Time for a big trawl into DQ's past.
Starting with Baramos's Castle- which if you recall, we got right before Mordegon. Sure, Mordegon wasn't the final boss, but I wouldn't quite say he matches the definition of a Baramos-style fakeout. Yggdrasil's Fall was definitely supposed to be that, but there was more to the story after Mordegon...
Hendrik: It would appear that monsters are equally vicious no matter which world one travels to. What they have done to this kingdom is unforgivable!
Rab: Hm. Well, I'll say this for the place- it's got an interesting layout. Seems there's more ways in than just the front gate. Come on, laddie! Let's try the various entrances one by one and see what we find, eh?
Sylvando: Isn't it amazing, honey, travelling from one world to another, just like that? But then, it's not the first amazing thing to happen to me since I've been on the road with you! Here's to a whole lot more!
Jade: The whole castle is filled with a strange, evil aura... It makes sense, though. The tockles said that the whole kingdom of the Necrogond had been taken over by monsters.
Erik: Listen, Erdward, this place is packed with treasure. Trust me, you get a feel for these things when you thieve for as long as I did.
Serena: Oh my... (gulp) It feels as though those horrible faces are watching our every move... Aren't they just awful? Why anyone would want to have things like that decorating their home is beyond me.
Veronica: I know it's a monster's lair and everything, but it's actually quite impressive. It's not even that dirty. I suppose some monsters must have higher standards than others! Ha ha! Now I'm imagining monsters cleaning the place with mops and buckets!
Relevant note: This is the encounter area of the Altar of Salvation, and encounters are on outside.
Portoga is a nation to the west of the mainland, famous for its ships. The King of Portoga (who is apparently named Portogus Rex) was the King who traded you a ship in exchange for a pack of pepper. Appropriate for the time, and there are also trade route issues because of all the monsters.
The only way to get to Baramos's Castle is by flying. That means all of these kings came on some kind of flying method. I suppose Lamia is out of work after what happened to the Hero...
This wouldn't do much for the Hero's journey, but it would basically make it pointless.
Our troublesome foe is in the place Baramos stood in the original game. If you can find it.
It's not exactly child's play.
Well, that's completely hilarious: At the bottom of the Pit of Giaga is a World of Darkness, and that's where the DQ3 Hero went after beating Baramos: going to kill the demon at the bottom of that. Turns out he's the guy who set Baramos up as a puppet: some defensive measure.
Apparently, even the toughest of NPCs are no match for a PC's job.
...He plunged into the pit to defeat Zoma. Or perhaps "Baramos's master".
These skeletons usually turn into monsters to attack you. Just single monsters, though, easily dispatched.
...Going up the stairs just takes us to the roof, which we could've climbed outside and goes nowhere interesting.
The monsters really somehow managing to be sympathetic here despite serving Baramos directly.
...Did you use to be a human?
You had less arms earlier.
...You guys are scaring me now.
There are Liquid Metal Slimes in here. They're still decent EXP, but they're long outclassed.
This one's actually dead.
Romaria is the first King you meet past your hometown, and he's not a particularly enthusiastic one. He's apparently known as "Il Re", and he slacks off as much as possible.
...OK, this line is a really obvious mistake. Not only is Aliahan the Hero's hometown, but a character whose name is literally "King of Romaria" would obviously be talking about the Hero coming to Romaria. I imagine the source of the error is not in the name of the location, but the intendended sentence being "from Aliahan".
I think there's a Small Medal here in ports of DQ3 with them.
You come out of the dungeons here. A new location!
...Actually, it's just off-screen.
This guy is doing a good job establishing himself as unpleasant.
To actually make tangible progress here, you have to go around behind the castle back here.
You'd think it'd be done by now if that were true.
What doomer culture were these poor saps stuck with?
Manoza is a kingdom to the south. This poor guy was replaced by a boss troll, and the Town Story involved finding Ra's Mirror in order to reveal the deception and bring down the tyrant. The real King is alive and locked up in jail- it's not like the boss troll hasn't killed people, but I guess he just needed the real deal around to maintain the disguise.
These skeletons are attacking him, but we can do something about that to lend a hand.
We can handle it just fine.
I don't think these soldiers are DQ3 characters, nor do I think DQ3 has a ton of people to use as such.
The Prayer Ring is what was here in the original, but the Seeds replace equipment: the Headsman's Axe, an inaccurate weapon with a high crit rate, and the Hapless Helm, a cursed helmet that reduces your Luck to 0. I'm surprised they didn't stick some kind of axe in the top chest, but there was no saving the bottom one.
What are you guys sacrificing?
I'm no expert, but this might be more development of the former Necrogond inhabitants than DQ3 had.
This guy is almost definitely new.
(It turns out he is there in the original, but his bones don't speak.)
I can do that.
There's a Small Medal here, too.
Those damage floors must be just as demoralising.
The King next to him is the King of Edina, and he looks down on commoners like the Hero. You have to sneak past the guards to enter his castle, since they won't allow entry for "riff-raff" like the DQ3 Hero. His ancestors also stole a pot from the people of Persistence, although he won't shed a tear when you steal it back. I'm sure he's got better to say to us, but...
We have more important business to deal with.
You don't actually have to fight these guys off, but you know, you can. It probably helps.
...Not that this guy is in any shape to tell us whether he appreciates it.
I think they're well aware of that part of their problem.
Yeah, beat you to that one.
Oh dear, I got a sentimental one...
A putrid priest who will stop at nothing to bring back Baramos. He even went far as to put the Necrogond's lost souls to work as his servants, creating a creepy kingdom of the undead.
Undead family
2678 HP
373 MP
The necrogondolier probably looked a lot scarier back in Act 2, but not that much more so. He has a Lightning staff and the spells Crackle, Kazam and Moreheal. Yes, we're looking at Crackle.
Moving right along.
Overlevelled. Sorry, maybe next time. The DQ3 Hero might've been scared.
I don't know if I agree with the game's assessment.
He'll be glad you're safe.
Rest in peace this time.
It should be noted that, after beating the Necrogondolier, all the random encounters in Baramos's Castle go away.
When you got this guy's crown back from Robbin Ood, he'll pull this same trick on you there. You're forced to take it in the original, but you can't do anything with it other than give it back after he's had his fill of the casino. The remakes let you turn down the offer and move on with your life.
Erdward's not having any part of those shenanigans.
...I'm looking at the King, mate.
It was pretty easy. Not sure why I was so scared back in Act 2.
Also not exactly much of a reward, either.
Yep. Dragon Quest 3 got one of the double-up Pastwords too. Unlike DQ7, where it was thematic, and DQ8, where they had two different ideas in the same setting, this is just a second go for story lore and padding. Why didn't DQ1 get one of these?
You ever get the ominous feeling this isn't how it's going to work?
It's Baramos's Castle - "Later On". I dunno why, this bit bothers me even more.
I'm not sure how this works in the 3DS version, but there's no possible way this doesn't immediately end badly.
They seemed to have a plan for that. Maybe?
The revival of Baramos is The Worst Possible News: This doesn't make the DQ3 Hero's quest harder, it undid his success. There's a reason this is the ultimate quest of Tickington. At least pre-Mordegon.
We're just doing this dungeon again.
...
So we're actually fighting Baramos, then? The real deal?
Zoma's already gone? Huh. I guess this counts as undoing the achievement, but it still does kinda mean solving this problem isn't going to directly help the DQ3 Hero.
Might be time to consider breaking out the Bastard Sword from your treasury?
Hahahahaha!
...I'm laughing now, too, just in case.
Workaday wizards tempted by the allure of evil into full-blown badness. They employ rotten rituals to call forth armies of corpses to fight for them.
Almost forgot about these guys. Voodoogooders come from DQ3, and can Tap Dance, Midheal, and call for backup from corpse corporals, and also have Yggdrasil Leaves in the rare slot if you want some. This guy and one other specimen are the only enemies new to Baramos's Castle for the Beastiary, and both appear only in the Later On version. Different maps have different encounter rates- if you want these two, I'd recommend searching outdoors.
...Uh... you confident on that?
You can lend a hand if you so wish.
So much for that bout of courage.
Unfortunately, the treasury hasn't been refilled. Least they could've done...
The King of Romaria has moved to this alcove, but he's just as cowardly- and just as confused- as he was before.
Don't worry, it happens to the best of us.
...It was his home.
Their bodies are lashed to lightning conductors, which they call down storms to surge through - quite the display, as even their enemies will attest.
Hellbound hair-raisers come from DQ10, and have Lightning, War Cry, Rain of Pain and a mesmerising Charming Look. I can see where they get the name from, even if I struggle to tell them apart.
...I knew that guy had one last trick up his sleeve!
...Clearly this guy isn't interested in sharing any more information.
Oh hey, the King of Aliahan and his Bastard Sword are on the case.
(The Bastard Sword was a prize the King of Aliahan bestowed on any Hero with the guts to fight Baramos without any party members.)
...There's a prize in taking out this guy? Apparently Ortega wasn't the only Hero in town...
Quite the buildup.
...That's...
So, a monster was brought to life... by the despair in a failed attempt at bringing said monster to life...
...That's brilliant.
Yeah, uh, we have some objections to the way you run things.
Nice that they at least brought back Baramos's iconic and weirdly visceral pre-battle taunt. Very rarely have DQ villains been keen on sharing what their plans are for our corpses.
A cruel demon king who once plunged the world into peril with his army of marauding monsters, and gained untold power by consuming countless sacrificed souls.
Dragon family
7500 HP
999 MP
Baramos managed to score the role as DQ's classic villain returning for a rematch here in Tickington. It's kinda funny that he's the only one this time, but since both DQs 9 and 10 had a full set of iconic boss rematches, I can see why they cooled it off a little more and did what they did here. Baramos comes to this battle with crits, Scorch, Kafuddle, Kaboom, Kafrizz, and one of his more iconic spells, Bazoom. Yes, Bazoom made it into DQ11 after all. It just makes a character unavailable for a few turns.
Incidentally, they brought back Baramos's boss theme too: It's Gruelling Fight, the battle theme that played against Drustan's Trials.
Fortunately, Erdward has a lot more tools in the kit for dealing with bosses than the DQ3 Hero had.
A lot more. Yeesh, who got the big hits in there?
Kaboom is kinda Baramos's big thing- it's what makes him real scary, and you can count on any good Baramos reference calling back to it. Even DQ3 got in on it- the Soul of Baramos, an enemy Zoma throws at you to slow you down, has Kaboom as his only spell.
Well, glad we got a solution to that.
Bazoom! It doesn't have much of an animation- although, honestly, Baramos doesn't actually move when casting (I remember him doing so, but I think I'm just remembering SFC Baramos because of the similar aesthetics)- but it does what it says on the tin. We can't re-shuffle Jade at all while she's been Bazoomed, but she will be back before the fight is over: In older games, Bazoom was permanent and you had to get the party member back manually by checking in on Patty's Party Planning. Fortunately, it seems Bazoom can only knock one party member away at a time- he can't Bazoom, say, Veronica until Jade gets back.
Divine Restitution!
...He did actually have an after-speech in the original. They're both pretty short and something you can toss aside.
Good for him.
...We didn't really have the choice to do it alone ourselves, but hey, I never liked duels anyway.
At what point have we truly become DQ Heroes? After Mordegon, or somewhere along the way when we just stopped being scared of bosses and started grabbing them by the horns?
The Golden Claws are a powerful set of claws that raise the encounter rate in 2D Mode, and attract enemy attention in 3D Mode- think "everything is being shot by the Crackshot Crossbow". In DQ3, these were a cursed item found in the pyramid of Isis, and the encounter rate was "one encounter per tile". The original release made it work everywhere, making the item pretty worthless outside being sold, but the remakes made the curse only work in the pyramids, turning it into a genuine weapon upgrade for Fighters if you can make it through all those fights.
At 72 Might at +3, these are the best Claws you can make in Act 2 outside the Frostfire Fingers, but are swiftly outclassed by the new stuff you can get in Act 3.
We may be closer to finding those guys than it looks.
He's back anyway, and he's gone just as easy.
...For as long as you live to hold that promise.
That's the world of DQ3 finished up. With this, DQ7, and DQ9, you could finish three altars and get that first Accolade in Act 2, even if this is a weird set.
The DQ3 Hero stands as one of the more iconic characters in video gaming history, and if Dragon Quest got into Smash any earlier than it wound up doing, it would be him that appeared in the starring role. You may also recognise that tunic: Being so genre-defining means a lot of parodies and RPGs-paying-homage tended to pick up the basic design somewhere along the way. Plus, Erdwin's tunic is supposed to make you think of this guy.
DQ3 was the first game to add the option to play as a woman- since the DQ3 Hero had no pre-existing place in the world and the entire party was customisable down to gender, there was no sense in excluding the Hero even if they didn't engage in the class stuff. A few NPCs will comment on a female Hero- the first being the King of Aliahan describing you as a man before noticing you're a woman and weakly adding on "you're as strong as a man and there's nothing wrong with that". It's the NES, I don't mind it too much because it also adds weirdly lesbian scenes like the pirate captain- scenes that were definitely written with a male protagonist alone in mind and the person who wrote the female scenes wasn't paid enough to heteronormalise.
Next up, a pretty short quest in the Hidden Valley. We barely need to do anything!
Veronica: This village is in a pretty strange place, isn't it? I wonder what made these folks decide to live in such an out-of-the-way location?
Erik: Whoa! Look at that lake, Erdward! Wouldn't you just love to take a dip in it? I mean, once we're done with everything else, of course...
Jade: The tockles warned us that the local people here tend to be wary of outsiders. Let's behave with courtesy and respect, and not give them any reason to be suspicious of us.
Hendrik: There is no denying that this is a beautiful village. The lush forest, crystal clear water, and flowers as far as the eye can see are most impressive. I should very much like to return here once all our battles have been fought and the world is at peace once more.
Serena: Don't you just love passing through those teleportals, Erdward? Your body seems to squish up into a big ball, and then you just slide through! It's an odd feeling the first time, but now I think it's great fun!
Sylvando: Darling, look at all these flowers! Aren't they just the greatest thing? I could stay here forever- there's nothing like being surrounded by beauty to inspire a performer! Why, just in the last couple of minutes I've come up with an idea for a grand entrance: the Great Sylvando, descending from above in a flurry of petals! What do you think, honey? Aha! I knew you'd love it! Remind me to start practicing once we're done with everything else.
Rab: Another wee village, hidden away in the middle of a big auld forest. Aye, it's like something out of one of the fairy stories I used to read you when you were a bairn.
We're very snug in the corner of a mountain range.
This "treasure" is presumably the DQ4 Hero, who we can only hope is in there with their mother while this is going down.
The Hidden Village is very hostile to strangers.
Perhaps to the detriment of common sense a lot of the time.
...Is this one supposed to be the DQ4 Hero's "mother"? I think she uses a generic sprite, but the differences between DQ4 sprites and DQ11 sprites don't really translate here. Plus, this does canonise the male DQ4 Hero.
There's an old man that likes rambling about teaching Zap family spells to the Hero. He never gets around to it, you have to get the spells through level up.
The Slime is, well... not exactly a Not Bad Slime, but someone who has been turned into a Slime.
The sprite they use for Eliza has pointed ears and is used for elves (in the original release, Eliza's sprite is the same as Rose's), but at no point in DQ4 is Eliza ever referred to as non-human and her Famicom art does make her look like a human.
The Morph spell allows monsters to transform into party members, appearing in DQs 4-7. It was also available to the player in DQs 3 and 4, but only in the original in the case of DQ4. It's most famous for being used by Eliza in the plot- and at this point in the story, she's still practicing.
The village's paranoia is in the service of making sure that the DQ4 Hero lives to be old enough to be sent on a quest to fight evil. It should be noted that the Hero's journey starts when the innkeeper (the guy in the turban) makes an exception to let in a travelling bard who just happens to be Psaro. I don't know if I like the fact this secularism got vindicated in the end.
All we need to do is bring her a Supreme Sage's Staff. We have to Forge one, but that's not difficult.
...Wait...
I always heard the staff had to be a +3 copy to work, but neither Eliza's description nor the Quest log seem to back me up on this. Maybe this isn't the case?
...OK, so you are the DQ4 Hero's mother, and you are confirming the DQ4 Hero is a boy. I mean, the statue did that too, but...
Eliza's the Hero's girlfriend, for want of a better descriptor, and when it comes to the people inside the community, there is... well, OK, it's not great, but there's some support.
...This line was weird enough while chasing the slime, but it's worse here.
Here you go.
Surprising, since normally it's good for Insulatle.
There she is. You can still see her pointy ears and close resemblance to Rose (I believe the two have different dresses, or perhaps I'm mistaken).
She really likes to get into character: In the DS port, there's an additional scene where she pretends to be trapped in the form of a frog to try and get a kiss out of the Hero. They toned it down for the female Hero, but only very slightly.
Free Crimsonite! Might've been good before we had an infinite source of that.
Not quite done with the villagers, though...
They've noticed the stranger.
I'm not sure who "the two of them" are- well, OK, the obvious answer is "the slime and Erdward", but the way one thought leads into the next, it feels more like Eliza is in on this plan. Which, to be fair, Erdward and Eliza are indeed "in cahoots"- and this is not a bad thing.
You guys didn't let me into the village, you were too busy chasing your own shadows to pay me any mind.
They toned up the foolishly insular nature of the Hidden Village for Tickington (mostly because this is the only time between here and DQ4 we actually see them interact with a stranger). While this was already a fairly unsympathetic trait, the fact is these people all die painful deaths when DQ4 starts and the game kinda wants you to care. On the other hand, maybe they only really expected you to care about Eliza. I know that's where I sit.
...I'm not sure how this happened.
...Now that you say that, that raises some further questions about what she ultimately does with it- she uses Morph to turn into the Hero and dies alongside everyone else in the raid on the village, leaving Psaro to walk away confident he had killed the Hero and he could now be more confident in victory. The fact that she's practicing this spell without the village being informed raises the question "at what point was this backup plan made?" I think, through the context of the "using Morph to turn into Hero" scene, Eliza came up with it in the spur of the moment.
...Although I'm not sure how this helps.
At least everything is... mostly fine.
I don't think you can get her to Morph anyone else, though I don't think I tried that hard.
Yeah, uh... that's one way to call it.
Oh hey, more Male Hero stuff. I think this description of his hair more closely resembles the female Hero's hairstyle, though.
...There are more children? Actually, she may just be covering up the presence of her son.
I really would rather you stopped calling him "our most valuable treasure".
She probably would've lived, but I can only imagine how long she'd stay in the village. She wouldn't threaten the Hero no matter, what, though.
I love this line, especially when you put it right next to the next one.
These guys are nuts. It's almost out of character for this exact innkeeper to make the critical mistake that leads to Psaro finding this village and murdering what he believes to be the Hero.
And that's the Altar of the Chosen down. To get this clear, you need to go the First Forest Whale Way for the Pastword, and the Sniflheim Whale Way Ultimate Key for the recipe.
The DQ4 Hero and Heroine. You can see the similarities and differences between the DQ3 Hero and this guy easily- and you can also sort of see what I'm getting at with the "like a big bush" comment applying more to the female Hero than the male. DQ4 is the only game with a character party that had a female Hero- presumably, they wanted to go the way of choose-your-gender Heroes, but then they made DQ5, which is one of the only stories with a silent protagonist that I feel can only be told with a male Hero. It's certainly a game that required the developers to choose one gender and stick with it, and they never ultimately backtracked on that path when they went back to gender-neutral stories: That's the story of why Erdward is forced to be male.
Since we finished up two of the Altars of Heroes who were in Smash, why not have the last one be the third Hero other than Erdward?
Veronica: It's such a shame to see a grand old castle like this lying in ruins. It'd be nice if someone could refurbish it, but all of those thorns aren't going to make that easy...
Erik: Me and castles, we don't get along so well. I mean, you remember when I got slung in that cell back in Heliodor, right? How about we finish up what we've got to do here, then head someplace else? I'm kind of on edge, you see...
Jade: Whoever lived here seems to be long gone. I hope they're alright, wherever they are...
Hendrik: There is something deeply unsettling about this castle. I fear that tarrying here too long would be unwise...
Serena: Look at the size of these thorns, Erdward! Make sure you don't touch any of them, won't you?
Sylvando: It's so quiet here, it's like time's standing still or something. I wonder what could have happened here...?
Rab: (mutter) (mumble) Aye, ye wouldnae want to put a balustrade there- Hmm? Och, don't mind me, laddie. I was just casting a wee eye over the castle architecture. I'm trying to get some ideas for the reconstruction of Dundrasil castle, y'see...
Castle Trodain is only traversable in its cursed form in the original DQ8, although there's a brief post-game segment where you can visit it in a pristine state.
And here is Ishmahri of the Moonshadow Realm. This was a mystical realm that the player visited twice and then never bothered with again in order to solve problems facing the party- it's not really an unimportant singular Town Story setpiece, but it's also not really a recurring element of the game.
The second of the two visits to the Moonshadow Realm occurs in Castle Trodain- the party needs a boat, and decide to raise a shipwreck from a canyon rather than buy one of their own (to be fair, King Trode, Jessica and Angelo don't have access to the vast wealth they come from for adventure-relevant purchases). They went to Trodain's library for clues, and happened on a way to access the Moonshadow Realm, where Ishmahri was happy to point them in the right direction of how to help.
This is true: To access the Moonshadow Realm, it must be night time. The first time you have to enter the realm, the odds are you're just going to be sitting next to the door, waiting for the moon to rise high enough into the sky to make the door function.
This quest is a really fun one in terms of what, exactly, we are being tasked with doing: The door leaving the Moonshadow Realm has been sealed by a monster who has forced eternal daytime onto the place with the DQ8 party trapped inside. This is such a great concept, and really ties back into the whole "the Heroes' great deeds are being undone/sabotaged" thing- the vignettes have been drifting a little away from that.
This is another dungeon-crawler kind of quest.
It's not a hard search- well, if you're familiar with DQ8, that is. If you're not- as I wasn't when I first played DQ11- this place can be quite the maze, with a lot of pathways you can't see and doors/paths that are actually blocked on closer inspection.
Also, there are Metal King Slimes in here. Trodain was the best place to look to find Liquid Metal Slimes in the original DQ8, and I like the nod to the gameplay value of the place.
This, over here, is a door. Although in the original DQ8, this was locked when you first got here.
It leads to the library, and you were supposed to go through the whole dungeon to find a way here. You actually needed to come back to the library once you acquired a key item for Ishmahri, so the door is totally useful the second time through.
Incidentally, the Moonshadow Realm appears when the moonlight shines through a window, or a window-like thing like this door, and hits a wall to make something that resembles a door: it will turn into one. To enter the Moonshadow Realm in Trodain, this exact window is used, and it opens in the bit of wall I'm rubbing against in the screenshot above.
I was shocked and amazed to find this for the blog- I didn't know this was here until now. You get access to the Chateau Felix - Dusk Pastword back before Booga, but it's not until restoring Cobblestone that you can get this one. All for a joke answer that involves turning Jessica into a clown.
Treasure chest on the balcony. It was 1500G in the original, too- although it's possible this chest was only in the 3DS version.
I don't rememebr this door being locked at all in the original.
This side area was largely a side area in the original- I don't think you needed to come this particular way to get around. Granted, I'm not sure what the beeline is if you just care about getting to the library and not the treasure- this place is loaded with goodies.
Seed of Magic, Yggdrasil Dew, Rusty Old Sword and Mini Medal. This was an Ultimate Key stash you had to backtrack for in the original, although we've had the Ultimate Key for a while. The Rusty Old Sword could be alchemised to make a Liquid Metal Sword, the strongest Sword around, but it took some hefty ingredients- a Slime Crown and an Orichalcum (a recipe was considered hard to make if it included one of these ingredients).
These jacked-up jackals pack quite the punch. Their exquisitely balanced speed and strength are often a struggle for even the most seasoned of warriors.
Jackal rippers appeared in DQs 6 and 8, although it's kinda funny the difference between the two- they're postgame in DQ6, but midgame in 8. Here, they have Hardclaw, Multifists, Thin Air and an ability that they are the first enemies to have since DQ7- Muscle Dance, an AoE attack that's probably less scary than Thin Air. Impressive wait time, poor showing. Back in the box with you.
When cheese gets old and succumbs to mould, these evil-smelling so-and-sos come creeping from the shadows. Brie careful- they're absolute muensters!
Fromage greys, from DQ10, haven't gotten much better than their less scary selves: They have a tounge-bashing and Kazam. They are, however, bulkier than the jackal rippers, a fact that concerns me on a number of levels.
Oh hey, this door can be opened.
Magic Key and a Templar's Sword. Incidentally, in DQ8, the Magic Key opened locked treasure chests instead of locked doors, and the Templar's Sword was a Magic Key chest. Again, keys are the furthest concern from our minds.
This is a floor up from where we were, but we have wandered our way into Medea's room. Considering her circumstances, Medea doesn't have much chance to demonstrate, but she loves playing the piano, and there is a scene where you can have Trode try to play while you're here- Medea's stuck in horse form, so she wouldn't fit even if she could climb all those stairs.
Lewd. And this was in the original- and somehow it got even worse there. Aside from the fact that these are your actual girlfriend's underthings, garters (like most armours and accessories) were used as alchemy ingredients, and this one was the first one you found- which meant you were probably planning to use it to alchemise Angelo's bow into the stronger Eros' Bow.
Heirs to the throne of the underworld, born from the abyss without a bit of pity in them, and a princely set of spells to pelt foes with.
Princes of darkness come from DQs 4 and 10, and have the spells Kafrizz, Kasizz and Bounce. I always remember hating them, in both DQ4 and here, but I'm not sure what the big deal is about Bounce in this context.
This huge spiralling staircase is kinda weird to go up and down, with regards to where the loading zones are placed. It worked better in 3D.
Aw, they took the guy out. Actually, they took most of the NPCs out- the DQ8 version of the castle was filled with NPCs overtaken with thorny vines. Trode's Chancellor could be found sitting on his throne, posing as a future King, and Trode has a scene where he gets very concerned with his night-time habit- and then amused at his fate.
More importantly, this passageway behind the thrones is open and traversable in both games. This is probably the hardest open path to spot.
Anyway, heading back to Medea's room, this is where we're supposed to be going: this top floor held a powerful magical sceptre before the game's events, when Dhoulmagus steals it and unleashes the curse. The magic circle drawn on the floor was a seal placed on the magic within the sceptre, and Trode and Medea are spared being turned to vines by being caught standing inside it when Dhoulmagus fires the curse.
Now, it's the home of one of the more pathetic monsters in this setup, a notable achievement considering some of the competition.
Yep. Tick-Tock is an actual utility DQ spell and it does exactly what Dayle is using it for: It turns night into day and vice versa. It could be learned in DQs 3-5 (and cost a hefty 12 MP in 3 and the original release of 4!), and was also available for a gimmick dungeon in DQ10.
The guy is doing a splendid job being annoying... by spamming Tick-Tock.
A muddled monster who believed he could rule the world so long as the sun never set on Trodain Castle- which it didn't, so long as he kept on casting Tick-Tock.
Humanoid family
3840 HP
536 MP
Dayle is a mage, and he has actual spells to throw at us: Kafrizz, Kacrackle and Fizzle. He can also perform the spell Tick-Tock- an option the player never had, and one that does him no good even if it worked in battle.
The usual standby?
Yeah, I think we're going to be done in no time.
Come back when you have a scary spell.
I think one of my favourite fun facts I got from Randall Munroe is that, while the expression "the sun never sets on the British Empire" doesn't see much use anymore, it's still technically true: although there's only one territory holding it together.
I wish more games got use out of the expression: it's a cool expression, at least, but it does kinda require your game to be using timezones rather than global time.
We're done here.
Oh hey, they actually mention the Moonshadow Window being in the library. I must've missed that, or missed where the window actually is- there's an Easter Egg there.
Eh. You can get these from drops just by entering Drustan's Labyrinth, and it's not like you need too many- nor are they really powerful once you have them.
Slowly but surely, we're getting to that point...
And yes, it does turn to night. It's just a cosmetic thing, though.
If you make your way over to the Moonshadow Realm (and know where it is), you can actually hear the DQ8 party still inside.
And yet somehow Yangus is the reliable one of the two. He's still definitely the one saddled with comic relief duties.
...What is he eating, anyway?
And that's the world of DQ8 done. If you're diligent about finishing Pastwords, this will probably be the last one you get outside DQs 1 and 2, which can only be found in the Trials.
It's surprisingly difficult to find stock art of the DQ8 Hero that doesn't make him look like a total dork- as the first fully 3D DQ game, DQ8 had a lot of scenes that involved the Hero standing around with an awkward look on his face while miscellaneous comedic and/or dramatic antics were going on, and they seem to have leaned into it as much as it's a bit of a relic of their 2D roots. DQ11's Hero gets to be a little more expressive about what's going on around him- it helps that over a decade separates their two games.
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