Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation: Difference between revisions

| publisher = [[Enix]] (SFC)<br />[[Square Enix]] (NDS)

| designer = [[Yūji Horii]]

[[File:DQVI DS Hero.png|thumb|80px|left|The ''Dragon Quest VI'' [[Hero (Dragon Quest VI)|hero]].]]

On his way to [[Somnia (Upper World)|Somnia Castle]], where information on Murdaw can be found, the Hero stumbles into a strange portal which brings him to another unfamiliar town. However, no one can see or hear him. After finding a similar portal, the Hero reaches Somnia and meets Captain Blade, the leader of Somnia's army, and Carver, who appears not to remember the Hero. To defeat Murdaw they will need the Mirror of Ra, and the captain sends them fourth to find the missing relic. The Hero and Carver discover another portal along their journey, which brings them to Port Haven where they can neither be heard nor seen. Milly, who does see them, reunites with the two and helps them become visible with the aid of [[List of characters in Dragon Quest VI#Major Characters|Madame Luca]].  

The party discovers a Somnia Castle in the “Phantom World” and learns that the prince is missing and that the Hero looks like him. They also meet Captain Rusty, who bears a striking resemblance to Blade. Gaining entrance to the Moon Mirror Tower, the party meets [[Ashlynn]], a woman who was invisible in the “Phantom World” as well and together they find the Mirror of Ra.  

The four of them travel to Murdaw's [[Underkeep|castle]] in the original world. After defeating Murdaw, the Hero uses the Mirror and Murdaw then turns into the king of Somnia, confused and unaware of what happened. The king reveals that the "original" world is in fact the Dream World and the Phantom World is the Real World. Upon traveling back to the Real World, the King of Somnia thanks the party for defeating Murdaw in his dreams, but that the real Murdaw lives and that the party must travel to [[Ghent]] to retrieve a boat to get to [[Murdaw's Keep|Murdaw's lair]]. In Ghent, [[Nevan]] the devout joins the party and allows them to use the Ghent Clan's sacred ship. Upon exploring the island, Carver discovers a statue bearing his exact likeness and realizes that Murdaw's actions in the opening scene separated his, Milly's, and the Hero's souls from their bodies, trapping them in the Dream World. During the fight with the real Murdaw, the Hero gets sent back to Weaver's Peak like before; however with the Mirror of Ra the Hero warps back into the battle and defeats Murdaw.

After the victory celebration back at the castle, the Queen of Somnia tells the Hero that he is the Prince of Somnia and that his current existence is incomplete--Murdaw's curse still lingers, and his dream-self has not returned to his body. Told to go forth and find himself, the party's journey leads them to Arkbolt, where a [[Lizzie|terrible monster]] is blocking a nearby [[Wayfarer's Pass|tunnel]] to the rest of the continent. The reward for defeating the monster is the famed [[Sunderbolt blade|Sunderbolt sword]], but before the party can confront the beast a warrior by the name of [[Terry]] slays her, winning the sword.  

After traveling both worlds, the party learns that Murdaw was not the only evil in the world, having confronted several other powerful monsters that all seem to be connected. [[File:Ashlynn DQVI DS artwork 2.png|thumb|100px|right|The sorceress [[Ashlynn]].]]

As the journey goes on, the party saves several towns and kingdoms from supernatural onslaughts and monstrous sieges, hearing legends of a forgotten city of magic known as [[Sorceria]]. Forebodingly, they also hear tales of a dreaded Arch-fiend who controlled Murdaw and the other powerful ringleaders the common monsters obeyed. After slaying a [[Gracos|demonic fish]] at the depths of the ocean, the ancient city of Sorceria is restored in the Dream World.  

In Sorceria, the party learns that this is Ashlynn's home. The elders tell Ashlynn that the Demon Lord is watching her and give her the powerful spell [[Magic Burst]] to fight him. The party also learns that the only way to get to the Demon Lord is through Zenith Tower, but to activate the tower, they need to collect the sword, armour, shield, and helmet of legend. While doing so, the Hero meets his double in Real Weaver's Peak, who gets spooked, and speaks 'Y-You. Y-You're m-m-me!', and says that he must prove himself to be faithful to his family if he is to join powers. Returning to Real Somnia, the King and Queen tell the Hero that he is indeed the prince. When he fused with his clone, the Hero gained his memory back, much like Milly and Carver had done.

The party reaches Cloud Castle and meets [[Dhuran]], who claims to have taken over the castle. He summons Terry to fight the party and then fights the party himself. Dhuran then reveals that all the enemies the party has faced were just pawns of Mortamor, the Demon Emperor. Milly reveals that Terry is her brother and Terry decides to join the party and fight against Mortamor.

Once Cloud Castle is back to normal, the party speaks to [[Zenithia|King Zenith]] who informs them of Mortamor's doings and how to reach the Dark World. Mortamor plans on merging both worlds. The party’s horse fuses with Pegasus, allowing the party to fly to the Dark World. With the help of two brothers, Isaac and Benjamin, the party enters Mortamor's Castle. After solving many puzzles, they come face to face with Mortamor and defeat him. Isaac reveals that the Dark World is falling apart and Pegasus helps them escape.

In a similar fashion to [[Dragon Quest III]], the hero's weapons and armour were renamed for this installment in the [[Zenithia trilogy]].  They are known as the {{Sword of Ramias}}, {{Armour of Orgo}}, {{Shield of Valora}} and {{Helm of Sebath}}.  After the events of this game, these armaments become the [[Zenithian Equipment]] and are renamed as such.

*[[Ashlynn]]: An amnesiac girl who forces herself into the party at Moon Mirror Tower whose a dab hand at spell casting. She warms up the hero rather quickly.

*[[Warrior]]: Strength and HP go up while agility, wisdom and magic points drop. Several basic fencing skills are learned.

*[[Martial Artist]]: Agility increases at the cost of MP and resilience, and melee skills are acquired. Additionally, the character's critical hit ratio improves significantly.

*[[Mage]]: Most attributes go down, except wisdom and MP. Attack and debilitating spells are learned.

*[[Monster Master]]: All stats go down except for agility, wisdom and style. Several breath skills are learned, as well as the puff spell. In the original SFC version, monsters may join the party when there is a monster master present, and in the remake there is a chance that enemies will be asleep at the start of battle.

*[[Gladiator]] (Warrior+Martial Artist): Strength, HP, agility, and resilience go up, making this an excellent melee vocation. Most skills are super effective against a particular type of enemy, such as [[Dragon Slash]].  

*[[Luminary (Vocation)|Luminary]] (Dancer+Gadabout): Style is the only stat that goes up and several support skills are learned.  

*[[Hero (Class)|Hero]] (Gladiator+Sage+Luminary+Ranger): This is the ultimate vocation and all stats go up save agility and resilience. Several high power attack spells/skills are learned, such as [[Gigaslash]], and characters will automatically regenerate HP at higher ranks. The [[Hero (Dragon Quest VI)|Protagonist of Dragon Quest VI]] only has to master one of the listed vocations to become a Hero.

*[[Dragon (Class)|Dragon]]: A powerhouse profession that yields the strongest [[Breath attack|breath]] skills in the game, and significantly increases HP,  strength, and resilience at the cost of all other stats. Requires the [[Dragonic Diligence]] to be in a character's possession.

*[[Liquid Metal Slime (Class)|Liquid Metal Slime]]:A high-risk, high reward class that cuts HP by 80%, MP by 30%, strength by 40% and doubles agility and resilience. Teaches the most powerful abilities, and grants full immunity to all elements and ailments once mastered. Requires the [[Liquid Metal Mind]] scroll.

A "Kakkoyosa" (かっこよさ, effectively Charisma) stat makes its debut, allowing the cast to compete in a fashion show. [[List of character statistics#Style|Style]] measures how charismatic and well-dressed the characters are; it will be high for attractive characters and monsters, and low for ugly and non-humanoid ones. Various weapons and armour can increase or decrease the stat; the effects of these equipments can themselves be altered at a [[Fashion Forge|Fashionable Forge]]. A matching set of equipment will increase the stat further through hidden bonuses; these pieces of equipment are often joined by a theme such as [[Princess's robe|faerie tale]] [[Glass slippers|elegance]].   

*There is a system to memorize speeches made by the townspeople. Pushing a button after speaking to someone causes their text to be remembered. Then casting the [[Remember]] "spell" will cause the memorized conversations to be replayed. At higher levels, the Hero can replay more messages or delete messages from the list. This system is also used in the {{SNES}} and {{GBC}} remakes of ''Dragon Quest III'', but not in any later games.

:*In the DS version, the top screen automatically displays the map, and in the smart phone version it can be opened by pressing an icon on the screen.

:*A separate window has been created for skills, instead of lumping them together with spells ala the SNES version of ''V''.

*[[Encounters]] have shifted from a purely random chance to step-based additives, meaning that a battle will always commence when a character takes the required amount of steps for that terrain/location.

This feature has been removed from the DS version, as the Monster Master is incapable of recruiting monsters. It has been replaced by a system allowing recruitment of [[Slime family]] monsters only through encountering them in towns/dungeons/etc. The available slimes are:

Monsters of the [[slime]] type can fight in a special arena dubbed [[Slimopolis]]; one chosen slime fights a series of three battles in a tournament (controlled by the AI), and if it wins, the party receives a prize dependent on the level of the tournament (which ranges from rank A to rank H). Winning the Rank H tournament twice will allow the slime to participate in the Championship battle.

The scenario designer, like always, is [[Yūji Horii]]. As in all other ''Dragon Quest'' games, the art work and design are made by [[Akira Toriyama]] of ''Dragon Ball'' fame, who also worked on ''Chrono Trigger'', ''[[Tobal No.1]]'', and ''[[Blue Dragon (series)|Blue Dragon]]''. This is the last game in the series to belong to the [[Zenithia]] or the Tenkuu no Shiro (Castle in the Sky) trilogy.

In order to balance the heavy plots and characterizations that ''IV'' and ''V'' enjoyed with the player's ability to explore at their leisure, the vocation system from ''III'' was re-implemented and given a substantial overhaul. Instead of defining a character in a fixed role, ''VI's'' vocations gave players the ability to completely customize their party as they saw fit.  

In July 2007, Square Enix announced a series of remakes of {{DQ4}}, ''V'' and ''VI'' for the Nintendo DS. This marked the first time the game was available on another console and outside of Japan. Prior to this, it had only been available through [[fan translation|fan translations]].  ''Dragon Quest VI'' was the final game of the subseries to be released, following ''Dragon Quest IV'' in 2008 and ''Dragon Quest V'' in 2009.   

In January 2010, the game was re-released in Japan on the Nintendo DS. On December 20, 2010, it was [http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=26902 announced] that Nintendo of America would be publishing ''Dragon Quest VI'' on February 14, 2011. The subtitle was officially named "Realms of Revelation."

On February 12, 2011 [[Yūji Horii]] visited Palo Alto, California for a special Nintendo launch event at Gamestop, where he signed autographs for the first 50 in attendance.  Fans were able to purchase the game two days before the official launch date, affectionately referred to by Nintendo as ''Valenslime Day''.

*The [[party chat]] function was added, see [[Dragon Quest VI Party Chat|the transcript]].

*[[Zoom]] can now be used to warp to both the lower world and upper world versions of [[Alltrades Abbey (Dragon Quest VI)|Alltrades Abbey]].

''Dragon Quest VI'' was listed as #7 among the 10 Best Japanese Games Never Released in the U.S. by ''GamePro'' magazine in their May 2005 issue. ''Dragon Quest V'', another Japan-only game, was also on the list, placing at #2. (the whole list can be seen here [http://www.woodus.com/den/gallery/graphics/sightings/gamepro_may2005_pg46.jpg])

In terms of contributions to the series as a whole, ''VI'' is considered by several fans as being very significant: the addition of skills allowed further refinement to combat and added significantly more layers of depth to battles, the bag reduced the amount of frustration players could face by putting an end to shuffling items between characters, and the Hero's ability to memorize and recall lines of dialogue directly lead to the creation of Party Chat in ''VII''. Furthermore, the raising of stat limits from 255 to 500 allowed for more dynamic character growth and battle potential, complimented by a significant increase in stat-enhancing accessories. Smaller touches also enhanced the quality of the series from then on, such as the four tone vocal range for men, women, children, and monsters, as well as the mini medal exchange program becoming one where awards are dispensed based on the total collected rather than being used as an alternate type of currency.

The game is strongly implied a prequel to ''IV'' and ''V'', based on small details and hints scattered throughout the story. In typical Horii fashion, many of these hints are not concrete and are up to the player to decide for themselves. That being said, the similarities between Zenithia and Cloudsgate Citadel are objectively clear even at a cursory glance, and the speculation has all but been confirmed with the Nintendo DS remake, which expressly refers to two of the possible versions of [[Reaper's Peak]] as being based on future events.

*[[Koichi Sugiyama]]

DQ VI Super Famicom Box (Front Side).png|Super Famicom box art. (front)

Image:DQ6dsEuropeBox.jpg|Nintendo DS box art. (Europe)