Dragon Quest 6 - Realms of Revelation (NDS)

Originally released in 1995 to the Super Famicon in Japan, this chapter of the Dragon Quest series rarely made it to United States - until now that is. I picked up the new release last month and started playing it when I got home. It was the last chapter in the "Zenithian" trilogy (4,5, and 6) because they all feature the castles in the sky. I had to redo it because I don't even remember if I finished the game the first time around.

The game revolves around three characters: the hero, Carver the muscle man, and Milly the witch. They embarked on a journey to defeat the great evil of the land, Murdaw. But the fight was not much of a battle. They get their bodies separated in twos and sent into another world, the dream world. With their memories altered, they have to find their other selves and each other, and thats when then adventure begins.

The game wasn't that much different from DQ9, even though this game was released more recently, the style is noticeably older. All the modern finishes went to DQ9. I missed being able to view the characters equipment in the menus. Naturally the game doesn't have the mixing pot neither. What it does have, and a lot, were monster encounters. You get so used to seeing monsters on the screen and dodging them after DQ9. In DQ6 every five steps you'd be accosted to another quick battle. It gets pretty annoying when you're trying to complete a quest instead of out there just grinding for levels.

But the game's story was really good. I'm about 3/4ths through and I found it intriguing. It's the ultimate adventure of "finding oneself". The hero had to go through the real world and the dream world to re-unite with his other self. A lot of talking with townsfolk ensues, but for now I'm enjoying the ride. The nostalgia is definitely a treat.

Dragon Quest 9 - NDS (part 1)

When I write about Dragon Quest I know I'll be writing for more than just one part, so just for my own sake, I'm calling this part one. While the last Square Enix game took about 100 hours plus to completely attain all the achievements, and I didn't even get there, this game might take even more. I wasn't even sure if I was going to play this game. I mean, Dragon Quest? again? Why?

Well why not? I found myself starting this game in a hotel room in San Jose. Before long I wanted to play through the night. Playing through eight games, and the sound and feel of it has not changed a bit. From the opening score to the cheerful themed songs in the towns, I feel like I'm instantly transported to another world. Final Fantasy 13 took my breath away with it's 1080P graphics in a 30 gig blu-ray disc, but Dragon Quest 9 does the same on the NDS with just 250 megs!

But the game is not just all tradition, there are many new aspects about the game. To start, you not only can choose your hero's gender, but you can create his look. It's like playing the Sims to a small extent. Then you they expanded the inventory slots to more than just four, there there are seven items that a character can equip. Plus everything that you equip is displayed on the screen. It's just sad that you sometimes have to wear something uncouth like a tortoise's shell.
Next, there are no more random battles. Perhaps that bugs players that are learning about Dragon Quest, but I've lived through so many of it through the series and don't find it too much to complain. Although now with the ability to pick and choose which enemies to encounter, I find myself rushing to attack when I see a metal slime (or any of the metal family for that matter). Next there is the experience point splitting system. After the battle, the ones with higher levels will get more EXP. I guess this prevents you from power leveling a new person you create from level 1. And yes, most of the party members you get (at least from the beginning anyway) are those that you create and recruit yourself. I start with a priest (pole arms), martial artist (war fans), and theif (daggers). Another new development I notice is that when a character dies in battle, at least for boss battles, if the party wins, he still gets EXP. That's quite helpful as I tend to fight bosses under-leveled and I win by a hair many times. I don't like to "grind" much any more, so I tend to fight bosses before the recommended levels.

There are more game concepts that developed, but I'll have to reserve those for the second post.
For now, I'm trying to hack my way through the game. But life is busy at the moment. My game time has been reduced significantly. Until then, I'll be wearing slime earrings. Screenshots to come too.

Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS (part 2)

Without a doubt, this game took less time than I thought it would. I completed most of the first four quests in about 15 hours and began playing the final chapter in November. It took awhile to get back into it, but it was actually really enjoyable to play even for a game this old. I'm glad they brought it back to life with the DS remake and I think if I had more time I would play through the extras.

The game began to unfold as they described the story of Psaro the Man Slayer. He's the one behind all the evildoings in the game. Well, I guess he's the big thing that the demons have tried resurrecting. The story is that he did a lot of bad things because they imprisoned his girl, Rosa. Or was it that they killed that girl. I stopped paying attention at one point.

(My equipment for the last fight, don't forget to bring the Baron's horn so you can call your party before the boss) The fight with the final boss is tough, but not that tough. I went in there at level 36 with my crew of adventurers one or two levels below that. The boss is a golden guy, that you fight and he slowly disintegrates into a green gob with no arms or head. Fear not, he will regenerate into something more hideous and engaging. The most important thing here is remember to use the spell Oomph. It'd make your life easier. I started the part as the Hero, Alana, the Cleric, and the Black Mage. The first few forms of his body is hardly adversarial. Just keep "Kabuff" on and putting on "Oomph" on your characters. If you run into problems, don't forget that the Hero has "Omniheal", which fully recovers your entire party for 20 MP. As He starts to become whole again, in his final form, he'll start doing more fire spells so it's safe to say you'll need "insulate". But as long as you keep your Oomph up and attack him at least twice a turn, you'll be fine.

The ending is pretty much the same as the NES version. You visit all the towns of your party members and then you make a trek back to the home town, where you were raised by your foster parents. The place is burned down, but upon your return you find that young girl that saved your life by turning into your decoy. Finally you two can be together, and I guess it's speechless, but I hope you live happily ever after.

But wait! There's more. Because it's the NDS version, there's a added Chapter 6. I'm going to save that for another time. Until then, I might as well start on Dragon Quest 5.

The following are a lot of pictures I took along the way.

Dragon Quest 4: Chapters of the Chosen - NDS

I began playing this game to ween myself away from Civilization again. It seems like every time I reinstall a new computer I install Civ. 4 and try to give it another go. It's an addiction, or perhaps it's just delusions of grandeur - we all want to rule the world.

But back to Dragon Quest 4. This is probably my favorite Dragon quest game. The idea of putting the main character four chapters later into the game was novel at the time. We spend like ten hours playing through four quests and we haven't invested any time in the main character yet. It was a breakaway from the first three Dragonquests, especially as it no longer talked about Edward. Playing it again after 17 years (it came out in 1992), I find it remarkable that I remember so much about it. I still love the Taloon quest, and so did many other fans because Taloon created some franchises out for himself in Japan. I am amazed at how smooth it runs on the NDS, nothing is lost, but a lot is gained. The game will not live up to the action packed RPG's of today, but it's definitely for nostalgia's sake. People who played this one before, will love it. The music would literally time warp you back to the time you played this on your NES.

I spent about six hours on it and got through the first three chapters. Now I'm playing the fourth chapter with Meena and Maya. It's a matter of time before I get to the end of that one. There seems to be a relative ease on game settings, because I'm able to get through them with relative ease. Hopefully I don't lose my edge in the coming dungeons.

Dragon Quest 1, 2, and 3

Dragon Quest is the first RPG game I've ever played, and most likely, it was the first for many. It was released in 1986, yes, that was during Ronald Reagon's second term. We barely had 14.4k modems back then. And most likely the game was less than 1 megabite. We, as Americans, got the English versiona as Dragon Warrior in 1989 for the NES.

The game featured one knight out to save a princess. It was pretty much the entire plot. It introduced ideas like regaining your HP at the inn, saving at the cathedrals, and getting clues from villagers. Monsters like the Wyvern, Golem, Slime, and Dragons got their start in this first game. Remember walking through tunnels and you actually had to use the ITEM torch? Remember walking through the marsh and picking up a clue in the middle? The good old days.

In Dragon Quest 2 we explored the possibility of the party. While Final Fantasy already had the hero party of four members, DQ2 introduced a team of three. The cool thing about Dragon Quest games are that they continue after another. The descendant of Erdrick (or Eldrick) makes his name in the world. You actually can find your father towards the end of the game. Pretty fun stuff. It came out in 1990, so I can't remember much about it.

Dragon Quest 3 still had an attachment to the first two games as it was set as a prequel to them. It introduced a system of recruiting teammates with different classes. There were skill points in addition to experience points. This game really brought replay value into the series as you can pick different classes of heroes to finish the game. I remember the goof-offs became sages, odd way of doing things, but I guess they wanted you to suffer carrying a goof-off in your team until you can get him to the shrine for a class change.

All in all, these games really set the tone for NES rpg's, especially since Final Fantasy 2 and 3 were not ported over to the US.












[image from Entropypump.com]

I recommend this the Dragon Quest Shrine for more info on this series of games.

Completion: Completed all three
Dragon Quest 1 (x 4) = 80 hours
Dragon Quest 2 (x1) = 50 hours
Dragon Quest 3 (x 2) = 100 hours
Hours: 230 hours