PART THREE: Loto’s Descendant
Started October 3rd, 2010
Dragon Warrior Monsters is much like Final Fantasy’s Crystal Chronicles series, as it has a unique feel all its own and sometimes doesn’t need the name of the main series to give it “oomph” enough to sell it. Sometimes, the spin-off games get me more than the real series. In my case, this is very true for Final Fantasy’s Ivalice Alliance. The world that FF Tactics established that is carried through in the other games in the Ivalice Alliance keep me coming back, hungry for the world and the characters in it. Dragon Warrior Monsters has done the same thing to me. Don’t get me wrong. I love the main Dragon Quest series. The games are always well made, carry a wonderful story with memorable characters and the music is always extraordinarily beautiful. Here, I want to start my own personal journey, where I take a deep breath and dive again into the World of Dragon Warrior.
One bright, happy, sunny day, a young man stands in a castle before a king, who explains that an evil Dragonlord has stolen the Orb of Light from Tantagel Castle along with his daughter, Princess Lora. He tells the young man to go forth and fight against this evil, then gives him a torch, a key, and 120 gold pieces. That’s right. The King of this place wants you to rescue his daughter and some precious artifact, but only hands you 120 GP, a key which you have to use to unlock the throne room to get out of it, and a torch which you probably won’t use for a few hours lest you want Spooky and Dracky to eat you alive out there. Well, that was a rude awakening, huh? Yeah, well, let’s get our heroic butts in gear and get the F out of here. Outside the castle, there’s the little Tantagel Town, where supplies are ready for a price. Y’know, I get the feeling that our hero is Lawful Good, what with going out to kill monsters to make money unarmed just to afford to buy a sword, so he can go kill better monsters so he can level up enough to defeat the Dragon at the bottom of a labyrinth to save their Princess. Sheesh.
Well, anyway, Dragon Warrior on the GBC is a nice remake of the original NES game. I have never played the original NES version, but in high school, I enjoyed the GBC game with my little brother not knowing about the older version. I remember Ralph complaining about it, “There’s not five letters! What are we gonna name the hero?” And we decided on “Ralf”. I know, I know. He was ten and… oh, whatever. Anyway, now that I’m playing on my emulator, I’ve named all my files where I play as a boy “Gaby” or “Gabriel” if it fits, and as a girl, my name is Suzuri. Either way, I’ve always enjoyed this game be it a remake or not, because I just like RPGs. Games where saving the princess is part of it, I’m usually on the uptake. I suppose that’s why when a game like Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure comes along, I love it - as the prince is the one being rescued for a change, hahaha! I think I’m missing the point, though.
As always, a friendly familiar face is always there to welcome you to the game, in the form of a blue tear shaped slime. I’ve always found those happy little things so friendly, and wondered why they look so cute if they’re fighting against you. Of course, our friend is only worth 2 experience points and 1 GP. I hope you went to the Item Shop in Tantagel to take a peek at their wares, because if you bought nothing yet in the way of armor or herbs, you still have a ways to go before you can afford the Copper Sword. That thing carries the hefty price tag of 180 GP. Your first real weapon upgrade, and you’ll have to level a few times without being armed with anything to be able to afford it. Ah, well.
After hitting about level five, which might take you about two hours or so, you can brave the cave up north where you’ll find out a bit more of the story. Are you ready? Well, take your one torch the king oh-so-graciously gave you, and hike it, buddy. I certainly hope you bought a Copper Sword before you attempt this… either way, it’s okay. Located in a small circle of desert, there’s a cave. Go in, and it’s pitch dark. This is why you need a torch, see? Light that baby up, and it looks just like it would if we were in a cave with a torch. For a game so light on the graphics, it does a good job of conveying atmosphere. Surprisingly enough, we don’t find enemy encounters in here. The mysterious music accompanies you down to a huge gravestone where the hero Loto leaves a message to his descendant, aka you. He explains that there are three treasures he used to defeat evil, and that he gave them to three wise sages, oh, and that it’s your job to go find these sages, wherever the hell they might be, and go get those treasures. Yep, that sounds like something I’ve seen in every single JRPG I’ve ever played. Ah, Yuji Horii, why’d you do it like this?!
Well, my only complaint about the game is that you are your only party member. That’s right. You have the hero and his pointy horned helmet. It’s okay, though, since you do get to learn some spells of all kinds, but it’s sad that you only have yourself to rely on. I realize that as the first game in the series that it gets some leeway, but one of my favorite aspect of other Dragon Warrior games is always the other party members. To date, my favorite characters are the Prince Princeton of Cannock in II, Torneko Taloon from IV, Gabo and Keifer from VII, and the loveable plump cockney speaking Yangus from VIII. My other favorite characters in the series come from the games where you create your party members, specifically III’s Goof-off turned Sage and everyone in IX.
So, I don’t mind playin’ alone for this romp, it just makes level grinding more of a grind than it usually is. Don’t forget that Dragon Warrior games are most definitely the kings of level grinding, and the standard was set from the get-go. If you aren’t level 20, do not attempt the Dragon Lord. To reiterate here, let me tell you what a friend of mine did once. He used a Game Genie to make it where his hero would always get a critical hit, every single time. Then, he went to face the Big Bad at level 19 because the grind from 19 to 20 was just getting on his nerves. Every single hit that landed was a critical hit, but it only did 1 point of damage. Everything else in the dungeon before that purple fat-ass Dragon Lord fell to Loto’s Sword with ease. But not the Dragon Lord.
I might seem like I’m complaining or even nitpicking about the Father of all JRPGs, but I don’t mean to. As the game is difficult and can get a bit repetitive due to level grinding, it’s still a classic and should be played by anyone who calls themselves a fan of the JRPG genre. Dragon Warrior caught the hearts of Japanese gamers and inspired so many games since its debut in 1985. Enix accomplished quite a bit with their feat, inspiring games like Final Fantasy to find their way in 1986. The Americans were indeed late to the party, but the Europeans didn’t see a single Dragon Warrior game until after the games started to be called Dragon Quest! The first game in the series which was able to even hop across the Atlantic was Dragon Quest VIII, and they didn’t even give it a number. That happens to be the case with all the Dragon Quest games I’ve found in Germany thus far, be they for the DS or the PS2’s Journey of the Cursed King. In the US, Chapters of the Chosen was labeled as Dragon Quest IV, with the subtitle. In Germany, it’s just subtitle. Makes you think, doesn’t it?
There’s a part of my heart which will always wish that Enix and Square had kept separate, because now that I’m older I’ve been able to see that Enix makes wonderful games which puts a lot of what Square does to shame. The spin-offs for Dragon Quest tend to be just as well thought out and well loved by fans as the main series, unlike the spin-offs for series like Final Fantasy. Hey, I loved Crystal Chronicles, but most of the world doesn’t see them as well as I do. Enix made games like Robotrek and Evo: Search for Eden, which are both very unique and beautiful. Square put out games like Mystic Quest and Bahumut Lagoon. My husband, a true gamer at his very core, stated that when he was younger, he always hoped that Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy would be the two biggest rivals in the entire video RPG market, and that this would motivate them to keep making better and better games. Now that Square and Enix merged, it seems like all the money goes to games with the prettiest graphics in all of Gamerland, with maps in straight lines, with bad voice acting at a $60 price tag. Yeah, that’s right, I hated FFXIII with a passion and if it weren’t for Dragon Quest, I’d have dropped following Square altogether because of that over hyped piece of shit.
But as for Loto’s Descendant, he saved the princess Lora and made lots of babies who founded new kingdoms all over the world - and it’s the great-grandchildren of Loto’s Descendant that happen to star in the sequel, Dragon Warrior II. We’ll start on the adventure to defeat Hargon next time.
Thanks for reading.
Much love,
-Suzuri
PS: Please note that I played the GBC remake for Dragon Warrior. In the original game, the princess' name was Gwaelin (yes, the same name as my Umbreon, that's where I got it from!)
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