Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors is a first-person RPG developed by Eighting in cooperation with Genius Sonority and released by Square Enix on the Nintendo Wii in 2007. It tells the story of the son of the great swordsman Claymore, who is prepared to take his place among the knights of Avalonia by undergoing the "Walk of the Worthy", a rite of passage for sixteen-year-old males. After he completes his trial, the young swordsman learns of an Evil Overlord that his father fought in the past, and of a reclusive queen who wears a creepy mask and has been largely avoiding the public eye. How are these events related, if at all?
The game is notable for taking advantage of the Wii's motion sensor controls; you swing your sword by swinging the Wiimote in the same manner.
Tropes in Dragon Quest Swords:
- Accent Adaptation: The game's English dub gives the characters different accents befitting the weapons they were named after, though that's not the case with all of them
- Arms and Armor Theme Naming: There are sword-themed names all over the place. The hero's father is named Claymore, the hero's two traveling companions are Fleurette and Anlace, the Big Bad is called Xiphos, and a few of the game's locations are mostly named for legendary weapons (Caliburn Cave and Arondight/Alondite Heights).
- Armor Meter: During fights, the player's shield is shown to break if it takes too many hits. The Orichalcum Teaspoon averts this entirely but tends to be unwieldly due to its small size.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Losing to the final boss allows you to choose to go to the dungeon or go straight to his throne room, allowing you to skip straight to the final boss fight to try again.
- Losing to any of the Mirror Bosses causes the game to give you your items back if you lost during a fight against them and you'll be respawned outside the mirrors instead of your last save point.
- If you fail to defeat King Latem, the game takes you to the result screen regardless and the fight is counted as complete with your only setback being that you get no EXP or rank bonuses during the fight.
- The refights before Edah Sohpix are easier than their originals: Der Gib spends more time in the foreground, reducing the amount of projectiles to reflect, Valgirt Nedlog skips its first phase entirely and Nomegoen seems to take more damage.
- Art Evolution: Toriyama proves that he can draw more than Only Six Faces with this game.
- Attack Reflector: You can swat certain projectiles back at your enemies, such as fireballs and the bodkin's arrows.
- Background Boss: Most bosses have one or two attacks they can fire off from the background. Salta and its stronger variant will spend most of their battles in the background forcing you to deflect their projectiles back at them.
- Big Bad: Xiphos the Deathbringer. Though he himself doesn't show up midway in-game due to being sealed away in the mask the Queen is wearing.
- Boring, but Practical: Unlike Prince Anlace or Claymore, Fleurette can learn useful healing skills and will see a lot of use during the endgame and espically the post-game due to her useful tendency to outheal the enemy's attacks, allowing the player to survive for far, far longer than they would otherwise. It doesn't hurt that she can also use Magnishield to make your shield bigger for a limited time as well.
- Bragging Rights Reward: On both normal and Payback Mode playthroughs, the Military Tattoo and Knight of the Goddess rank are only unlocked after beating Edah Sohpix and greatly increase the speed of your Master Stroke meter and start you off with the meter 80% filled. Both of those things are rendered useless simply because they don't carry over to Payback Mode and even on that mode, there are no fights where they're actually useful.
- Character Select Forcing: During Chapter 7, you're forced to equip the Rednusadner in order to progress the story, allowing you to leave Avalonia, revisit Galantyne Glades and use Figure of Fate in order to enter the Sea of Lava. This still applies even in Payback Mode and is the only part of the game where you can't use the Deathbringer's Sword to lay waste to everything.
- Dangerous 16th Birthday: The hero is 16 when he starts out and what starts from a rite of passage eventually becomes an adventure to save the world from a warlord from long ago.
- Dark Reprise: The final dungeon theme "Do As You Wish" is a menacing remix of "Damp Cavern", one of the themes that plays in Caliburn Cave and Seacace Seacove.
- Difficult, but Awesome: The Orichalcum Teaspoon. while it never breaks, it's also a teaspoon, thus its blocking size is pretty small. However, due to its unbreakable nature, it's great for longer fights.
- Disc-One Final Dungeon: The titular Tower of Mirrors. After that, the player has to gain a new weapon designed to help them stand a chance against Xiphos the Deathbringer.
- Dual Boss: Clank 'n' Knalc are the only boss in the game where you fight two opponents. Both of them are identical to each other in terms of abilities and share a HP bar.
- Dumb Muscle: Golok the Gatekeeper isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, being a brute who serves to guard the Deathbringer's Citadel. Out of all the party members, Fleurette is the only one who seems to take him seriously.
- Evil Overlord: Xiphos the Deathbringer. His return to the world after being defeated 5 years ago is even heralded by his castle emerging from a volcano.
- Excuse Plot: Downplayed. The games story has some interesting lore and is not without some good twists, but it is far more simple and formulaic than the usual Dragon Quest story. The focus the game has is on its gameplay.
- Final-Exam Boss: The first phase of the final boss has Xiphos attack the player by throwing their sword, various stones and dark energy balls to test the player's skills in blocking attacks and reflecting them. At the end, you have to deflect various energy balls back to finish the fight.
- Flunky Boss: Some of the bosses will call in henchmen to either back them up, overwhelm the player or give themselves free healing. Out of all the Mirror Bosses, the only ones that aren't this are King Latem, Valgirt, Valgirt Nedlog, Xiphos the Deathbringer and Edah Sohpix.
- Fire and Brimstone Hell: The final dungeon, Deathbringer's Citadel is very much designed to invoke this appearance, complete with a giant statue of a Gigantes that must be defeated to move forward.
- Foreshadowing: During your trip to Galantyne Glades, it's mentioned that Queen Curtana wanted to meet Aruval and when told he was absent isn't surprised. This is the earliest hint that the two are connected to Xiphos the Deathbringer who reveals that he split his body and spirit into Aruval and Queen Curtana respectively.
- During Chapter 3, it's revealed that Xiphos is a giant beast wearing a mask. Chapter 4 has you fight the Fishy Monster, a blue coloured beast with fish-like traits and is revealed to be a transformed Aruval. Both of those things describe Xiphos's true form, a giant blue monster with draconic and fish-like traits.
- During your trip in the Tower of Mirrors, you'll encounter Minidemons as you near the end of the level. For those who know their Dragon Quest, it's mentioned that they're considered the infant forms of Archdemons, foreshadowing that the stage boss Großmesser is an Archdemon.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: When the player defeats the Fishy Monster and returns for a rematch, defeating them reveals them to be a Float-o-Copier which allows the rematch to happen due to the real Aruval taken prisoner by Xiphos to aid in regaining his physical form.
- Gratuitous French: Fleurette, in spades.
- Gratuitous German: Großmesser is a demon fought in the Tower of Mirrors who speaks with a German accent. Der Gib seems like this too until you realize it's name is actually a Sdrawkcab Name.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: Your hero's name is never spoken aloud in voiced dialogue, but shortly after you complete the mission with Fleurette, she gives you a nickname, and uses it to address you from that point on.
- Infinity +1 Sword: On a regular playthrough, the Metal King equipment is the best equipment you can arm yourself with along with the Dragon Warrior Sword.
- On a Payback Mode playthrough however, the Dragon Warrior Sword is usurped by theDeathbringer's Sword, which gives you the power of the Big Bad. It can be further upgraded into the Deathbringer's Shade, which makes it as strong as the True Final Boss.
- Invisible Monsters: One of the Mirror Bosses, Nomegoen turns invisible during the start of the fight and stays that way for the entire battle. Worse still, they tend to enjoy ruining the player's day with a barrage of projectiles made to test your reflexes.
- Lethal Lava Land: The Sea of Lava is a rocky area with walls made of lava created from using Figure of Fate. Crossing it is the only way to reach the Deathbringer's Citadel.
- Limit Break: Mighty Strikes. Each sword you acquire gives you access to a new one. Xiphos the Deathbringer (and Edah Sohpix) has his own during his second form called Figure of Hate where letting its meter fill up tends to spell pain for you and your ally and utter death in the Edah Sophix fight.
- Luck-Based Mission: Getting the Grand Prize during tombola is all down to luck and worse still you have to win twice if you want that Liquid Metal Shield. For players whose technique is not up to snuff, King Latem can very easily turn into this.
- Marilyn Maneuver: If you bring Fleurette to the final dungeon, she'll do this when she and the player are pulled upwards to the next part of the dungeon.
- Metal Slime: As series tradition dictates, they are your best source of quick EXP gain. One of the Mirror bosses King Latem is the only Metal King Slime in the game.
- Mini-Game: There are a few that can be played, though none of them are compulsory to beat the game.
- Mood Whiplash: You make it to the end of the Tower of Mirrors, free Queen Curtana from Xipho's influence, only to accidently free Xiphos's spirit from the Rorrim Mask only to have to fight a drunken archdemon with a German accent.
- New Game Plus: Payback Mode which allows you to start with Xiphos's weapon, the Deathbringer sword. Though though nothing carries over, this ultimately doesn't matter when the aformentioned weapon allows you to lay waste to just about everything in the game.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Due to nobody telling the Hero that the mask has Xiphos sealed within until it's too late, destroying it causes him to break free after you defeat Großmesser. The mask is later repaired and used later to destroy Xiphos for good.
- One-Winged Angel: Once Xiphos is beaten, he changes into his true form, a multi-armed giant with draconic features.
- Ornamental Weapon: Your companions wield weapons (Anlace has a rapier, and Fleurette and Claymore use staves), but they never use them, instead traveling along with you to provide spell backup.
- Our Hydras Are Different: The fifth mirror boss Valgirt is a three headed green dragon who can resurrect himself from death once. His Palette Swap Valgirt Nedlog is a golden variant who is much stronger.
- Palette Swap: True to series tradition, several of the later enemies tend to be earlier ones with new colours. All of the Mirror Bosses except Valgirt.Edahs Sohpix is a nastier version of the final boss with a new colour scheme to match.
- Peninsula of Power Leveling: The Mirror World is one of the easiest stages in the game and contains Metal Slimes and Liquid Slimes, ideal for level grinding during regular playthroughs of the game and long before you can fight King Latem.
- Purposely Overpowered: The Deathbringer Sword (and it's upgraded form Deathbringer's Shade) is the strongest sword in the game, boasting a high 200 Attack, fast slashing and enough power to tear through your enemies and make even the Deathbringer into a joke. The game doesn't call it "greatest sword in all of Avalonia" for nothing! The Deathbringer's Shade goes even further with a whopping 400 attack, allowing you to completely melt even the purple mirrors and Edah Sohpix's HP like a hot knife through butter.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: The last mirror boss you fight Edah Sohpix is a black skinned version of the final boss wearing red robes with gold on them.
- Regional Bonus: The original version of the game didn't have the purple mirror bosses, who were added into the US and PAL version of the game. Suffice to say, if you felt the game was too easy for you and that the mirror bosses weren't that challenging, then these foes will surely change that perception.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Xiphos the Deathbringer spends the first half as the game sealed away in the Rorrim Mask worn by Queen Curtana before the hero is tricked into destroying it due to believing that the mask is controlling her.
- Sequel Escalation: The first game was actually a motion-controlled toy which predated the Wii that basically let kids walk down a straight path while whacking monsters. This game greatly improves upon the concept.
- Sdrawkcab Name: All of the mirror bosses have them. For starters, Der Gib (Big Red), Nomeg (Gemon), Salta (Atlas), Valgirt (Triglav), Nomegoen (Neogemon), and Edahs Sohpix (Xiphos Shade).
- Superboss: After beating the game, the player can go to the Olde Reflectory and find 4 silver mirrors. After defeating Nomeg, Clank 'n' Knalc, Salta and King Latem, they can fight Valgirt. After that, 3 purple mirrors are unlocked and contain Nomegoen, Valgirt Nedlog and Der Gib who are among the hardest fights in the game. Defeat them and you'll have to refight them before taking down Edahs Sohpix
- Theme Naming: All of the major characters (and most of the locations) are named after types of swords.
- Examples include Prince Anlace, Fleurette, Claymore, Minister Misericorde (Kanzler Katzbalger in the German version) and Queen Curtana.
- The Power of Hate: Though Xiphos never mentions the word explicitly during his pre-battle speeches, his Master Stroke is called Figure of Hate, implying this trope in action. And it hurts like hell if you don't attack him enough when he's charging it up. And being Xipho's mirror counterpart, Edahs Sohpix also has this attack as well.
- Once you upgrade [[spoiler:the Deathbringer's Sword into the Deathbringer's Shade, you can also use Figure of Hate for yourself and indulge in this on any hapless foe in your way. The description for the Master Stroke says it all:
"A legendary technique used by Xiphos to annihilate anyone foolish enough to challenge his supremacy."]] - Time-Limit Boss: King Latem will only stay in battle for a minute or so and needs to be struck down before he flees the battlefield. If you defeat him, the amount of EXP you'll get is well worth the effort.
- True Final Boss: Edahs Sohpix is the last of the Mirror Bosses, who requires you to beat the game to access the Old Reflectory, then defeat all the mirror bosses which unlocks his boss fight where you refight Valgirt Nedlog, Nomegoen and Der Gib before fighting him.
- Upgraded Boss: Nomeg and Clank 'n' Knalc arfe upgraded versions of the third boss and a Dual Boss version of the first boss respectively. Nomegoen is a stronger version of Nomeg that can turn invisible while Der Gib and Valgirt Nedlog and Der Gib are even harder versions of Valgirt and Salta. The True Final Boss is a vastly beefed-up version of the final boss's second form and has you refight the purple mirror bosses before it.
- White Mage: Fleurette, a priestess, specializes in healing magic.
