Thursday, May 5, 2022

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, Part 6 - The Long Kon

 

This snow town is pretty. Too bad there aren't more places like this in the game. Debora is recovered from her odd weak spell, so we're off to Gotha. The homeland of our main character, Gotha is where he'll be crowned king. Also, it's almost Cinco de Mayo, and we need to prepare for Sancho's Daughter's Quinceanera. Finally, good things are happening for our heroes!



The castle of Gotha is seen in the distance here. It's been a while since the last post, so I'm trying to get my bearings figured out here as we finally get back to wrapping this one up.

Here's the overworld representation of what we were just looking at.

OH MY GOD! IT'S SANCHO.

Sancho then points at the sky in remembrance of The Macho Man.

The prince of Gotha is happy to see Gazpacho, which is funny because he's gonna have to relinquish his crown. Luckily this isn't Game of Thrones, so it's unlikely we'll have any Red Weddings.

Turns out the reason Debora was having faint spells...is because she's pregnant!

Sancho is here to explain the situation.

Debora knew THE ENTIRE TIME. I wasn't even sure if they actually HAD sex, because their nights are generally a blur of punching, clawing, and Debora barking orders. Basically the Amber Heard household only not as gross.

No more going for rolls in the hay in ACTUAL HAY for these two. Now they can afford beds! He's an honest to God prince!

"...I'm an honest-to-God PRINCE!" says Gazpacho.

This nearly concludes Chapter 2 (of 3) but you can acquire one of the best monsters in the game before you move on to the final chapter. Orc King here is decent DPS and learns high-tier heals and revives quickly. His ability to cast Multiheal early is invaluable. Probably right behind Slime Knight and the upcoming Golem as far as useful monsters go.

Even though Orc King is very good, I'm not sure if he's quite front line worthy...but only because of the steep competition. I think he's more of a backup character, i.e. best-suited staying out of the main party and healing them. However, given his toughness, he can also be slotted into the main fighting party as needed.

His name is Ward. As in...Wardlow? The game did this, not me. I quickly buy him a SLEDGEHAMMER~! to decimate his foes.

Next, Gazpacho has to bring the royal insignia down to this place to find out if he's truly Worthy. A disembodied voice has a good message for him, but it must have missed the hundreds of monsters he's slaughtered all game.

That glow means he's Worthy.

Sounds like we've got a new Pope.

When Evac fails and you're forced to walk back out, usually it means trouble is afoot. This rule goes back all the way to the Sealed Cave in FFIV.

And yeah, sure enough, there's a boss fight on the way out.

It's the return of Kandar (with his dumb remake name) and his new goon. The goon has almost no HP and casts heals, so you need to get it out of the way first. Kandar isn't too bad after that, basically a standard boss. Nowhere near the menace he was in DQIII.

I don't think this is actually supposed to be the same guy despite the similar name and personality. More of a reference.

...Hispanic? SANCHO!

"YOU try saying no to her, ese!"

Debora is in pretty rough shape waiting for the birth to happen, and the dialogue actually makes it seem like she might not actually survive this.

Sancho was there, and it was the happiest day of his life except for His Daughter's Quinceanera.

While all of this is going on, Ward wrestles Punk.

We return, and TWINS have arrived. A boy and a girl.

Gaz is very happy.

...we probably shouldn't let Orc King near these babies though, he gets hungry.

I had to name the kids, and was going to go with Luke and Leia. However, the girl's default name is Madchen, and that's a great name. It's probably a reference to Madchen Amick, who was a fairly big name around the time of this game. I don't know of any other Madchens anywhere in anything.

Gazpacho takes the throne and the people of Gotha celebrate! All these good things happening sure is a change of pace for this game. Hopefully this kind of happy positivity continues for a while.

Debora wants woman-servants, and she wants them NOW!

...you're adopted?

Yes, she's adopted, and so is Nera. I'm not really sure what effect this has on anything except that it's now easier for nefarious cartoonists online to ship Nera with Debora.

Though knowing the depths of Deviantart and Tumblr, they were already shipping them anyway.

Prince Albert relinquishes the throne to the new king Gazpacho, and is way too good of a sport about it. We should really make sure he doesn't have any assassins on speed-dial.

Not even a single complaint from the guy despite that his entire life has been up-ended.

Gazpacho is now the new king, and Prince Albert just sort of sods off. I guess he can occupy his time by opening a piercing shop or something.

But wait, I spoke too soon on this being the end of Chapter 2. Or the beginning of some sort of happy era.

Looks like trouble has struck, and the night isn't over yet.

Sancho SUITS UP FOR BATTLE. His Daughter's Quinceanera can wait! We have to save Debora.

The seedy chancellor is also missing, and may be connected. Why is it always the chancellors?

In the depths of the basement Chancellor Jeeves admits that he let monsters into the castle...and they appear to have mortally wounded him as well.

I mean, you don't say.

"I don't." says Gazpacho before beheading him Ned Stark style.

Well no, but that would have been cool.

The final boss of Chapter 2 is Ladja's goon, Kon. However, now he has his own goons, so we have to go through a couple minibosses to get to him.

First up, Orc Pawn (Lv 20 Orc in the SFC version).

Yeah, the 2000s-era Dragon Quest devs were definitely Everquest fans. Aside from the numerous EQ Wizard spells that show up in the portable DQ remakes with the same names/effects, Orc Pawn is like the Level 1 Imp of that game. The most common enemy, bordering on iconic for the players.

"Fear Me!"

After that, this wyvern miniboss. Neither fight is anything to sneeze at, and they can actually wear you down enough to need to evac out and get to an inn after these fights. With the Orc King on the team we've got plenty of heals, at least. Problem is, his MP doesn't really hold up too well until he gains some levels, so inn trips are still a necessity.

Sooner or later...yeah, it took a while due to having to run back to the inn between fights. Sorry about that.

Kon blabs about something. What have you done to Debora, you bastard?

This guy was present when Pankraz was killed, so it's about time we get a crack at him. He's easily the hardest boss yet up to this point. Pankraz made him look like a jobber earlier, but don't be fooled.

After a few turns of this guy basically being invincible, Debora casts something to break down his barrier. The first few turns are better spent buffing, since no damage counts.

After this pitched battle ends, Punk acquires one of EQ's most useful raid buffs...and the only buff the Berserker class ever gets.

As his last dying act, Kon petrifies our heroes.

...that is, in the SFC version, which I'd really like to play again soon.

In this version...

...Ladja appears and warps him away, then petrifies our heroes himself. Not sure what the difference is, unless they just didn't want to show Kon dying in the American remakes for some reason. He's never seen again after Ladja "warps him away" so maybe Ladja sent him to another dimension for his failure like Nappa.

Unfortunately, our heroes are petrified...permanently. Yeah, this spell doesn't just wear off, and Ladja leaves them for dead.

A couple of vagrants stumble in, Heister and Huckster. Where oh where is the Nacho Man?

They sell the statues at an auction. Well, they sell Gazpacho's statue at an auction.

Heister keeps Debora's statue around...for reasons.

Gazpacho ends up being a lawn ornament for a family, and watches their kid grow up even as he can't watch his own kids grow up.

Yeah, they make sure to show you that.

The world now gradually goes to shit. Here, demons swoop in and kidnap the family's kids, no doubt to add to Ladja's gulag of kid-trafficking.

Eventually, the statue gets knocked over...and stays there, as the family is too despairing to even tend their lawn anymore. Birds begin to use Gazpacho Statue as target practice for their business.

Act 3 is next, and it's where this game truly kicks into gear.


Other Dragon Quest Posts

The Dragon Quest Master Post

2 comments:

  1. Even late to the party in 2001 the events that went down in this post were shocking.

    ReplyDelete