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Community Discussion: Blog by BenHaskett | Dragon Questing Part Thirteen: I am 100% Addicted to the Dharma TempleDestructoid
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About


My name is Ben. This is my blog.

I enjoy working in Adobe Flash when I have the time and I've churned out a few websites as a result. I call myself a gamer, although I'm admittedly a bit of a fanboy; you could print "Nintendo" on a roll of toilet paper and I'd bid for that shit on eBay.

Seriously though, I play a lot of games and my platform of choice right now is the DS. There are a ton of sidescrollers and traditional RPGs that I remember playing a lot when I was younger. Better yet, I missed a lot of games on the Super Nintendo back in the day (they were like $70 or something) and a big trend on the DS right now is remaking and re-releasing them for this generation of gamers. I eat that shit up. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Shiren the Wanderer FTW.


My Top Seven Favorite Game Franchises:

1. Dragon Quest
2. Half-Life
3. Mario (excluding some)
4. Castlevania
5. Metroid
6. Ace Attorney
7. Resident Evil

Some of my favorite games (In no particular order):

Paper Mario, Xenogears, Okami, the entire Resident Evil Series, Super metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2, Secret of Mana, Illusion of Gaia, The World Ends With You, Mario Kart DS, Kirby Canvas Curse, Super Mario Galaxy, Fire Emblem: Path of radience, No More Heroes, Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure, Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis, Dr. Mario, Devil's Crush, Ninja gaiden (NES), Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest Heros: Rocket Slime, the Phoenix Wright series, Hotel Dusk, The Longest Journey, Breath of Fire III, Half-Life 2, Lock's Quest, Henry Hatsworth, Rhythm Heaven, and many others that I just can't think of right now...
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Back in September of 2008, I had the pleasure of playing my first proper Dragon Quest game with Chapters of the Chosen for the DS. After completing it, I couldn't help but wonder why I had never played a game in this series before. I'm always complaining about the gimmicks thrown into many modern games and how I'd want nothing more than to just play a modern RPG that stripped away all the nonsense and took things back to basics.

Well, Dragon Quest has been sitting right under my nose since I was in diapers. Not content to stop at the fourth game in the series, I've set out to acquire and play through every localized Dragon Quest title right up until I replay the fourth entry ... on the NES. I've spent months lurking around eBay, and I've amassed a complete collection that now only needs me to experience it.

If you've played any of the games I'll be talking about, I'd appreciate your comments as I don't know anyone locally who I can talk to about this wonderful series.

Part Thirteen:

Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden... continued


A few days ago, fellow DToid blogger Thefil told me that, despite multiple attempts to play through Dragon Quest VII, he would always quit when he got to the Dharma Temple. I can sort of understand why he might want to do that; the Dharma Temple opens up so many possibilities for character growth that even trying to figure out where to start can be overwhelming enough to make you want to wave the white flag and call it quits. I think the hardest part is that there is no right path to take; each of the classes you can choose from have their own, unique skills associated with them. However, because of this, there is also no wrong path to take. Want to study to be a thief? You'll learn plenty of skills like finding treasure chests and random pick-pocketing. What to be a cleric? You'll learn some great healing spells in no time. Either way, when all is said and done and you’re at the end of the game, your characters will have inevitably mastered multiple classes and you'll pretty much end up a badass no matter what.

For those of you who don't know, the Dharma Temple is a gigantic coliseum of sorts that you'll reach about twenty-five hours into the game. Once there, you'll be presented with the option to study a character class. Sure, you can decide to simply not take one, but you'll regret it later on; once you get to a certain point, you stop learning new skills and spells when you level up! Besides, you're going on an adventure anyways, right? Well, you might as well just pick a class... even randomly. When you eventually master that class during your travels, merely warp back to the Dharma Temple and pick another one!

My experiences might be a good example: I had no idea at all what class to pick, so I just selected randomly. I made the main character--who I named Ben--a mariner, I made Gabo a fighter, and I made Maribel a mage. I didn't know if these were good decisions at first, but sure enough, my characters all started learning pretty useful skills in almost no time at all. Hanging around the temple just leveling up my skills was almost addicting.

And really, I did sort of get myself addicted to the temple for a while. You know how some people describe Super Mario 64 as the sort of game where you can’t put it down because you keep telling yourself you need to just get one more star before you can call it a night? Well, similarly, I couldn’t pull myself away from the temple to continue on with the game because I kept telling myself “Just 35 more battles! Just 35 more and I’ll learn a new skill! Then I’ll move on to the next area!”

Ahem… well…

Six hours later (spread out over three days), I finally managed to pull myself away from the temple just long enough to go through another chapter in the game. There was a desert, and a sphinx… and a dragon… and a demon… or something… and something about a dark ruby… I don’t know… But what’s really important is that after I finished that chapter, I got to go back to the Dharma temple!!! and I stayed there for a good three hours or so just grinding and learning new skills.

At this point, really, I promise I’m done grinding outside the Dharma Temple. I figure if I stay any longer, I’ll become too powerful and it’ll render the game boring. But while I was there, my party mastered the original classes I gave them. When they were done with those, I turned Ben into a warrior, and both Gabo & Maribel into Clerics. Ben mastered his class faster than the other two, so I had him study as a thief while they finished up being clerics. When the three of them were done with those classes, some intermediate classes became available, and I turned Ben, Gabo, and Maribel into a pirate, a paladin, and a sage respectively. The three of them have learned some incredibly useful skills. Gabo, for example, has a wind-based skill called “vacuum” that rips up all the enemies on screen for about 75 damage a piece. Even better though, is that this attack requires no MP, meaning I can use it over and over again without draining any resources. Considering that Ben’s normal attack generally dishes out about 45 damage, this is a significant boon.

So, there you have it. I’ve got all my shards ready to go, and I’m headed for the ruins. Where will I end up? Well, I don’t even know that yet, but I’ll be back in a few days with a full report. :)


As always, thanks for reading!

Ben

---------------------------------------------

Total elapsed time across entire Dragon Quest series: ~211 hours -

IV DS - ~30 hours
VIII - ~70 hours
I NES - ~20 hours
DQM:J - ~20 hours
V DS - ~30 hours
VII - ~41 hours

For the past Dragon Questing blogs, click the links below:


:::::::::: From Dragon Quest VII:

Restoring the Planet: Dragon Questing, Part Twelve

Meet the Warriors of Eden: Dragon Questing, Part Eleven

:::::::::: From Dragon Quest V:

No Wonder Everyone Loves This Game: Dragon Questing, Part Ten

Coming to America Sans Eddie Murphy: Dragon Questing, Part Nine

:::::::::: From Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker:

I Guess They Can't All Be Gold: Dragon Questing, Part Eight

:::::::::: From Dragon Quest I:

Returning the Ball of Light: Dragon Questing, Part Seven

Getting a Grip on a Classic: Dragon Questing, Part Six

Going Back in Time: Dragon Questing, Part Five

:::::::::: From Dragon Quest VIII:

The conclusion of an Epic: Dragon Questing, Part Four

Discovering the Monster Arena: Dragon Questing, Part Three

How to Give a Boy a Heart: Dragon Questing, Part Two

Meeting the Cursed King: Dragon Questing, Part One



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Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)


This is such an epic series. I'm glad to see that you're still keeping it up. You're inspiring me to seek out a copy of Dragon Quest VII!
Ah ha! I knew it was this one! I was told it was a hundred hours in that the classes came in. Now I'm anxious to re-play this.

Also today is the day to re-read or read stuff I missed of these. I had a feeling Joker wouldn't be great. I think I might have glimsped past V spoilers trying to dodge them and read anyway. I'm maybe half way into it? I'm in zoomingdale. Also have you played the super nintendo one? I made the mistake of starting it and I had to go pick up the DS one the next day. I liked it so much. Storyline and setting usually are hard to pull me in, but V has done it.

I'm avoiding your posts on VIII as I'm getting the boat when I last left off. I can't wait to find a few days time to play it. When I do I'll be sure and read it.

On the third one I'm playing the super nintendo translation that came out this year. It's amazing. Three's been fun so far and has classes to play with, so you might want to try it out on there.
And you rounded the 200 hour mark. Congratulations!

I'm sure this debate has been beaten into the ground, but where do you stand in the DQ vs FF competition? Do you have a series you like better? Before I really got into either, I'd always pegged myself as a FF kind of guy. But once I got deeper into both series, I just found that the DQ series on the whole tends to have more carefully designed game systems. They're also a tad less melodramatic.
Tristero -

When my siblings and I were growing up, we got a PlayStation and a copy of Final Fantasy VII for Christmas. We were amazed at how incredible it looked (even though I remember, as a 12-year-old buy, being baffled the first time I saw Cloud in all his boxy glory), and got really, really far into it. But my interest waned... although my older brother beat it and I saw the ending, I personally lost interest right around the revelation that Cloud just wished he was Zack. It's not that there was anything wrong with it, it's just that, with my two older brothers, many friends, and myself playing it, I just saw too damn much of it and got overloaded.

My older brother bought FF VIII when it came out. No bones about it, I f*cking hated that game. I didn't even beat Ifrit. The systems were too complicated for their own good, and I didn't have the patience to deal with it.

But when IX came out and my brother picked up that game, I was... just... enchanted by it. I fell in love the story, the back-to-basics battle system, the midieval setting, and--most of all--I fell in love with the characters. Zidane, Steiner, Vivi... they were all so endearing! To date, FF IX and the remake of FF IV on the Nintendo DS are the only FF games I've ever played to completion.

But every time I play Dragon Quest, I get the same feeling as I did with FF IX. The stories and characetrs are whimsical, and I always enjoy the settings.

Sorry for the rambling.

I would say, 100%, hands down, Dragon Quest is the better series for me.
I love you Ben Haskett. Putting my copy back in the PS3 as soon as I next go home and pick it up. And yes, Final Fantasy IX is the best of the series by far.
Thefil -

Glad you feel the same way! A lot of people tend to harp on FF IX as a series regression, but I loved it!

randombullseye -

Three's actually the next one on my list!!! And yes, I plan on playing the new SNES version. Then I play two, then six. Six is a tricky one though; I really want to play the DS version, but I don't know if it will be out in time. We'll see...

Bwark-Kupo -

Thanks! Also, awesome that you're interested in playing. If you do, be sure to let me know what you thought. Beware though, the first few hours really are pretty dull! But if you hang in there, you won't be able to put it down. Thanks for reading!


p.s. - I love you too, thefil.
To answer your question from yesterday, here's my current party:
Fox - Lv 24:
Warrior Lv8
Fighter Lv8
Cleric Lv8
Shepherd Lv8
Thief Lv6 <-- Current Job

???? - Lv 19
Mariner Lv2 <-- Current Job

Gabo - Lv 22
Warrior Lv8
Fighter Lv8
Dancer Lv8
Thief Lv8
Cleric Lv7 <-- Current Job

Maribel - Lv 24
Mage Lv8
Bard Lv8
Mariner Lv8
Jester Lv8
Dancer Lv7 <-- Current Job

I'm further along in the game, currently at Mardra.
Damn, you're that far at 45 hours?!??

I'm only at Krage, but just 4 hours behind you!
great blog man dq ftw, i want to get my hands on dq9 so fracking bad. My personal favorite is 5 but i will have to check 7 out.
Actually... I was wrong... it's only 39 hours. >.>;;

I spent a lot of time grinding as soon as I could though. And I think I need to do some more, because I'm getting wrecked by a boss.
@ben: Great write up once again. As far as the question you asked me last blog, where I was in IV. I just got Torneko and the boat.

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