At this point I have no problem saying that this is one of the best games in the whole Dragon Quest series. While the original DQII is still down a few tiers, this remake could be up there with the DQVs and DQXIs of the world in the upper tier.
Four sigils down! One sigil left! Because it's time...for our main event. Brrrrr.
The next dungeon is a new one, Mariella's lair. Here, she plots her conquest of the undersea world.
Or would be plotting it, if our heroes weren't breaking down the door. Now she's just trying to see how many valuables she can hide under that ridiculous poofy dress.
What follows is a boss fight. She's the new addition to Hargon's minions, she's weaker than the other three, she won't be in the final dungeon, and she's just generally lame as hell. What even is she, some sort of doll?
After clobbering that fight fairly easily, we move on...and Moonbrooke learns the insanely powerful Wild Side spell. This lets you go twice per round. Not sure why they call "going twice in a row" Wild Side, as if you're letting your wild side ou.... oh. Wait. Nevermind.
That gets me the final Sigil. This one increases everyone's maximum HP, but it also gives various abilities a powered-up form if the character falls below 50% HP. This was useful in DQI, but I'm not going to get much use out of it in this game. I try not to let my characters spend any real time under 50% HP to begin with.
Thoughts so far:
Belial - Interesting guy, definitely has leading villain potential.
Atlas - Big strong oaf, is a good goon.
Mariella - Weird-ass and lame, could have been left on the cutting room floor.
Pazuzu - An enigma so far, but I get the impression he's a bit of a psychopath.
This guy basically takes potshots at my style of autobattling. Fight Wisely works really well in these games. Show No Mercy does nonstop attacking and is better for grinding, while Fight Wisely will actually heal and do other things to take a balanced approach.
Our heroes obtain a flute, and Moonbrooke disappears with it into the fog of the hot spring for a while. She's been really pent-up since she held hands with a mermaid.
Elsewhere, Black Sanguini has managed to earn the trust of the townspeople enough that he's no longer locked up, despite being a monster and a Hargon minion on paper. He's proven his harmlessness, mostly by hovering around being adorable.
Now he's going to do something to help our heroes out, and goes off to find inside information on Rendarak and how we can penetrate it.
Next stop, using the Floodgate Key, right where it always was. This game is a great mix of everything I remember from the old versions of DQII, and lots of new adventures that are actually well-done.
::high-pitched screaming begins to echo all around as a tidal wave blasts through the floodgate::
There were probably myriad casualties, but our heroes jumped on their boat and got out while the getting was good. We don't know NOTHIN about any of that.
Next, our heroes get a hotel suite for the night. Moonbrooke shuts the curtains so she can take a bubble bath and do that thing women do in the bath where they stick one leg straight up in the air and point their foes at the ceiling.
Next, another wacked-out priest. He wants to see these people showing some leg!
Once again, our heroes have to note that these wacked-out clergy are not representative of normal clergy members and the game is not anti-church.
This leads to a boss fight with a guy who splits into six. This is the best kind of boss fight because AOEs in these games tend to be so powerful. Having six of a foe just means you can hit them six times instead of one.
Next up is a tower. I believe there was a Mini Medal between these two stairwells, one of the more hidden ones.
All I know for sure is that I'm getting real, real tired of mimics in this game. They're freaking everywhere.
This guy and other followers of Hargon have correctly discerned that humans are easier to control when they get dumbed-down first. Is that why so much of our media infantilizes everything? Probably. Imagine a world without social media or 24 hour news networks, and how much less it would resemble Hell.
It's another tough boss fight. I think this model was one of the big bads of that Dragon Quest VI's cult, like it is here. Jamirus or somesuch.
Back to Dirkandor for the next fight, which is with...the King himself? Normally in the past, Dirkandor's culminating fight was with that sabertooth cat.
This is pretty strange because you very rarely fight humans in the DQ series. He's a very strong opponent, as the boss difficulty continues to be right on the edge of what is doable with my levels.
After that friendly spar, the next stop is...
...this old man who helped the Prince of Cannock earlier. It turns out that he's the deposed Prince of Rendarak. So he's basically Reza Shah II of Iran.
After more deep sea diving (not the fun kind), I reach the penultimate major dungeon outside Rhone/Rendarak:
What used to be the Sea Cavern in previous versions, now the Volcanic Grotto. This was always a bit of a mini Rhone Cave back in the day, and introduces a lot of the challenges that Rhone Cave will bring in force.
This place has an awesome fiery theme, and the goal here is to find the statue that unlocks the Cave to Rendarak.
Acquired Moonbrooke's biggest spell, Kaboom (formerly Explodet) which is as OP as usual. She herself isn't as OP as in past versions of the game, and things are far more balanced than before. Except that Sasha doesn't really have any critical role like the others do, she's just kinda there to fill in various things if needed. If anyone is really OP in this version, it might actually be Prince Cannock with his Omniheal. What are the odds?
From the makers of Toadtalitarian... it's the Whackolyte! He's on high alert for Infidels like our heroes. They'll sport their heretic badge proudly.
Rather than sic more goons on us, Pazuzu swings into action to deal with us himself. The most insane of Hargon's minions, this guy is a vicious sociopath who is also known to fling his own poop while screeching.
Next stop: The Sunken Ship. This center area looks eerily like Leene's Bell at the Millennial Fair. Like that civilization was consumed by the seas, or something. This isn't Chrono Cross being all depressing, though.
This gets us a...message in a bottle. Yeah. Message in a bot-tle, yeah.
It shows the flashback of how a man loved a mermaid, and tried to protect the mermaids from whalers who wanted to make shampoo and other household products out of them.
Next stop: Finding Lady Rubiss, beyond the Stargate.
The only problem is...Atlas has been spying on our heroes, and we led him right to Rubiss' location.
Hargon's goons sure are getting a LOT more screentime.
As in the original, this guy is a physical powerhouse, and mostly targets single characters with attacks that absolutely truck their HP. We fend him off, and he just sorta leaves. All these guys will have rematches at full power in Rendarak.
I like that the goddess of this world is a redhead. Japanese games: Giving the often-ignored-in-media redheads a ton of screentime.
Great trophy title here. "Good Morning, Goddess" is what you say to a woman you adore even at her most-unkempt, first thing in the morning.
With all of our business sorted out...it's time to get to Rhone Cave Cave to Rendarak.
Next time: Rendarak at last, and the unrelenting blizzard of the plateau. Not unlike the unrelenting blizzard outside in real life as I write this.
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