Yeah I actually like the protagonist’s design. He’s different! And he fits right in the medieval setting… I don’t think that his was a 90s haircut here - I don’t know that it was a haircut here past medieval times at all - but what do I know about fashion. Maybe it’s because I’m European but the main character is a-okay
EDIT: Never mind what I said about fashion, I thought he had a bowlcut middle part in his haircut. Like, you know, more mediavalesqe. I only played the game for 20 minutes, okay, I’m hazy on the details. Still, looking at it closely now I still like it!
I always feel a little guilt striking down my first sabrecat. Moreso this time with cubs frolicking nearby.
Then Erik went wild widda boomerang. And we got pepped for The Real Decoy. Building Tension in 8 involved some strategy but could take so many turns, 9’s Coup De Grace could be somewhat manipulated out of randomness. Think I’m diggin’ Pep between 'em.
The ‘No XP from weak enemies’ rule solves one of my biggest issues, knowing how to pace myself to avoid over-leveling (I never seek out fights but I explore every corner and tend to bump into too many). It’s implemented quite strictly – as soon as you’re 1 level above the target you get no XP, and it’s a strong message to just run past enemies. Especially with respawning enemies roaming the fields and the ability to trivially bypass them, it’s a great guide as to how long I should be spending on things. And it keeps the gold economy in check, too.
Combined with the ‘stronger enemies’ mode, this is working real well. So far ‘strong enemies’ (I’m level 5) feels like DQ1 balancing.
Dragon Quest takes place in a world where you can enter a shop, go behind the counter and empty out all the locked chests, and the shopkeeper doesn’t even flinch. He might even be facing you when it happens—he will continue talking and selling you goods like nothing happened. It’s like, people will do what they can to protect things from getting taken, but nobody’s going to call you a thief or make you feel guilty. No one feels a sense of entitlement over anything even if it’s in their own house. (Does the house even belong to them?) There are no cops in dragon quest
There are a million and one heavily armed town guards, though
I honestly don’t know what I think about what Dragon Quest thinks about the player ransacking everyone’s stuff. They’ve both updated the fidelity of their world, making it more obviously ridiculous, and introduced new hints about it, like the pot smashing, indicating you should feel bad about it.
My best read is that if you asked Horii about it he’d say it was preserving a childhood fantasy of going through adults’ closets and dressers. If you ask him if you are supposed to feel bad, he’d respond,
Heliodor, the first big city you visit, had a surprising theme of class struggle that I enjoyed. The shanty town area downtown is really cool. I loved climbing up and around all the makeshift huts embedded in the city walls.
A little weird that it’s totally bourgeoisie vs. lumpen-proletariat only, but I’ll take it.
I just that imagine that everyone knows you’re going to confess at the church eventually (since that’s presumably what they all do as well) and absolve yourself that way.
They’re not too judgemental and in the world of Dragon Quest any wandering adventurer could turn out to literally be the hero of legend who routinely saves the world from the dark lord so wouldn’t you want to be as helpful as possible as well to every stranger you meet?
Are there usually guards in towns though? Definitely in & around the castle. But any guard is probably just there to protect from monsters, they certainly don’t attack you for doing anything wrong (unlike other crpgs of the time?).
A more interesting topic is jail…what do you have to do to get into dragon quest jail? In 7 there is exactly one jail with one prisoner, and his monologue is so fruity and specific that i think it’s yuji horii being sardonic about the whole sociopolitical aspect of his games. Like it’s easily the longest npc text box in the game so it must be important.
Of course I haven’t played most of the series so my perception of everything might be totally wrong
So how do people set this limited exp mode and such? I must have just skipped that. But I also don’t really care for DQ to be hard, so it’s mostly just curiousity.
there’s a ‘Draconian Quest’ menu you can bring up when you’re starting a new game, you can toggle:
No fleeing
No shopping
No Armour
Reduced exp from easy fights
“Hard” mode
Shypox (still not entirely sure what this is, think it makes your mc fuck around randomly instead of doing what they’re told in fights like the jester class in dq3?)
Shypox makes the main character randomly lose turns in battle for remembering embarassing moments of his life (like telling a joke no one got). Also will sometimes make him too shy to talk to NPCs. You can try again immediately after so it’s just a small waste of time.
As a mechanic it’s rubbish but still 100% recommended
