Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake, Part 6 - Merry DQsmas

 

Previously on DQ3: Our heroes defeated Baramos, only to have Zoma appear with an army of Mystery Drones and fly them menacingly over Aliahan, prompting our heroes to climb down to Hell.

Tantegel sells MUCH better stuff than Future Tantegel will in the other games. It's clear their technology heavily regressed over time, much like Europe after the Roman Empire. Most of this regression happened after Zoma was gone, though! Necessity must have been driving the tech level of this era.

First thing to do is head to the small northwest dungeon, which is much more useful than it was in DQ1. Here's the best shield in the game, the one that'll become Erdrick's Shield. Maybe also the Silver Shield? Unknown, because the Silver Shield has Erdrick's emblem on it in the instruction book artwork, but also if they wanted it to be called Erdrick's Shield they could have called it that.

The northwest town of Kol has a hot spring, which stands in stark contrast to the dark coldness of Alefgard in general.

The important thing about Kol is this guy who can forge the Sword of Kings, best weapon for the hero. Unfortunately he's depressed and all his tools are gone, so he now whittles away his days selling Bamboo Sticks.

Here's Rimuldar, the eastern island town. Got fond memories of this place because it's the point of the original DQ1 where I really felt like I was getting somewhere.

Alefgard's appeal is hurt a bit by everything being shrouded in oppressive darkness, which really stands out in this version. Then again, it just makes me more excited for the DQ1 remake.

The hero's best helm. Is this the Erdrick Helm? Unknown. Which reminds me, hope the DQ1 remake adds the helmet slot (as the original didn't have that and I don't recall the previous remakes having it either). They could make a whole postgame out of retrieving the Erdrick Helm, as well as the actual Erdrick Shield. Being able to get to level 30 (when the game is beatable at level 20) will also definitely have a purpose, much like the Mario RPG remake.

Time for the best additions to this remake: More Ortega flashbacks.

It seems Ortega lost his memory at some point on his journey and only had vague recollections of the people he used to know.

He does, however, remember that he has to save the world from Zoma.

Zoma's Citadel (the future Charlock Castle) looms ominously. If Ortega were smart, he would have gone and recruited 3 minions from the pub. Even Goof-Offs would have been better than nothing. What was he thinking?

It seems Ortega has made a great impression everywhere he went. Even the racist faeries like him.

Much like DQ1, getting to the central island requires making a rainbow bridge with several artifacts, so gathering those is the next step.

The biggest problem in the game to this point are these bastards that tend to ambush you on the overworld. They seem to always go first, and they cast AOE insta-death spells, which is of course total garbage.

I had more game overs to these guys than I did in the rest of the game to this point combined (...which is to say, 3 vs 2)

I load the hero up with Shawn Michaels' Oomph Powder (tm) so that there's less work for the Sages to do in buffing phases. One toot of Oomph Powder and your strength doubles, but you might also get into a fight with marines in Syracuse.

The King of Tantegel talks about how the kingdom is at the mercy of Zoma. "We tried everything. We even tried calling him a nazi over and over, and all it did was make our own people think we're jackasses."

My God. Kandar is here??

What was Kandar's crime, you ask? We don't know, but he was probably trying to get the nuns to buy his hentai.

Before leaving the castle, here's another rainbow bridge component. This one's very easy to miss in previous versions, and this remake gives you a big objective marker showing where it is.

Kandar is having a rough time locked in the church basement. He's got no access to baby oil and he's all dry and chafed. Wait a minute, why is the prison in the church basement and not the castle?

Now I just need to prepare for the last two dungeons, which means lots of Metal Babble grinding.

Sometimes the overworld gives you a full set of slimes, just for the luls. Imagine how short DQ1 would have been if the slimes were this organized.

Sword of Ruin is cursed, and thus no good. DQ games in this era liked to drop a bunch of cursed equipment on you towards the end.

Hate Mail, lol. Despite both being cursed, these things are still good to get because they sell for sizable amounts of money.

Reassembling the Sword of Kings is the next thing on the list. Requires this lump of ore from the Damdara horse pen, a forging hammer, and a broken blade.

Next I do a quick sidequest where I track down this bellydancer from Asham who somehow ended up in the underworld.

Going back to Asham after this- whoa, damn, let me just hang out here a while.

Going back to Asham, you can tell her pimp manager that she won't be returning, and that gets you one of the best armors in the game for Type-B body types women.

Next up, the northwesternmost building in Jipang contains the Forging Hammer. This isn't available until after beating Baramos, so I couldn't have gotten it earlier. This is where the Kol blacksmith used to live before he had to flee town for some reason. Maybe he dishonored Jipang by harboring a barbarian like Duncan Macleod.

Lastly is the Broken Blade, which is found in the disheveled laboratory of this inventor in Cantlin. Combine this with the ore and the hammer and we're off to the races.

The inventor talks about the construction of Golem, which will soon guard the town from trespassers. I used to think DQ1 took place way after DQ3, like many generations later, but nope, it's starting to seem like it directly follows DQ3 one generation later.

Bring the parts back to the Kol swordsmith and he finally regains his zest for life. At least for a minute.

The Sword of Kings is the hero's best weapon, and canonically the weapon that became Erdrick's Sword, which is pretty awesome.

"There's one more thing you should know about me" says the Swordsmith. "In my college days, my nickname was Captain Beat-Cheeks."

......okay? I need to get going.

Next up is the 2nd to last dungeon, the Tower of Rubiss, which is full of these annoying arrow-tiles that change your direction inputs and can easily walk you off of these bridges (which means having to backtrack). However, getting across this narrow bridge has a good reward:

This is the best armor for the Hero (at least, in the main story) and is canonically what became Erdrick's Armor.

Can't get over how cool the electric floors look in this version.

At the top of the Tower of Rubiss is a new boss that wasn't in previous versions, which was a very cool surprise.

It's the return of Baramos, who it seems Zoma keeps bringing back to life to continue doing his bidding.

Baramore, which is what I call this version, has some tough minions and is a significant upgrade over the first Baramos. The fact that he basically ambushes you is also pretty rad and ups the challenge level. Great surprise here.

Finished that fight in dire straits, with one character punted from the battle entirely early-on which had me at a significant disadvantage. Check out Archie's MP. Now that was a fight.

This frees the soul of Rubiss, sort of Alefgard's counter-balance to Zoma and the only person in the land who can stand up to him in any way. Unfortunately she's getting on in years and can't protect the land the way she used to, so it's up to the heroes now.

They should do a Rubiss pre-prequel.

With everything in Alefgard sorted out, it's time to get the rainbow drop and cross the bridge.

Wonder if Zoma is sweating yet, seeing the heroes crossing a magic bridge towards his citadel. Baramore couldn't stop them, so next he'll have to send out Baramost.

The mountain citadel that has been iconic since DQ1 is the final goal here. But first, I need more levels. DQ3 has a couple of major leveling break-points where you generally need to gain a bunch of levels in a short time to be competitive. Baramos' Castle is one and Zoma's Citadel is the other. I usually get to Baramos' Castle at around level 20ish and need to be around 30ish for it, while Zoma is more like 35ish vs 45ish.

I go full "live to win" farming Metal Babbles, which seem to be most common in the area NW of Rimuldar.

Archie's ultimate attack, as far as I know. This is potent, but it also gobbles up MP.

Next time: The final battles, and I finally get around to the Monster Arena.