The two Gremlins can be a real challenge if you're underleveled, or they can be a glorified regular enemy fight if you're not. Either way you've gotta fight FOUR of them like a half hour later, so things aren't getting any easier.
This nice guy gives me a boat for saving his niece from the Gremlins.
In this version they tell you to go right to Alefgard, which is across the bay.
With zoomed-out o-vision (the wave of tomorrow!) we can see Alefgard nearby.
Sigurd learns Midheal, finally putting him on the same healing level that Maria has been at since level 1. The only problem is...
...a few minutes later Maria gets something WAY BETTER. ...except nobody has that many HP yet, so Midheal still pretty much heals anything. POINT FOR SIGURD! LET THE MAN HAVE A W!
As a sample of how totally scaled-down Alefgard is in this game, here we see the southwest coast. That little bog right there is the giant mega-swamp where you find the Token of Erdrick in the original game.
Here's Tantegel and Charlock. You can just dock at Charlock and walk in without a fuss in this game, no world-spanning quest to forge a Rainbow Drop.
The castle is completely ruined on the surface. Surprised the Dragonlord's descendants didn't renovate the place in the last 100 years.
The castle is as scaled-down (heh, scaled...cause he's a dragon) as the rest of Alefgard, but you can find things in their usual places. This is one of the better swords in the game, though it's far from the best now.
BOW DOWN TO THE
BOW DOWN TO THE
great, great, grandson of the king.
BOW DOWN TO THE
great, great, grandson of the king.
"I can't believe people would vote for that guy!" says Dragonlord the 3rd, dejected at no longer being Alefgard's primary villain. Maybe he should have spent more time torching the Rust Belt towns like his grandpa did.
The Four Gremlins are a beefy challenge at this point and give me my first loss of the game. I'm holding off on any major level-grinding for now because I want to get to the snow plateau where the levels flow like pee on a cold spring morning. I'll let these guys go for now and return to fight them later on in the game. It's a very non-linear game, which is great.
The next step is the hunt for the five Sigils (formerly Crests). The Sun and Water Sigils are both very easy to get. Didn't get a shot of the Water Sigil. They're both located on small islands, reachable by boat. From there you've got the Moon Sigil (from a boss in the arena), Star Sigil (from the Gremlins that defeated me) and Life Sigil (from Rhone Cave).
Note: Or so I thought. It looks like the Life Sigil was removed from this version entirely. Now there's one called the Soul Sigil that you get from talking to the king. Either I'm going through some Mandela Effect stuff here or the Soul Sigil is new for this version.
The Game Boy Color remake has the Life Sigil in its proper place so only this version does the switcheroo with the Soul Sigil.
Note: Or so I thought. It looks like the Life Sigil was removed from this version entirely. Now there's one called the Soul Sigil that you get from talking to the king. Either I'm going through some Mandela Effect stuff here or the Soul Sigil is new for this version.
The Game Boy Color remake has the Life Sigil in its proper place so only this version does the switcheroo with the Soul Sigil.
Next stop is the town of women, Zahan. Of course, there's this one old guy here all "HEE HEE" at the state of things.
If anything happens to the men of the town, like if their boat hits an iceberg and capsizes, or gets impaled on a beachball... it'll be up to our two Princes to ensure that the town has a next generation of children. Which means the Princess of Moonbrooke might have to defeat Hargon by herself. Given that she's completely overpowered, it's probably doable.
Huge groups of Metal Slimes are a vision. However, unless you're super-lucky...
...you'll probably only cap one of them, at best.
There are some really good items to go back and get in earlier towns once you have the right keys for them (Silver, Gold, and Jail are the three key types). It's a good idea in ANY DQ game, even the newest one, to make notes of where you see locked doors (and what color they are) so you can return to them later once you've got the right key.
The Leaf of the World Tree is now called the Yggdrasil Leaf. It's still a single-use Life 2 item, though you can always get another one here. ...it'll mostly get used to revive Sigurd as he dies over and over for the entire game.
The underground city of Wellgarth is home to a bazaar of merchants with some of the best equipment in the game. For example, the Light Sword (best weapon for Sigurd) and the wildly-expensive Fur Coat (best armor for Sigurd) which runs 65,000 G. And lastly, the Shield of Strength (best shield for Sigurd) which casts self-only Healmore infinitely. While most of the MC's best equipment is found from chests in late-game dungeons, and the Princess' best equipment are a couple of very limited items gained from quests, it's kinda refreshing that the Prince of Cannock's best equipment set is mostly gained from just simple money-farming to buy them. There's also the Magic Helmet, which is dropped by certain lategame enemies, so you can't get ALL of his best equipment from these shops.
One thing that gets confusing is that in every version of this game, the equipment has different names. Shield of Strength (NES) is Power Shield (Android) and Heal Shield (GBC) for example. Aurora Blade is the former Light Sword, while Mink Mantle is the Fur Coat. These prices are no joke. The Dragonsbane is a decent weapon for the MC to tide him over until he gets his best sword, while you're at it.
After getting the Jail Key from one of the shops, I also get the Dam Key. Unlike the other keys, this doesn't open doors anywhere, and is only used for creating a river path near Tuhn. Roge Fastfinger is a pretty memorable character, for someone who doesn't exactly do anything.
Erdrick equipment may be downgraded in this game compared to the previous one, but it's still really good mid-game equipment.
There's a weird side-quest where Sigurd gets removed from your party until you get a Yggdrasil Leaf to cure his ailments. You don't get anything from this sidequest, so for all I know it's entirely skippable. I think it only exists to give the player an impetus to go find the World Tree.
I go and collect the two pieces necessary to forge the Princess' best armor...
...the Water Flying Cloth, which might be the sexiest armor in any Dragon Quest game. We'll never know, unless this gets a full-fledged remake.
I'm imagining this shimmering gossamer gown that clings to her supple body while onlookers gasp in awe of her femininity.
...that or it's just a towel. We don't know.
"YOU'RE just a towel!"
...that or it's just a towel. We don't know.
Next up is a tower, where I must contend with...Whackolytes. It's like if Faarooq and Bradshaw joined the Dark Order or something.
This isn't one of the five Crests, but it's just as important. You need it to open the Sea Cave, which is where you get the stone idol that lets you get to Rhone Plateau.
Next up: The Sea Cave, or as I call it, Rhone Junior. This is the second-toughest dungeon in the game, and I'm getting it out of the way a little early.
One of my favorite changes to every remake of this game is letting the Prince of Cannock use the Sword of Erdrick.
ReplyDeleteThe name change from Life to Soul was probably a restoration of the original name, but the change in location is quite notable.
That damn Sigurd quest completely breaks the SNES version of the game, sad to say.
Alternatively you could... not open the path to Rhone.