Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds
| Spion-off games | |
|---|---|
| Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds | |
 App icon. | |
| Developer(s) | Dena |
| Publisher(s) | Square Enix |
| Series | Dragon Quest |
| Platform(s) | Android, iOS |
| Release date(s) | September 28, 2021 (Worldwide) |
| Genre(s) | Action role-playing |
Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai: A Hero's Bonds (ドラゴンクエスト ダイの大冒険 -魂の絆- lit. "Dragon Quest: The Great Adventure of Dai – Bonds of Souls") is an action role-playing game for Android and iOS devices. It was released on 28 September 2021, available in Japanese, English, French, and Chinese.
As an adaption of 2020 anime Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, the game contained two stories: the storyline "Dragon-Tracks" which followed the anime's plot and cast, while the "Bonding-Journey" storyline featured a brand new story.
In late January 2023, Square Enix announced the end of service for the game, scheduled for April 26th, 2023 globally. Between the announcement and the closure, the developer DeNA will offer brand new content including the ending to the two storylines as well as 3000 blue gems daily.
Development[edit]
A Hero's Bonds was originally announced on May 27th, 2020 as part of the "Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai project", a project to make a brand new anime and videogames based on the manga series. The 2020 Anime series, Xross Battle and Infinity Strash are the other parts of the project.
Square Enix started social media accounts in Japanese and English for the game around September 2020. On September 17, 2021, roughly ten days before the service started, they introduced Facebook accounts with French and Chinese support, the last two languages the game supports.
During the first few months of service, the developer team had a communication channel with Billy's videos on Facebook, in which the healslime vtuber interviewed the game's producer with various questions the fans had asked prior to the recordings. These videos were eventually quietly cancelled.
On January 25th, 2023 the developers announced the closure of the game via Twitter and in-game announcement. A Hero's Bonds is set to end its service on April 26th, 2023.
Gameplay[edit]
Overview[edit]
Players control two characters, the Leader of the Luminaries and a character from the Dai series, and have two additional characters as support units. Characters advance forward fighting hordes of enemies in three lanes. Players can autoattack, defend, freely change lanes, use skills which take some time to charge up, and swap between their two main party members.
There is multiplayer for up to three players.
There are 6 type of missions, divided in two categories: Story and Events. The three Story mission types are:
- Dragon Tracks: "Delve into the memories of Dai and his loyal companions, and witness their tale unfold."
A retelling of the story in Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai. - Bonding Journey: "Join Dai and his friends on their adventures in the world of Milladosia."
Aside from experiencing a brand new story, players can unlock playable characters in this storymode. - Character Quests: "A new tale of bonding with Dai and friends."
Players can learn more about the characters from Adventure of Dai that they have befriended. Players will need to spend time with their favorite characters in order to increase their bonding level and unlock more character quests.
The Events mission types are:
- Challenge Quests: "Complete training quests to improve your skills."
Instead of using stamina like all other quests, tickets are required to embark on these missions. These tickets are resetted each day. - Event Quests: "Experience a new story and complete quests to earn exclusive rewards."
These quests are timed, only available for a limited time.
See: List of events in A Hero's Bonds. - Hall of Perdition: "A hall wreathed in mystery. Challenge super-powerful new enemies!"
Players can challenge strong bosses to fights in order to earn Trophies and other rewards. Trophies can be equipped to increase the party's overall strength.
Starting on October 28, 2021, a ranked battle mode was added. In this mode players fight against bosses in order to achieve the highest scoring and rank among the best players.
Stamina[edit]
Stamina in this game is consumed when quests are completed, and it recovers at a rate of 1 stamina point every 6 minutes. The max stamina can be increased by completing story chapters in the several difficulties.
There are four additional ways of recovering stamina faster: visiting the player's alliance (guild), seeing an ad (two per day, each recovers 20 stamina points), stamina pottions (they recover either 30 or 60 stamina points, depending on the size of the potion), and using gems (full stamina refill for 50 gems). Stamina points can never go over 9999.
Treasure Hunt[edit]
Treasure hunt is the name doing gacha pulls recieves in this title. Each treasure hunt costs 300 gems per 1 item or 3000 per 10. Some special keys can be used for specific banners, getting 1 item per key. Types of Treasure hunt:
- Equipment treasure hunt: costs 300 gems or 3000 gems (red or blue, blue are prioritized), and gives 1 (300 gems) or 10 (3000 gems) equipment pieces. They often contain 4★, 3★ and 2★ gear.
- Red gem only treasure hunt: they cost 3000 red gems per 10 equipment pieces, and guarantee one equipment piece of 4★.
- Soul hunt: same as the normal treasure, but they give soul crystals instead of gear.
- Video bonus treasure hunt: free treasure hunts that can provide upgrade materials, tickets, stamina potions and gems, if the player decides to watch an ad. Two per day.
- Normal treasure hunt: it's completely free, and can give several upgrade materials, tickets and 1★ and 2★ equipment.
Story[edit]
The game includes two intertwining stories: Dragon Tracks and Bonding Journey.
Dragon-Tracks[edit]
Dragon Tracks is a reteling of the story from the manga, but with the help of the Luminary Leader in all fights.
Bonding-Journey[edit]
Bonding Journey is a brand new story supervised by the original writter of the series, Riku Sanjo. Koji Inada, the original manga artist of the series, designed Pinky, a pink talking Dracky that assists the players through this adventure. It takes place in the world of Milladosia, a parallel world to Dai's. The threat of Xevallo, the Lord of the Void and bond breaker, must be combated by the Luminary Leader and the friends they make in Dragon Tracks.
Customization[edit]
Appearance[edit]
The player can freely customize the main character at the beginning of the adventure or from the menu (Menu > Communication > Change Look). The options are:
- Hero type: This affects the protagonist's gender. Two options: A and B.
- Hairstyle Shape: A selection of 10 hairstyles per type to choose from.
- Hairstyle Colour 1: The main color the hair will be. There are 20 options to choose from.
- Hairstyle Colour 2: The color for details in the hair. There are 20 options to choose from.
- Face Type: There are 4 options per body type. All of them have the Luminary Leader Crest on their forehead.
- Eye Colour: This option affects the color of the character's irises. There are 20 options to choose from.
- Skin Tone: This affects the character's skin. There are 8 tones to choose from.
- Voice: This affects the voiced lines and grunts the character has. The are 3 options per type: Brave, Calm or Cute for Type A; and Brave, Calm or Clown for Type B.
Vocations[edit]
The main character is the only character that has access to the vocation system. The player can freely change vocations. The five vocations available are:
- Hero: A well balanced vocation. What makes it unique is people on the Hero vocation can defend and their normal attacks usually only affect enemies on their lane. Heroes have a good variety of skills available, some of which can hit enemies on all three lanes. It's vocational trait raises the user's defenses.
- Warrior: An offensive vocation. Instead of being able to defend, warriors can charge up more powerful attacks. Their regular attacks can hit enemies on all three lanes. Warriors are usually slower than Heroes, but their attack is higher and they are great for breaking the enemy defense. It's vocational trait enhances the user's Endurance.
- Mage: A ranged magical vocation. Mages cannot defend either, but they can charge up their ranged attacks. Their normal attacks only affect enemies on their lane. Mages excel at elemental damage, particularly Fire and Light spells. They are also great for clearing enemy lines with some AoE spells such as Bang or Sizz. It's main vocation trait raises the user's Magical Attack.
- Priest: A support vocation. Priests can defend just as heroes do, and their normal attack only affect enemies on their lane. Priests excel at healing and buffing allies, but they can also do AoE spells like Woosh. It's vocational trait raises the user's Recovery stat.
- Martial Artist: An offensive vocation ideal for fighting lone warrior, added into the game in March of 2022. Martial Artists are physical fighters with high Attack, and can enter the Warrior Master State by building up their gauge by attaking enemies. This state boosts the user's critical rate for physical attacks, and makes them less likely to be staggered by enemy attacks. It's main vocational trait raises the user's Physical Critical Rate slightly.
- Sage: A balanced vocation added into the game in August of 2022. Sages can use all the skills of priests, and their own too. They have two switchable states: Attack Mode, which raises Magical Attack by 50%; and Defence Mode, which raises Recovery by 50%.
Equipment[edit]
The player can equip, upgrade and evolve gear. The gear equipped on the main character will be reflected on their appearance. Equipping weapons allow characters to use skills related to the weapon type, for instance equipping Dai with a sword will allow him to use sword-restricted skills. Most gear give characters stats bonuses and/or other additional effects such as slight elemental resistance.
Gear can be upgraded with raw materials and other gear, and doing so increases it's stats and level. A max level weapon usually has much higher attack than a non-upgraded weapon of the same type.
Most pieces of equipment can be evolved using duplicates of the same equipment as materials. Evolving equipment raises the piece's maximum level and can upgrade traits.
There are 6 kinds of weapons: Swords, Spears, Axes, Claws, Wands, and Heavy Wands. There are 10 kinds of armor: Shields, Large Shields, Armour (Top), Armour (Legs), Fighter Garb (Top), Fighter Garb (Legs), Outfit (Top), Outfit (Legs), Clothes (Top), and Clothes (Legs). Each vocation can equip a subset of weapon and armor types:
- Hero: Swords, Spear, Large Shields, Armour (Top), Armour (Legs), Clothes (Top), and Clothes (Legs).
- Warrior: Swords, Axes, Large Shields, Armour (Top), Armour (Legs), Clothes (Top), and Clothes (Legs).
- Mage: Heavy Wands, Shields, Outfits (Top), Outfits (Legs), Clothes (Top), and Clothes (Legs).
- Priest: Wands, Shields, Outfits (Top), Outfits (Legs), Clothes (Top), and Clothes (Legs).
- Martial Artist: Claws, Large Shields, Fighter Garb (Top), Fighter Garb (Legs), Clothes (Top), and Clothes (Legs).
It should be noted, however, that characters originally from The Adventure of Dai, can only equip one weapon type regardless of their vocation. For example, Crocodine (Vortex Axe) can only equip Axes despite being a Warrior type.
Party[edit]
The player has access to 10 parties to customize. Each party needs, at least the main character and one partner character, but can include two additional allies. The difference between allies and partners is that the player can swap between the main character and the partner during battle while the allies act on their own.
Players can also equip parties with a trophy, which increases the party's combat power and might grant special passive skills, like additional damage against specific enemy types. The trophies can be leveled up with duplicates, for improved traits.
Each character can equip one weapon, one armor top, one armor bottom and a shield, two normal skills and one special move. While characters from the same party can't share the same equipment or skills at a time, they can be shared between parties. The same applies to trophies.
Monetization & Currencies[edit]
A Hero's Bonds is a Free to Play game with integrated purchases and ads. The game uses 3 sets of currencies: gold, red gems and blue gems. Gold is used for upgrading equipment, skills and characters; while the gems are used for doing Treasure Hunts (gacha pulls) and stamina refills. Both gold and blue gems can be obtained by playing the game, but the red gems can only be obtained via purchase.
- There are 7 different gem bundles that include a certain amount of red gems and a bonus amount of blue gems. Prices range from 0.99€ to 79.99€.
- There are some bundles that include multiple items and red gems, available for limited times. Some include keys for specific Treasure Hunt banners. Prices range from 1.99€ to 23.99€. The Beginner's Pack is the only pack that is permanently available..
- Gold Pass. A paid service that grants various in-game benefits for a monthly charge. Starting on December 15, 2021.
| Name | Included items | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Red Gem A | 120 red gems | 0.99€ |
| Red Gem B | 610 red gems 20 blue gems |
4.99€ |
| Red Gem C | 1220 red gems 60 blue gems |
9.99€ |
| Red Gem D | 2940 red gems 140 blue gems |
23.99€ |
| Red Gem E | 4900 red gems 610 blue gems |
39.99€ |
| Red Gem F | 7000 red gems 1050 blue gems |
54.99€ |
| Red Gem G | 10000 red gems 1700 blue gems |
79.99€ |
| Beginner's Pack | 250 red gems 10000 gold 20 seeds of endurance 20 seeds of strength 20 seeds of defence 20 seeds of sorcery 20 seeds of warding 5 tiny red drops 5 tiny blue drops 5 tiny green drops 5 tiny purple drops 5 tiny white drops 5 tiny five-coloured crystals 3 small five-coloured crystals |
1.99€ |
Gallery[edit]
Logo
Dragon Tracks - A retelling of Dai's story.
Bonding Journey - A brand new story.
Promotion for the Martial Artist vocation.
Promotion for the Sage vocation.
First Anniversary illustration.
Final visual for the game.
Videos[edit]
Trivia[edit]
- A Hero's Bond is the first Dragon Quest game to have a true worldwide release, being released all across the world on September 28, 2021. Unlike Tact or Stars, there is no content discrepancy between regions, only certain marketing campaigns differ.
- While Dragon Quest XI S for the Nintendo Switch did release worldwide simultaneously, it was an expanded re-release of Dragon Quest XI, which did not have a worldwide release as it released in Japan over a year prior to doing so in other territories.
