Deal with it! Hot off the trails of the Heavenly Bride, I'm heading to the Realms of Revelation. To hell with whatever I had planned, I won't let the fires die yet!
The game starts with a man and woman sitting around the fire. The man wakes up, and the woman asks him if he slept well. Another man comes down from the rocks and tells the others that they've made it to Mudo's Castle, and it's time to move. We're never informed who those two people are, but the man we're playing as I have named Rek. The wiki said that's what his name was, and I can make terrible puns when I REK bosses. I put out the fire and follow the others up to a ledge overlooking a castle. The woman plays her flute/ocarina, which summons a dragon to fly them into the depths of the castle itself. Were ocarinas a big thing in Japan in the mid 90s? While we're down here, we continue to the top of the screen and eventually arrive in a foggy room. In that room is Ozzie from Chrono Trigger. Only he's the size of the Namekian Elder from DBZ. Rather than do battle, he causes the party to levitate, bounce around for a minute, and then explode.
We hear thumping sounds and stuff falling as the camera opens up in a well lit room with Rek on the floor. His sister, Tania, is standing over him, trying to get him awake. She then tells Rek that the Village Elder came by looking for him, and we should go to his house at the top of the town. As I leave my house, the first thing I notice is how amazing the graphics look. The forest in the background is one of the most beautiful things on the SNES. There's one qualm I had with DQV that I won't be having with VI. Rather than head straight north, I walk around the town. I find a leather hat and several stat seeds I immediately feed to Rek. I hope he's the chosen one this time. I also gain some information about the world at large. Mudo still exists, and he's trying to take over the world. We're in a small mountain village protected by the Mountain Spirit with the village ceremony to please the spirit is upcoming. In that ceremony, Tania is supposed to have an important role involving a crown that the village gets from the town to its south, Shiena. Heading to the Elder's House confirms all of this, but the guy who usually gets the crown has become too old, so the Elder asks Rek to do it. He gives us a bag of our village's best mercantile items, silk and woodcrafts, and sends us on our way.
The world map is freakin' gorgeous! I also like the theme, but I hurry on to the mountain path. There are a few ways to get down, but another villager lying in the grass gets my attention first. We meet Rand, who has a crush on our sister but may already be in a relationship with the Elder's grand/daughter, Julie. I think that was her name. He's napping, so we carry on. The best way down is to fall off the ledge to the right. You skip a few floors and find the club: a weapon that nearly doubled Rek's attack power. Be careful in the equipment menu, as the game locked up a few times. ROMHacking can be a rough experience, I guess. You really should walk everywhere here to open chests, get EXP, and find gold. Gold was at a premium in V, so I suspect it will be again in the sequel.
At the bottom and to the southwest is the town of Shiena. It's bazaar season, so there are a number of unusual shopkeepers. There are three we can sell our stuff to, but find the girl in the back. She pays 350 gold, a higher number than 300 or 320 the guys on either side will offer. With the sack emptied, we now need to find the crown maker. He lives with his family to the northeast, but he's not home. His daughter will say he went to the forest across the bridge to the west since all the good wood is missing. Looks like we'll be heading that way.
Let me tell you how much I hate onions, both in real life and in this game. My first encounter with sentient, evil bulbs was an ambush where I died. My second was a four-on-one assault where I died. After some trial and error, I made it to the forest and then passed it. On the world map is a hole. Walk towards it, and you'll appear in a subscreen. There, we see an old man yelling for dear life as he hangs above the open chasm. I wonder to myself if we're on a floating continent as I look at the ground below. We help the old man up, but our footing slips, and we fall into the hole.
We wake up on the otherside just fine, but we're oddly see-through...
There's another world map, where a slight variation on the overworld theme plays, and we see a town in the distance. Entering and trying to talk to the NPCs reveals they can't see us. They sense us as random sounds or a gust of wind. But we can hear them. We learn of a well to the north, creepy bandits nearby, and a random assortment of village gossip. The only clue I got was the well, so I headed north. Inside a strangely build hut was, indeed, a well. Rek jumped in and found himself north of the hole where we saved the old man. More importantly, we're perfectly tangible. We headed back to Shiena, where we found the old map. He was the crown maker, and he gives us the crown for free as thanks for saving him. Which means I get a free 350 gold to upgrade my armor. Defense seems like the way to go thus far, so I'm going to prioritize that.
We return to ??? and give the Elder the crown. The sun is setting, and I'd like to reiterate how much the graphics have improved over the other Dragon Quest game I played. After a long day, Rek takes a nap and wakes up in time for the festival. Rand gets us as Tania leads the procession from the Elder's House to the church. We all follow her in. There, the ceremony takes place. Tania hands the priest the crown, who puts it on the spirit statue in the back of the room. As Tania goes to leaves, she stands before Rek, and things get weird. An image of, probably, the spirit is displayed as Tania tells Rek that he has a destiny he needs to fulfill. He will go on a long, arduous journey but will be vital to the whole world. Tania comes to afterwards and tries to shrug off the possession. Everyone leaves, and the parting begins. Most people are dancing and already drunk, but two people are in the north of town. Rand is trying to get Tania to marry him, but she's not ready for such a commitment. Rand is heartbroken but not done trying, and he's totally blowing off Julia, waiting for Rand in the weaving room. The whole day has been a thing, so Rek goes to bed.
In the morning, Rek talks to the Elder. He tells the young man that he should follow the advice of the Mountain Spirit. Rek should head to Castle Reidlock, south of Shiena, and talk to the King. The Elder hands Rek a pass and sends him on his way. In Reidlock, the whole town is trying to fight against the forces of Mudo and is looking for royal guards. To become s soldier, one must travel to the Tower of Trials and climb to the top. But only one person can become a soldier at a time, which sounds like a terrible way to amass an army. Following five others down, one of whom looks familiar, we come to the first dungeon in the game, Tower of Trials.
Floor one is about finding the correct staircase up while avoiding the spike floors.
Floor two is navigating the easy maze.
Floor three has us fighting the first boss in the game. Tower Guard is no joke, dude. He can do 6-10 HP a blow and wind up for an attack that does 20. He'll indicate when this attack is about to happen, so try to parry it. Hopefully, you have enough MP to cast Heal a bunch and a few Medical Herbs. It takes a while but is pretty simple.
Floor four has us dealing with the Pokemon/Sylph CO. moving floor pannels.
Floor five has us spotting the liars. There are three doors, but only one leads us to the correct place. The path to take is the leftmost one. The middle is a floor trap, and the left one takes us to a deceptive golden ring. If you fail, you can try again with no punishment.
The final floor has us taking on the boss of this place, Nelson. Sadly, I was low on everything, so I had to turn back and re-heal. By the time I got back to the castle, the familiar guy had already beaten Nelson and made his way into the final room. I don't know what the item was, but I returned to Riedlock a failure. I kinda dug this, to be honest. Actions should have consequences, especially in a competition with six people. It sucks to suck, but I'm glad the win wasn't given to me.
Back at the castle, we see Hassan, the familiar guy, become a soldier while we walk around the castle. We discover the King's personal carriage is missing a horse, so I guess I might as well try to find one. As we leave, Hassan catches up to us as he has the same idea. Far to the west is a forest clearing where a wild horse lives. If we came here alone, the horse would just run away from Rek. With another person, though, we can trap it. Rek and Hassan tame the horse, take it back to the castle, and the knight commander informs us of what a patty can do together. For breaking the horse, he makes Rek a soldier and takes us to the King. The King gives us an order about the Mirror of Ra, which was an item in DQV. It has the same myth as here. The King thinks it can help us find Mudo when he teleports and sends us to obtain it. And we'll do that...
...tomorrow!
Day one plot dumps, man. I'm digging DQVI a lot more than I am DQV so far. I know it's still early, but the difficulty is a lot more manageable, aside from onions, and has a brisker pace. I kinda hope it slows down, though. I can't imagine how long this would have taken to type wi a phone!
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