Dragon Quest VI: Difference between revisions

{{Translation|'''''Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation'''''|ドラゴンクエストVI 幻の大地|Doragon Kuesuto Shikkusu Maboroshi no Daichi|literally meaning; Dragon Quest VI: Land of Illusion}} (in North America, released as '''''Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie''''' in Europe and Australia) is the sixth installment in the [[Dragon Quest (series)|''Dragon Quest'' series]]. It is the final ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series title for the Nintendo Super Famicom and the last game in the [[Zenithia trilogy]], the first game in the series to be developed by [[Heartbeat]], rather than [[Chunsoft]].   

On his way to Somnia Castle, where information on Murdaw can be found, the Hero stumbles into a strange portal which brings him to another unfamiliar town. However, no one can see or hear him. After finding a similar portal, the Hero reaches Somnia and meets Captain Blade, the leader of Somnia's army, and Carver, who appears not to remember the Hero. To defeat Murdaw they will need the Mirror of Ra, and the captain sends them fourth to find the missing relic. The Hero and Carver discover another portal along their journey, which brings them to Port Haven where they can neither be heard nor seen. Milly, who does see them, reunites with the two and helps them become visible with the aid of [[Madam Luca]].  

The party discovers a Somnia Castle in the “Phantom World” and learns that the prince is missing and that the Hero looks like him. They also meet Captain Rusty, who bears a striking resemblance to Blade. Gaining entrance to the Moon Mirror Tower, the party meets [[Ashlynn]], a woman who was invisible in the “Phantom World” as well and together they find the Mirror of Ra.  

The four of them travel to Murdaw's castle in the original world. After defeating Murdaw, the Hero uses the Mirror and Murdaw then turns into the king of Somnia, confused and unaware of what happened. The king reveals that the "original" world is in fact the Dream World and the Phantom World is the Real World. Upon traveling back to the Real World, the King of Somnia thanks the party for defeating Murdaw in his dreams, but that the real Murdaw lives and that the party must travel to [[Ghent]] to retrieve a boat to get to Murdaw's lair. In Ghent, [[Nevan]] the devout joins the party and allows them to use the Ghent Clan's sacred ship. Upon exploring the island, Carver discovers a statue bearing his exact likeness and realizes that Murdaw's actions in the opening scene separated his, Milly's, and the Hero's souls from their bodies, trapping them in the Dream World. During the fight with the real Murdaw, the Hero gets sent back to Weaver's Peak like before; however with the Mirror of Ra the Hero warps back into the battle and defeats Murdaw.

After the victory celebration back at the castle, the Queen of Somnia tells the Hero that he is the Prince of Somnia and that his current existence is incomplete--Murdaw's curse still lingers, and his dream-self has not returned to his body. Told to go forth and find himself, the party's journey leads them to Arkbolt, where a [[Lizzie|terrible monster]] is blocking a nearby tunnel to the rest of the continent. The reward for defeating the monster is the famed [[Sunderbolt Sword]], but before the party can confront the beast a warrior by the name of [[Terry]] slays her, winning the sword.  

 

After traveling both worlds, the party learns that Murdaw was not the only evil in the world, having confronted several other powerful monsters that all seem to be connected. [[File:Ashlynn DQVI DS artwork 2.png|thumb|100px|right|The sorceress [[Ashlynn]].]]

Once Cloud Castle is back to normal, the party speaks to [[Zenithia|King Zenith]] who informs them of Mortamor's doings and how to reach the Dark World. Mortamor plans on merging both worlds. The party’s horse fuses with Pegasus, allowing the party to fly to the Dark World. With the help of two brothers, Isaac and Benjamin, the party enters Mortamor's Castle. After solving many puzzles, they come face to face with Mortamor and defeat him. Isaac reveals that the Dark World is falling apart and Pegasus helps them escape.

In a similar fashion to ''Dragon Quest III'', the hero's weapons and armour were renamed for this installment in the [[Zenithia Trilogy]].  They are known as the [[Zenithian Equipment#Sword of Ramias|Sword of Ramias]], [[Zenithian Equipment#Armour of Orgo|Armour of Orgo]], [[Zenithian Equipment#Helm of Valora|Shield of Valora]] and [[Zenithian Equipment#Helm of Sebath|Helm of Sebath]].  After the events of this game, these armaments become the [[Zenithian Equipment|Zenithian equipment]] and are renamed as such.

If something cannot be found in the Real World, chances are it has appeared in the Dream World, such as with Spiegel's Spire , in the middle of the quest. Also, another similarity to much of the series is the Dark World. This separate map features a dark island with a psychedelic sea surrounding it and some of the toughest monsters in the game. The final boss, [[Mortamor]], lives there. Also, once Mortamor is defeated, the player can access the [[bonus dungeon]] and the secret final boss, [[Nokturnus]].

As the sixth installment to the ''Dragon Quest'' series, the graphics and gameplay remain close to the other games, with minor additions and upgrades. The graphics were improved from ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'', which was also for the SNES, but had only a 16-megabit cartridge. ''Dragon Quest VI'' uses a 32-megabit cartridge instead. Navigation remains largely unchanged from the previous games and the turn-based battles are still only in first-person. The vocation system from ''Dragon Quest III'' returns, with minor adjustments.

====Advanced Vocations====

*[[Gladiator]] (Warrior+Martial Artist): Strength, HP, Agility, and defence go up, making this an excellent melee vocation. Most skills are super effective against a particular type of enemy, such as [[Dragon Slash]].  

*[[Armamentalist]] (Warrior+Mage): Stats mostly go down and strong magic skills/spells are learned, along with elemental slashes that exploit enemy vulnerabilities.

*[[Paladin]] (Martial Artist+Priest): Strength, Agility, and Wisdom go up and a mixture of defensive and offensive skills are learned such as [[Forbearance]] and [[Pearly Gates]].

*[[Sage]] (Mage+Priest): Wisdom and MP go up and high level attack and healing spells are learned. At higher ranks, the Sage will be able to cast spells for fewer MP.

*[[Ranger]] (Merchant+Thief+Monster Master): Agility and Wisdom go up and an assortment of exploration and defensive skills are learned.

*[[Hero (Class)|Hero]] (Gladiator+Sage+Luminary+Ranger): This is the ultimate vocation and all stats go up. Several high power attack spells/skills are learned, such as [[Gigaslash]], and characters will automatically regenerate HP at higher ranks. The [[Hero (Dragon Quest VI)|Protagonist of Dragon Quest VI]] only has to master one of the listed vocations to become a Hero.

 

[[Monster recruitment|Monster companions]]s are treated more like human party members in this game; they stay at [[Patty's Party Planning Place]] and can change vocations. But they will not join the party unless one of the active PCs belongs to the Monster Master vocation. Monster Companions are less valuable in this game, because there are a large number of human characters, who can learn most of the same skills and powers monsters obtain. There are a few powers that can only be obtained by monsters, however, and each bestial buddy boasts resistances that humans do not. There are 18 types of monster that can join the party, but Patty has only 15 seats for monsters in her bar, considerably less than the fifth game.

This feature has been removed from the DS version, as the Monster Master is incapable of recruiting monsters. It has been replaced by a system allowing recruitment of slime family monsters only through encountering them in towns/dungeons/etc.

* It is now possible to enter wells by examining them; this takes the party to a special map determined by the well. Some wells house [[Well wisher]] monsters that attack the party when they try to enter. Other wells may have additional wells inside, connecting the two worlds.

* The party combat modes have been changed slightly; there is now a new strategy which causes the other party members to focus exclusively on supporting the Hero. It will also cause monsters to focus on attacking the Hero. The AI now takes account of previous events in the round, so it is useful to have some slow characters that act last in the round. Also, other party members will automatically attack enemies' weak points, having a full understanding fot heir elemental and status ailment vulnerabilities. Because of these traits, the AI is more efficient than a human player. The AI was toned down somewhat in ''[[Dragon Quest VII]]'' and onwards, including ''VI's'' remake.

* Combat arenas now cover the whole screen, and the monsters are animated when they attack (although only the final boss has sound effects).

===Style and the Best Dressed Contest===

A "Kakkoyosa" (かっこよさ, effectively Charisma, known as [[Style]] in English localizations) stat makes its debut, allowing the PCs to compete in a [[Best Dresser Contest]]. [[Style]] measures how charismatic and well-dressed the characters are; it will be high for attractive characters and monsters, and low for ugly and non-humanoid ones. Various weapons and armour can increase or decrease the stat; the effects of these equipments can themselves be altered at a [[Fashionable Forge]]. A matching set of equipment will increase the stat further through hidden bonuses; these pieces of equipment are often joined by a theme such as [[Princess Robe|faerie tale]] [[Glass slippers|elegance]].

The Best Dressed Contest has eight ranks, which the player enters in order. Depending on rank, the contest may be limited to men, women, or monsters. While the contest is one of the [[mini-game]]s in ''Dragon Quest VI'', the party must win the third rank of the contest to gain an important item that will advance the plot.

 

 

 

 

*A prequel, ''[[Dragon Quest Monsters]]'' (''Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland'' in Japan), was released in 1998. This game featured Terry and Milly years before the events of ''Dragon Quest VI''. It was released in North America the next year, even though ''Dragon Quest VI'' was never released in North America. Along with Terry and Milly, several of the main enemies, including Mortamor, reappear. However, their previous roles have been eliminated, making them appear as just normal enemies. Mortamor and Murdaw (Mudou in the game) do appear as very challenging, very late in-game bosses, though.

The initial release date in Spring of 1995 was delayed over a year, Heartbeat wanting to further develop their game. The game was eventually shown at Shoshinkai in November of 1995. ''Dragon Quest VI'' was released a few weeks later on December 9, with the very steep price of 11,400 yen (roughly over 100 U.S. dollars before inflation adjustments). The game went on to sell over 3.20 million copies, becoming the highest-selling title in the series at the time by a wide margin. Since then, in Japan, the game actually made the news in 2005, when a Japanese student threatened another student over an argument about what ''Dragon Quest'' is the best, the student doing the threatening favoring ''Dragon Quest VI''.

A handful of changes were made to the game, some remaining controversial among fans:

*The monster recruiting function of the [[Monster Master]] vocation was removed, replaced with a system of slime companions that can be recruited during the journey. Some of these slimes, like the mottle slime, were not available in the original version.

*Enemies generally have 80% HP and give 120% EXP compared to the SFC version. Some enemy groups have been increased in number to compensate for this. This change was decried by some fans as making the game too easy.

*[[Magic Burst]]'s damage multiplier is reduced to 2x MP (similar to later installments), instead of 3x MP.

*[[Amos]] now has a unique sprite model, where as he shared the NPC warrior sprite before.

The game is likely a prequel to ''IV'' and ''V'', based on small details and hints scattered throughout the story. In typical Horii fashion, many of these hints are not concrete and are up to the player to decide for themselves. That being said, the similarities between Zenithia and Cloudsgate Citadel are objectivly clear even at a cursory glance.