Why the SNES? Because my computer is literal trash and can't run the DS version in a way that won't give me a headache.
Despite my elitist claims of being a true JRPG gamer, I have never played a Dragon Quest game. Not when they were Enix, not even when they were (are) Square Enix. I never had a console they were on, so I'll use that as my excuse. Please ignore VIII... I'm also not a big fan of the first person battle view. I played DQI during my dark ages but only played for a few hours before getting bored. Let's see how my first foray into this well regarded franchise is and wonder if I should have picked a Breath of Fire game to play instead!
We start the game, and we see a man walking back and forth. Another man, with a French accent, comes down and informs him that a son is born. We quickly learn that the nervous man is King Papas, excited to greet his heir. He and his wife didn't bother to decide on a name during the last nine months, so they each offer up a possibility now. Ultimately, they decide on Papa Papas' suggestion of Abel. I read that's his name, so that's what I went with. As they conclude, the queen, Maria, coughs, and the screen zooms in her while darkening. Something terrible has happened.
But we can only surmise right now, as the screen un-zooms out to reveal a boy in a lot of purple laying on a bed with his father nearby. We are that boy, and his father's name is Papas. Hmm... We're also on a ship about to dock at a nearby tiny village called Vista. We then gain control of Abel and explore the ship. It mostly introduces us to the controls. Press the X button to do everything, A brings up the menu, B cancels, and Y does nothing. Walk around the ship and talk to everyone while finding a few Medical Herbs in the barrels. The captain and Papas go back a long way, and that relationship is why we're here. For some reason, five years ago, Papas brought us along on a journey that we're finally ending today. Once we're done with everything, the ship docks, we become landlubbers again, and we enter the world map.
Our first fight is with some slimes that I probably could have defeated alone, but Papa Pappas saves us anyway. He casts heal after the battle and leads us to our hometown of Santa Rosa. Everyone treats Papas like royalty, saying how cool and strong he is before we return home. We meet our house sitter, Sancho, and a few of his friends, including a young girl named Bianca. Bianca and Abel go up to his room, where she tries to read him a book. Bianca is two years older than Able, but she's still only eight, so reading is hard. Soon after trying, her mother comes to pick her up to head to the inn. The two of them are in town to find herbs for their ailing father/husband. We can then walk around town, and Papas does his own thing.
Around town, we discover that the herb dude has gone missing in the caves north of town. Being the son of a great hero, we go to find him. Everything down here is pretty easy, but I got "lost" and had to use a few herbs. I see a boat in the distance but can't reach it yet. At the bottom is our man, stuck under a boulder. We help move it off of him, and he heads on his way. Following after him...I freakin' died! I think you get a free death down here, as I woke up next to an old man saying he helped me. That's good, but I'm a little embarrassed. Dying in the tutorial dungeon... Talking to Bianca reveals the man hasn't spoken to them yet, but I didn't want to see if I missed a scene, so I went home and went to bed. In the morning, the women come in, along with Papas, and tell us they're heading back home to Alcapa. Papas feels uneasy letting two defenseless women walk around unattended, so he escorts them, and he invites us along.
Once again, he escorts the party, but nothing happens. In Alcapa, we see Bianca's sick father while I go for a walk. Bianca joins us because grown-ups, am I right? We explore the town and come to two bullies beating up a cat. We tell them to stop, but they'll only do so if we clear the ghosts in Castle Lenoire. We can't leave the village yet, so we go to bed. That night, Bianca wakes up Abel, and we sneak out of town to head north to the castle. I got lost and died because I'm an idiot who thought forests were hard barriers. I don't know why I thought that, seeing as they haven't been before, but okay. Restarting at Alcapa, I head north and into the target location.
I really wish the item merchant were awake at this hour. The weapons and armor people are, so why isn't the important one?! This is a very long and very hard dungeon for the first test in the game. Random encounters seemed common, and one guy can continuously call in reinforcements. I save stated my way through the place and still ended up dying.
As the main entrance is closed, head up the ladder to the right. Follow the path until you see a thing on a bed at the top of the screen. That thing is Queen Sophia, a former inhabitant of the castle. A man in the inn's garden, in Alpaca, tells us the backstory on her. She asks us to save her and her husband, who just want to sleep. A few rooms later and we're ambushed by six skeletons who take Bianca away from us. We find her shortly after in a grave with her name on it. Continue until you reach a dark hall. This room sucks! Listen for the sound of you hitting the wall and go right, and then all the way down. Enter the stairs, and another spirit guides us through the castle. Catching up to him, he'll tell us his name is Erik, the King. He says evil spirits have invaded the castle and won't let them rest in peace. We offer to save him, and he continues to guide our way. He also says there's a torch in the kitchen. The torch is used to navigate the darkroom we encountered enroute to here. Keep on keeping on until you reach the bottom floor, marked by the blue carpet by the door. There's an inn nearby, but don't use it. Go through the magically opening doors until you reach the throne room. Its current inhabitant will make a food pun at your expense, and then they feed you to his skeleton army. Destroy the candles and go back up. If you need to leave, do so now! Back at the top of the castle, the bad guy walks onto the balcony. He says he'll kill us now, and the first boss fight of the game breaks out.
I died. Boss Ghost has 200 HP, but I have no way to heal, and he has high defense. Abel can only do three HP. Bianca can use Blaze, but that does 10, and she doesn't have the MP to use it twenty times. Dying returned us to Alpaca with full HP and MP. I walked back up and tried again. Use Bianca's Decrease Spell twice to lower Boss Ghost's defense by 50, and both characters should attack. Abel can heal when necessary, and it will be necessary. Down to a combined single digit HP, Bianca got the killing blow, and we each got 300 EXP. Bianca learned Fireball, which would have been fun a second ago. Erik and Sophia take us to the graves that said our name on them earlier and thank us immensely. They say goodbye and reward us with a Gold Orb. All the mobs in the castle are now gone, so we have free reign of the place. I don't know if I missed anything, but we have to walk back to Alpaca.
In the morning, we get the kitten from the two bullies, and Bianca and Able think up names. I didn't like any of them, so I went with her first suggestion of Borongo. Our parents are waiting for us in front of the inn, where we learn Bianca's dad just had a cold... Abel keeps the Boro while the three of them leave the village. They head back to Santa Rosa and hit the hey. In the morning, dad has stuff to do, so we walk around looking for adventure, which I'll find...
...tomorrow!
First impressions: I'm enjoying it. The graphics are terrible, though, even for the time. Compare DQV with FFIV, which came out a year and a half earlier, and it's like night and day. DQV is borderline NES quality. The battle system isn't as bad as I thought. The lack of animations might sway me to keep playing. I like flashy spells, but sometimes, man, I just want to attack and move on. I don't need a two minute Eden summon every turn. I'm digging the humor, as well. I don't know how much is DeJap's translation or the actual, though. I get a kick out of the message, "The sign says Danger...but Abel can't read.." I know a few of the gimmicks coming up, and I'm curious when and how it'll happen. I don't want to play as a toddler, but I do want to see this character grow-up and become s man. You don't see that often, if ever, in video games. Bianca is an early contender for waifu, but there's another one coming up, eventually.
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