Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation review: Slime and Punishment

Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation should not have been released after Dragon Quest IX. While it's somewhat unfair to compare the two just because the DS releases came out within a year of one another, the proximity of the subtly modernized, streamlined Dragon Quest IX makes it impossible not to notice just how much a product of its time Dragon Quest VI is.

It's not a bad game, but it's certainly not a friendly game -- something that you'd notice even if you weren't coming off of Dragon Quest IX, and something that is only exacerbated for those who are.

Dragon Quest VI (2/17)

Originally released for the Super Famicom in 1995, Dragon Quest VI is the last of the numbered Dragon Quest games to be localized. With IV and V, it forms a "Zenithia Trilogy," loosely connected by a common castle location; however, Dragon Quest VI doesn't really have anything to do with those other games. It takes place in a new world -- two worlds, actually, one of which is a dream version of the other. Your hero and his party discover the dual nature of the world(s), and attempt to find their true selves as they fight the monster attempting to dominate both worlds.

As ever, designer Yuji Horii is able to turn what would be a bog-standard save-the-world quest into a lighthearted, upbeat romp. I honestly don't know the secret behind it -- "We might not be real people, and we're in a town where everyone lives in fear of the monster that attacks every night" shouldn't manage to be so cute. "The king just blinked out of existence! Road trip!" I always love going to a new town (traveling in my floating island, or flying bed) and finding out what its particular quirk is, what ailment I can step in and save.

Combat is, in general, uncomplicated as ever, a turn-based fight/item/magic affair against slimes and other cute, but often deadly, monsters. Each person in your four-member party has unique skills, including healing or offensive magic, special attacks, or status-changing abilities. You know the flow of this already: one character focuses on healing, while your stronger characters pelt enemies with physical attacks and spells. You can even set your party to operate automatically in a few different styles.

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So what's so unfriendly and old-school? Well, for one thing, random battles. Remember those? They're back, and ready to help you forget where you were going in dungeons. You need to seek them out anyway, because the game is really hard. In a couple of cases, I felt certain I had over-leveled for one boss, only to be defeated by normal enemies in the next area. In order to succeed, you have to take plenty of time to grind. There's a job system that doesn't even show up until around ten hours in, allowing you to assign jobs to each character and learn job-specific skills that, then, stay with the character after changing jobs. The nature of this system is barely explained, and you're just left to assign jobs to everyone without really ever knowing what's going on.

One job in particular, the Monster Master, seemed completely incomprehensible until I learned that developer Artepiazza had removed the monster recruiting mechanic from the DS version. Instead of using the Monster Master's abilities to recruit monsters from the battlefield, now you'll just ... meet some monsters in towns. This serves to make the Monster Master class more of a "guy who has some status effect spells" and to confuse the hell out of anyone who doesn't look the game up on Wikipedia before playing. That could be said of the job system in general -- it's largely a mystery without external reading.

That kind of underexplained system, and the difficulty, and the frequent, random battles are all par for the course for a game of Dragon Quest VI's vintage. And, in fact, this is a very good Super NES-era RPG. It's got the same kind of magic that characterizes the Dragon Quest series overall, the kind of storytelling prowess and (mostly) easy to understand battle system that makes it the perfect series for casual role-playing gamers. This particular game, however, is best left to those with a bit of Dragon Questing already under their belts.

This review is based on the DS version of Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation provided by Nintendo. The reviewer played the game for approximately 20 hours, but not to completion.

Reader Comments (29)

*Dhuran rips off thong*

NOW....Let the entertainment begin!

@CaptainProtonX Giggity giggity goo o__o

Man... just seeing that screenshot brings me back to some amazing SNES playing days for so many games... kind of wanting to give this one a go.

@Co Random, it reminds of the Gamefan magazine from the 90s. On the back, there usually was a few pages devote to a gaming store named "Game Cave", which had screenshots of the Super Famicom DQVI. I wanted that game for the longest time.

@thisredengine god i loved that magazine back in the day. it's had a few renditions over the years (the same editor even has a new magazine called Gamefan) but they will never equal the brilliance of those old 90's days :)

Even though I'm not picking this one up, nicely written review! You pointed out so many things an old-timer JRPG gamer can relate to... ^^

I'm loving the game so far. Great review!

Now if only the Shepherd class with his loyal sheep would show up... Sigh. Love the quirkiness!

I'm playing through it myself... Underkeep is just as you said, with monsters that are doing more damage than even the last boss I fought. So I'll go back there after I've grinded for better equipment. Thanks for giving a rough indication of when the jobs show up, too. I reckon that must mean I'll unlock it very soon.

DQIX looked better and was slightly more streamlined in some ways, but as usual they went out of their way to keep the "old school" nature intact... so aside from appearance and some smaller tweaks, I don't find that these two "feel" that different. That's just my opinion.

Overall though, I think this is the far more interesting game.

I've beat DQ4, 9 and DQM. I have DQ5 and will be getting this as well. I've fallen in love with the series.

I am over Square Enix remaking DQ and FF. If they didn't buy Eidos I am not sure if they would have any vision beyond those two titles anymore.

Come on SE, I love you, get on the ball.

@Jack Kevorkian

The only games Square Enix needs to bother remaking/rereleasing are: Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI/III, Vagrant Story, and if possible Super Mario RPG (though Nintendo is the publisher).

I'm fairly confident the Final Fantasy game in production for the 3DS is actually a 3D remake of FFVI (as it has been long rumered).

I would pay a months salary for a remake/HD update of Chrono Cross.

@Jack Kevorkian FF I can understand, DQ I do not. This game was never officially released outside of Japan. Neither was DQV until its DS remake.

@Softserve Hmm Actually Dragon quest has been in the US before Number 5 But it went by the name Dragon Warrior because the name "Dragon quest" was taken and enix released DQ with the name DW until 5 Then in Japan the DQ 5,6 and 7 came out. Along with DW 7 in the Us (so basically Dragon warrior 1,2,3,4, and 7) and then 8,9 and soon 10 has/will be released under than name Dragon Quest in both US/EU and JPN.

That is why they are remaking 5,6, and probably 7 For the US/EU audience to enjoy along with the new generation of RPG players in general both east and west. (sorry if I confused you a little I kinda got lost myself) So yeah I hope this helps you understand why DQ should be remade or could be remade in the US/EU.

@JnRx What he's saying is that Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI never made it out of Japan, and that with the DS releases, they finally are. He didn't say anything about DQ I-IV.

@JnRx

Whilst that is informative, Softserve only stated that DQ5 and 6 has not been released out of Japan. There was no assertion that other DQ games had shared the same fate.

@Alistair I know I was just stating randomness xD to keep people informed.

@Anticrawl

Chrono Trigger already has a remake on DS

And that's why I love the DQ series.

I had to pick this up after making the horrible mistake on DQ5 becoming impossible to find now...*sadface*

@acefondu
No kidding. I snagged a copy of DQ5 off eBay a few days for the cheapest I've ever seen it, complete w/the case, booklet, and everything. And I copped DQ6 earlier this week from a preorder. Glad I did b/c I didn't even know about the DQ5 situation until last weekend and decided to hop on it before the situation gets worse than it already is. Not really a big RPG player so FF series is *meh* to me but for some reason ever since I played DQ4 on the DS, I've fallen in love with Dragon Quest!

I have always liked this series as much, if not more so than Final Fantasy. Fell in love with IX last summer, which is why I may skip this one. The minor improvements really made a huge difference for me. Maybe I can't grind like I used to be able in my old age, but the thought of random battles again seems really unappealing. : / Guess I've gotten soft...

What is it about the IX's?

Dragon Quest IX and Final Fantasy IX were just so... magical.

I'll pick this up when I can.

The only other titles I'm missing are III and VII. Hoping the DQIII remake on the GBC makes its way onto the 3DS Virtual Console someday...

@Alexisonfire You're really missing out with VII. It's truly fantastic.

According to people I've seen talking about it, this version is actually easier than the original version. You wouldn't DARE walk down the first hill without grinding some levels.

I'm saddened that they removed recruiting monsters for your party. I really enjoyed that, but I still find that 6 is my favorite of the DQ series.

why would they remove the monster recruiting?

i thought that was originally one of the new gameplay "hooks" of this DQ game.....

I've been a DW/DQ fan since I was young. I've played through every single US game (NES, GBC, PS, PS2, Wii, DS). I am about 5 hours in and so far DQ6 is proving to be one of my favorites. I love the dual worlds. It seems like Yuuji Horii was playing Zelda 3 when they made this game but that's okay. Zelda 3 is still my favorite Zelda game :)

So far, I have not had any problems with difficulty and have barely had to grind at all. I am so glad that Nintendo published this game. It has been missing a US translation for far too long!

DQ > FF

nice game...