Dragon Quest V: Difference between revisions

A deeply moving and great story following a boy through his life, with the addition of [[Mon|Mons]]s (for the better, and this game [[Older Than They Think|preceded]] ''[[Pokémon]]'') an element not seen in other ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' games. [[Magnum Opus|It is the favorite of Yuji Horii]], the creator of the series, and stands as very nearly the [http://www.metacritic.com/game/ds/dragon-quest-v-hand-of-the-heavenly-bride best-reviewed] and critically-respected game of the entire franchise.

** Bishop Ladja gets considerably more screentime and involvement in the plot in [[The Remake]] than in the original. To elaborate, in [[The Remake]], {{spoiler|he's the one who petrifies you and your wife instead of Kon. Also, instead of being killed in Talon Tower as in the original, he survives to personally execute King Korol for his failure to defeat the party and ends up being fought at the entrance to [[The Very Definitely Final Dungeon]]}}.

* [[And I Must Scream]]: {{spoiler|The player character}} is stuck as a [[Taken for Granite|statue]] for eight years in ''DQVDragon Quest V'', as is {{spoiler|his wife. And to make thing even more horrible, you get to watch a kid grow up, and then get kidnapped}}. It is explicitly stated they were aware of everything that was occurring during that time. {{spoiler|Though, Debora in the in-game chat comments that the 10 years as a statue just flew by for her, but whether or not she was acting tough due to her personality or telling the truth is not clear}}.

* [[The Anime of the Game]]: Manga for this matter, ''Dragon Quest: Tenkuu Monogatari'' is a 12 Volume manga, released in 1997, centered on Bianca and the Hero's children, named Sora (Sky) and Ten (Heaven) in this adaptation, adding a [[Theme Naming]] for the ''Heavenly Bride'' title of the original game, it serves more as an [[Adaptation Expansion]] for the children since they venture through many original adventures not present in none of the games while their parents are [[Demoted to Extra]]. Unfortunately, ''Tenkuu Monogatari'' (''Sky Tales'') was [[No Export for You|not released outside Japan]], and has no [[Fan Translation]] to boot.

** Earlier than that, weWe have the "Harry's been kidnapped" plotline. {{spoiler|Turns out the kidnappers are on the [[Religion of Evil|Order of Zugzwang's]] payroll}}.

* [[Disappeared Dad]]: {{spoiler|''You!''}}!

** [[GameplayOn and Story Integration]]: However, there's a neat instancethe of the other side of the coin., Thinkthink about all the bad fortune that befalls our hero... {{spoiler|ambushed by Ladja, watches his dad get ''murdered'', enslaved for ten years, has to go through trials to get married, gets turned into a statue and misses the early years of his children's lives and then has to go rescue his mother from the underworld}}... and then, during gameplay, when he levels up? You'll notice his luck stat just about ''never'' goes up. His luck stat is the lowest in the game.

*** In the childhood section of the game, when Pankraz is with you, you can't control your movement at all, you can't choose to initiate dialogue, you can't do anything but [[All in a Row|follow right behind him on autopilot]]. Well, of course you can't do anything; he's your dad, ''he's the party leader, not you''. You're a secondary party member when he's around!

**** In one of the most meta moments in the series, Pankraz [[Like Father, Like Son|makes the mistake every player has]] in a 2-d2D RPG: accidentally stepping back onto a stairs icon and ending up in the previous screen. Jarring for him as one step sent him down an entire underground stairway and hilariously awkward for you as the party member who follows without a word. This was sadly not as funny for the remake where there is [[Technology Marches On|no longer a 2D icon]] to fumble with on the way to Coburg.

*** The game actually does [[Lampshade Hanging]] the fact that resurrection can happen in this setting. So, if characters get [[Killed Off for Real]], the narrative makes sure they're either [[Deader Than Dead]] or otherwise indisposed. {{spoiler|Specifically, Pankraz is hit with a fireball so powerful it blasts him to ''ashes'', and while the Hero and his wife aren't ''killed'', they're turned into stone statues with a spell that only a specific staff can reverse}}. Even when you get married, instead of "as long as you both shall live", it's "as long as you both shall be resurrected from death in the church."

* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]:* In perhaps the oddest example of this trope and a complete inversion of the usual [[Take Your Time]] present in this game, a series of events that can take the player roughly a couple hours to get through is implied to take two YEARS.<ref> Especially the process of meeting your prospective wives, adventuring to get their hand in marriage, getting married, and the birth of the twins. Going by plot? A year or two. Going by the game mechanic days, about three weeks at most.</ref>. This happens at least twice in the game, in addition to normal story time skips (the last era of the game is explicitly mentioned to have taken two years).

** It's worse than that;: Flora has gated level cap of Lv10 (normally Lv99 for human [[Player Character|PCs]]) for the rest of the second generation (The hero's level would usually be around that high ''no more than an hour into the game'', and the marriage is about 8~10 hours into the game), and would often disregard commands in battles unless another party member attacks her. Flora's in-battle behavior [[Fridge Logic|would also imply]] that ''she might not have loved the Hero at all'', which would make the whole thing even more of a [[Player Punch]].

* [[Have You Seen My God?]]: {{spoiler|Everything starts to go wrong and the world goes to Hell after Zenithia crashes. God would step in and fix things, but gets stuck riding a minecart going in a circular route for 20 years. What's amazing is that this is almost a decade before [[Dogma]], and it's very unlikely that ''Dragon Quest V'' could've influenced it}}.

* [[Hello, Insert Name Here]]: Along with naming your hero, you can rename your recruited monsters. You get to name your kids, too.

** Most of his weapons are still swords, though.

* [[Hope Spot]]:* Hey, Hero! Your mother's alive and waiting to be saved! {{spoiler|Oh wait, you just meet her and she just got Kafrizzled by Ladja... But she survived! Only to get zapped by Nimzo... Ow}}.

* [[Lampshade Hanging]]: Instead of "as long as you both shall live", marriage vows are sworn "for so long as you both shall be resurrected from death in the church."

* [[Magikarp Power]]:* A few of the monsters that can hit level 99 have extremely high stat growth and/or learn incredibly powerful abilities at the highest levels. To little surprise, [[Mascot Mook|slimes]] are one of them.

* [[Meaningful Name]]:* {{spoiler|Dr Agon is actually the Zenithian Dragon}}. With a name like that, who saw it coming?

* [[Proper Lady]]: Flora/Nera.

** AnFlora/Nera. unusual case in thatUnusually, for once, her type is significantly ''less'' popular among the Japanese fanbase than her romantic rival. Largely due to the [[Guilt Based Gaming]] of the original version.

* [[Rich Bitch]]: Debora, who may or may not have [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|a golden heart]] under all that jewelry. She spends about 90% of the marriage being an ungrateful, insane slave-driver not unlike those that imprisoned the Hero earlier, but by the time she witnesses for herself the final major tragedy in his in-game life, her tune changes and she vows to make Nimzo pay for what he did to her husband. It's worth putting up her attitude all the way to the end just to see it.

** King Albert and his chancellor Jeeves -- a.k.a. [[Jeeves and Wooster (novel)|Jeeves and Wooster]].

*** Later on, when the player actually collects the ring, the standard Get Item message box is altered slightly-... instead, it says "It's the Circle of Life", a line direct from the song.

* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]: Nimzo/Mirudraas/ or Mildrath.? Jami or Jahmi? The official localization offers no answers, as they went for full [[Dub Name Change]] into Nimzo and Ladja/GemaKon.

* [[Squishy Wizard]]: Nera, the most magically skilled of the brides.

* [[Theme Naming]]: The official English translation of the DS remake gives several villains chess-related titles, such as Kon the Knight, Slon the Rook, and the final boss, Grandmaster Nimzo, who is named after a real-life grandmaster of chess (see [[Shout-Out]] above). Allies of theirs that are just [[Palette Swap|Palette Swaps]] of randomly encountered enemies follow the naming pattern of (name of non-[[Palette Swap|Palette Swapped]] version) Pawn.

** The chess motifs for the villains are even more subtle than that; the proper names are the names of the chess pieces in Russian. Kon means knight, Ferx means queen, and Korol means king. Averted, however, with Slon the Rook and Ladja the Bishop;: while 'slon' means elephant in Russian (and would therefore seem like a good name for a rook), it's the Russian term for the bishop, and 'ladja' is the term for the rook.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]:* Add {{spoiler|Sancho}} to your party, then take him back to the first few cities of the game and talk to him constantly. {{spoiler|How cruel you're being varies from city to city: in Roundbeck, he occasionally gets depressed, but also has untainted happy memories,; in the ruins of Whealbrook and at Coburg, your kids make it clear to you that Sancho refused to ever go to either place again until the Hero forces him to, but at least in Whealbrook after you talk to everyone, he eventually seems to come to terms with what happened there. But in Coburg, it's obvious that you're basically emotionally torturing him every second you stay there because it's so hard for him to be in the place and speak with the people that he blames for Pankraz's death}}.

** Chapters 2 and 3 take place over less than a month of in-game day/night cycles + sleeping at inns unless you spend a lot of time grinding. However, in-story dialog suggests that each chapter takes over 2 years each. (e.g. {{spoiler|Youyou were rescued by your 8-year old kids, born on the day your wife was kidnapped.; Whenwhen you recover your wife, the game says that it's been 10 years that she was petrified}}.).

* [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair]]: Nera/Flora and her children. Also, Prince Harry has ''neon green'' hair. He has green hair in the original too. It's just not quite so... shiny.