Dragon Warrior 7 posted:
In the world, only this island is...
You plan to become a humble fisherman on peaceful Estard Island, the only land in a world of ocean. But when you discover the artifacts from an ancient land, you tear the fabric of time and unveil the world that once was. Transported to past lands, you must solve their mysteries and break the spell of annihilation. Prepare for your destiny!
2001, Enix was still standing tall and fighting the neverending onslaught of Square. They decided to release a new Dragon Quest Game (Aka Dragon Warrior) - the first in several years (The previous game, Dragon Quest 6, was released in 1995 for the Super Famicom, and was Japanese only).
So, Let's Play Dragon Warrior 7!
So, why do Dragon Warrior 7?
I wanted to do an LP, I checked the request list, and I saw this one on it and it clicked. I've put quite a bit of time into this game and I want to show it off for people who would otherwise ignore it. The setting is fantastic, and the writing is the best of the series, and the job system is just spectacular.
Dragon Warrior? Where have I heard of that before?
Well, it could be from any number of things. There were four games released for the Nintendo, 2 released only in Japan for the Super Famicom (that are being re-released on the DS), scads of remakes (1-5 have been remade for the GBA/DS), plus you may have heard of it from either of the Let's Plays for the excellent games Dragon Warrior Monsters or Dragon Warrior Monsters 2).
Okay, why is this game so special?
Three main reasons - One, it has a truly epic plot, though it takes forever to develop, with dozens of mini-plots, sub-plots, and side plots. Two, it has one of the most in-depth job systems of any game I've seen. Three, there's just a lot of stuff to do! Over the course of the game, you can build a town from the ground up, help fill a monster park, become the Smartest Man in the World, collect TinyMedals (The original TACO (Totally Arbritrary Collectible Object) of video games), become the Strongest Man in the World, reunite the peoples of the world, play in casinos, become the Most Stylish Man in the World, and save the world.
And that's not even counting the post-ending content.
Hrmm, this all looks familiar...
The bulk of the character and monster design of the series comes from a little known manga writer by the name of Akira Toriyama. It's entirely possible that you've heard of him or seen one of the mangas or animes he is responsible for.
So, how is this a Let's Play?
Audience participation is gonna be minimal at first, because for a while there won't be anything to really decide on. It starts off incredibly slowly but gets its payoff later. So, when possible, I will ask for audience participation for various decisions and fulfill any requests as best I can, but other than that I'll just be transcribing the game and doing a great deal of off-screen grinding. Of which there will be a lot - this game involves a lot of levels.
Characters so far:
LINK!
The Hero of the game. He's 16 years old and a son of a humble fisherman living in the tiny fishing vilage of Fishbel. You guys need to give him a name so that we can get this show on the road! He suffers from Silent Protagonist syndrome, so he pretty much just goes along with what everyone else wants to do, but we'll be trying to give him some personality over the choice of the game. He's good all-around, and gets various support magics by default.
MARIBEL!
The traditional whiny, controlling shrew character, Maribel is the daughter of the richest man in Fishbel. She believes that she should be able to tell the rest of the party what to do, and the Hero usually goes along with it, since he's a chump. She innately gets various attack and debuff magics, like Blaze and Sleep. Maribel tends to be better at magic than the rest of the party, but worse at just hitting things.
KIEFER!
Though he's the Prince of Estard Isle, Kiefer only wants to go adventuring and finds the duties of princeship to be annoying things to ignore whenever possible. Since he's the hero's best friend (Not a lot of people on this island) Kiefer makes the hero follow him and help him on his expeditions. He picks up sword skills and slashes over the course of the game without any effort and is just generally good at hitting things with swords.
GABO!
A wolf raised by wolves and then by other wolves until he was turned into a human by a monster, Gabo joins the team a little bit into the game. He follows the party and is generally quiet, what with his loose grasp of language, but quite interesting. He gets various lupine skills, like Bite, Rip, and Tackle innately. His weapons are frequently various kinds of teeth and claws.
MELVIN!
Melvin, the legendary Great Warrior, was sealed away by God before his final battle with the Demon Lord, and joins the party after they return him to the world. He's involved in investigating exactly what happened during that ancient battle, and is a welcome addition to the party.
AIRA!
Aira, the mythical Dancer of the Dejan Tribe, is the final character to join the party. She's wanting to go off and seek adventure rather than stay at home, and may have a special lineage of some kind, since that's par for the course for this kind of game.
Table of Contents
- Post 01: In which we learn the results of giving a father a FishSub.
- Post 02: In which we discover that Estard is a country for old men.
- Post 03: In which we wrap up all of this "not fighting" nonsense.
- Post 04: In which scantily clad women in pink armor are quite rude and children are inordinately chatty.
- Post 05: In which the party finally remembers and gets weapons.
- Post 06: In which I struggle to not make any "On a boat" jokes.
- Post 07: In which we visit the volcano portion of the story.
- Post 08: In which we visit the same volcano, but in a different way.
- Post 09: In which there is a very depressing town and we watch people talk to each other
- Post 10: In which we die twice against a clown.
- Post 11: In which Grindopolis gets it's name. And earns it.
- Post 12: In which we meet too many soldiers.<
- Post 13: In which we touch upon the nature of a machine's soul.
- Post 14: In which we initiate the grand experiment of Grindton.
- Post 15: In which we see the world's fastest soap opera, and people hurry off with an astonishing frequency.
- Post 16: In which we visit a dungeon, talk to a group of maids and nuns, and find clarification on the nature of God and the Demon Lord.
- Post 17: In which Kiefer is crass and irresponsible, and we meet up with very polite gypsies.
- Post 18: In which we take our parents advice and apply for a job.
- Post 19: In which we are betrayed, beaten up again, and push blocks around.
- Post 20: In which we beat up several groups of four enemies, and Zaji runs off frequently.<
- Sidebar: Jobs
- Sidebar: More Jobs
- Post 21: In which people try to con us out of our 100,000+ gold, and we are not taken in.
- Post 22: In which we find a town kept safe by it's love of pot, and we find out what happened to ellipses after Final Fantasy 8.
- Post 23: In which previous stipulations and guesses are proven true.
- Post 23.5: In which we have a status update.
- Post 24: In which we face the Demon Lord, who has an unanticipated appearance.
- Post 25: In which we talk with people, steal, and wait in a line for water.
- Post 26: In which we experience Deja Vu, the feeling we've done this before, and poke out an eye with a sharp stick.
- Post 27: In which we deal with Verdham, home of soap opera ridiculousness and storming off in a huff *once again*, and we discover a maid with a gift of grammar so bad it can predict the future.
- Post 28: In which we find the eventual fate of Linda and Pepe, discuss the merits of various colors, and appreciate art.
- Post 28.5: In which we make a side-trip to prove how Stylish Maribel is.
- Post 29: In which we deal with a mysterious bard and the prospect of a coming disaster.
- Post 30: In which we go under the sea and are saved by a bard.
- Post 31: In which we spend our time dealing with old men, to our eventual profit.
- Post 31.5.1: In which there is another status update - Feel free to ignore, no plot or anything.
- Post 31.5.2:In which we have another grind session - Still no plot, just mechanics.
- Post 32: In which we fight a son of son, son of a gun, son of a son of a Gracos and get an extra-mysterious shard.
- Post 33: In which we rescue Loomin from the depradations it suffers.
- Post 34: In which we rescue Loomin from the depradations it suffers again.
- Post 35: In which we return to Loomin to save it a third time and are confronted with an actual choice.
- Post 35.5.1: In which we save Loomin by saving the poor, innocent Chibi.
- Post 35.5.2: In which we save Loomin by butchering the ruthless HellWorm, Chibi.
- Post 36: In which Maribel shows what a vain fool she really is, we learn many new words usually seen only in the SAT, and Gabo is left out.
- Post 37: In which we discover man-cow hybrids and a home for the elderly.
- Post 38: In which we visit some castles, meet some royalty and members of the priesthood, and discover a moderately amazing castle.
- Post 39: In which we lose a fight, surprising as it may seem.
- Post 40: In which we lose a party member so that we can get a different one, and we also complain about a legendary spell until we get a better version.
- Post 41: In which we discover a sad little girl, and help her father with his problem.
- Post 42: In which the best little girl in the world saves everyone and is adorable.
- Post 43: In which we visit Lefa, figure out what to do with Bliss, and talk with the Legendary Hero.
- Post 44: In which we find two pedestals that we can't do anything with immediately, and we become the world champions of various things.
- Post 45: In which we deal with a surprising surplus of words.
- Post 46: In which we are thrown to the depradations of pink monsters, discover a certain amount of religious symbolism, and help smuggle gold out of town.
- Post 47: In which adults are horrible, we collect some collectibles, and drop off some blueprints.
- Post 48: In which we are treated to an extended flashback, only to be followed by more flashbacks.
- Post 49: In which we see a popular music reference, beat up a couple of low-level bosses, and further requests are made of us.
- Post 50: In which we end up not saving the Marle de Dragonne, and do some carousing after being asked to do so by the king.
- Post 51: In which we retroactively produce a means of flight and defeat the mighty Orgodemir, Lord of the Demons.
- Post 52: In which we're on a mission for God to get the band together, we feast, we fix the world, we feast again, then we feast a third time.
- Post 53: In which everything is fine, and nothing is ruined.
- Post 54: In which we can be stopped because we're on a mission against God.
- Post 55: In which we learn a great deal, do very little, and get to the place we most need to go.
- Post 56: In which we go through an odd sequence of travel in a dungeon, and break a heart.
- Post 57: In which we discover that there is a small world after all, and a party member is quite insulting.
- Post 58: In which there is a big reveal, and everything makes a little more sense.
- Post 59: In which things become bad, and then they become bad in an entirely different way.
- Post 60: In which we complete all of the preparation before the end-game.
- Post 61: In which we beat up Satan or something.
- Post 62: In which we enter a cave, then a dungeon, then a volcano, then go under the sea, then leave time, and so on.
- Post 63: In which we beat up the first optional boss, the team goes platinum, and we beat that boss again and again until our demands our met.
- Post 64: In which the party goes triple platinum, and reaches the somewhat anti-climactic but still fairly awesome conclusion of their adventures.
- Post 64.5: In which the party goes to places to talk to people and things, both foreign and domestic.