Dragon Quest X

Main series games
Awakening of the Five Tribes; The Sleeping Hero and the Guided Allies; Lore of the Ancient Dragon; Odyssey to a Faraway Land; The Maiden of Thorns and the God of Destruction; Heroes of the Heavenly Stars
Developer(s)	Square Enix
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Designer(s)	Yuji Horii
Artist(s)	Akira Toriyama
Composer(s)	Kōichi Sugiyama
Series	Dragon Quest
Platform(s)	Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Microsoft Windows, Android, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
Release date(s)	Wii JP August 2, 2012 Wii U JP March 2013 Microsoft Windows JP September 26, 2013 CHN May 20, 2016 Android JP December 16, 2013
Genre(s)	Console role-playing game
Rating(s)	CERO: A

Dragon Quest X: Mezameshi Itsutsu no Shuzoku Online (ドラゴンクエストX オンライン, Doragon Kuesuto Ten: Onrain) is the tenth game in the Dragon Quest series. It was announced at a press conference in January 2009. On September 5 2011, it was announced to be an online multiplayer game for the Nintendo Wii and released in Japan on August 2, 2012. Dragon Quest X is also playable without the online feature.

Several expansion packs were released for the game: The Sleeping Hero and the Guided Allies in 2013; Lore of the Ancient Dragon in 2015; Odyssey to a Faraway Land in 2017; The Maiden of Thorns and the God of Destruction in 2019; and Heroes of the Heavenly Stars in 2021. Also, there was a manga series, Dragon Quest: Souten no Soura. A Nintendo Switch version was also announced during the January 12th, 2017 Nintendo Switch Presentation.

Dragon Quest X remains the only mainline Dragon Quest game to not be officially released in English-speaking territories. A Chinese localization was released in 2016, and eventually discontinued in May 2019.

Gameplay

Dragon Quest X is the first game inside the numbered titles that breaks the Dragon Quest tradition of turn-based combat; the combat becomes more action-based by breaking the order of the attacks.

The game includes a quest system like in 'Dragon Quest IX', but with some changes. Quests serve as side-stories helping non-player characters around the game's world. Multiple quests can be performed simultaneously with some even interlocking and unlocking various stages in fellow quests. Early quests include gathering magical spring water, slaying monsters and stealing for a fellow thief. Like the previous Dragon Quest installment, Dragon Quest X contains many open ended mini-quests. Upon completion of the quests, a "Quest List log," serving as an in-game achievement list. There are also brand new "Job quests" that can only be received when you have the job that is requested.

This game also includes two new features as a reference to other RPG games: the Fire Colosseum and the Magic Labyrinth. The Fire Colosseum allows the player challenge again some storyline bosses that are modified to be stronger and the Magic Labyrinth acts like the Grotto of Dragon Quest IX. Although the first one is located at the top of a snowy mountain, several labyrinths can be encountered during the gameplay, and in the most strange possible places, like a mirror in the Royal Palace of Gran Zedoura in Rendaashia.

Like the rest of the Dragon Quest games, except for Dragon Quest IX, the game allows the player to save their progress in 3 different save slots.

Game features

Highly customizable characters, with many different faces, skin colors, weapons and armours. This game also included different races such as ogres, wetlings, poppets, elves and dwarfs.
Rental partners that can be recruited for a limited time up to 72 hours.
Co-operative play with up to four players online.
3D graphics and a real time overworld similar to those found in Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King.
Time-limited events where you can receive very powerful armor pieces, weapons, etc
A fully customizable house for the player's character.
A beach resort were players can relax with friends, similar to The Sims'".
Blacksmith and dressmaker minigames where players can improve weapons, armor pieces and clothes without alchemy.
A parallel storyline where you control a pair of treasure hunter humans.
A japanese high school simulation mode.
A brand new fishing minigame, similar to Animal Crossing's fishing mode for example.
A minigame that makes players investigate a series of crimes commuted in an old mansion, similar to Clue.

Offline Storyline

Offline tutorial and Prologue

The story begins in the village of Tenton, the home of the Hero and their sibling, when the Hero is looking at the sky at the center of the village. Their sibling calls them, and is shown to be riding the Galapogod along with Lady Tenda, the elder of Tenton. When the Galapogod reaches the Hero’s location, their sibling offers them a ride, but is immediately interrupted by Lady Tenda, denying the Hero the opportunity.

A strange noise awakens the Hero from the apparent dream, only to learn that their sibling accidentally destroyed the village's supply of Perky Beans, Lady Tenda's favorite food, in an attempt to multiply them via alchemy. At Tenton's church the Hero meets Lady Tenda's grandson, Singh, who instructs the Hero to gather various items from the local villagers, so that they can fashion a pillow to serve as compensation for the loss of the Perky beans. Upon receiving the pillow, Lady Tenda asks the Hero to look for their sibling, and despite being upset at Singh for disturbing her, she still uses the pillow they made, falling into a deep sleep. After locating their sibling in a cul-de-sac successfully alchemizing a hat, the Hero returns to the village, where Lady Tenda announces that the village will surely be destroyed, with no survivors. However, hope remains in the form of a plant known as the Tensu Flower, which blooms in a cave to the north. The Hero, their sibling, and Singh are chosen to retrieve it. Arriving at the cave, Singh mentions that Lady Tenda was worried about the fact that even if the Tensu Flower was successfully retrieved, only one person would survive the destruction of Tenton. The Hero’s sibling is shocked at this revelation, but Singh quickly points out the possibility that Lady Tenda was only referring to a worst-case scenario, and the party continues further into the cave.

The party reaches a large chamber at the back of the cave, where several Tensu Flowers are in full bloom. Unfortunately, they are not alone, as the flowers are immediately attacked by a demonic mage named Bedorā. Singh tells him to stop, but Bedorā has no intention of giving even a single flower to anyone capable of crossing through time. Singh is confused by Bedorā’s words, causing him to cackle at how the people of Tenton allowed themselves to forget something so important. He attacks the trio, but loses. Despite his body at its limit, Bedorā swears to fulfill his master’s orders and unleashes one final attack on the Tensu Flowers, decimating them moments before dying. Singh inspects the ruined flowers, and as he does so, recalls an old text he had read, of how the people of Tenton had a spell to travel freely through time in an age long past. Unfortunately, the number of people able to use the spell dwindled over time, and the spell was lost entirely in the span of several hundred years. As Singh prepares to give up and return to the village, the Hero’s sibling notices a glowing light, obscured by smoke. In a stroke of immeasurable luck, one of the Tensu Flowers had survived.

However, by the time the party returns to the village, they find a horde of monsters burning everything to the ground. A stray fireball flies towards the Hero’s sibling, causing both the Hero and Singh to panic. The Hero reaches out to their sibling, who is then immediately surrounded by a bright light, with their surroundings frozen, as if time itself had stopped. The Hero had unknowingly cast the ancient spell to cross time. The Hero’s sibling immediately disappears, leaving no indication as to where or when the Hero sent them. A monster witnessing the event quickly notifies his master, Dread Lord Nelgel, who was supervising the attack. Nelgel is far from surprised at the fact that there was still someone who could travel through time, as he suspected as such to begin with. He proclaims that no one can escape him, nor death itself, especially not the Hero, as he is the lord of the dead. Nelgel immediately kills the Hero and every remaining villager in Tenton, although the Galapogod’s innate power manages to protect it.

With his goal accomplished, Nelgel retreats to the skies above, and using his scythe, opens a dark portal where an ominous cloud spills out, completely covering the central continent, Rendāshia. Five lights appear from the Galapogod’s body, flying over the deceased bodies of Tenton’s villagers, until one of them stops over the Hero’s body. The light enters the Hero’s body, leaving immediately with the Hero’s soul in tow, departing for the Temple of Light off in the distance.

Extended campaign

Warning: Spoilers!
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In an unknown grassland a man was chasing a woebergine knife in hand, however when he is about to catch the monster he trips with something and falls to the ground, causing the monstrous aubergine to flee. By looking back where he tripped he found a human body, the Hero's sibling. While Isshou was scolding them the sibling gained consciousness again, however since now the player is controlling them he didn't show any trace of his cheerful and carefree personality. Isshou left running again, still searching for the woebergine and left the sibling alone in the grassland.

The sibling, then, headed to the north, to the coast town of Narubia. During the exploration a particular house caught their attention, it has an icon with a silver pot decored with jewels on it, inside there was the pot of the sign (which is actually the alchemy pot and a sleepy girl in one of the beds nearby. Isshou entered the house when the sibling tried to touch the alchemy pot, while talking to them Isshou realized that the interest of the Hero's sibling in alchemy and gave him a recipe book and the recipe of the Strong medicine. After alchemizing one strong medicine, Isshou revealed his true intentions about letting the sibling use the alchemy pot: to synthesize one merazo medicine so he can finally treat his daughter's illness, the girl that was at that moment lying in the bed.

After obtaining the ingredients in the grassland and brewing the medicine, the sibling gave it to Isshou who would then utilize it with the girl. As soon as this was done, Ririoru showd immediate signs of improvement and Isshou invited the sibling to sleep in his house. At the next morning Ririoru was showed to have recovered from her illness and thank the sibling for saving her and Isshou asks if he needs something in exchange, when hearing this the sibling ask them if they've known about a village called Eteene. Ririoru reacted to the name of the village and ran to another point of the room where a scalet box was kept, she came back with the box, opened it and took in her hands a bottle and a letter. She then gave the bottle to her father and read the letter to the Hero's sibling, in the letter it was written about a mythical town called Eteene where magic rituals were made, something Isshou found ridiculous and said that all of that was nonsense, this triggered Ririoru and they started arguing, although Ririoru won and her father had to change his opinion. After the discussion Isshou gives the Blue shrine key to the sibling and tells them that somewhere in the grasslands there are seven mythical shrines hidden and that the key that he had given them opens the door of the first of them, the Blue shrine. By opening all the shrines and passing the trails inside of them, the path to Eteene would be opened. Once one shrine has been completed by the player, they can obtain a material needed to forge the key of the next one by alchemy. After completing the last shrine, the Golden shrine, the Hero's sibling unlocks a door at the back of it and it, surprisingly, leads to the north of the Eteene region, the Unnamed field of flowers.

The Hero's sibling arrived again to Eteene and the village wasn't destroyed anymore, however he didn't know the identity of the inhabitants of the village and their house was now an Inn. Confused he goes to the church to talk to Tenta, however a guard interrupted them and told them that they had to offer a perky bean to enter to the church. Once the bean is received by the guard she enters to the church and, a turmoil later, she exits the church worried and a flash of light throws her to the ground. This flash of light also awakens Galapogod, which was sleeping in its stall. Another woman exits the church, it's Lady Tenta; or at least it looks like her, but she really is Lady Elba. She congregates all the villagers in front of the church and they start to cheer when she presents another person, a little white-haired girl who exits the church escorted by another kid. This girl introduced herself as Tenta and showed to the village the bean she had received. Lady Elba scolded her for making the villagers waste their time, so Tenta presents the Hero's sibling as the person who had introduced perky beans to the agriculture of Eteene and then she told the crowd that the reunion is over. After a little chat with Tenta, the sibling understood that when they were saved by the Hero during the destruction of Eteene, they were actually sent 60 years to the past and sadly they sent a prayer to they brother/sister knowing that they would be never reunited again.

Version 1: Awakening of the Five Tribes

Plot

Warning: Spoilers!
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After being killed by the Dread Lord, the Hero's soul awakens in the Temple of Light. They are greeted by a voice, which explains to the Hero that five gods, representing the five races of Astoltia, are willing to reincarnate them into a new body. Upon choosing a race and appearance, the Hero is reincarnated into the body of a recently deceased individual from the chosen race. The Hero receives an Adventure Log to record their travels and is sent to the world of Astoltia to seek out their destiny and the reason they were born.

Moments later, in one of the five continents surrounding Rendāshia, the reborn Hero finds themselves in a perilous situation with little chance of escape; the exact events and circumstances vary depending on the race chosen. A bright light erupts from the clouds covering Rendāshia, bathing all of Astoltia in its glow and saving the Hero from imminent death. Eventually a character (depending on the chosen race) discovers the truth about the Hero and engraves a Mark of Adulthood onto their Adventure Log, allowing the Hero to complete the Protagonist's journey and receive an audience with the various rulers of Astoltia, giving the Hero the potential to earn Key Emblems, which directly correlate to an adventurer’s level of strength and heroism.

During the Hero’s journey, they meet a sage who can immediately deduce that they had been revived at one point. The sage introduces himself as Horro, and after hearing the Hero’s story, is willing to provide assistance in defeating Nelgel, under the condition that the Hero can present him with no less than 6 Key Emblems. After the Hero receives their 6th emblem, Horro instructs the Hero to meet him at the top of the Randon Mountains, where the entrance to Nelgel’s lair, the Heart of the Dread Lord, awaits. Horro tries to create a bridge of light leading straight into the Heart of the Dread Lord, but Nelgel’s defenses are too powerful, and the bridge is instantly destroyed. Horro doesn’t lose heart, however, as he remembers that a friend of his prophesied this very situation, and told him that the only way into the Heart of the Dread Lord was via the Haja Boat. (“haja” being a Buddhist term for crushing evil) The spell to create the Haja Boat has belonged to a family of mages for generations, but unfortunately, the current descendant of this bloodline is unable to cast the spell, as it had been lost to time. Horro decides that if the spell no longer exists in the present day, then the Hero will need to recover their human body, and travel back in time to ensure the spell’s survival through the years. Horro casts a spell on the Hero, separating their soul from the protagonist’s body, and the Hero’s soul departs immediately for Tenton.

Upon arriving at Tenton, the Hero’s soul is approached by Lady Tenda’s ghost, who had been waiting for the Hero to return, even after death. Tenda explains that when she was young, she had nearly died during an important ritual, but a young alchemist came and used their mysterious technique to save her life. That alchemist was the Hero’s sibling, having been sent to the distant past so as to escape Tenton’s destruction. Because of this, Tenda knew that when the Hero’s sibling was born, they would become the alchemist that saved her all those years ago, and that the Hero has the ability to travel through time. Tenda watched the Hero as they grew up, all too aware that the destruction the alchemist warned her about was near at hand. Tenda motions for the Hero to follow her, telling them that she knows what they came for, and that everything had been in preparation for this day. At the center of Tenton, the Hero finds their body alongside the Galapogod, who had been protecting it until the day the Hero arrives to retrieve it. All the Hero needs to do is touch their body, and their soul will automatically merge with it. The Hero wastes no time reuniting with their body, but Nelgel is already aware of what is happening. A ring of dark flames surrounds the Hero, and Nelgel proclaims that no spell will save them this time. Tenda, however, is prepared for this moment, pulling out the Tensu Flower that the Hero, their sibling, and Singh had retrieved. She offers the flower to the Galapogod, and it transforms into a shining pegasus. The Galapogod reacts quickly, taking the Hero to the Temple of Light, where Nelgel’s flames can’t reach them.

In the Temple of Light, the Hero finds themselves standing face-to-face with the protagonist’s soul, who is glad the two of them can finally meet. Although the protagonist is dead, they allow the Hero to continue using their body, and explains that the Hero can switch between their own body and the protagonist’s body at any church, at any time. The Galapogod then calls out to the Hero, telling them that Nelgel’s power, if left unchecked, will bring darkness not only to Rendāshia, but to all of Astoltia as well, and only the Hero can stop him. The ancient bloodline of Tenton is strong within the Hero, to the point where they can not only travel through time, but change history as well. If the Hero rides the intercontinental railway, they can use their power to travel through time, using the train as a vessel.

The Hero travels back 500 years, when the world is being terrorized by a false sun named Reidametesu. The Haja Boat’s master, Bernhardt, tried to use the boat to infiltrate Reidametesu, but perished during the attempt. The Hero helps Bernhardt’s son undergo the rituals needed to inherit the spell for creating the boat, and flies inside Reidametesu, where they are confronted by its guardian, Razubān, who explains that everyone who is burned alive by Reidametesu have their souls converted to power. That power will, in turn, give birth to Nelgel once it reaches the necessary threshold, and the world will fall into darkness. The Hero defeats Razubān, and Reidametesu collapses. Bernhardt’s son promises to keep the Haja Boat’s spell alive within his family, and in the present day, the Hero finds the boy’s descendant, who is eager to create the boat for them.

Boarding the Haja Boat, the Hero enters the Heart of the Dread Lord, and find’s their way to Nelgel’s throne. Nelgel binds them in dark chains and prepares to strike, but the protagonist saves the Hero, undoing the chains. Nelgel then fights the Hero, but is eventually defeated. Nelgel warns the Hero that the source of darkness has not been cut off, and that someday, it will create a disaster far worse than anything he could’ve been. Nelgel dies, and the Hero escapes. The Hero is then greeted by Horro once again, who informs the Hero that despite Nelgel’s defeat, his seal over Rendāshia is still in place, but someday, access to the continent will be restored. When that time comes, the Hero should provide aid to the princess of Gran Zedōra, for she is the awakened Hero.

Version 2: The Sleeping Hero and the Guided Allies

Plot

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Version 3: Lore of the Ancient Dragon

Plot

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Dragon Quest X: Awakening of the Five Tribes Offline

An offline version of Dragon Quest X was announced on May 26, 2021, as part of the Dragon Quest 35th Anniversary livestream. This version is a separate release from the original, with different gameplay and aesthetics.

Developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment studio B.B. Studio, Dragon Quest X Offline features gameplay similar to Dragon Quest XI, including a turn-based battle system with a Finishing Move gauge to unleash special moves; a Character Builder system with skill trees; and the series's traditional Vocation system. After clearing the game, players will receive a special Spell of Restoration to be used in Dragon Quest X Online, which allows them to start the story with all levels at 70.^[1]

Dragon Quest X Offline was originally announced to be released in Japan on February 26, 2022, with a downloadable expansion based on The Sleeping Hero and the Guided Allies set for a Spring 2022 launch.^[2] However, it was delayed to Summer 2022 for quality improvements, with the expansion postponed to Fall 2022.^[3]