Friday, December 17, 2021

Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen, Part 5 - Necrosaro's Lament

 

Today on Dragon Quest IV, our heroes ride a hot air balloon and take on the final boss, while the dandiest purple-clad bard looks on and sings of them.



The World Tree is a solitary mega-tree in the middle of a large wastelandish valley.

Up here, the Zenithian Sword is acquired, which completes the set.

I believe Orifiela is Doran from the NES version, and is now a lady. Maybe Doran was always a lady, I don't know.

Check out that FULL SET. Much like the Erdrick set, this is the ultimate (or close to it) equipment in the next couple of games.

Finally we arrive at the sky-fortress of Zenithia, which is basically a mega-airship.

The winged people here are an ancient, more-advanced civilization than the surface-dwellers below. This same theme would be revisited in Chrono Trigger. It's also found in Final Fantasy 1 (except the civilization is long-gone) and Legend of Dragoon (right down to the wings). Seems like this is an extremely common trope in RPGs of the era.

As for the Secret of Evolution...yeah, Psaro is super-into that whole thing. It's basically like cheating on evolution to get way more powerful than you're supposed to be.

The Eternal Dragon concept returns, but it's a bit different this time. He's just this benevolent fellow in a tower, no big whoop.

He pulls a Bahamut and powers up our heroes out of the blue. Well, hero. He only powers up the hero. Everyone else can suck it!

After the free powerup, our heroes arrive...IN HELL. To the north is Necrosaro's Fortress, surrounded by a barrier. As is tradition, we have to take out four bosses to even get into the place.

I remember Dragon Quest IV being fairly easy compared to the others, aside from a couple of midgame fights, and thus far... it is. Just flying by, and even this final area doesn't pose a big threat.

He's sort of like Deus in Xenogears.

"I... am the clitoris" says the barrier calmly. What the hell?

...wait, that was just Taloon playing a prank. The scoundrel!

First up is what I THINK was formerly known as Gigademon: Pruslas, the Prussian music sensation.

I actually lose the first time, which isn't a good sign because none of these fights are difficult. Time for GRINDING.

Only need a few levels, but I go ahead and grind a bunch. Yeah, the endgame isn't bad, but I need to be prepared for the new postgame too.

AWWW YEAH. This is what you want to see. Unfortunately, they're tough to take down in this game. It's easier in DQV with Hela's Hammer.

Our heroes face their toughest foe yet: The three-tittied alien from Total Recall.

Wait...it's just more slimes. I was lacking my trusted spectacles, my mistake.

Take down ONE of these bad boys and you get all of this. It's massive, even at high levels.

After gaining a bunch of extra levels, it's back to slaying endgame bosses.

Yeah, that was much easier than the previous attempt, with the additional levels. Typically you want to be in the 40's or more for DQ final bosses, but you can get by in the mid to high 30's for this one since it's one of the easiest DQ endgames.

A bunch of transforming mimic enemies impersonate our heroes! Jesus, Maya is hot. Note her hip-accentuating pose, while Ragnar and Hero are just posed like Spaceballs characters igniting their beam swords.

Barbatos is the next minion up. He's tough in his own way, but no match for a sufficiently-leveled crew. The fact that you can go get fully restored between each of these bosses makes them much easier to beat. If they'd been a gauntlet of fights right before the final boss, as earlier more-brutal games would have done, then it would have been a tough scenario.

Aren't we already in Hell? What's under Hell? The HFIL from American DBZ?

Wait a minute, that's no priest! *knocks off his hat*

Indeed, that's Aamon, the former Radimvice. He's more or less the real villain of this game, the Ozzie to Psaro's Magus.

He's the strongest of the four guardians, and has a goon squad to boot. He also bears a striking resemblance to Zoma.

He'll be back.

After that, the only guardian left is this oddball. It's the weirdest of the fights. You only need to worry about capping all of them at the same time so they don't revive. CALL IN THE MAGES!

...well, really, you just need the Hero firing off Kazap every round until the fight ends, while everyone else dodders about. The boss' HP is shockingly low.

Now that The Clitoris has been dealt with, our heroes get access to the castle. It's a maze, like all DQ last dungeons.

Ragnar and the Hero struggle to move a statue, while Kiryl looks away out of the horror of his crush Alena standing close to him. "What do I say??" he muses to the wall. Man, this guy, don't be like him.

The most important item in the game, best placed on a character with no innate healing powers. Of course, in this version we've got full control over everyone.

"Whoaaaah holy shit!" says the Baron.

After a long walk that is very reminiscent of the end of Earthbound...

...Here's Psaro, and for whatever reason he has turned into Esturk. I guess the Secret of Evolution makes you look Esturk-ish? It's like when people who get plastic surgery on their face all end up looking like those Bogdanoff twins.

Necrosaro Form 1: Imperfect Necrosaro. Not too much is impressive about this form, outside of his sizable dong-pouch.

I go on about the final fight(s) of this game being easier than other DQs, but it isn't very reassuring when his first form TAKES OUT YOUR TANK.

I think it means "atomizes" because he loses his head to grow a new, better one rapidly. The Secret of Evolution basically makes you John Carpenter's The Thing, capable of evolving new limbs quickly.

Necrosaro Form 2: Hell Comes To Frogtown.

He attacks with giant open-hand slaps that do huge damage.

That isn't even his final form, as he has one more big transformation in him...

Necrosaro Form 3: Perfect Necrosaro.

Even this form isn't too serious, and I won the fight unexpectedly quickly. Was actually doing a rebuff when the fight just sort of ended. The Sage's Stone actually gimps this fight a lot, outside of his big single-target attacks which can still pose a threat.

The ending has the Eternal Dragon heaping high praise on our heroes. That's just one of Taloon's many gifts, I assure you.

"Well...well...well. It is I, the Quintessential Studmuffin, at another long journey's end, packing more junk than should be legally allowed. The one who will stuff her stockings and baste her turkey this holiday season: Taloon "Much like Santa Claus, I always come down the chimney" ...Gertner."

Taloon returns home to a hero's welcome. Wait a second, is that his son? THE SON OF TALOON?

"The one I know about" he clarifies.

Lastly, the hero is reunited with Celia, who...just sort of revives for no reason. However we don't see her in the postgame at all so...cool? I dislike when games trivialize death and sacrifice like this to score a cheap pop, especially when it has no actual effect on the game world or postgame. Not a big deal though, the world has much worse problems than the dev choices in DQIV.

Speaking of postgame...there is one. That's right, a brand new postgame for DQIV that wasn't in the NES original. A shiny new Chapter 6. I have no idea what to expect from this, so I'm excited. It all begins with jumping down this mysterious hole.

What awaits? FIND OUT...NEXT TIME.


Other Dragon Quest Posts

The Dragon Quest Master Post

1 comment:

  1. Doran was the dragon, Lucia was the Zenithian lady.

    Whoa, great shot of the imposter enemies there.

    Poor Cristo.

    Even better shot of the Psaro hand there, wow.

    Awww, they're hugging.

    ReplyDelete