Next, our heroes climb to the top of the ice mountain to look for the Zenithian Sword. But what condition will it be in after all these years?
It's an ice cave in a DQ, so it's largely puzzle-based. Lots of sliding around.
We find the altar of the Zenithian Sword, only to have TERRY walk in, go "don't mind if I do lol" and waltz right past our heroes to claim it. Why do they keep letting him do stuff like this?
But wait! The sword is all rusted! Terry doesn't even want it now, and throws it on the GROUND.
Terry: "My sword is way better lol bye"
Our next stop takes us to the grafitti-filled slums of this maze-like town.
Pattycake? Is that Puff-Puff? If so why'd they change it for this one game's translation? Well, let's do it.
"Aw, MAN!"
-Ashlynn
............
................................
What just happened
Next is another annoying minigame where you have to find this guy disguised as various townspeople for a while. I gotta say, this game loves padding and slowing things down.
"Ey! Broad! How much?" yells some guy in the background.
Why does this sound so disapproving?
We take in a quick cabaret show. "Yeah! Shake it!" catcalls Ashlynn while throwing 1 GP coins at the stage.
I think Ashlynn might be a man trapped in a lady-body. Well, "trapped"
Mo is found creepin' in the puff-room of the cabaret club, disguised as a woman. He was easy to spot because he didn't shave...down there.
Yeah but TBH I kinda want to get back to exploring and dungeons and fighting things
If this game could do that at some point
Here's Welda, the finest swordsmith in all the land. Well, the daughter of the finest swordsmith. He's unavailable so she'll have to do. Har, Welda. Like "welder"
In any case, we need her to reforge the sword, which she'll do...reluctantly.
Our hero promises while totally not crossing his fingers.
This is getting strange.
"...Bitch."
For someone who was super-reluctant to work on the sword or do any forging, she's pretty excited once it gets underway.
Given how the ocean is shaking uncontrollably, I think they're doing okay.
Carver asking the tough questions.
Next up is an undersea shrine. I love when RPGs do stuff like this. It was a really common idea in the 90's, right up to Final Fantasy X.
This shrine is awesome. It's good to be in a real dungeon for the first time in a bit after all of the sometimes-tedious side-missions we've been doing.
There's a big boss down here, probably about on par with Jamirus and Mudo.
Course, with my advanced levels/classes plus the top of the line equipment sets, I roll over this guy before too long. Gonna be waiting until the endgame (which is rapidly approaching) to face another challenge. Though DQVI was never particularly challenging even when my levels were normal.
With another Dread Fiend defeated, an entire island surfaces after being buried undersea.
It's also full of people. Not sure how they survived down here when it was cursed.
I missed a crucial item in the last dungeon, and have to go back to get it. The Sand Urn is the only way to proceed with the game at this point, and it's honestly kind of easy to miss. It's in the room right before the fight with Gracos.
Use the Sand Urn here (it gives you no prompt BTW) and...
...Oh My.
My God. Now Ashlynn can burst. It does a lot of damage to the surrounding landscape.
The next phase of the game is another minigame-type mission with no fights or dungeons. Instead we're entering a style contest where Style Points finally do something.
Our only guide on our journey is Seymour Sass, who is basically this game's version of Andrea from FFVIIR.
Ashlynn has the highest style in the group, between her glass slippers and fishnet stockings. I send her out to dominate the first few rounds of the Style Tournament.
::Ashlynn bursts::
You only need to win like 3-4 style contests to proceed with the game, but if you go all the way to winning the 7th one, you get the all-important Sage's Stone.
I'm not gonna bother with this. Wait, what? Not gonna bother getting an easy Sage's Stone? That's right. The Luminary ability Hustle Dance is basically the same exact thing (a zero MP group heal) and I have it on every character. Unlike previous games, the Sage's Stone is essentially obsoleted by the Luminary class here.
And hell, even the Hustle Dance isn't particularly crucial when you can make everyone a mastered Hero class and they get a sizable auto-heal (from the class' innate regen) at the end of every round. Though I'm more inclined to keep people in the Sage role even when they're maxed-out, for the half-MP when casting trait.
Next it's time to go after the Zenithian Armor and Shield, which have different names in this installment.
First up, we partake in a seance to summon Toad.
This staircase is a little too hidden, there's zero indication that there's something hidden where it is. I'm guessing that the mirror universe version of this room shows it to you or something like that. However this game can be extremely vague.
There we go, best armor acquired. No boss fight, really not a lot to write home about. I'm wondering what happened to that skeleton in the corner there.
Another obscure hidden staircase with no indication of its location is found in the next area. If I didn't have a good walkthrough (Almar's Guides) I would not be able to get through this game simply due to the vagueness.
Shield acquired. I've been mostly using Holy Protection to get around without dealing with encounters, so the game is flying by at least.
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