Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation

Overview

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation is the sixth entry in the famed Dragon Quest series, originally published by Enix, but now published by Square Enix since their merger in 2003. The game was originally released for the Super Famicom in Japan on December 9, 1995. The DS remake was released in North America on February 14, 2011 and was published in that territory by Nintendo. The game saw a release in Europe on May 20th, 2011.

The original Japanese version had the subtitle Maboroshi no Daichi, or "Land of Illusions"/"Land of Dreams".

Story

The game begins with the hero's party approaching the castle of the Demon King, Murdaw. After they confront the fiend, they meet an apparent defeat before the Hero suddenly wakes up in the town of Weaver's Peak. A small girl named Tania who he discovers insists to him that he is her brother. The Hero travels to the nearby town of Haggleton to retrieve a crown for the annual Mountain Spirit Festival, only to discover that the man who makes the crowns has left. The Hero sets off to find him and discovers him clinging to side of a massive hole in the ground. While the Hero successfully manages to save the crown maker, he himself falls into the hole.

On the other side, the Hero discovers a mysterious village where no one seems to notice his existence. After listening in on the townspeople's conversations, he learns that there is a well outside of the village which no one seems to return from. Traveling there, he finds himself back in his own world. After being given the crown, the Hero returns back home for the Festival. While there he has a vision of a great evil coming to overtake his world. He gains permission of the town elder to leave, and discovers that the world he had fallen into was a "Phantom World" which existed alongside their own.

Gameplay

Like all other games in the main Dragon Quest series, Dragon Quest VI focuses heavily on exploration and turn-based battles with randomly encountered parties of monsters. The player is presented with a large world and must figure out where to go and what to do next through conversation with NPCs and hints provided by items the player may acquire. To make progress through the game, the heroes must fight as many monsters as necessary to raise their combat abilities to the point where they can defeat stronger enemies and journey father into the game's world. Dungeons must often be explored to find newer equipment or confront some powerful enemy who is important to the game's story.

Class System

Like some other games in the series, DQ VI features a class system which features into the development and progression of different characters in the hero's party. Characters are not able to change their classes until they reach the Alltrades Abbey, at which point they can choose from one of several different "starter classes." When a player masters multiple classes by fighting in enough battles, they gain the ability to create a "hybrid class," which allows them the chance to mix different abilities from other classes into one new class. The hybrid class that is available for a party member to use is dependent on what classes that particular member has already learned.

The classes available to the player are as follows:

Starter classes:

• Warrior
• Martial Artist
• Mage
• Priest
• Dancer
• Thief
• Monster Master
• Merchant
• Gadabout

Hybrid Classes:

• Gladiator
• Armamentalist
• Paladin
• Sage
• Ranger
• Luminary

In addition the "Hero" class is available to party members who manage to master four of the hybrid classes. However, the main hero need only master one of these classes to be able to use this class.

There are also two hidden classes that must be discovered by acquiring certain scrolls hidden in the game:

• Dragon
• Metal Slime

Dragon Quest VI was also the first game in the series to include abilities or skills, moves which the game's human characters could learn which did not cost MP to use. This feature was added to remakes of older games in the series when they were released on the Nintendo DS.

Monster Recruitment

In addition to fighting with your human party members, Dragon Quest VI allows the player the opportunity to recruit monsters into their group to fight with them with battles. While it was nessecary to have a party member in the "Monster Master" class to do this in the original SNES version of the game, in the remake a monster can be recruited by the player at any time the player encounters them. Monsters that can be recruited will be met outside of battle by the player. To recruit them, normally all a player must do is to talk to them. However, occasionally a monster will require the player to complete a set amount of requirements before they will be able to add them to their party. Once a monster has joined up with the heroes, they will begin to gain experience and level up. Monsters can also be outfitted with weapons and equipment, although the the exact objects that can be equipped change with each monster.

Changes in the remake

When the game was remade for the Nintendo DS, a few things were changed for it:

• Wireless communication like that found in Dragon Quest IX was implemented so that players could communicate between their individual copies of the game.
• A "slime curling" mini-game was added.
• Monster recruitment was altered so that monsters could only be recruited when the player met them outside of battle, instead of requiring them to use a member of the "Monster Master" class to pick them up after a fight.

History

On May 20, 2008, Square Enix announced they they would remake the game for DS as part of the Zenithia Trilogy remakes. The previous chapters were Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen and Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. Dragon Quest VI is the last game in the series predating Dragon Quest VII to see an international release. With its North American release, all titles from the original Dragon Quest to Dragon Quest IX will have seen an international release on at least one platform.