You can get to the Manglegrove by heading south from the Heliodorian Foothills, and there's nothing particularly onerous on the way there. So now... here.
....Doesn't seem so bad out here.
One of the first things you spot out here is a merchant, and he has this interesting thing for sale. The Boomerang is an improvement in weapon quality for Erik, and impressively (considering my reticence for purchasing gear thus far), I deem this worth my money.
Oh, hi, Smog. He's back.
Well, if this isn't the worst combination around.
Wow. We're starting to really feel our relative power level. At least we have plenty of healing.
Erik has finally got enough SP to get his first skill- Half-Inch. Stealing common drops from enemies is real good.
And with Erdward's Flame Slash and Erik's Half-Inch combining, a new Pep Power has opened up to us- Itemised Kill. Itemised Kill is basically Half-Inch, but it does damage, and instead of either "steal common item if succeed, nothing if fail", it's "steal rare item if succeed, common item if fail". This thing could come in handy against the right enemy, and it's why I packed Flame Slash.
Chipper chaps with decidedly sunny dispositions for demons. Though their frolicking may look fun, the rhythm can be dangerously contagious.
Dancing devils come from DQ8 and popped in 10 along the way here. They do have the ability to get you dancing, and also laughing. Both just make you skip your next turn, and both also have unique animations for each party member. You can also access these animations in Photo Mode (something I really neglect doing).
...OK, Half-Inch is kind of long odds now, but if you keep trying, you'll get it eventually. We want to pump up his odds enough that it won't slow us down to give him enough chances.
Trust me, you want to be stealing your goodies rather than hoping for drops. (For one thing, you can steal a common drop and still get the drop.)
I'm fairly sure "daft dance" is their laughing one. There isn't much difference between the two, although two later party members do react differently to being compelled to laugh and dance, respectively. Don't worry, it doesn't come up often enough to be a problem.
Their appalling appearance can never quite be erased once witnessed, but they seem to think the world of themselves nonetheless.
Lips come from DQ6, and somehow stuck around for 7 and 8 before making it here. They can lick you into grossing you out enough to pass your turn.
Erdward picked up a new skill of his own. Greatsword Guard will come in handy for bosses- at least it's something.
There's a mini medal up here, off the beaten path.
This is a weathercow. There are nine of them throughout the game, and they will be happy to tell you when the weather in the area is going to change- most of the time, it's rain they're keeping an ear on. If you talk to all nine at least once, you get an accolade celebrating your mastery of mooteorology.
Well now, that's rude.
...Hm, it actually looks a little bigger than normal, too. Must be my imagination.
A cutscene heading into camp! Wonder what Erik has to share with us.
Derk changing his lifestyle has made an impact on Erik, all right.
It's gotten him all nostalgic.
At which point he suddenly realises he has access to something that he... acquired. I guess this is what we stopped for.
It's about time we got our hands on this thing.
Say hello to the replacement for the Alchemy Pot of Dragon Quest tradition dating back to DQ8! The Fun-Size Forge is like the Alchemy Pot in that you feed it things and it gives you equipment matching or surpassing what you can buy in stores, but it has... three key differences that make it overall more comfortable to use.
Erik acknowledges the oddity of things that are not made of metal being craftable by whacking it with a forging hammer.
Erik feels he wasn't using the thing to its fullest extent when he possessed it (which is probably why it slipped his mind), but he hopes a fresh set of hands will give it a new lease on life.
And this is Key Difference Number One- when it comes to the Alchemy Pot, you could try your luck mashing random ingredients together find recipes on the internet and make literally anything you have the ingredients to make. Here, the game has a much firmer hand on what you're allowed to make. Which helps keep the extent of how crazy you can get under control, while also making finding recipes while exploring more exciting. I am actually tempted to ask someone what you could do without the recipe limit in this game, though.
Erik has some recipes at hand, literally.
Usually, you'll find a recipe in one of these two places. I know at least one recipe that isn't found in these ways, but it's a very rare thing.
So here we are in the Fun-Size Forge menu. We can Forge Weapons, Armour and Accessories, although right now it seems we only have the former. "Recently Learned Recipes" means "any recipes you've found since last time you checked". Good for a reminder, although once you check that tab at all, all the recipes are cleared from it. You get one reminder.
Here are our recipes. No, I don't know why you'd need water for a knife. I just don't care about what I'm putting in my stuff unless I don't have enough of it. Although it can be good to make sure that "enough" accounts for other recipes that require that ingredient.
Speaking of "other recipes that require that ingredient", I'm told Bronze Swords are the only recipes in the game that demand Flintstone.
Let's make a start with the Bronze Sword, then, and onto Key Difference Number Two- to acquire your item, you play a minigame first. Every Forge of a certain type has the same shape for the minigame (ie all Swords will look like this and be 1x3 in size), so it's easy to learn some tricks that work for a broad swathe of forges.
Right now, our only option is to Bash each square. A simple Bash takes 5 focus and lands a single hit on a square. A hit will increase the bar a certain amount based on the temperature (long story short, high temperatures mean more bar is filled, lower temperatures mean less bar is filled, each hit drops the temperature), and you want to get each bar as close to the black diamond as possible. A bar that is glowing blue, like the top one in the sample, is "good". A bar that has turned yellow is "perfect", and your goal is to get as many perfects as possible. Never settle for a Forge that doesn't get all goods at minimum unless you really need the item.
And, of course, I have to mention critical hits. They happen randomly, and I'm not sure what the odds are or how to manipulate them, but a critical hit will increase the bar by roughly double what it normally would be (probably a little more or less), and it will stop exactly on the diamond if it reaches it. Crits are nice- but get one too early and you might actually be hindered.
Whew, that was a lot of words about the minigame. I'll be skimming over the details of how I do (it's pretty random), but it's important to keep the gist in mind. Anyway, here's "Appraise", where you can check how you're doing. You can get five types of messages depending on how "well" you're doing- each message corresponds to a specific result in the Forge. "It would probably turn out brilliantly!" is the best outcome possible, and if you Appraise and see that, stop the minigame immediately.
Bronze Sword... +3. And that's how the minigame comes into play. A Forged item can have +1, +2, or +3, and although it varies based on the individual item, it is always better to have a bigger number because it gives you more of whatever stats the item gives. Rarely will it add a new benefit to the weapon. So what kind of weapon are you going to get?
- "It probably wouldn't turn out very well...": You're going to fail the minigame. You'll still get the equipment you were trying for, though.
- "It would probably turn out alright...": You succeed at the minigame, but you're not going to get a bonus to the equipment.
- "It would probably turn out pretty well..." You get a +1 item.
- "It would probably turn out really well!" You get a +2 item.
- "It would probably turn out brilliantly!" You get a +3 item.
And this is the other prize for completing a Forge. Perfectionist's Pearls have applications for Key Difference Number 3, which I'll show off in a bit. If you failed the minigame, you don't get these, but I don't think you get more for doing better at the minigame- the number is based on what the Forge is.
This is what a forge is like when you don't get crits. It can be really luck based whether you get the bonuses you're after. There are ways of controlling your luck, but well... there's a reason there's a goddess statue over there.
I tried a Bash in hopes of a crit and escaped failure by the skin of my teeth.
Let's take the +1 and go. You'll get "Success" if you win the minigame no matter if it's +0, +1 or +2.
Once we finish up with the Forge for the moment, Erik congratulates us and gives us an extra tutorial. This is a little clunky in this version because of an edit made to the Definitive version- in the original, you could only Forge at campsites. In Definitive, you can whip out the Forge anywhere. The original also has a five minute warmup timer on file boot that is the "anti save-scum" feature- Definitive removed that. Save scum away!
And with that, adventure awaits! But really, I'm not done Forging.
You can bust out the Fun-Size Forge any time you want, you know- you just have to head to a campsite or dig it out of your bag. Now, let’s get through the Manglegrove and pay a visit to Cobblestone before any guards from Heliodor catch up with us.
Although the game is willing to congratoolate me for my work as it is.
I just wanted to save before working on Key Difference Number Three.
I'm sure you spotted that "Rework an Item" option at the bottom of the list and were wondering what it did. With your Perfectionist Pearls, you can take any equipment out of your bag, regardless of whether there's a recipe to craft it or not, and play the minigame to try and get +3 bonuses out of them. The perfectionist pearl cost scales based on the power of the equipment, of course, but you can freely reforge anything that isn't +3 or a "special" equipment piece- for some reason, you can't reforge Gemma's Charm.
...On second thought, I understand that.
Wow, the Greatsword Forge looks really intimdating, especially for a first timer.
...Oh. Yeah, bars are not necessarily to scale.
Wow, first try, too!
We got ourselves the real weapon upgrade for Erdward!
For some reason, upgrading the Cobblestone Greatsword to +3 doubles its power. A +3 Cobblestone Greatsword is better than a +3 Copper Chopper, despite the reverse being true at all other stages. And consider how much fighting I was worrying about since I got access to the Copper Chopper! This is the reason I didn't invest.
Although Erik supplied us with some materials to play with, the items outside this house also give you the materials to make your new recipes.
Although the real prize is inside- this sounds like it'll come in real handy!
While I'm investigating my armour, I notice that my "new Outfits" tab is yelling at me. Here's the description for the Lupine Look. You can set Erik to this to make him wear the Wolf Wear regardless of what he's actually wearing- because he is wearing the Wolf Wear right now, nothing changes.
The Scale Armour will give Erdward a tremendously useful defence buff, although we start the realm of "armour not everyone can equip". Erdward can handle heavier armours than Erik can, although there's a few jerkins and the like Erik can use but not Erdward. As shown earlier, inspecting an armour piece's description will tell you exactly who can and cannot equip the armour- well, out of the people you have right now.
...Eh, +2 will do. Erdward could use the bulk
Exploring around the camp also gets us to bump in to this doggo.
He leads us over here, to this... glowing root?
...I mean, I've seen worse reasons to do more inexplicable actions.
Well, someone's having fun chopping wood in a grain filter world. Someone adjust for static?
Oh dear. This bridge is indeed broken right now.
Wow, how rude.
Oh wow, if you don't sound familiar. This guy sounds so similar to Tora the Nopon party member from Xenoblade 2 that it's honestly kinda hard not to hear it. Tora's voice actor, Rasmus Hardiker, is listed under "Additional Voices" in this game. He is also listed as the Luminary's voice actor! The Luminary has little laughs and sighs reacting to other people doing well or healing him.
The Tricky Devil talks a big game about being offended by the woodsman's bridge repair efforts, but as far as I can tell, he isn't actively aware of our impending arrival and acting on that knowledge. He acts more like he just wants to increase the amount of chaos in the world.
And suddenly our woodsman is a doggo. This feels like a reference to DQII, where Princessa was turned into a dog, but the only similarities between the two instances is that "person helpful to our quest turns into dog". I fully believe that's enough to count as a reference, especially in a game as rich in references to DQ history as this one, but I acknowledge how tenuous it is.
I don't think we're invited to take him at his word on this boast.
I think we'd be very interested in where this guy has got to. For revenge if not for curing the woodcutter.
You do actually see the chest, I missed the shot. I think I expected there not to be a cut to black here.
Erik wants to rewind and ask what just happened to begin with.
However we saw that, we have a doggo to help authenticate the story- a dog like this doesn't seem like a natural occurrence in a jungle like the Manglegrove.
Although Erik does acknowledge this isn't something you bump into everyday.
By this point, Erik is more amused by the fact exciting things always seem to happen around here than skeptical they have. He's still a skeptical character, yeah, but if you tell him magic happened, he'll nod his head. And then ask you what the rules are and whether they've been followed.
Also relevant- what does it mean that magic has happened? In this case, magic means that we have a literal broken bridge that won't be resolved until a bridge repairman appears in the Manglegrove. And our options are help this guy or find another replacement somewhere in Erdrea. Probably a better option for all concerned that we take the former option.
As far as the cutscene was concerned, the "last place" the Tricky Devil was was inside an empty treasure chest. Perhaps he's still there. Better place to check than the alternatives.
Well, OK, Erik says this, but if you might recall, we did bump into an empty treasure chest here in the Manglegrove. It won't be filled by the Tricky Devil until you view this cutscene, but our attempted search doesn't influence the Devil in any way.
...It's raining now? I guess it is possible.
There are only two kinds of weather in areas with weathercows- clear and interesting. As a result, the weathercow only tells you if the next in-game 24 hours are going to contain a weather switch.
So yeah, something about an empty treasure chest?
Yep, he's still in there.
Hi there, Tricky Devil! You've been very naughty.
Erik seems nonplussed by this attempted ambush.
To be fair, a jump in surprise would be appropriate no matter how strong he was. We, of course, knew he was in there the whole time because we cheated.
The Tricky Devil fires a laser at us. Things don't go as he expected.
This may be legitimately shocking to him. A monster who can turn a human into a dog and he just... look at him.
I'm sure you will. Who wants headpats?
This little monster likes nothing more than hiding in treasure chests and playing pranks on people, but they tend to go off with a whimper rather than a bang. It might be time to change its name...
Demon family
HP: 148
MP: 9
The Tricky Devil, as you might have guessed, is a recolour of an ordinary enemy. This kind of enemy appeared in DQ7 and then here next. Many bosses in DQ do later turn up as ordinary enemies (even narratively important bosses like Ladja and Murdaw have recolours hiding in the wings), but if the enemy already appeared in the series beforehand, you're usually not expected to take the boss seriously.
Pertinent advice. The Tricky Devil can actually hurt, and while he's not scary if you keep up your healing, you will probably die if you don't.
Erik switched to a sword for damage. There's no kind of Weapon EXP in this game- how good your characters are at their weapons is dependent entirely on what Skills they know, and Erik doesn't know any weapon Skills, meaning he is equally proficient in all weapons. This may sound obvious, but it can be incredibly tempting to stick to your favourite weapon type even if an alternative choice may be superior.
The Tricky Devil can do a few of these. You can take enough of them, but if you're low on health, this might catch you dead.
Greatsword Guard should make sure Erdward keeps his HP up.
(You can barely see the HP number, but it is there).
Erdward isn't doing much more damage than Erik. Huh.
At least we're parrying.
Which is good, because it's healing time.
Look how much your HP can swing.
And there he goes. That wasn't so bad.
You seem to have forgotten why you're the tricky devil and not the fighting devil.
Monsters fade into smoke like this after fighting them, and they do this in cutscenes, too. I'm honestly not a fan of dealing with monster corpses, so fair's fair.
With the Tricky Devil defeated, someone comes along to congratulate us.
Say hello to the woodcutter, now with 95% less fleas! He has a name, too!
On one hand, this is the only thing we'd really want for doing the right thing. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like this is much of a reward for us as something he'd do on his own anyway.
We also get a free rest stop out of it. Much better.
Erik will take any chance to refuel.
Here's hoping, then.
I... don't see how this bridge is particularly sturdy. I trust it to hold my weight, but can it take another sabotage attempt?
Well, long-distance longevity aside, we can cross it now, and that is good enough.
So then... what the hell was that whole "plant-vision" thing?
Whatever it is, this random woodcutter actually does know something about it.
I don't... think Flint's grandpa is a character.
The important lore of Yggdrasil. Well, OK, the nature of how it goes about doing its "power of mother nature" thing is less relevant, but Yggdrasil is really important. Yggdrasil is actually a recurring element in Dragon Quest, but its plot relevance wavers from game to game- in some games (especially 2 and 3, its first appearances), it actually only exists to exist. Yggdrasil's other plot-important appearance is in DQ9 (and I presume in the DQ spinoff "The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below").
Yggdrasil is a flying tree. How parts of its roots pop up on the surface is a mystery to me, but questioning Yggdrasil is not a thing in this world.
Yggdrasil has many powers, among them is the ability to see the pasts of others. As cool powers go, it's certainly an original one.
This is exactly where the intersection between "exposition for RPG protagonist" and "life of a random NPC" occurs. As far as Erdward's concerned, this guy has just been sitting here waiting for this until now, but he had a childhood too. Although apparently that childhood has been here in the Manglegrove.
A surprising number of NPCs comment on Erdward's hair. As someone who's had their hair fawned over, I know what Erdward's probably feeling. Can't say I'm too fond of the style.
One thing that's kind of interesting about this line is that it suggests Erdward's Luminary powers and his ability to tap into the Guidance of Yggdrasil are separate powers. If there's a point to this, it will come into play later, but as far as I recall, we never meet another character who can use Guidance of Yggdrasil.
I feel like, if DQXI didn't have such a bad text size issue, this would be a perfect reaction image for protagonists that spend a little too much time being praised.
This is the achievement for finishing the "Manglegrove plot arc", but its title and description kind of imply it's just for getting the vision. If it was, we'd get it sooner.
Hapless hogs in huge hats that they hide in when things get hairy.
Sham hatwitches first appeared in DQ10, and are probably the number one counterargument to the idea that this series is even Japanese. You cannot mean to tell me that Japan invented an enemy with such a perfect English pun without input from our side of the pond, but again, DQ10.
Sure enough, they can pull themselves into their hats as a Defend command. These guys aren't that bulky, so this doesn't help them much, but you still should try to aim at other enemies.
...Also I didn't switch Erik back to Boomerangs. At least that's a free action.
Ooh, both of us are pepped up. This is an awesome time for that, but this is not the place.
...And yeah, this side of the Manglegrove is usually raining, but this run, that wasn't the case. This is the first time I've seen this behaviour, and it even kinda screws me up (there's an enemy that only appears in the rain in this part of the world). I'll be able to bump into it later, thankfully, but still.
Though they began life as demonically possessed flames, long years living in the forest have seen these little fellows evolve to resemble acorns.
...Acorns, beastiary? Never mind, these are leafy lamplings, recoloured lamplings- although that foliage top might actually make it a slightly different model. I think there's a book about lamplings somewhere.
Since Erik gets a Deftness bonus for pepping up, Half-Inch has higher odds. Nice to get some of these materials. Hardy Hide, which you can get from these guys, pops up in a pretty good recipe soon-ish, so you might want a handful.
And while we're making our way out of the Manglegrove without losing our pep, here's a chest.
Welcome back to the Heliodor region! This is one of the places the guards of Heliodor weren't keen to let us visit back when we first left Cobblestone, but now we've been round the block.
Cobblestone is just through there, but first, I have a Pep Power to perform.
We're going to save and perform Itemised Kill on a bunicorn.
Erdward charges in with Flame Slash-
And in the confusion, Erik comes up with a pouch full of drop.
This attack deals damage and is also a guaranteed steal from the enemy (which means if you've already Half-Inched them, things might not go your way). You roll the dice on Half-Inch's usual odds, and if you would succeed, you get the rare drop. If you fail, you get the common drop.
The leather hat is, of course, the common drop. This is why you save.
That took way longer than I expected.
Say hello to the second-best way of keeping your material game up after Half-Inch: Passively increasing your item drops each battle. The odds aren't displayed in the stat page, but I'm told it's an increase of 1% for each Bunny Tail in your party (so, eight if all four party members have two). It's not worth going for more than one right now, we'll have better ways of getting bunny tails later, but they do only pop up as rare drops from bunicorns.
There's no real benefit to doing it, but I buff the Bunny Tail up to +3 anyway. Might as well, if we're going to keep it on. Although, since it's an Agility buff we're getting, I'm not even sure buffing it is helpful.
Hey, Gemma! I'm home early! (Pack your things, we're moving far away from here.)
...Puppy? Sandy's been busy.
Erik seems to have taken leave of our presence, too.
Hello, there! I bet you don't recognise me because of the hood.
...Well, yeah, of course we weren't born here, we were found as a baby in a basket.
Wow, Erdward is super immature. Won't say no to some sweeties, though. Depends on what form that takes, honestly.
...OK, either we haven't fixed up this billboard in years (which makes the claim that Erdward is making a mess of it not particularly worthwhile) or Erdward has the literacy of a six year old. Which, I mean, not actually contradicted. At least it covers up the order from the King to kill Erdward on sight.
...I know I never found the chance to sneak into Gemma's house, but I don't remember her having a mother. If she's sick as that, I can see why.
I am so giving her a great big hug when I bump into her again.
How many visitors do you expect a place like this to get? There are people who don't even know it exists! Welcoming is a healthy attitude to have, unless you expect a lot more tourism than you can handle incoming. Something's telling me Cobblestone may one day be concerned about that.
...OK, at this point, it's a lot harder to explain what's going on. Dunstan, old man, the last thing I expect is for you to forget your daughter's crush.
There's a book called "Dunstan's Corking Compendium". I didn't get the cover, for some reason, but it reads thus:
Incredible! Absolutely incredible! The puns keep flooding into my mind! I’ve never experienced anything like it! Get a load of this one- we could show visitors around the great stone spire beyond the village…and call it the Cobblestone Tour! And there’s plenty more where that came from! They just won’t stop! It’s like divine inspiration! Here’s another- the mother said she’d throw her son from a cliff if he didn’t eat his vegetables…but it was a bluff! It’s like the God of Hilarity has granted me His holy blessings! I must tell Gemma right away!
No wonder Gemma sticks with Erdward.
Our next destination, apparently, is to talk to Mum. I mean, of course we should, but that's the official directive from the pink spots.
Lore on our horse I wasn't expecting. Although I'm not sure what the relationship between our horse and this one is. At least Cobblestone is putting their all into their efforts.
Well, if that isn't the weirdest thing. I'd rather not ask.
Poor kid.
So anyway, let's check in on Mum. Erdward's favourite meal is stew? This man's palate confuses me.
Mum turns around and is... remarkably surprised to see us.
For as hospitable as she is, she is not expecting some random stranger to just... turn up. Especially when she thought her son was there.
...At this point, though, I'm like fairly sure this is only going to make things worse, although I'm not sure how.
...Yeah, uh... I am now very confused. One of us has no idea what is going on, and we don't know which one.
Uh... your son? I think that ought to be obvious.
Well then. Clearly we need to have a chat with someone more co-operative.
...This is a terrible idea (and it feels sketchy to follow up with), but hey, if there's one person in Cobblestone who'll take our word for things over Amber...
Oh yeah, the puppy is Sandy too. I don't think there's any room for doubt anymore that we're the odd ones out here.
If this is weird when you're a sixteen-year old, it's even weirder at age six. How does your headscarf keep getting in this tree?
I'm like 75% sure this causes timeline issues with regard for Gemma knowing Erdward takes the scarf down from the tree for her, but if it gets caught there twice, it can get caught there more often.
Gemma asks our name and is equally perplexed when we're truthful about our identity.
Ah, the mind of a child. Gemma just isn't old enough to think critically about her options to respond to this weird situation, so she latches onto the most reasonable, logical conclusion and assumes it to be true.
Now, of course, if seeing Gemma was bad enough for the timeline, I only shudder to imagine what will happen if we talk to ourselves.
...On the other hand, though, I'd like to talk to Chalky. Personal curiosity more than drawing a sensible conclusion, though.
Didn't bump into much on the way over here, so on this pier behind Cobblestone, we bump into baby Erdward and Chalky.
...Well, OK, that explains some of the shenanigans, but if this is going on multiple times, you need to try another way of tying your headscarf.
Chalky's the kind of grandfather figure to take things in stride. Kids need a ladder? No harm in fishing it out.
Only question is, is he flexible enough for this?
Well, at least we solved that problem for the kiddos.
And Gemma's idea turns out to be false. Although we never actually told her that, so... now we need to somehow get a better question in mind.
You know, Chalky, that's a very sensible suggestion. Good job, considering the circumstances.
And off the kids go. Probably for the best we talk to these two as little as possible.
...This isn't what I was expecting.
This is actually a question you can say no to. I decided this was a good time to do that.
Turns out we're going to need to do better than that to hide from old Chalky. And yet somehow Amber and Gemma are fooled.
Well, he can tell our mood well, too. Honestly, I wonder if a part of why Chalky's so much better about talking to us as opposed to Amber and Gemma is because he's dead in our time- because the dead return to Yggdrasil, Yggdrasil's Guidance should logically have more power over them than the living.
I'm sure this can't have any impact on the past whatsoever.
How surprising is that? I assume you died of old age- any other outcome would just be depressing. And raise several questions.
Chalky has no relation to Carnelian, he just had no reason to assume Carnelian is a bad actor. Like most people do of their Kings.
Chalky realises his actions were incorrect with the benefit of hindsight, but he decides not to change them. How much control he has over changing the story up until now depends on how long he has left to live, but I agree that it's probably a better idea that he doesn't change his plan, because I wouldn't take the chance this causes a time paradox.
Chalky decides to write down a message and set it in a position for us to receive in our time.
If Chalky's going to die while we're young, he's glad he got to see us as an adult at least once.
And that's a lesson that turns out to be surprisingly prevalent throughout this game, and a solid pick for the game's theme. Dragon Quest is unrelentingly positive about the innate goodness of humanity, and forgiveness is a solid choice in theme if that's your general mood.
Oh hey, we're going to say hi to you three again.
Thankfully, it's just a short message. Still, it's weird to talk to your baby self at all.
Erdward: "It's ages until I gotta go home. What do you want to play?"
Gemma: "Well... we could play..."
This exchange is voiced, but it is not subtitled. There's a few of these, and I hope I catch them all, but it's going to be tricky with this setup.
...Also, uh, Erdward, isn't Amber's dinner almost served up when we got there?
And the Yggdrasil root embracing the big tree in Cobblestone is done glowing. So that was Yggdrasil's Guidance at work. Wonder how that looked to the people of Cobblestone.
Erik seems very concerned about what just happened.
And Erdward, who has spent that "minute" not actually seeing what happened to Cobblestone, wipes his eyes and checks that out.
...
Well, you can't deny the whole "destroyed hometown" tradition. Dragon Quests do regularly like to include this particular part of the classic RPG story, but they like to switch up the "why" and "what happens as a result". This is probably one of the most straight-laced examples in the series.
Erik doesn't know any of the people in Cobblestone and is absolutely furious.
Erik has no evidence for this, but we, the player, saw the dialogue that suggested this was going to happen. Whether you clued in at the time depends on what point during the Heliodor setting you realised Carnelian wasn't on our side.
Erik realises what was going on. Saying it aloud probably helps orient Erdward after the fact.
And Erdward explains what he saw there. Very little of it matters to Erik, but there was that letter Chalky left us...
This is surprising to Erik.
But hey, he's seen the sapling, he can believe this.
Erik doesn't particularly need to believe what just happened- all we need to do is dig up that box and there'll be proof that what just happened mattered.
Erik is quick to set out, but Erdward (who has just found out his hometown was destroyed) is still trying to emotionally process that fact.
Erik tells him, not entirely unreasonably, that crying about it isn't going to change anything. Agreeing with the philosophy aside, how much this applies gets interesting when you consider Erik's history with such views (we'll talk about those much later) and also the fact that... well, what do you suppose happened to Gemma and Amber? We will not find their corpses here, although in a story with Dragon Quest's tone, this doesn't tell us much.
Listen, I know it’s tough, but we can’t just hang around here. If what your grandad said was right, we need to head east, to Cobblestone Falls. I mean, if that tree showed you stuff from the past, I guess it must be pretty important, right? You should go and check out whatever it is your grandad wanted you to find.
This guy popped up along the way, and I find this story interesting for a minor NPC that exists largely for mechanical reasons.
The player is already well and truly on the Luminary's side here. I suspect the main reason is to show that the whole world will not be against us because of this rumour- we do have reason to doubt that in the immediate aftermath of, well... this.
As a travelling priest, he is happy to provide all the Church services. A few NPCs that are supposed to be mechanical in nature have interesting dialogue, although they will try and keep a lid on it if you need to access their services again.
As said, there's a bed in the church it's possible to sleep on, although this bed doesn't control the time.
There's also a door here that was locked when we had access to Cobblestone before, but is now accessible. A new recipe is good enough reason, I guess.
The Templar's Uniform was first worn by Angelo of DQ8 fame, and in its appearance in 9, it was actually a costume piece that you could wear as part of a set to outright mimic Angelo's design. Here, it's just armour (and purely Defence, at that).
It may be a derelict ruin, but it's still polite to walk through the door like a civilised person.
The fact that the church has a bed is somewhat odd when Erdward's old bed is still here. It makes sense that the travelling priest isn't going to recommend some random stranger sleep in this bed, but still. This bed also won't allow you to change the time.
...OK, I should mention that you can jump over the walls just fine.
This used to be on the roof of their house, I believe.
...Were these cannons always here? Moving on.
Despite, well... everything, we still have the ability to summon and use our horse. You'd think the events of the story thus far would've parted us form her, but, well...
This chest was lying in a cave on the way to Cobblestone Falls. More pearls is never a bad thing.
So now, the Emerald Coast. There's some interesting parts to this map, the most interesting thing being something that I have now missed. Not permanently, mind you, but I will remind the reader that there was nothing mechanically requiring we go to Cobblestone.
This is the triangle-shaped rock Chalky had us look for. Obviously, it's only here if we went to Cobblestone.
We found an entire box. When exactly Chalky buried this is an open question, but I'm fairly sure there's no reason to assume that, if he did it immediately, there would be any consequences to that decision.
It contains two letters, one old, one... less old.
My dearest darling baby boy,
When finally you come to read this, I will almost certainly be long dead. You see, not long after you were born, our beloved kingdom of Dundrasil was attacked by an army of monsters. I was forced to flee with you in my arms, and expended the last of my strength in ensuring that you escaped to safety.
If you are fortunate enough to have been found by some kindly soul, you must seek out the King of Heliodor when you come of age. Our kingdom and his have long enjoyed close relations, and your father and I would trust him with our lives.
Never forget, my son- you are a prince of the kingdom of Dundrasil. But more than that...you are the Luminary. Yours is a weighty burden indeed. It is you who must stand against the darkness and banish it from our world. In time, you will come to understand. It breaks my heart to leave you, my darling, but it is the only way. I only hope that one day... you will learn to forgive me...
The older letter is a letter from Mum. One thing I find peculiar about this letter is that there's no real point in the timeline for her to have written that first paragraph: the monster attack was too sudden to have left time for letter writing. I an open to believing that the latter two paragraphs were written ahead of time as a just-in-case measure, but the first one is real weird to me.
This is a satisfactory reason to be sent to Heliodor, if very depressing after the fact. Considering where we turned up, we'd wander over in Heliodor's direction pretty quick anyway, but Dundrasil is less so and Mum had no particular reason to believe we'd wind up on Heliodor's doorstep.
Erik's interested in these letters solely for the information, and while that is pretty cold of him, he does let Erdward have his emotional reactions on his own. This isn't necessarily his business, and he understands that. Erdward will tell him what he's comfortable doing.
To my dearest grandson,
I haven't the foggiest how you managed it, but I met your future self today. As promised, I've buried some things here that will help you on your way.
Have you read your mother's letter yet? It was in your basket with you when I first found you. It was because of that letter that I asked my Amber to send you to see the King when the time came. I only wish I'd known how things would turn out...
I don't know why Dundrasil was attacked, or why King Carnelian thinks so badly of you. I'm just an ignorant old man from a little village in the country. But I do know that the answers are out there somewhere. The Keystone in this box will open the Door of Departure off to the east. You must go out into the world and seek the truth.
Remember, now. Don't waste your time bearing grudges, and live life with love in your heart.
All the best, now and forever, Grandad.
And Chalky's letter, confirming that our jaunt to the past actually worked. Chalky doesn't have much in the way of relevant advice, but he is still giving helpful advice. Also reiterating that advice he offered about grudges.
There's no dialogue for this moment. I think, if there's one moment where Erik really proves himself to be the awesome "best bro" of DQ tradition, this one is it. Somehow, he only goes up from here.
This is actually behind both letters in the box. This could come in handy.
Erik is happy to join the fun. He doesn't have much in the way of prior commitments now (...nor did he ever), and of all the things he could do, this sounds like the most fun choice.
Well, he does have one prior commitment to handle. One relatively interesting thing here is that a player who is familiar with the geography of the Heliodor area has the option retrieving Erik's Red Orb before doing the Cobblestone stuff. Erik has appropriate dialogue prepared for this outcome, and obviously, this is part of it.
We will be forced to get the Red Orb before we check this Door of Departure out.
So we got the Keystone we need to open the Door of Departure- but before we go any further, I’ve got a little business of my own to wrap up. Derk said the Orb is over to the east, in the Kingsbarrow. I need to get it back.
...Where did my horse go?
Innocent, impish little things that run around the place bursting into tears at the slightest provocation.
Despite the name and description, gloomy grublins feel anything but. They have the annoying ability to counter your attacks, but are otherwise fairly uninteresting. They're new to XI, apparently.
Ooh, rain. This'll help with the whole Manglegrove thing- the enemy that spawns in rain there pops up here, too.
It can be a bit tricky to figure out where to climb up here, but this isn't the worst thing to miss. Especially if you've been filching from the hatwitches.
Curious mechanical conveyances that can jump eggstremely high. Their drivers disappear when defeated, making it impossible to identify them.
Eggsoskeletons are also original to XI, but it's something to be expected. They're very tough to take down owing to their tough eggsoskeletons, and I'm somewhat surprised to learn there's actually someone in there. It makes sense, though.
These cute and carefree creatures are often found scribbling and scrabbling in the sand at the seaside. Don't be too hard on them- they're only little.
Khalamari kids first appeared in DQ8, and seem to be largely a showcase of the new 3D animations that allow showing off unique "pass turn" animations that that game introduced. More than fitting they pop up here. They also turn up in 10, and I assume their "gimmick" has an impact on the MMO nature of that game.
They love spending their turns doodling in the sand. They're not doodling anything in particular, it's just being adorable.
If you're wondering who "Khalamari" is, he's a boss in DQ8- a giant squid that attacks passing ships. He's actually referenced in this game, but the title of "khalamari kid" is an artifact.
Erdward learned a new spell on the beach: Sizz! Sizz is the same element as Frizz (a trait that can be said of few other spells), but while Frizz attacks a single target, Sizz attacks "groups". This might be one of our first instances of dealing with group targeting ourselves, I'll touch a little on "groups"- a group is always multiples of the same kind of enemy (those khalamari kids were a group). DQ11 is more forgiving than most games in that, if you see multiples of an enemy, they're almost always going to be grouped. Older DQ games were surprisingly sloppy when it came to ensuring this, which made group attacks fairly passe. They're still not the greatest, but it beats nothing.
We also got some more firepower from the SP. For... some degree of "more firepower". +5 represents roughly 2 extra damage per swing, to my understanding.
These big-clawed brutes may look tough, but they're actually rather cowardly creatures who'll cry out to their friends for help the second a fight starts to turn sour.
Crabids first appeared in DQ3, and took a bit of a break until DQ9. They're notable for being a little tough to break through with brute force, but fairly weak to magic. They keep you honest and not just spamming regular attacks with your mages, but that doesn't matter much right now.
Tragically, these pools of toxic sludge personified must live life never knowing a loved one's embrace.
This is the enemy that only appears in rain, by the way. The bubble slime is a DQ staple, first appearing in DQ2 and having a perfect attendance record since, being the enemy that likes to introduce the Poison status. Being Poisoned damages you on the overworld, and it took a surprisingly long time for poison to start mattering in battles, too. There's even a separate status, envenomate, for in-damage poison.
Something I find fairly interesting about Bubble Slime is that, despite being an iconic Slime, the designers haven't come back to this guy often. He has only had one recolour for thirty years, finally getting a second one in this very game. Dragon Quest X added a slight redesign, the "truffle slime" (instead of bubbling bubbles, it "bubbles" mushrooms)- there are four colours of him.
Onwards into the Kingsbarrow. There's an outside and an inside, which is cute.
Less cute is what we find inside.
Good question. The question of "what could kill these guys" isn't a hard one, the question is "who would bother killing them here"- and "why".
Whoever it is, it seems like they're still down there.
So we made it to the Kingsbarrow, huh? Now, if there’s anything I’ve learned from my years of relieving people of their possessions, it’s that you always find treasure in the last place you look. So unless I’m very much mistaken, the Orb’s gonna be in the deepest, darkest room in the place. ...The only question is who- or what- did this to the guards here?
Now this is a classic DQ line. Normally, the corpse you're inspecting looks like a skeleton- getting this line from a normal model is unsettling.
This one's still alive. I also didn't get a shot of it, but while going through underground places like this one, you occasionally get a swarm of actual bats overhead for mood. I'm surprised they don't use drackies.
Dinky demons sent to torment mankind as part of their training. They can't graduate until they've upset at least a hundred sorry souls.
You know your boss is disposable if recolours of it are wandering around within walking distance. Little devils are the most basic of this enemy design, and are, of course, the kind that appeared in DQ7. They can cast Heal, and starting with this game, Rubblerouser. This is a new spell to DQXI, and deals a small amount Earth damage over time to the victim before any action they take.
Their insistence on only using the Heal spell is enough to give the most one-track wizard a run for their money.
The healslime, much like the bubble slime, is a DQ2 Slime variant that has a consistent record of appearing in every game in the series since. They like to perform the Heal spell all the time, which makes fights with them in it mildly frustrating, but not at all difficult. They don't hurt you that badly themselves.
They also have Single Phials in their steal slot, so you might as well pick up a few while you're fighting these ones.
Huh, double Pep. Probably need to use that at some point. It's always awkward when you need to fire a Pep Power and don't really know where.
More hardy hides in chests. Interesting.
Well, that was easy. Itemised Kill will never serve you wrong (assuming the enemy you decide to fire at has two good drops), and you might just get lucky.
Here's the map of the Kingsbarrow, for what it's worth. You start at the yellow arrow to the left and end in the middle- those two green exits go on the outside for treasure.
Like this one. The strength ring is a common Accessory that gives you a little bit of attack up- good to have, but accessories get better than this.
Right now, we want Erdward to have as much of that as he can.
Monsters make these mechanical birds out of metal so heavy that without the occasional aid of Accelerate, they can't flap fast enough to stay airborne.
Especially for these guys. Mecha-mynahs first appeared in DQ8 and have a perfect record since.
They're the monster for the whole "physical attacks really don't hurt them" gimmick in these newer games. You almost want to find something you can use instead, while many of their predecessors- like Crabids- can be brute-forced at a good time.
Erik filled up on Medicinal Herbs because of a quirk in Half-Inch's functionality- any items he steals are added to his inventory, and only go straight to the bag if his inventory is full. This isn't a problem, but it can get very annoying, and filling up Erik's inventory is a good way to circumvent it. Plus, it lets him heal if you're in situations like this one.
Look at how little damage that is for a Greatsword. It's still good enough I'm going to stick to it over Sizz. I need that MP for heals.
Oh hey! I'm really bad about selling my excess equipment, but this really is money.
Evac! This spell allows Erdward to instantly leave any dungeon for free. It's a handy spell, but it's considerably less handy in this game. Don't count it out, though.
Ooh, hello, that eggsoskeleton is glowing! This is a new and exciting trick.
Ridable enemies! You can only ride glowing enemies and you have to fight them first, but once you get it, you can keep the mount until you reload the map (although if you walk too far away, you will have to track it back down again- it is marked on the map, but you might as well find a new one at that point).
Each enemy behaves differently when ridden- although some enemies borrow from others. Eggsoskeleton rides have a higher jump than Erdward.
Allowing us to climb up here and get these two chests. Our new recipe gets us Feathered Caps, pretty amazing helmets that give MaMight and MaMend as well as Defence. You need Hardy Hide to make them, and you'll be using these for a while, so it's nice the game gives you a few.
Right outside this door is a chest containing some MP-restoring consumables. DQ11, for the first time, likes to have these chests outside boss doors. This is good to top off your HP and then top off your MP if you want. Not really my playstyle, but it's always good to have the option.
This part of the whole "riding an Eggsoskeleton" should've clued me in to the fact that they have riders as enemies. It's also adorable.
Anyway, let's go challenge these monsters that killed the guards.
They're clearly in it for the Red Orb, whatever they expect to get out of it.
...Erik. Erik, no. No it doesn't. You stole it. It was taken from you when you were caught. It does not belong to you.
I'm sure we have.
Their massive wings and cruel claws make them appear impressive, but they're mid-level monsters at best, and often get bossed around by others.
Bird family
HP: 128
MP: 12
The grim gryphon is new to DQ11, but it is a recolour of a common enemy design that first appeared in DQ6. In that game, it was actually a boss design, but come DQ8 and 10, it's been treated as very much a common (but still fairly scary) monster for crowd scenes and disposable bosses like this one.
...Poor Jamirus.
They take a bit of a beating here, and there's two of them. They're by no means pushovers.
Here we see them at their most dangerous, with the Woosh spell and what I believe are combo attacks. This is where they stop being scary. They only have enough MP for one Woosh each and otherwise have the same problem we do- except we can heal. You might need to tip the odds in your favour, but once tipped, you're in gravy.
They can also decrease your agility. Which... eh? Sure, it sucks to go second, but the later into a fight you get, the less it matters which order you're going in, and reacting to the situation becomes more key.
Erdward can do plenty. It'd help if he had a Skill with which to perform, but this will do.
They also may just waste their go trying to perform spells they can't manage. I've not tried it myself, but I think we can't make the same mistake.
...It may help to have this up now I have a good chance.
Once you defeat one gryphon, you've basically got this in the bag.
The other guy categorically can only hurt one of you, and no matter how badly he does it, as long as you can heal with one of your guys, the other one can strike back.
Sooner or later we'll bump into a real boss. Preferably after we've found a proper healer.
The dramatic dissolve into smoke never fails to amuse as well as satisfy.
Well, hopefully it wasn't an important goal, or the person that sent them might've sent stronger people. I do think they were acting largely of their own accord, which probably means their boss had other plans of attack and didn't particularly mind this one failing.
...Erik, I really don't think you understand this whole "being a thief" thing.
Erik feels emboldened by the success he's had with Erdward. We don't ultimately know that much about how well he did for himself when it was just him and Derk, but apparently he's due a spinoff in the Monsters franchise that will no doubt give him cause to say he did just fine.
Erik is careful to point out that he has his own goals that he'll keep to himself. I'm sure we'll find out about them in due time. It'll be nice to lend a hand to a friend.
At this point in the story, Erik no longer has any unfinished business he wants done, and is perfectly willing to follow whatever whims Erdward is taken by.
So we’ve both taken care of business- it’s time to do what your grandad said and head to the Door of Departure. It’s to the east of here, right? Come on, let’s get going!
This seems like the perfect time to show this off.
It's a cool spell animation this time around. Seems a shame to not use it often.
The more Erdward (and specifically Erdward) levels up, the more you can get out of Forging. Every level is worth at least some extra Focus to allow extra Bashes or Flourishes (even if it's just one point), and new Flourishes are also tied to your level. The next time you Forge after levelling up, you'll get this little notification. (It'll also be glowing as a reminder.)
Time to make ourselves some of these feathered caps I've been speaking so highly of.
...I really couldn't do better than this? It's not the worst thing in the world to not have a few +3s, but... +0?
To progress the story, you must pass through this barrier over here with both the Keystone from Chalky and the Red Orb from the Kingsbarrow. Erik will stop you if you have the former but not the latter.
If you don't have the Keystone, you can find yourself allowed to walk around this area freely- after all, you can't use the Door of Departure, so you're stuck here. There's some treasure and sparkly spots to collect, so if you're into getting everything as soon as possible, you may want to wander over here before exploring Cobblestone. We won't be missing any of this stuff- we'll get a chance to get it later, and we also won't really be hurting for not having this stuff now.
If you have the Keystone and Red Orb, your exploration is cut short by these figures on the mountain.
We have been spotted!
I was about to ask about our horse, but we did have to slip through some horse-unfriendly brush.
Apparently Erik can ride, too. I'm sure that, if he can't, he can fake it long enough to reach the Door.
They have crossbows! Fortunately, crossbows are apparently the sort of weapon you can only fire once. Once may just be enough, though...
Yeah, they got Erdward. In the horse, yeah, but right now, he might as well have landed a hit on the man himself.
Thank Erik for coming back for us. Although without the Keystone, his options are pretty limited.
Whatever our plan is, it had better work, and it had better work fast.
Oh dear, we've lost the other horse. Can we outrun Hendrik, then?
The answer, by a just large enough margin, is yes. Somehow. That was a miracle. Thank Yggdrasil.
Although all that really means is that we've put some distance between us and Heliodor.
This is really the conclusion of the overall opening story: We now have- if in the vaguest terms possible- an objective (to clear our name and find out what caused it in the first place), something resembling the resources needed to pull it off (Erik and distance from Heliodor's finest), and enough experience to feel like we're not about to be kicked to the curb. The early game jitters are well and truly away, and from here on, things are going to feel a little more settled. We'll still need an actual healer before we can truly say that for sure, but we've got everything else.
One of the most important things DQXI establishes here is the fact that Heliodor is well and truly in the wrong here. That ought to be obvious from the fact that they've locked up the protagonist on the world's shakiest claim, but clearly there is something truly sinister afoot, and not merely a mistaken, power-maddened fool of a human. Untangling the knot that is King Carnelian will take some firm effort, and Jasper and Hendrik are no less of an opposition. What, exactly, will be the correct approach will no doubt be different for each, and discovering the truth about what is behind one will almost definitely impact what the other two will be like.
One thing I'll reiterate, because it's just that solid of an inclusion- Erik really has become a likable member of the party right now. It's easy to land firmly in one camp or the other with a snarker, depending on your opinion of his favourite targets, but Erik has made sure he has strong, emotional moments- and that's strong while still being stoic, too. No mean feat. Erik is a fan-favourite character in this story, and while there's no shortage of party members worth writing about in great detail in this game, Erik truly has made a strong first impression and set a high bar.
No comments:
Post a Comment