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Hello, hello! Once again, I'm playing through a Japanese DQ game and building a database of information about it. This time, I'm tackling Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru & Luca's Marvelous Mysterious Key on the 3DS. So far, the data I'm including are a comprehensive Monster List (including common and rare drops, scouting locations, breeding recipes, from which eggs they hatch, whether it must be traded, or WiFi gifts), Area-based monster lists, Egg hatching lists, Dream Egg hatching lists, the monsters owned by Other Countries' Masters, Monster Arena battle list, Mini Medal rewards, Costumes, and Scout Q challenges. This process is, of course, immense, as DQM2 on 3DS has 802 monsters in it; after about two weeks, I'm at 28.4% of that total (219 monsters). Also...my Japanese is rudimentary, at best. But, I managed to 100% DQ VII 3DS, DQ VIII 3DS, and DQ XI 3DS, so...I have faith I can complete this undertaking. At any rate, know that it's coming, and will hopefully be finished before DQ Builders 2 hits the shelves.

I just picked up Dragon Warrior for the NES this week and was doing my first casual play-through. I thought it would be fun to try the game blind, rather than following a guide, but I encountered something that I am nearly certain is highly unusual. I was farming gold and exp (currently level 10), and I was farming enemies south of Rimuldar. Upon saving up 1500 gold I stopped in town to get the broadsword and then began farming gold for armor. After finishing a fight I noticed my controller was acting a little buggy, so I gently unplugged it and plugged it back in. When I plugged my controller into the console a text-box appeared on top of the over-world. It read: "Please wait, I wish to go with the on thy journey. May I travel as thy companion?" Another text-box appeared, giving me the options Yes and No. I thought: "How cool, I didn't know you had a companion in this game, I wonder how that impacts fighting." So I hit yes. The stranger replied "I'm so happy!" walked onto the same square I was on and half of my sprite merged with her sprite. Then the credits rolled. I was completely shocked to suddenly win the game in the middle of a field... I thought you were supposed to fight the "DragonLord" or something... I'm assuming I somehow caused a credits-warp and won far earlier than I ever was meant to, and being a fan of speed runs, I wanted to post this discovery so that someone who knows this game, or just a member of the community may be able to use it. I'm going to find out if I can recreate the event on my own, and will post more findings if I am able.

Technically I graduated in January from my college in London. But the diploma took forever to arrive. So I did a whole phitoshoot today of the mail arriving/my graduation. Did the program online so I took some shots "around campus" in my favorite study spots.

So the Switch version has managed to get my wife excited to play the game. Man, took long enough for me to convince her to play a Dragon Quest

Hey guys. I noticed a really old topic here on the den where folks were trying to find out who the artist behind the Dragon Warrior NES cover art was. This info was elusive for a while, but I finally managed to track him down. His name is Chris Hopkins, he’s a painter from Washington who has done a lot of interesting work over the years. He did the theme art for three separate Super Bowls and the main poster for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom among many other projects. I talked to him about his work and the DQ games he did art for. He said in a previous conversation that he only did the art for DW3 and DW4, so we still don’t know who did the art for the first two games. He was given instructions by a Japanese man from Enix along with a translator and they gave him samples of Toriyama’s work to base his paintings off of. Please check my full interview with him out, I worked very hard on it.

First, all thanks should be directed to aerynb, who did the hard work of ripping the files in the first place. None of this would be possible without their breaking down the tech barrier. As for the thread title, I call this the first draft because while it's organized by character and chapter I have yet to add context for each line. About three more weeks or so to do a casual playthrough and get the information ought to be enough to properly set up the dialogue. Once I have that organized I'll edit the thread and replace the rough draft. I didn't want to leave anyone waiting for longer than I already have, so contextless word document is better than nothing for the time being. 4 party chat.zip 4 party chat.odt

Spyro 3’s progress has been the slowest of the three games for sure. I’ve reached Evening Lake (the third hub world) and have completed Bentley’s level. Man, I don’t remember if he was like this in the original, but Bentley’s little brother is a turd. Not gonna lie, it was fun smacking him with the club Bentley uses as a weapon. 😈 Anyway, I need to backtrack to a few levels now that I have several of the animal characters unlocked, namely ones that require Sgt. Byrd and Bentley. Gotta get those 100% ratings. I’ve platinumed the other two games in the trilogy, so what’s one more, right?! RIGHT?!?!?! (Actually getting trophies and whatnot in the games are pretty easy. Most of them are things you’d do normally anyway. A few oddball ones I had to look at the trophy lists for, but nothing ridiculous or totally out of the way.)

I wrote up my last WP page explaining my solo quest up to the end fighting and defeating Zoma. My journey journal has ended. Please remember, this refers to the original American NES Dragon Warrior III. Thank you everyone. It feels good to give back to this board and share my experiences of this solo run that it might help someone and give new insight. https://mikeatventionsx.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/dragon-warrior-3-solo-journey-journal-2-defeating-zoma/

I've got six different Japanese wikis up, right now, along with 22 Dragon's Den Monster List tabs open (at least one for each main-series game to make sure I get the name translations right), five Dragon's Den item pages up to make sure I get the right item name translations. I'll admit, I am the ABSOLUTE worst at capturing images for the monsters (primarily because I use Excel, and incorporating photos in that program on a Mac is like unanesthetized urethral surgery). But, I'm willing to work with you guys on that. 🙂 Which leads me to the next idea: we need a standalone Item Index, with the following information: 1.) Japanese name; 2.) English name; 3.) Image; 4.) Game appearance; 5.) Purchase price; 6.) Sale price; 7.) Harvest points; 8.) Drop data; 9.) Use; 10.) Alchemy recipes. That'll be my next contribution, perhaps. 🙂

You're still doing the hard work, I just "massage" the data into the Den's database

https://directory.libsyn.com/episode/index/id/9495674?fbclid=IwAR0_0slwzDlHGfXFqf0biIRLzrpTknZkMJrUrqi-4MfQd1flqipbyHEFcVQ I was a guest on the Puff Puff Hour podcast to talk about Dragon Quest IX multiplayer, and the DQ franchise in general. It was a ton of fun to record and it was my first podcast (outside of the SlimeTime one I did with Tesla a few years ago that never got produced.) Ultimately I just wanted to convey that DQIX local multiplayer is worth exploring and still holds up to this day. If you're able to find other players passionate enough about DQ to gather together and try it I strongly recommend it. #Absolutely

I live just south of Baltimore and work in northeast DC so I could possibly hook you up. I haven't fired up the game in years but I believe I have all the DLC quests, as well as some of the busted maps like the Locker one and the one with an all MKS floor.

I've been checking Dragon's Den out for awhile but never noticed that there are those who attempted solo runs like I have. If you like DW THAT much, I feel like we're siblings. I wrote up a WP page explaining my solo quest so far up to Baramos. (I'll get to Zoma later.) It's like a journey journal. Maybe something in my write-up can help others achieve Dragon Warrior/Quest III solo completion. Remember, this refers to the original American NES Dragon Warrior III. The SNES and GBC, although great, I prefer the original. https://mikeatventionsx.wordpress.com/2019/04/29/dragon-warrior-3-solo-journey-journal-defeating-baramos/

I totally expected Mordegon to be a demon like most DQ villains, so when you find out he was actually human and Erdwin’s best friend I was a bit mindblown. I don’t really like Calasmos all that much though, but the foreshadowing leading up to Calasmos was brilliant. The game tricked you into thinking the “Dark One” was Mordegon when it actually wasn’t. The only hint is the painting in Arboria of Calasmos.

It takes a lot of tweaking to get the classic DW font (or any font that the default text boxes weren't designed with) to work. It's a very involved process and requires going into the scripts for each text box and adjusting the pixel sizes of the text areas themselves. It's really silly. So the reason text get stretched is because there is more room allowed than there are characters, and vice versa when it gets smushed is because there are more characters than allowed space. It was a really grueling trial and error process I had to go through for both DWCs to make things look right and not fun at all.

Hey, I've been making Dragon Quest quizzes on Sporcle for a while, and I thought that I could share them here if anyone was interested. Enjoy, I guess. https://www.sporcle.com/user/dragonquester/quizzes/

this was one of my fave monsters from the ol' Dragon Warrior Monsters!

And again, you don't have to. There's no beef between us. 😁 That's exactly what I mean, yep. It doesn't change what Horii said when he made the game. Nods and references are presents in every game, and it's my belief that the manga author seeing some of them decided after the initial work release, that it could/would nice to see them connected. The game still functions on its own really, as there are no really connection to any of the first three DQ. It's really the extended universe that connects them. The novel version and manga version of DQVII expand the initial game and add some stuff that weren't there un the game. Kinda like what official Doctor Who novel adaptation of episodes do (The Day of the Doctor for example, which see the Curator having much more scenes), or the DW comics, who ties some story lines together, when the TV stories weren't connected, or simply gives more importance to some characters that were seen just once (like the War Doctor and the 9th Doctor). And now I'm realizing that this is all gibberish of you don't watch the show. x) Oh and should you one day want to look for the chapters and volumes that display the connections between DQII and VII, it's in the 10th and 11th volumes of the manga. It's in Japanese, sadly, but the DQ specialized Japanese wikia can be translated thanks to the navigator, and certainly helps figuring out what's going on. Or I can always send the passages right in your pm should you like to see 'em. Well, without further ado, i' m off watching the last of the horrendous GoT season 8 episode. \o

Protip for myself: stop eating sugar. I cut it out of my diet almost entirely, and starting eating it again for coffee....if I mix Sugar in the Raw with Heavy Cream (love Coffee with Heavy Cream), and my Chocolate Pinon Coffee, it's like dining in heaven. It's soooo good. Plus Sugar in the Raw + Heavy Cream, when mixed tastes almost exactly like Creme Brulee with little effort. I don't know why, but the molassus must play a role. In anycase, I get a little pissy on sugar. So that adds a whole lot of extra stupid to the recipe. For that I further apologize, especially as I did not take into account when you wrote your initial post Xiggy. Yeah, there is some similarity in the hilt with the King's sword, and a little in the shape of the blade, but it's not quite an exact copy. Hmm...interesting. So I'm not 100% sure if this is original Toriyama artwork, except that the sword of Destruction IS original: So I'll assume this is the original artwork for the Sword of Kings, the precursor original form of Erdrick's Sword before further embellishment. Now, one thing I find interesting is that this looks more like Erdrick's Sword in terms of the hilt being curved, and the straight lines at the edges of the hilt on both sides. However, a few interesting things. The design aesthetic in the original DQ7 was rehashed for DQ11's revision of the Sword of Kings: DQ7 3DS, from this site...the menu icon that shows up in the equipment list: Though it looks a bit different...let me see if I can't pull that up here from DQ7 3DS when actually equipped: There we go! Yeah there are similarities and differences. Let me see if I can't find DQ11's alteration of the original DQ3 design. Have to use my own: So there are differences, but they certainly went out of their way to make the Kingsblade look nearly identical to the Sword of Kings. Then went a step further and made sure the Sword of Kings looks even more like the Kingsblade. So it seems like while DQ7 was initially set to be a stand alone game, the manga definitely influenced elements of connectivity. Plus, as you state all versions of this weapon, including the DQ11 version, are exactly 120 Atk power. Only the Kingsblade has no special function (in either version of DQ7). However in DQ11 it gives +32 Charm and in DQ7 +55 Style. So similar and different all at once. Creating connectivity but not direct connectivity, kind of like, as you pointed out, the Sword of Ramias and the Zenith Sword, which are similar but distinct (Ramias is more similar in function however to the Okeanos Sword).

You absolutely don't have to apologize. Heck, I can understand your point quite easily. The Joker thing... Yeah the more I think about it, the more far-fetched it feels to me too. Dumb move from me, I'll give you that. I've realized that trying to see connections between games when it's just cameo or easter eggs is not that smart. Like, I know there's a sword in FFXII that resembles Erdrick's sword but linking this game to the DQ lore... Yeah, I'll pass. Just like I doubt the classic characters appearing in IX are the actual characters, but more likely ways to obtains their garbs and clothes. Some of those things I've said were stuff I could gather from the auto-translated pages of the Japanese Wikia (https://wikiwiki.jp/dqdic3rd/ this one most of the time), and I might have understood them sideways, due to the rather approximate translation. About the sword, I was referring to this one: 王者のつるぎ (Kingsblade) from VII, which do bare a similar look (at least to me, the blade part specifically) to this one from III: おうじゃのけん (Swords of Kings) as both of them, in these respective games, boost the attack by +120. But then again, I can understand people not seeing any resemblance. It's not as striking as Ramia's Sword and Zenith Sword for example. Now, of course, I should assume that the canon of the DQ lore varies from people to people. Since the DQ universe hasn't been set in stones unlike the Zelda one, it can cause different point of views. If you take into account the games and just the games then the only games that are connected to each other would be XI, I, II, III, and Builder (and maybe CH since you visit II's world). However if you take into account books published by Enix and said to be the official past of some games like this one: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ドラゴンクエスト_精霊ルビス伝説 "Dragon Quest - Spirit Rubiss Legend" ('However, Enix at the time recognized this work as a positive history, and the history described in this work is considered to be the official setting of the Dragon Quest series."), and everything supervised by Yuji Hori, like Emblem of Roto (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Quest_Retsuden:_Roto_no_Monshō), its sequel and the third wheel, the manga adaptation of DQVII, then it becomes possible to make some links between different games. It'll always be speculation and theory at best tho since the canon can vary. Again, you absolutely don't have to apologize for speaking your mind. I should be the one apologizing for not being more cautious or precise in December when I posted my message.

Manga adaptation I'm not familiar with, so I'll take your word for it. However if it does say that and Horii had actual input, I would dismiss it as it's not possible for that to be the case. 1) the creator of 2's world, Alefgard (which is both the name of the island and the whole world from what I can tell), is Rubiss. 2) the creator of 7's world, which has no given name, is God. There is nothing in the lore that would suggest anything else. 3) that doesn't mean that Kiefer's family did not somehow come from Alefgard and warp into 7's world sometime in the past. We already know Estard isn't nearly as old as most of the other kingdoms, as some do not recognize it. So that is possible, but nothing in the actual game suggests this, or even hints at it. What sword are you talking about in Dragon Quest VII? The only castles with Swords you can find in DQVII are Gracos', with the Rippled Rapier, which looks and functions nothing like Erdrick's Sword (though is has similar attack stats if we're comparing DQ2's Erdrick's Sword), the Kings Blade in Estard Castle, which looks and functions nothing like Erdrick's Sword (though it's the closest sword in DQ7 to Erdrick's Blade, and is FAR in excess of power even comparing Erdrick's Sword in DQ2 to the Thunder Sword in DQ2 and Kingsblade to Okeanos Sword), and the Okeanos Sword in Orgodemir's palace, the strongest sword in the game, but it too is not relatable to Erdrick's Sword at all (it's special function is nothing like Erdrick's Sword in any appearance except maybe the FF12 easter egg Wyvern Hero's Blade). Looking through all the different weapons, nothing either looks like Erdrick's Sword, nor functions like ANY version of the weapon from 1, 2, or 3. Also...what place are you referring to with the name "Melyor", as I can't find any reference to that, nor place it. I'm assuming a transliteration. My point being there is no reference in DQ7 to DQ2 at all. Horii himself stated DQ7 is a stand alone world, and the context of the world of 7 has nothing in common with 1~3. There's no Rubiss either. There is a Sea King, which correlates somewhat to DQ6's Poseidon, but not directly, even in function. Rubiss is in DQ6 however, and the remakes of DQ3 have Zenithia, though in that sense it's implied Zenith is a spiritual overseer and thus it's castle is present in all worlds. Rubiss' function in DQ6 is more of an overseer than a Creator/God-like figure. It's never implied by her that she is the creator, only a spirit that lives underwater that needed to awaken the Hero so Murdaw could be defeated and the Hero was the only one with the power. ---- What are you basing Joker being tied into 7? That wouldn't fit at all. Hell, even Caravan Heart and the original DQM suggest the monster's worlds are distinct worlds tied into the mainline worlds. Your usage of descriptions makes no sense. They're talking about the DQ historical context, and that would also include the other bosses present, such as Psaro. You're cherry picking what bosses you want tied in together to force a narrative that you want. That's fine, but it's not accurate, as ALL the bosses present in the Joker series make the same bloody references to their history and actions in their own original respective games. The point being we ignore that as it has no context or meaning in lieu of Joker's world itself and any direct connection to that world or interconnectivity in a literal sense between DQ worlds, as we would be ignoring any and all context, any and all statements made prior by Horii, such as 11 is connected to 1~3, but nothing was or has ever been even hinted at that 7 is...let alone 4~6 being connected, and his statements made when creating 7 and after 7's release that 7 was a stand alone world, and the same with 8, with the hints in 8 that the only connection between 3 and 8 is Ramia and Ramia outright indicates she came from a DIFFERENT WORLD, and the Ragnar + Torneko semi-easter egg implying they're from a completely different world, and the start of Monsters 1, 2, and even Caravan Heart indicating a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WORLD. 8's ties into 3 are based on a similar theme. Ramia is able to traverse worlds and connect to worlds. This was first presented in DQ3, where the underworld is tied into the overworld through Zoma's ripping a hole between them, and once he's defeated, there is no connection, meaning it was not a literal underworld, but only served as such due to magic. That Alefgard is indeed its own world, its own universe, with its own sun and moon, and was only sealed off from its normal course due to Zoma taking over. So worlds are tied by magic and portals, but they are separate worlds. The easter eggs do exist to indicate there are portals between worlds, and some people know how to access them, such as Mori and his ability to communicate with Torneko and Ragnar, and that both of them have been back and forth. Then with the Heroes games, and again the Monsters series. There really isn't much more than that between worlds. 1~3+11+Builders 1+2 is one world. 4+5 is one world, 6 is spiritually connected to 4+5, 7 is its own world, 8 is its own world, 9 is its own world. Joker 1+2 is its own world, Joker 3 is its own world, Monsters 1+2+Caravan is its own world, Heroes 1 is its own world, Heroes 2 is its own world. All worlds are interconnected dimensionally, and many have their own dark-world, where it's distinct depending on the world: 1) 3's dark world is not a true dark world, it was forced into that position by Zoma's power 2) 4 and 5's dark world is a literal underworld, with a literal physical presence, though in 5 it takes on some distinct form in terms of taking its own space almost like an alternative universe, and yet it's physical. 3) 6's dark world is a subspace of reality created in Morty's mind and manifested into reality due to his power, and thus it changes on his whim, and cannot exist without him. 4) 7's dark world is like 4 and 5's in that it's a literal real underground world that is dug out of the dirt, and like 5, also has subspacial special properties, and there are alternative dimensions as per the post game dungeons. 5) 8's dark world is a mirror world that is a physical place, but is a dimensional world on the other side of a coin, existing on top of the normal world, only everything is literally black and white. Totally new and cool concept. 6) 9's doesn't have a dark world, much like 1, 2, and 11 does not. However 11 does have a series of testing grounds that function similarly to a dark world, that were crafted by the good guys as a permanent testing place. However this wouldn't carry into the Erdrick trilogy. I'm sorry I'm getting pissy, but I get really pet peevy when people start making #$*! up whole cloth to fit what they want. I get hints and drawing conclusions based on subtle nuance, but that's different. I get getting #$*! wrong at times because I do that a lot, but in this case, no. I mean if you want to write fan fiction and claim it as your own creation to connect storylines together, sure, knock yourself out. This however is gross misrepresentation of the story and that drives me up the bloody wall nuts. So not asking to excuse my behaviour, just saying for me it's like someone taking a fork to a chalk board over and over and over and over again. So for me, this is a tame approach. So I apologize for being a total dick in my presentation. ===== @NeoDevilbane a few things 1) Yes 11 is a prequel to 3's storyline. This was stated in Japan and the initial interviews in the US/EU prior to the game's release in both territories. It's not exactly a secret. Just don't ask how, and play the game to find out. The how is the biggest reveal. 2) 4 and 5's world are directly connected. However they're thousands of years apart. They both have Esturk as their original big bad. They both have the secret of evolution as the core basis for growth. They both have distinct landmarks. Zenithia tower + Zenith castle + Zenith Dragon. Zenith tower is in the same physical location in both games...roughly, with the center island in 5 being substantially larger than in 4. The underworld access dungeon in 4 leading to the lowest point is replaced by the tallest mountain in the world, leading to the highest point, but in 5, like with 4, it's a place of abject evil, and a direct link to the dark lord in 5 in a physical sense, so that is an interesting link and one has to wonder what happened...maybe Zenith Dragon filled in the dungeon then pilled on as much dirt as possible to seal off the physical access route, thus 5's only access to the underworld is a portal. There are three other direct linking elements. OH, right, the nature of the Zenithian equipment. Their form, design, and function. Much like Erdrick's equipment they look similar (only DQ2 has some odd changes like how weak Erdrick's equipment is). 6 however, is not directly connected to either 4 or 5. It does take place in the past, and they both have Zenithia, only the translators intentionally distinguish it by calling 4+5 Zenithia, due to the Zenith Dragon, and that Zenithia in 4 and 5 are PHYSICAL presences that imply a single castle in a single continuous world, and Cloudsgate whenever King Zenith is running the roost, and it's a purely Spiritual castle that interconnects all realms. 6's hero equipment is also distinct from 4 and 5. The Zenithian Equipment looks like a redesign but lacks the same functionality. Such equipment wouldn't change form and design for 4, then remain identical for some odd reason for several thousands of years. That just makes no sense. Especially when the connection to Cloudsgate Castle is a spiritual portal to the Spiritual realm, not a check at the top of the tower for the inhabitants (see: Zenith Dragon) to assure the hero is worthy by gaining all the Zenithian Equipment. 6's world is also metaphysical in nature, and the bad guy is metaphysical in nature, being a natural demon lord, rather than a being who uses a physical process to perfect himself. Even his world in 6 is purely of his mind. The connection to 6 from 4+5 is that 6's world is free of blight, and Zenithia's Dragon's birth heralds a new dawn of a split in the castle's nature from a pure spiritual overseer that links between worlds (as seen in 3), to a physical castle that oversees a single world. The disappearance of the castle from 6's world even after the birth of the dragon implies the castle emerges physically in a completely different realm. The nature of this meaning that 6 in terms of time is prior to 4 and 5, but in terms of relationship, are only spiritually connected. The reason for this is Yuji Horii indicated he wanted to move away from trilogies when making 4~6, so made the links tenuous compared to 1~3 which are direct. When he made 7 however, he wanted to completely split off from that format, so 7 was made a standalone world. There are easter eggs though. Oh right, there is one prophecy in 6 that alludes to the world of 4+5, and the remake of 6 has a special village where you can tie-in later on with characters from 4 or 5 by choosing to make that village like those future scenarios. So the remake does emphasize the connectivity, but again, it's spiritual more than literal physical.

New recipe time! This time I made homemade punch courtesy of my grandma’s recipe. It’s always a refreshing drink for the hot weather, and since summer is around the corner I figured today would be a good day to give it a try and make it.

I have had a lifelong fascination with Birds of Prey.

We’ve been getting some of the weirdest games from Japan lately on Switch, including Senran Kagura Relexions, which is literally just poking and prodding Senran Kagura girls.

I did.....in the far off future. 🤪

Wow that was some battle, thanks for writing that up.

These photos are beautiful. 10/10 IGN

Applied to a Costco job and I have a guy on the inside so here's to hoping. I think I'm going to get a property management license

I swear on my life I checked Amazon, putting in just Dragon Quest Builders 2 in the search queue, and only the PS4 showed up, and the only switch version that appeared was the Japanese release. It doesn't now, but it did when I typed that message.

That is quite interesting, was this on a physical NES or an emulator?

Armor Project is my go-to for RPGs. I've found that besides Dragon Quest, I'm not actually a fan of the genre - be it western RPGs or JRPGs. There's a special charm to DQ that holds me in. I keep *wanting* to like other RPGs, but finding myself incredibly bored with them after a short while. The only non-DQ RPGs I've ever put significant time into are FF7, FF8, and the original Star Ocean. I still haven't beat any of those three. Each one felt like a rare exception to the rule, but I have a tendancy to lose memory cards/have hard drives that die. None of them was able to hold my interest again after losing a significant amount of progress, even years after the fact. i did beat Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and enjoy most of the other games in the series (stuck in Re:COM now though, which put me off for a while...). Those are technically RPGs, but they feel like a different genre entirely. I guess that's why the term Action RPG exists.

So far I’m not getting a very good impression of my new job. I’ll give it more time and see if things improve, so fingers crossed I guess. I saw the PSN was having a sale for Golden Week when I got home today, so I decided to buy Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (PS4 Version). Normally I would have gone for a physical copy, but...well, let’s just say prices are WAAAAY too high over on Amazon for that. I’m glad I bought the Vita version at a local game store when I did I guess. I’m finding Falcom is becoming my go to for RPGs.

I'll check it out...but isn't it ironic, don't you think that you posted this, claiming in the first sentence that you've never noticed anyone who does solo playthroughs of this game, just above this topic: A topic mostly dedicated to solo playthroughs.

I preferred Dig 1 and 2 myself. Right now I'm going inbetween Diablo 3 and BotW. I have some other stuff on the Switch but those are taking it for me.

Hey, man, wouldn’t make much sense if I didn’t share the love. Share away!

Got a review copy of the new Switch title, SteamWorld Quest. I absolutely loved it. Awesome battle system and the characters all had some serious issues to deal with under the sometimes silly & formulaic story. It was visually beautiful and just a really fun game I couldn't put down. Seriously, I bought a grip for my Switch because long nights spent playing this left with me aching hands in the morning! https://rpgamer.com/review/steamworld-quest-review/

Just listened to it last night, good job

I (RiamuCelestrian) sat in on the Twitch stream last night, during the total slog with the team against a giant purple dragon. It was intense and just wanted to say thanks for showing the battle. I don't get to see live battles as much. Besides Cranberry, was everyone who was in on the battle last night from The Den?

I’ve been trying to think of what to say for this topic, so I’ll just go with this: All I want from a DQ9 remake is a game I enjoy from start to finish. I’ve never straight up quit a DQ game before, but something about DQ9 just rubs me the wrong way. Even when I first started playing it, it just didn’t really click with me, which is hard to believe for a DQ game! It’s the only mainline game I haven’t beaten (aside from DQ10 for obvious reasons), but I hope a remake would get me invested enough to at least finish the main game. I jokingly pick on DQ9 at this point, but I honestly hope at some point if a remake happens I’ll get it and enjoy it.

It was hard for me to take Calasmos all that seriously when he looked like a giant version of Cell from Dragon Ball Z with a goofy fat baby face. However, I do like the way his text is presented, and the brief moment in the final battle where you hear how his text sounds with that incredibly ominous deep sound to it was perfect for a villain. Honestly it made me wish we had the option for voices or text speech sounds because I would turn it to the latter just for that. Jaspar was okay. He’s a villain I hate because his boss battles were some of the more difficult ones in the game (might be just because I was playing with strong enemies, but who knows) and I did like his human design. I feel like they were going for an Angelo/Marcello story with him and Hendrik, but it didn’t quite hit the mark. Their confrontation with each other in ruined Helidor castle was a great cutscene though, along with the reveal of their past. I just got hope the Switch version goes into more detail on there past. Now Mordegon, honestly, is one of my favorite DQ villains. The big reveal of who he was and how he became the monster you know was unexpected, and actually seeing a DQ villain succeed in taking over the world was pretty unexpected. True, Orgodemir before him managed to fool the world, but Mordegon’s rule had such a huge impact on the entire world. With most DQ games, I always felt like while the big bads are powerful and a threat, they never do much to actually flaunt their powers and the worlds are usually pretty well off looking despite monsters running around. With Mordegon’s rule? Most of the world/landscape is torn up somehow, monsters have become much more violent, you see his forces decimate towns and see how the world has a more muted feel to it with the ever present brown sky during the daytime hours. Heck, him showing up to fend off the Lantern was pretty unexpected and demonstrated he was willing to go beyond his castle to actually do something if he wanted to, unlike say Nimzo or Mortamor who sit on their asses waiting for their minions to do their dirty work or how Baramos was such a “threat,” when Ortega went after him but didn’t do ANYTHING really evil and just waited for another hero to show up. So yeah. Calasmos and Jaspar were okay, Mordegon I really liked.

Perhaps instead of "Travel Scrolls", you could use Dragon Potions/Rebirth Stones from II? (Although the item is dummied out in the mobile remake, our own Choppasmith has discovered that the Dragon Potion item is listed in DQII Android/iOS as "Rebirth Stone" - so we have a modern official localization for it!)

...I actually haven't had a chance to try the latest demo, unfortunately. Internet here is total crap so I haven't been able to download it. I saw the screenshots, though. I have my own recreation of the NES font somewhere that should be visually identical to Woodus' (I think he made the other one floating around), but was very likely created by a different piece of software as his (I used the website, FontStruct). If I can find it/redownload it, I can send it to you for you to try out if you'd prefer it over Garrick Bold.

this dj-druin is mad! are the beats too fresh??

Hey @foxfirenelli, since you don't seem keen on using the old Dragon Warrior NES font, I thought I might share this with you: https://fontzone.net/font-details/garrick-bold Garrick Bold is the font used in Dragon Quest XI and maybe even VIII (not sure but it's not in front of me).

Played a little bit of the demo today, really enjoying it so far! You've nailed the Dragon Quest feel - the NPC interactions are charming, and the music makes me feel very nostalgic. I really like some of the new stuff you added as well, like the ability to pick your character's appearance, the type of relationship with your teammate and being able to save on the world map. Seeing Trode and Stella was also a nice surprise. I'll let you know if I run into any problems, but so far so good!

I'm hunting Guardians tonight, and well... I'm knocking them so hard it puts them on their heads.

Speaking of Joker 2 Monster Guide Book. It's one of my greatest gaming mysteries what happened to it. I bought it shortly after moving in with my wife. It was freaking bright yellow. It got lost 1/2 way through the game. Thought we'd find it when we moved 2.5 years later. Nope. Last I saw it, it was next to the bed. Goner.

They do fit the bill as the perfect bickering couple haha. Add Maribel in the mix and everyone would want to bang their heads on walls.

Trode and Stella bickering is an amazing idea. Keep it up!