Part 12: Land of the Rising Son

Last time, I ended with a joke about Dragon Ball Z. This is not as much of a joke as you might expect.



Seriously, I hope you like shonen anime, because that's basically what this chapter is.




We have our setup right from the start.




Akira is our first male protagonist. He is, as you'd probably guess, a ninja.





Unlike in the other chapters, here we have to do some work before we can recruit our party members. The requirements are a bit vague.




Luckily, this guy right outside the Sensei's room lays out the requirements pretty plainly.





Another NPC close by offers additional advice. Basically: talk to everyone.




Our first target is the Novice Master, who trains new students. One of his students is a frog, but that's actually not that strange for this place. The real problem is that fidgety little brat next to the frog.






Disciplining him is as simple as preying on the fact that he is a child.




Our reward is 1 prestige and a token amount of XP. It's not much, but it represents my biggest problem with this chapter: Akira is going to be earning way more XP than his companions.




On the other side of the floor is a set of bookshelves, some of which contain some lore about the region and its history.






I really wasn't kidding about the Dragon Ball stuff. It's real dumb, but in an endearing "amateur RPG writer" way.



One floor down, the Keeper of Books has a quiz for us on what we just read. We only get once chance, so it's fortunate that I paid attention.














It's pretty basic, but a perfect score is worth 4 prestige, which brings us to half our goal.



The basement of the dojo doesn't have anything plot-relevant, but it does have a number of shelves, pots, and barrels to search.



Another NPC is the dojo expands on what we already know by telling us that Akira has a second goal: avenging his father's death. This really is shonen as hell.




In the town outside the dojo, we're asked to deliver a fish to the inn.




This exceedingly simple task is worth 1 prestige.




This task, on the other hand, is a pain in the ass, because there are a ton of flowers in the village and the right one isn't indicated in any way.



Sadly, it's not the patch on the fresh grave. Though I guess that would be a bit morbid.



No, it's actually in this random patch in the corner of the town. Much as I like this game, I gotta admit: this is not good quest design.




Still, prestige is prestige.





Why not?




The Trainee uses basic attacks and occasionally defends. He takes a bit of time to beat, but even with our basic starting gear, he doesn't present any real challenge.




Defeating him earns us 3 prestige, which gets us to 10. Let's go see the Sensei.






Even more XP for our hero and no one else.




As before, I leave the selection of classes to you, fellow goons. The rules remain the same: vote for up to one class from each group (with gender and name optional), and previously-used classes are off limits. Also remember that the three classes remaining after this vote will end up as the companions of our fourth and final hero, though I'll still let you vote on names and genders.