away from his dad cause he said his wife's jewel is his most treasured possession. The kid goes to get it back, but of course the father's most treasured possession is his son, but he was smart enough to see the trap the dragon laid and lied to it. Stupid kid. You rescue everyone and since you now have the soldiers of smile in tow you go to Port Valour to put them under the protection of Sylvando's father, the greatest knight ever lived. Which put you on the way to Angra-La, a place you never been to. It's a monk monastery up in the mountains that was blocked off by Heliodor before the cataclysm. Arriving you learn that the grand master passed away protecting everyone during the cataclysm and since the hero is a prince of Dundrasill he was supposed to come here as a child and train like all princes, including Lord Robert. Rabb was here, but climbed to the top of the mountain in order to meditate and achieve the greatest attack that the dead grand master could teach him, explaining his episode when he was the main character since it was a trail for him. The hero enters the spirit world to get Rabb before his physical body succumbs to the stress of the cold weather. Both of you learn the best attacks in the game and then the grand masters soul fight off Mordegon from the spirit world, pushing her spirit into the void and disappearing forever.

With four party member it's off to Svaardrust to save Jade, but I got sidetracked with a reacuring dream at the inn with some Dundrasilian spirit haunting everyone sleeping at the inn. Apparently it's the hero's father's restless spirit who haunts the catacombs of Dundrasil so the party sets off to rescue him. Beat up the soul-eater demon and then it's off to rescue Jade from the demons at Octagonia, that was turned into a casino instead. Still, beat them up and now we can... take another detour to Gallapolis where Erdwin's Lantern is about to fall on the ruins in the desert. You escort the prince that found his courage and observe some writing on the falling star or whatever it is. Rabb reads true some binoculars and reads out C.A.L.A.S.M.O.S... what is a calasmos? Maybe a secret weapon? Also there some kind of spirit monster that instead of white like everyone else, is dark that stands just at the centre of the crash site, with arms stretched out in anticipation... maybe it's Erdwin's spirit that is returning and takes form at the worlds darkest hour? Well, jokes on me since Mordregon appears and just slashes the lantern, destroying it shouting that non will rival him. Leaving the spirit wrought with despair. And now I can leave the inner sea. As we do, we found Eric as a stowaway on the ship, having lost all his memories he don't recognise anyone, but is brought in anyway. You try to get to Sniffelheim and onward to Aboria, but it's blocked off by golden pillars. So you travel the seas until you can beat up that damned kraken that attacked Nautica and restore the water travels so you can enter Sniffelheim from the north instead. And get an orb. Do that and apparently Sniffelheim is caught is some gold plauge where people turns to gold, they blamed Krystalinda and locked her up, but also a priest seems to recognise Eric and it is revealed that he was a slave to the vikings in the cave just besides Sniffelheim. He and his sister lived there, but then disappeared. Seeing a way to unlock his memory they try to jog it, but then the vikings arrives, turned into skeletons taking all the people turned into golden statues. Eric follows them and the hero right after.

Turns out that Eric slaved for the vikings together with his sister and one day he gave her a necklace he got from one of the raids I assume. Turned out it allowed her to turn things to gold, like Midas touch and just like that curse it didn't end well for her since she was turned into a golden statue. Yet another gripping scene. Well, he left her statue there locked inside their shack and traveled the world to find a cure or get forgiveness. Meeting the seer, ending up in prison and then meeting the luminary, and now restoring his memory. They travel toward a golden castle where they battle golden enemies (good gold grind-spot) and ends up in the throne room where Eric's sister preside, freed from her statue, but now a demon. The ending scene for the battle is fantastic as Eric jumps in and pulls her out of the demon body. I feel... I feel emotional. Now, everything back to normal we can continue to Arboria. After being faced with the dragon frozen in the lake. And suddenly Serena appears and with her harp banishes the dragon forever. Apparently she got separated from Veronica during the cataclysm and was on her way back to Aboria. You finally get there and it's horrible. The parents that baptised their child the first time you arrived lost the child during the cataclysm, the town is a wreck and Veronica is nowhere to be seen. You go to the clearing just beside Aboria as something draws you there and you see her red little hat near a tree... and she lies slumped toward the tree, dead. You can't do this to me game! My eyes are overflowing with tears... and of course she sacrificed herself to save everyone from the cataclysm by using her magic, I can't take this.

*SOB* She was to good for this world! *SOB*

Dragon Quest XI part 3

So this is how it's gonna be?

After that failure we start with Sylvando on his ship, waking up after the fall of Yggdrasil. He travels to Gondolia that is falling apart with a gang bullying shopkeepers and what not in order to get money and trasures. You trash them and start the Soldiers of Smiles to give the people back their hopes. You get to Galapolis and gather more and then to Hotto where you construct this giant wagon where Sylvando can parade and direct his soldiers. It's a bit... flamboyant so to speak. 

Next is Jade who have travelled to Octagonia where the demons have set up some kind of casino where you always win, being some kind of statement on gambling I assume. You try to fight the head monster, but is transported into a prison dimension where the fighters are trapped which you fought against, losing hope as they fight over and over again. Jade have none of that and fights her way to the guardian of the prison and with the help of a demonic bunny suit that the head monster forced on you, you are able to fight of the guardian and return, but the cursed suit than forces her into serving the head monster. 

Lord Rabb meanwhile relive the fall of Dundrasil, guided by the bunny girl from Ogler's Digest #1. It tells how the luminary parents got married, the luminary was born and the council of the five kings that took place right before the fall of Dundrasil. Apparently the Bunny girl is actually the spirit of the grand master of Angri-La and she does this to test Rabb for being able to get the greatest power the monks of the shrine can teach him. The grand master apparently is something like over 100 years old and have teached the princes of Dundrasil for several generations.

Erik finds himself trapped in prison and with some healslime prepares to bust out, skulking around and avoiding all monsters. Healslime reminds me of the first chapter of IV where Ragnar the knight was followed by a healslime. They are cornered on the edge of a cliff of what I assume is a flying island by one of the generals of Mordregons armies. The healslime is brushed aside and suddenly Erik hears a voice that can give him the power to push back the general, but he would lose what he hold dearest or some kind of things, and that is his memories of the travels with the Luminary. He charge up super-saiyan and almost beat the general, but the power leaves him right before the finishing attack. In a desperate attempt he jumps from the cliff and ends up at the coast near Costa Valor. The healslime then turned out to be the seer that set him upon the quest for the beginning.

Which leads back to the luminary, turned into a fish by the Queen of Nautica as the only way to heal his wounds after he fell from Yggdrasil. As the queen tells of what happened to his companion for the months he was out cold the city's protection is being hammered by another of Mordegons generals. As you are whisped away by the queens magic and turned back into a human as you are fished up by a fisherman near the first continent. You travel back to Cobblestone and it has been rebuilt, into a fortress by the survivors from Heliodor and the Cobblestonians that wasn't killed by Jasper as it turns out, since Hendrick had arrived and stopped it from happening and instead locked them all up. And guess what, both your mother Amber and Gemma survived. And here's King Corneleon and who's leading the soldiers in the search and rescue of the innocent and fighting of the hordes of monster from Heliodor? Well, it's sir Hendrick who sold of his black armour in Gondolia. As the luminary Cornelian asks you to join Hendrick in an attack to first disrupt the monsters and then do a raid into the castle through the sewers that the luminary and Erik escaped Heliodor from. Hendrick and you gets in, defeats the commander and bring back light to the world and now it's back to travel the world in order to save the world.

Dragon Quest XI part 2

Love the artwork!

Well I got it after waiting some time for the mail to arrive. Apparently the reason for the cut-off is that at that very moment the hero is approached by one of the "spirit" creatures that tells them of a problem at their home which the party is transported to... in a 2D world. Looks beautiful. Apparently some mischief have happened and the library of the spirits have been disrupted and spirits have been sent to search for the "pastwords" that will give the hero entry to different worlds within books. Books that leads to the other games in the main series. So nostalgia trip. There you have to solve different quests to set them right. I gather it was something special for either the 3DS or just the Switch version. Although, this isn't part of the main quest, just a side one. Find more of those "spirits" to get more pastwords and visits more places in each book.

The real adventure quest continues in Gallapolis, the sultanate of knights. This is the usual Dragon Quest cliché with a spoiled prince that begs you to do task to cover for him. Think they done this since V. He's not as irritating as Charmless from VIII, basically he feels he have been pushed by his parents to do more and more and since he early began getting his servants do the work he was trapped in a negative spiral where everyone expected more of him, which forced him to get others to do them for him. Now it was winning a horse race which the player gets roped in too since they need the branch that Gallapolis sultan have. So you partake in the race (and I won) so that the prince can give a word to his father so that you can get the rainbough, a branch of Yggdrasil (which appeared in I and III to get to Dragonlords Castle). Sadly a monster appears and the prince, since he appears so capable is sent out to slay it, and you follow, togheter with the flamboyant jester Sylvando that seems to be very knowledgable in the way of knights. Defeat the monster and as the prince drag the corpse back to the cheering crowds it awakens again, but Sylvando slays it and this gives the prince the courage to tell his father the truth. Alls well that ends well, except that the sultan sld the rainbough to a travelling merchant in order to pay for the races... and it was a national heirloom.

Next stop is Gondolia, a merchant town that is preparing a mr universe contest. The mayor don't want anything with you since you are the Darkspawn, but his kid have been cursed so you get out and get an ingrediant that Serena can make holy water out of and dispel the curse. Turns out that Jasper, one of the two mighty knights of Heliodor talked with a monster, the kid saw it and was cursed for it. Something is rotten in the state of Heliodor. Still, Sylvando has a ship ready, but Jasper appears, taking Erik hostage. You save him and escape on the ship while sailing right into a Kraken, which Gondolias fleet under the mayor kills since you helped his son and therefore showed the darkness of Jasper. The kraken is probably a callback to VIII since you had to fight one to get toward the second continent. Here the games open up a bit. Travel to Zvaardrust and on to Octagonia where you take part in an MMA tournament, but the fighters are kidnapped as you try to win the rainbough which is the number one price. Only randomly chosen fighter pairs so you get teamed up with last years winner, a fighter who runs an orphanage which he himself grew up on. There is two mysterious fighters, an old merchant man that just looks on and a swift feet kicking woman. You fight them and win, but after the match the former champ disappears as well as the young woman fighter. You run into cave below the orphanage together with the old merchant that is named Rabb. There you find that the champion have been kidnapping the fighters to give to a monster spider that use them to heal up after its fight with Sir Hendrick, the other knight of Heliodor. In exchange the champion is given some monster juice that enables him to win his matches so he can sell the prizes to pay for the orphanage. Trash them both and rescue al the fighters. Now, this one was one of the most emotional segments since the champion didn't do this for anything evil, he just wanted to protect the children who had no one else to protect them. And he even started to cry. Once again, the small stories have a really heavy punch. The next day you both do the final battle and win, but to redeem himself he challenge you one on one, which you win easily when he isn't doped up with monster juice. Sadly, Rabb and Jade (the kicking woman) have stolen the rainbough and urged you to get them in the ruined kingdom of Dundrasil.

I hate spiders

Turns out that Dundrasil was the kingdom which you hailed from and was destroyed around your birth which you saw in the opening cutscene. Rabb is actually Lord Robert, your grandfather and former king of Dundrasil and Jade is the lost princess of Heliodor. Both have been on a mission since that faithful day in order to find the one behind it, a person named Mordegon. You are attacked by Hendrick that have tracked ypou down, but you escape and head toward Pouerto Valor so you can leave the inner sea. Leaving you end up on a small island where a mermaid is waiting for her beloved Kai, and if you help her she will give you access to the underwater city of Nautica. Turns out that she waited for 50 years and that Kai had to stay at his fishing village after being ostraciced for breaking up his former engagment with the chiefs daughter and therefore stranded when they burned his boat. The chiefs daughter married someone else, but when her husband and father both died in a storm said to be sent by the mermaids for taking revenge on the people for holding Kai, she took her life leaving her daughter which Kai felt responsibility for. The daughters son told the story and as the party returns with Michelle the mermaid (short name Shell... HaHa), she turn into a human as she walk toward the grave of Kai, and then turns into foam as she finally have found her beloved again...man, no disneyfication of old stories here.

Get to Nautica to meet the queen of mermaids that hands you one of the orbs you need to get to Yggdrasil. Now, able to go into secluded inland seas you get to Phnom Nhom, a tourist trap village with some Ankhor Wat ruins where a mural is said to give luck to anyone looking. Turns out that the mural is trapping people to feast on. Defeat it to get the magic key. Get to the north and enter Snifelheim, which have been magically frozen by the witch Krystalinda. You defeat the beast said to be guarding her, but turns out it was guarding her magical powers, so she have been powered up. You get to the great library where you find the grimoire that sealed Krystalinda before, but where the Queen of Snifleheim is trapped, the same queen that gave you the mission to defeat the beast. Shenanigans, fight and defeat Krystalinda, twice since she was able to trick me both times. But the real queen, who only recently took to the throne after her father King Gustav died (and yes, they sound and looks like some medieval Scandinavian city) stepped in the way before we could seal her in the book again. I suspect Stockholm Syndrome, but she feels bad for her after being trapped in the book for some millenia. Turns out she was freed by some handsome man... gut feeling is Jasper that already have been making deals with monsters and such. Anyway, continue to Arboria where Veronica and Serena hails from and learn more about Erdwin and his companions as they defeated the dark one and you begin the climb up Yggdrasil and uses the 6 orbs you gathered on your travels. Your rewards is the fabled sword of light and...

You get hit in the back by Jasper

You get pretty much trounced by him since he is guarded by some dark force. You are beaten and then Henrick and King Cornelian shows up. Hendrick rushes at Jasper for joining the dark one, but is in turn stabed in the back by Cornelian which is revealed to be possessed by Mordegon who now takes the sword of light, turns it into the swords of shadows and destroys the world tree and pretty much destroying the world... Think this is the first time Dragon Quest have done this. One could argue VII, but that's before the game starts. Final Fantasy VI did this, but Dragon Quest never before. 

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition S (Demo)

Sweet Dragon Quest

So after experiencing the origins of the Dragon Quest-series I got this itch to play the latest game, which I unfortunately didn't pick-up before going on vacation for a week so I thought I would get it on the Saturday before going back to work... but it rained the whole day so I stayed at home. But then on Sunday I recalled there is a demo for the game that can keep me satisfied until Monday when I can get the game after work. So I started playing and I gotta say, love the graphics. Looks fantastic and music is as expected (well, it's a Dragon Quest-game). 

Starts with a cutscene of a small spirit creature (?) walking through a city. Clouds goes dark and we see a council of old men talking about a newborn child. We see the mother and child... and then the city is attacked, mother flees with the baby and some other girl. The mother leaves the baby with the girl as she distracts the headless horsemen's that haunts them, but the girl is found and... killed? The baby turns up in the river like Moses and is found by a fisherman. 16 years later you, the main hero is supposed to do the coming of age ritual with your best friend Gemma who has the same birthday as you. Monsters attack at the top of a pillar and as Gemma almost falls to her death you save her with the zap-spell, which you don't know but a special mark on your hand seemed to react to the distress.

Returning to the village your mother tells you that your grandad told her that you are the reincarnation of the Luminary, the hero of old that defeated the dark one and now resides as the red star in the sky. Gemma tells you this at the tree in town where her scarf got caught in as a kid and you helped her get back. As you intend to go to the capital and meet the king Gemma almost tell the hero that she loves him and instead run of crying. I assume that she would like to say. Next morning you set out and I gotta say, the improvements to the quality of life, superb. You can run, jump and you can get a horse that can trample down weaker enemies (not gaining any gold though, and 1 EXP per chrushed monster under my hooves). Love it. At the city of Heliador you get audience to the king Corelian and as you enter the royal chamber and show the sign as the luminary, you get arrested and thrown into the darkest dungeon labeled as the darkspawn and the harbringer of Doom and a squadron of knights are sent to your hometown to investigate. In the dungeon you meet the thief Eric that helps you escape although you get spotted by guards, outrun a dragon and in the end stands above a waterfall all Fugitive like and do the only rational thing, jumps  out and then title screen.

GERONIMO!

I thought the game would end here, perfect ending really since I'm already hooked. You wake up and team up with Eric to go back to the city to look for a red orb that he... acquired from the royal family. Since I know orbs are important for the Dragon Quest-games I'm all game. Turns out that Eric's old partner took the orb, gave it back and used the reward money to get a shop to acquire more money to bribe the guards to look the other way so that Eric could escape. It set is up as the thief being betrayed by his old friend, but Dragon Quest is the optimist series. I feel happy playing this. The orb now is in a pyramid near Cobblestone (the hero's hometown) so back you go. Through the Mangrove Forest where you discover that the Hero is the chosen of Yggdrasil and can see events from the past near a root of Yggdrasil. Back in Cobblestone and... somethings off. Eric disappeared and the townspeople talk about the Hero as if he is a child. Your mother don't recognise you and the you see Gemma as a 6-year old child, standing below the tree crying... with her scarf at the top. Have I time-travelled? Have they put up some temporal distortion as protection? You help her and she shows you the way to your grandfather and your young self. Your grandfather see you as the adult version (although he was long dead at the start of the game) and happily talks with you and listen to your story. He hints you toward a triangle rock near some waterfall and as you return to the village and speak with your younger self the world is once more distorted and you look upon the crumbled ruins of the town as you look at the tree with the Yggdrasil root formed around it. And it feels  bad looking at the town. Gemma's gone and so is your mother (or adoptive mother). I hope to good that as this feels a lot like Dragon Quest IV that it ends the same with Gemma coming back to life... and the dog to since it's not fair. 

You will pay for this, king Cornelian!

Eric and you travels to the rock and finds your real mothers letter that proclaims you a prince of Drundrasil (the city attacked in the beginning and I think your mother is really Cornelians daughter and one of the reasons why he is so hellbent in destroying the darkspawn, or maybe the girl that helped you escape was his daughter) and then a letter from your "granddad" giving you a keystone to use at a door that will teleport you somewhere. You continue to the pyramid to get the red orb gets to the door at the last minute while hunted by the knights from Heliador. You end up in some Eastasian Japanese city of Hotto where you find a girl in red looking for her sister and another girl looking for her father. You follow the red girl to a crypt where you find the sister and it's revealed that they are twins but the red dressed girl was captured by monster and lost all her magic to them and at the same time becoming a young girl. The other sister is a cleric/priest and the red one is a mage, so basically the sisters from Dragon Quest IV. You defeat the monsters that are working for the the shadow king or something like that and restore Veronica (the red hooded... is she a red-riding hood reference?) although not her age. The sisters swear loyalty to you, you get the dad that is an information broker for thieves called Noah and he tells you about the Yggdrasil branch in the sand kingdom and you head of there... and this is where the demo ends.

I love this part of the game. I just feel happy playing it. It gives enough story for intriguing me and make me emotionally attached to the hero and the other characters I've meet. I like the call-backs to the earlier games like Dragon Quest IV and the orbs I think is Dragon Quest III, and Eric looks like he is inspired both by the main guy from Dragon Quest VI in hair and art style, but dressed like the main guy from Dragon Quest VII. I now need to get this game so I went after work and... the game was sold out. Meaning I have to wait at least a week for a copy from the internet (since my Switch doesn't have enough storage capacity to hold all games I want for it). Damn my luck. Well, at least I can fill out the blog post count with the demo and make it easier when I get the main game. You basically can start from where the demo ended and it then also gives you access to the nifty 3D to 2D conversion so you can see it as a pre-Dragon Quest VIII look (or VII since they remade that in 3D as well). Can't wait for what's next in the game.

Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation (Switch)

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. 

Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line (Switch)

Why do the princes have flying googles?

Continued with the second game in the series released back in 1987, the most important year ever. It starts off with a retelling of the first game and that there is 100 years since the warrior Niklas defeated the draconlord and went travelling with his princess and founded several other kingdoms where his lines rule the land until this day. Now the forces of Hargon attack the castle of Moonbrooke where the king sends his daughter princess Peronel to safety and one lone soldier to warn the King of Midenhall before the whole castle is destroyed. The king of Midenhall sends his only son, Prince Niklas (yes, I named him after myself... again) and you are off. First by finding his cousin prince Randolph and with his help finding the mirror of Ra and using it to break the curse on Peronel so that she is turned back into a human after being turned into a dog by Hargon. Together the three sets out on a quest to find the five sigils that allowed them to speak with the goddess Rubis and get the eye of Rubis and then finding the False Idol and together with these items charged at Hargons castle and defeated him and the demon Malroth. So now I know what was up with Dragon Quest Builders 2. 

Overall I liked this game, more fun with a party of three compared to alone and therefore some strategy. Mostly no problem figuring out what to do, but in the dungeons and towers I usually used a map from the internet since I can't really bother with it. And when they threw in trap doors at the cave to the final area, I really can't stand it. Also, really problematic finding the star sigil and the sunken treasure that allows you to get the echo flute. Problems that still exist is the limited inventory and the end was just walking up the castle over and over again until I've reached a high enough level and getting by without getting attacked that much so my resources aren't all spent. But **** those kamikaze monkeys that one shot the whole party regardless of the health level. Fun enough and probably more fun to replay since there is more plot, and it's just not grinding for money and levels compared to the first game and it's bigger. So big in fact that it have most of the original world within this one (minus most towns and caves).

Dragon Quest (Switch)

They say he comes for those whose souls are weak
and call his name upon the wind
The night is cold and thick with mystery
Oh I can feel his beating wings

As described before, I've played most of the mainline Dragon Quest-games, all released for the DS (and Playstation 2) and I've had this inclination to play the first 3 games as well (since those are the only ones I've hadn't played before) and lo and behold... they are all released for the Switch. Playing the first one, you can feel that it is a bit archaic. At least it's a bit mitigated in this version. It's based on the mobile port that is based on the SNES remake of the game that originally arrived on the Famicom/NES back in 1986, although not in Europe. So basically we get a better version with a graphical overhaul and a lot more gold and Exp. that hasten the game, I've read at least. And that is probably best since there isn't much in it and just to grind to get anywhere... we don't do that anymore, I still had to grind a bit to finish of the game, but I don't want to think about how much that would have been if I've played the original.

Basically you are a decendent to Erdick, this famous warrior and you now have to find Erdick's treasures in order to gain access to the Dragonlord's castle and save this land from his darkness. You need the armour and sword of Erdick, the harp of Galen the bard, the rain bow and sun stone to make the bridge appear that take you to the island where the castle is. And you also better save the princess of the land while you at it that is guarded by a dragon herself. There's something like 5 town (+1 one destroyed), 2 shrines, 3 dungeons and Tantegral Castle and the Dragonlord's Castle. 

A journey to the centre of the earth

It's really simplistic in its approach. Really, grind for level ups and gold so that you can take more punishment and dish out more damage in order to go further on the maps and dungeons. Some things are more irritating than others, for example the limited amount of space in the inventory that both have to deal with equipment, special items and items like torches, herbs and such. I guess that with higher levels you get magic spells that take away the need for some items, but why would I waste magic points on Glow instead of healing and attack spells? Especially since the torch is actually better than the Glow spell? Those are a bit weird. Then we have the magic keys that open locked doors... and then breaks so you gotta buy more keys and when you leave a town or dungeon where you unlocked a door, the door appears again and you gotta use yet another key. Also, the game crashed once when I put the game speed at the lowest, but lucky enough the game autosaved so I didn't waste the grinding from level 20-23. Then we have the cryptic nature of some things like finding things out in the overworld just by accident while walking over it. I guess the map forces you to walk over there, but it is missable and you need the item as far as I understood it. It was charming at least with the art work of Toriyama and the music while not as diverse as in later games at least works. I've at least played it now, not sure if playing it again would be high up on my priority list.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Switch)

Prefered the alternative cover

I got the craving for another minecraft-esque game for a while and I could have popped in Dragon Quest Builders 1, but since they announced the sequel I couldn't say no. It's pretty much the same game as the original, but different story and a lot of quality of life improvements. I haven't played the original since I finished (since I got a lot of games to play through), but things like no breakable weapons like the original, you can create an armoury to equip the "soldiers" with the latest weapons and with a way to draft the citizens to help you in building from a blueprint. It makes the game more manageable since you can let the citizens build a structure while you go out and look for materials and turn them into building parts so that they can continue to build the structure. The builder also gets new abilities like creating water from a bottomless jug, a fishing rod, copying a structure, swap large areas with another material and so on. Also there is a bit more to the battle system, not much, but enough with some combos and such. 

The story is that you have been taken captive by some Children of Hargon on their slave ship, apparently one of their last since the heroes of Dragon Quest 2 have killed Hargon so they are a bit disoriented. While doing task for the captain you are attacked by a sea monster while the captain tries to protect all aboard... didn't think I would play two games this summer which begins on a ship that is attacked by a kraken. You end up in the water and then you wake up on a deserted island. You meet Malroth... which is the same name as the god of destruction the Children of Hargon worship... I guess he's friendly. You begin buidling things, meet Lulu another survivor of the ship and then is instructed by a Hammerhood to gather people on the isle of Awakening and build wonders. So you do that. Malroth and you travels to a an island to learn the basic of farming and have to create a tree to together with a pastor of Hargon, Pastor Al... HA HA. I love Dragon Quest humour. 

How are people so creative?

Second island is a desert island where you mine minerals to upgrade a golem to gold status so that he can fight of the Medusa that turned him into... a stone golem. Brilliant, and you create a copper bar, a silver bar and a gold bar (bar as in drinking establishment, but I love the pun) to boost the miners morale. Third one is building defences for a castle and end an eternal war between humans and monsters.  The twist is revealed that everything except the ferryman, you, Malroth and Lulu is an illusion in a dream world created by Hargon. Hargon's plan is to team up the builder and Malroth in order to make Malroth be overcome by destructive power and unleash the demon inside of him. So as he grabs Malroth you follow to Malhalla which is being destroyed and you have to save the monsters on it by creating a space ship and as they leave you have to fight the possessed Malroth and then end the fight as a space shooter. I loved it! Fun thing is that I cared more for the friendly monsters like the captain at the ship in the beginning, all of them in Malhalla and Pastor Al. Maybe due them not being as demanding as the humans. A bit short in the story department, but you got some content afterwards, but I don't feel the need. I know that the monsters from Malhalla survived due to a letters so thats fine. Got other things to do.

Dragon Quest Builders

Build Build Build All Day Long!

I've never played Minecraft. I looked at it through PeanutButterGamers hardcore series and can see the appeal, but since I haven't had a decent computer or a stable internet it haven't been that appealing. And then SquareEnix releases a minecraft clone with Dragon Quest-skin and story mode? I've gotta play it. And play it I did. All four story chapters and a bit of the free all mode. And it was a nice little time. The story mode is about the Builder, the player avatar that is awakened by Rubiss, one of the main gods in Dragon Quest (I think, I haven't played the original 3 games). Rubiss tasks you to rebuild the lands in the wait for the hero to defeat the Dragon Lord. So you aren't technically the hero (like in Dragon Quest V), but you lay the foundation for the hero. And I get that the land is named after regions from the original three games or it might even be the original map. They reference Erdrick, the main hero from the trilogy and so on. Each special battle has the battle music and the spiraling graphics from the RPG at the start. And each enemy looks like the ones in the main series. And why I was probably more interested than in Minecraft, it looks nice.

The story mode continues in that you place a banner that crates a 30*30 square that you can build a small town in which level up with better materials or building certain rooms. A number of villagers appear (I think between 5-9 depending on the chapter) and you get quest like build them certain rooms, get certain materials or something else. That is really fun for someone like me that want a reason for what I do. Helping people works really great. In between there is some battles where you fight of the enemies that attacks your base. The first chapter is building up Caitlin (which I got is an important city in the main series). The second is a swamp where you try to fight of the Hades Condor that have poisoned the lands. The third one is beginning in a desert and learn special engineer things like cannons and a car. Which leads into the fourth chapter where you first need holy water to heal the land and then search for the banner of hope taken by the monsters to rebuild Tantegral Castle. And then gather the three sages in order to create the item that can take you to fight the Dragonlord. And of course getting the best armour and weapons so that you can take the beating. 

And that is the story mode. There is another mode, Terra Incognita, where the main thing is gathering the materials, build whatever you like and show it off for other people in some online mode. And that might be fun... for people with imagination. I played like 5 minutes and realised without the limitation to build a town within the 30*30 square and the villagers to do quest for, my interest dropped. But they have announced a sequel so I might look into that. And it apparently will have multiplayer. 

Now, I might play it again, but it was a bit lacking after the end of the story. But it was fun building the town... or more like fort and fight the boss. I think I got 3-4 levels at the most, but you really have to think to keep the wall secure and get everything in order within that. A problem though when you get exploding bombs in the fourth chapter that can completely destroy your inner rooms, even though the walls is made of obsidian, the toughest material in game (and they can take the blast, but the force goes right through it). Also irritating there isn't a fifth chapter that allows you to make everything you learned in all previous one. For example I can only build roofs in the second chapter and the engineer stuff in chapter 3. Basically chapter 1 and 4 are pretty similar. And the bosses are fun, although you really need to fail once to get how you are supposed to fight them. For example the Hades Condor needs to build ballistas. Well, since he only showed up at the front before the battles I built them there. Guess what, you were supposed to build them pointing backwards in the boss fight. A co-worker told me he actually build a ballista tower in the middle of the town over the flag. I had to destroy the roof of my hospital (which I was very proud of). Still, I had fun.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King 3DS

It's finally here!

I already gone through what I thought of the story back in 2012 when I played the PS2 original. Reading through the cliff notes I wrote back then I still feel the same 5 years later. The story is cliched, but it is so well executed. Without problem I spent upwards 100 hours on this game... again. I even enjoyed the grinding for tokens, gold and exp which are the time sinks, but I found the improvements in this game made it even more fun. A difference from the original is that you actually sees the monster on the maps and therefor really can make the grinds more effective. Hunting gold? Travel to Neos and run after the gold golems and don't bother with any other monster. Exp? First grinding spot is the ruined abbey for metal slimes, than Trodain Castle for Liquid Metal Slimes and lastly Dragon Graveyard for the Metal King Slimes. The tokens is still a grind of save when winning, reset when losing, but it felt faster... maybe due to them allowing one to speed up that segment. No joke, I grinded my character so high that they went above level 80 before beating the final boss for the first time, then rolling over the extra bosses I didn't stand a chance against back in 2012 so I even got the special ending.

Everones here... even those who weren't in the original

So what's new beside non-random encounters? Well, as the picture show you got 2 "new" characters, the lady smuggler Red who is an old friend of Yangus and Morrie, the owner of the MONSTROUS PIT... I mean Monster Arena. And it's not until you get them that I realised they gotta have made new voiced dialogue since I couldn't tell until then since I thought it was the same voice cast which is true, except for Jessica and I can't hear that unless I play the clips side by side. There is certain changes in the story as well. One I noticed on my own which is the cutscene where David is forced by his master to eat dog-food. They cut that and instead makes the dog intimidate him. The other I couldn't recall and found when researching on the differences and that is Marcello stabbing himself when the staff of Trodain tried to possess him. In this version he uses magic as the final act. Then they added things like a short scene with Medea meeting the main character and Dhoulmagus killing master Rhylus and an extra dungeon where you fight a boss battle with... Othello as it says on the screen. I actually have problem seeing what's new and whats old. They also made it possible to marry Jessica at the end, I don't know how and I feel that the story is so nice toward the main pairing I have a hard time changing that. Although Jessica is the better looking one, and as King Clavius says, she got the Va-Va-Voom.

I really gotta get Dragon Quest Heroes

I know some people complained on the small censuring on certain costumes and so, but I stumbled upon mentioning that it could be due to changes in what the rating allowed if it's gonna keep the same as last time. I don't really care about it. Other changes was a change in colours as it's more brighter and not as detailed, but it doesn't look as washed out in the screenshots I've watched. Then we have the alchemy recipes. Someone else mentioned what I suspected, they changed what the recipes are. The original did force you to guess certain ingredients based on a little in hint while here it states every single ingredient. I don't know if I like it or not. Overall it's still the best Dragon Quest game and playing it again I couldn't stop and the further I played the more I couldn't stop thinking about it. This might be one of those games I just have to play again and again due to being one of the easiest to grasp as well as the most player friendly. Really, knowing which skills is necessary after 2 playthroughs made it much easier when grinding. For example spears trumps swords even though sword usually are the hero's weapon (due to have a critical hit attack that you really need against metal king slimes so maybe it would be a good low-level run to not use spears, but swords?).

I can't stop loving the accent!

What isn't that great? First of the camera controls doesn't work that well. It's probably due to the New 3DS plastic pin feeling rather wonky. Then there was some glitches like liquid slimes clipping through the floor at one part of Trodain Castle. Also, even when I can see how many skill points unlock which ability, there's no description showing why "Zoom" is a must for a newcomer, being the series teleport spell. Also, the voice acting of Angelo still grates on me when he almost whispers his line, but when he actually puts emotion behind his words I can feel it. I also think I become more used to it since it's the same voice as Alvis from Xenoblade Chronicles. I think I heard Dixons voice character as well. Also two points in the story really confused me over the direction I was supposed to go. One was the Pirate cave which I knew I was supposed to find and it gave me a memory from when I played the game the first time. They never tell you there's a cave there? Or is Red supposed to tell you since she ends up there as well? But why would I go look for Red? Then it was hunting down the flying Leopold. I didn't recall anywhere where to find the dark leaf to find him? I wondered around the Lord High Priest place for a while until I remember that I picked it up by accident since I don't think anyone actually told you about it and the only reason I ended up there was gaining the power of flight and being able to go to this isolated town. Mostly nitpicks and still an enjoyable game. So lets see what I have in my backlog... boy, still a lot of RPG:s to go. Better get grinding.