Saturday, March 14, 2020

Dragon Quest III #5 - Angel Begins

The next goal is to collect a bunch of orbs. I believe there are six of them. The first is very simple to get... you talk to a prisoner in a jail. In this installment I hunt down the other five orbs and battle the dastardly Orochi, stopping only occasionally for four-ways.



If Willow were still in the party, there would definitely be an American Pie joke here. In any case, this is an Orb locating item, which would help quite a bit back in the days before FAQs. It's more or less Dragonball Radar.

Considering Akira Toriyama did the artwork for these games, it's fitting that they have orbs and radar.

Whoa, snow? You can bet this wasn't in the original NES version.

This item revives a character with full HP, but you can only have one at a time. I always be sure to keep it stocked... or would, but I never seem to end up using the one I have.

This game may be different, though, since I won't have anyone with Revive. ...or HealUs. It's going to be a melee-heavy party, and the most I'll have for heals is Buffy with HealAll.

Some kook with a telescope spouts some nonsense. Celestial objects aren't discs? Ooookay then, Mister Scientist.

We find a giant floor-cross as what may or may not be Communist blue slime Slalin from DQV lurks over there on the left.

Slalin: "Perhaps you can give me half of it, as I have none, comrade!"

A lead on another orb. The hunt is afoot! In a way, this is a lot like Elder Scrolls Arena. Just running around finding clues as to the whereabouts of collectibles.

Next, Buffy has to go through a dungeon by herself to get an orb. This could be difficult, but she has the Repel spell to ward off most enemies.

Buffy roams out to this lone cave by herself. Let's hope for the best.

She gets TONS OF EXPERIENCE in here, which is much-needed since the hero levels so slow in this game.

There we go, second orb. That was a pretty quick dungeon.

WHOA! A character speaks! Somehow, I don't think Angel would be thanking God for anything, being a vampire and all that.

Onward to Jipang, which is the Japan of the game. There's a fire cave here, and it looks awesome.

Metal Slimes attack in droves here, but good luck taking out more than a couple of them in any given battle.

It's time to change Angel into a Warrior and make him the leader of the party. We're now in the Angel series, officially.

Angel passes on his coat. Spike will be able to wear it some time soon. Now I just need he and Faith to get done Sage-ing so they can turn into their final classes.

Angel starts at level 1...with half the stats he built up as a Thief, so really he's as strong as a level 10 character. Still, he has no business being at the front of the group yet, but I put him there anyway. He'll catch up.

Decked out and ready for combat, he already hits nearly as hard as Buffy. Class-changed characters can be powerful in this game. Wonder if Spike and Faith will notably benefit by having another class in the interim, or if it's better to just go with two classes over the course of the game.

Time to fight Orochi, the terror of Jipang. Tiamat who?

Angel rocketed in levels in the course of one dungeon. I suspect Warriors level faster than other classes, but I can't confirm it.

Angel's attacks are devastating at this point, and his Agi is much higher than a pure Warrior would have been.

Winning gets him a sweet weapon upgrade.

It turns out that the chieftess of the village was actually Orochi in disguise all along!


A second Orochi fight in succession? What is this, an NES DBZ game? This one isn't any more difficult, and you can sneak out to visit the inn between the two fights. Worth noting is that Orochi is the first foe in the game to get two attacks in any given round.

Three orbs down, three to go. What part of the world will our heroes end up in next? Australia? Sweden? Tune in and find out.


2 comments:

  1. Slalin looks QUITE surprised in this shot. Even with class changes I'm impressed you were able to keep your HPs up against Orochi at those levels, I wonder if she was nerfed any for this version. Great stuff either way.

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  2. WHOA this fire cave is busting out of the walls! THAT'S how you do this!
    Given how Angel leveled up, couldn't you have gotten through a Jester to get a Sage faster by class-changing someone to a jester at the Shrine of Dharma and then EXP-farming?

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