After reading about Dr. Potts' First Impressions article about Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, I developed a yearning to play a Dragon Quest game as well, and since I had two games in the series that I had not finished, I had some decisions to make. My choices lay with either Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation which I had previously started back in August, 2014, but put down in March the following year after only playing for 16 hours; the other choice was Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies which if it follows the Dragon Quest series I through VI, is the third part of the VII, VIII, IX trilogy (it actually may not be a trilogy, but I have not looked into it, which I probably should do). So obviously, I decided to go with DQVI:RoR, which you by now have gathered.
So last month, I started up DQVI again, but started a new character rather than try and figure out where I left off two years ago; considering that I stopped playing because I was lost in the story, starting over seemed like the best way to further enjoy the game. And from what I recall, everything progressed in the game more-or-less as I remembered it during my first playthrough. Last week, I reached the point in the game when I had first stopped and immediately recalled being lost, which I was currently. Earlier yesterday, while wandering around both worlds, I surpassed the 16 hour mark, but was only a little closer to figuring out where I was supposed to be going, or so I thought.
The interesting thing with DQVI is how much of the game they seem to throw at you so early in the game. It is a bit overwhelming not only having so much area to explore, but since this game deals with traveling back and forth between different versions of the same world where even the world looks a bit different can get confusing. "Which Somnia am I supposed to be going to?" "Was Luca in starting world or the second world? And where in fact was Luca's hut located?" DQVI does attempt to do a decent job at helping the player along when the goal is seemingly unclear, with being able to manually activate conversations with the members in the party, or seeking out a seer named Luca who can direct you towards your next goal. However, most of the conversation hints are usually only revealed when you are often context sensitive, or instead of being able to hear your party members, you may only hear your horse 'neigh,' which does not mean anything. There are hints, but very little hand holding, which I obviously appreciate.
And just this morning, I caved and looked online to find out where my next destination was, which happened to be southeast of a village that becomes accessible only after acquiring a ship. It was definitely one of those moments that made me feel a little guilty and at the same time a little dumb that something was as simple as crossing a bridge.
So now here I am. 18 hours in and enjoying the game like I had always hoped that I would.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
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