Dragon Quest VI (Video Game)

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The sixth Dragon Quest game, and the third part of the loosely-connected Zenithian trilogy. The evil Dread Fiend Murdaw has terrorized your world for too long — while many other adventurers have challenged him and failed, never to return, you and your faithful companions are determined to succeed! Bravely, you storm his castle, charging straight for his throne room unimpeded...

...And then are swiftly defeated. To Murdaw, the three of you are nothing more than irritating flies; all you can do is watch helplessly as he dispatches your companions, then turns his attention towards you...

Then you wake up. Safe in your isolated mountaintop village, where the most exciting thing happening lately is the approaching festival honoring the mountain spirits...

But surely you don't expect things to stay peaceful, right? A simple errand quickly snowballs into your stumbling across a strange phenomenon, and before long you find yourself exploring both the Real World and the Phantom World, discovering the secrets binding them together... and gathering companions, some of whom seem strangely familiar...

Our heroes include:

The Hero, a spiky-haired teenager who lives in the isolated village of Weaver's Peak with his sister Tania.
Carver, a Bare-Fisted Monk with an unexplainable knack for carpentry.
Milly, a beautiful Fortune Teller and Dancer who seems to know more than she lets on.
Ashlynn, a Fiery Redhead searching for clues to her identity.
Nevan, a skilled-but-smug young boy from a reclusive tribe training to become a Priest.
Terry, a somewhat Jerkassy swordsman out searching for ways to become stronger.
Amos, an optional party member in Scrimsley that can transform into a monster.

Has been updated for a DS re-release, Realms of Revelation, also known as Realms of Reverie for its European release. Like Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride, this is the first official English translation. It was released in English in February 2011.

Dragon Quest VI contains examples of:

Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The wells in this game can get ridiculous. Some have houses in them with their own wells next to them. Somnia Castle's well is a dungeon cavern accessible by boat!
Affably Evil: Dhuran.
All Just a Dream: Subverted. The opening sequence looks like All Just a Dream, but later, the player learns that it's the other way around (but both the events that happen before and after 'waking up' are 'realities' in their own respective rights, as the dreams couldn't be any further from being irrelevant).
Alternate Personality Punishment: After the Evil Chancellor is ousted from the realm in the real world, his dream self (a rich and arrogant merchant) is arrested by the king in the dream world despite being completely unrelated to (and ignorant of) the crimes his real-world self committed.
Already Done for You: Early on, Terry completes a quest and earns the reward, and tells you straight-out that your efforts were a waste of time. Later on, this is reversed when you find the Legendary Sword, he arrives afterwards and shoves past you to grab it first... then realizes that the blade is rusted, laughs, hands it over, and apologises for wasting your time.
And I Must Scream: Spiegel kept a princess trapped in a mirror for undetermined millennia to force her to love him. She could appear in one mirror of Castle Swanstone but she was unable to communicate with anybody.
Anti-Grinding: Jobs go up in rank by fighting battles, but if you're overleveled compared to the monsters in the area, those fights don't count.
Apathetic Citizens: When Amor's river runs red as blood, most of the townspeople panic. Except the shopkeepers, who keep their calm by selling you stuff (to the admiration of your teammates).
Wazzat? The water's running bloody red? Eh, stuff happens. You here to buy weapons or gab?
Arbitrary Skepticism: Subverted. Rod from Pescado claims that mermaids are a fairy tale, despite living in a fantasy world full of creatures far stranger than mermaids. Turns out he's taking care of a stray mermaid, and was most likely trying to shoo away potential hunters who would want her meat.
Artificial Insolence: The Gadabout class has a 1/4 chance of doing something else than what they were told to do on their turn. Sometimes they waste their turn, sometimes they cast a random spell on the enemy or the party.
The Backwards Я: In the American release, treasure hunter Evgenya's text has a Cyrillic-looking font.
Badass Boast: "I am destruction. I am genocide. I reduce all to nothing." How Nokturnus introduces himself.
The Beastmaster: In the original release, the Monster Master vocation allows party members to recruit defeated monsters like in Dragon Quest V, though the available monsters are far more limited to choose from.^note In the DS and Mobile remakes, recruitable monsters are limited solely to a Hacksaurus and several Slimes, all of which are met as friendly NPCs.
Beef Gate: The Somnia Castle well dungeon can be partially accessed before you get full access to it, back when you are about 10-15 levels too weak for it.
Bittersweet Ending:
- Murdaw and Mortamor are defeated, but the Dream World and its inhabitants are cut off from the Real World as the link between the two worlds were created by Mortamor as part of his plans. Ashlynn, unlike the other Dream World protagonists, never had a Real World body so that included her. The game ends with her giving a tearful farewell to the Hero as she is erased from the Real World... though a scene after the credits gives a spot of hope, as Ashlynn and King Zenith witness the birth of the Zenith Dragon.
- Even worse, those who have played the other games in the "Zenithian Trilogy" know that Mortamor's death is only a temporary victory, as it leads to a power vacuum that is ultimately filled by Estark, Aamon, and Nimzo.
Blessed with Suck: Prince Howard of Howsworth's favorite and oft-repeated sentence is: "Who would want to be a prince?". Howard hates his position. He hates being burdened with duties and responsibilities despite being only fifteen. And he definitely hates getting forced to go into a monster-filled cavern to prove his worthiness.
Boss-Altering Consequence: Finding the Super Boss Nokturnus and beating him in less than 20 turns leaves him so impressed with the party's prowess that he grants them a wish. They use that wish to ask him to beat Mortamor the Big Bad for them. Amusingly, this was actually the plan of the king of Graceskull Castle, who unfortunately didn't qualify for the wish.
Brain Bleach: In Clearvale's Inn, the party runs into a man wearing a Playboy Bunny suit. Ashlynn mumbles she needs to learn a spell to wipe that memory out.
Broken Bridge: To almost artistic levels thanks to the use of interlocking "no-go" terrain for the boat (land, bridges, and reefs) and for the bed/carpet (forests, hills, and mountains). The interlocking rings of access after the first part of the game must've taken a lot of effort to design.
But Now I Must Go: If you tells Amos the truth about his lycanthropy instead of giving him the Seeds of Reason, he will leave Scrimsley forever to protect the villagers from himself.
But Thou Must!:
- In the Dread World, you'll find a lake with a treasure chest at the bottom, which everybody wants to get. Someone will tell you that he would sell his soul to get that lake drained and asks, "Wouldn't you?" You have to say Yes.
- When the party arrives at Howcastle, the King will ask them to accompany his son Howard on the Rite of Purification in Hallowed Hollow until they finally say "yes".
Call-Back: As in Dragon Quest III, there is an old man at Alltrades Abbey who wants to turn into a bunny girl. This becomes the topic of a quest in Dragon Quest XI when the Abbey is inexplicably overrun with old men demanding to become bunny girls, forcing the Luminary to find a solution.
Can't Drop the Hero: Strangely, this applies to Ashlynn as well as the Hero, despite the fact that all events involving her are optional, and, like even the Hero, it is optional to have her in the main party of four. This is probably a leftover of when Ashlynn was supposed to be a dragon who would server as the party's airship.
Chekhov's Boomerang: The Dream Dew and the Mirror of Ra. Plus the Golden Pickaxe much later on.
Chokepoint Geography:
- The Hero cannot leave Weaver's Peak -the starting town- and begin exploring the first overworld without fighting his way through the Pass to Haggleton.
- In order to reach Murdaw's Underkeep, you need persuade the King of Somnia to open the checkpoint closing the southern mountain pass. In order to persuade the King, you need the Ra's Mirror. In order to undertake the quest for the Ra's Mirror, you need to cross the north-eastern mountain pass, which is blocked by yet another checkpoint until the Hero and Carver fulfill several previous missions.
- The heroes need to descend into a cavern called the Lucid Grotto and obtain some Dream Dew to be able interact with the Phantom World. The only way to reach that surrounded-by-mountains cavern is via a narrow bridge.
The Chosen People: The people of Ghent (the Ghentiles) believe themselves chosen by the Goddess. This results in some of them being Holier Than Thou types, but they soon get over it.
Combat Medic: The Paladin class, which makes its debut, is an example.
Continuity Cameo: The bonus dungeon includes cameos from Dragon Quest IV and Dragon Quest V; the DS version lets you take your pick between those and a Monster Town. Funnily enough, the IV cameos include both Solo and Sofia, and the V cameos include all three possible versions of Parry and Madchen.
Continuity Creep: Originally, according to Word of God, Dragon Quest IV-VI were meant only to be linked by a recurring heavenly location named Zenithia and not to take place in the same continuity like I-III. This did not stop fans from theorizing that the three games did take place in the same world, and by the time of the DS remakes an area that opens up in the bonus dungeon that's only accessible after the ending spells out that IV takes place in the near future of VI and V takes place in the far future. Also in VI, the egg that hatches in the ending is clearly meant to be the Zenith Dragon in the later games and there is a NPC in Cloudsgate Citadel who is heavily implied to be the same heavenly being who becomes the mother of the Hero in IV.
Cool Boat: How about a floating island, with a full bar?
Cool Ship: In Clearvale, the party can get a flying bed, a shout-out to Little Nemo.
Copy Protection: Playing an unpatched pirate copy results in the opening dream sequence looping over and over infinitely.
*Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": In Somnia, the Hero runs into an old man who claims he would give Murdaw a trashing if he was five years younger. Then he groans "Ow, my back!" and rephrases his statement to "Okay, maybe fifteen years younger..."
Crapsack World: The Dread Realm, so much so that literally just being there smacks you with a massive stat penalty until a certain event.
Crazy Enough to Work: Summoning a giant demon to kill the Archfiend turned out to be a perfectly valid strategy... you just have to be strong enough to defeat it quickly, which the original planners were not.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Your party vs. Murdaw at the start of the game. Also, Nokturnus vs. Mortamor if you can beat Nokturnus in under 20 turns.
Cut and Paste Environments: The bonus dungeon.
Cuteness Proximity: Ashlynn goes into baby talk whenever near a cat.
Cutscene Boss: Lizzie in Wayfarer's Pass. You are just in time to see her dispatched effortlessly during an admittedly cool-looking cutscene.
Deal with the Devil:
- Terry ultimately sells his soul to Dhuran to become the strongest swordsman. Then you beat him up.
- King Falle of Castle Graceskull tries to make one with Nokturnus, an grand archfiend even stronger than Mortamor. Shockingly, despite everyone in the party and half the people in the castle seeing what a very bad idea it is, this backfires on him spectacularly.
- If you manage to defeat Nokturnus in under twenty turns in his Superboss fight, you can make a deal with him yourself. Despite this seeming just as terrible an idea, doing so has much more successful results.
Death of a Child: When the party arrive at Clearvale -Real World side-, the whole town is talking about little Matt's death by illness. When the heroes walk into the church, they run into Matt's parents asking the priest counsel.
Defeat Means Friendship: Lizzie, the Cutscene Boss you saw Terry finish off, joins your party if Terry's in it.
Defeating the Undefeatable: The game will throw a Demon-at-Arms Climax Boss at the player at the same time that the Zap spell becomes available. Confronting the Demon-at-Arms before getting the Zap spell will result in a viciously difficult battle, leading the player to likely die and instead go get the Zap spell. In order to better sell the player's new power, the Demon-at-Arms, when fought with the Zap spell in tow, is secretly much weaker than it is without the spell unlocked.
Demon Lords and Archdevils: Mortamor bears the title of Archfiend, while his 4 generals, Murdraw, Jamirus, Gracos, and Dhuran, are called Dread Fiends.
Despair Event Horizon: Mortamor wields despair itself as a weapon, pushing victims past this point. When the party first enters the Dread Realm, the despair is so overwhelming that it drains all their stats to almost nothing, making any battle a death sentence until later in the plot. The first village found is filled with similar victims and is aptly named Despairia.
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Lizzie, the axe-wielding, spiked and finned Hackasaurus starts out as the Dragon class.
Disc-One Final Dungeon: Murdaw's Keep, of course. Murdaw's defeat comes about fifteen hours into the game, before you're even introduced to the job system so lovingly detailed in the manual.
Disproportionate Retribution: An inhabitant of Mt. Snowhere casually told his friend about the Ice Queen who saved him from dying in the snow, after promising he wouldn't tell anyone about her existence. The Ice Queen responded by freezing everyone else in the town, leaving the man lonely and miserable for decades.
Distracted by the Sexy: One of the female Gadabout moves involves twirling her skirts, then bashing the enemy while they're (ahem) distracted.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": Captain Blade of the Somnian army really does not like his original name, "Rusty".
Dream Intro: Subverted. The game starts with a trio of heroes entering Murdaw's Keep, getting their asses kicked, which proceeds with one of the three waking up, starting the game. Turns out it wasn't a dream, as Murdaw turned their bodies into statues, dispersing their statue forms in other locations and sent their spirits directly to the Dream World.
Dream Land: The heroes travel between the Real World and the Dream World constantly.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Rusty's punishment for (correctly) vouching for your identity is to be sent to the front line, an act tantamount to a death sentence and Ella's apparent final fate is to be sold as a slave, in a world where slavery equals certain death and the Mayor outright states that nearly every single traveling merchant (such as the one who "bought" Ella) has been picked off by the rapidly increasing monster attacks. Subverted on both counts: If you return to Port Haven after defeating Murdaw, you'll find that Ella has returned and is reunited with Johan, while the mayor that sold her has left the town in grief over his mistake; and Rusty turns up again in the Dread Realm, having been abducted there instead of killed (or rather, his dream world equivalent "Captain Blade" does, but it suggests Rusty may still be alive).
Dub Name Change: Hassan became Carver, Mireille/Mireyu became Milly, Chamoro became Nevan and Barbara became Ashlynn. Furthermore, Mudou became Murdaw, Akbar became Blackmar, Horton and Horus became King Howie and Prince Howard, Tom/Soldi became Rusty/Captain Blade, Masarl and Krimut became Isaac and Benjamin, Deathtamoor became Mortamor and Dark Dream became Nokturnus. Subverted with two of them in that Amos is still Amos and Terry is still Terry.
- Even the castle and towns aren't immune to it, either. Reidock becomes Somnia, Torukka/Toluca became Wellshire, San Marino became Port Haven, Calcado became Aridea, Horstock and Horchata became Howcastle and Howsworth, Milagro/Miralgo with his tower becomes Spiegel and the Spiegelspire, Calverona became Sorceria, Grace became Graceskull, Longadeseo became Turnscote, Foan Castle became Swanstone Castle, Monstoru became Scrimsley, Gandino became Felonia, Saxe became Dullerton, Siena became Haggleton, the twin towns of Lifecod and Deathcod becoming Weaver's Peak and Reaper's Peak, alongside Despair Town becoming Despairia, Greed Town becoming Greedmore Valley. Mostly subverted with Pescani which became Pescado, along with Arkbolt and Clearvale retaining their names in the official game.
- Minor characters now also have their names changed, mostly to botanical themes or Punny Names.
- Most strikingly, Puff-Puff also received this. It is not a Bowdlerization; the context is still there, unlike in Dragon Quest IV DS, but after two decades of just transliterating it, they gave it a new name: Pattycake. The Gadabout's level 4 skill, Puff-Puff, kept its name, though.
- The Spanish translation also changes a lot of names, with the most notable being Terry's rename to Norris, likely because he can use Roundhouse Kick.
Elemental Punch: The Flame Slash, Lightning Slash, Kacrackle Slash, and Gust Slash abilities, which are introduced in this game.
Escort Mission: What "Howard the Coward" has every right to be afraid of. Where most Escort Missions are dreaded by players due to the escortee getting overzealous and dying, Howard runs away before and during the mission.
Even Evil Has Standards: Dhuran, one of the 4 Dread Fiends, heals your team prior to battling you, claiming it's no fun for him to fight strong foes in their weakened state.
Evil Chancellor: Chancellor Keating, Somnia's treacherous royal advisor is plotting to get rid of the royal family and seize the throne.
Evil Is Not a Toy: Zigzagged. King Falle's attempt to use Nokturnus to beat Mortamor resulted in Nokturnus slaughtering every member of the kingdom he could get his hands on. On the other hand, if you beat Nokturnus yourselves, he'll happily destroy Mortamor for you.
Experience Penalty: Gaining levels in classes is determined by the number of battles fought against sufficiently strong enemies. If the character's level is too high for the area, battles fought in that area no longer count (the Spiegelspire is the first area with no level cap, making it a Peninsula of Power Leveling despite the enemies not being endgame-difficult).
Expy: Dhuran shares many similarities to Rubicante, being a muscular humanoid demon with Noble Demon tendencies who heals the party before fighting them, and is member of the demonic Elite Four.
Finishing Move: When under AI control, Carver has a distinct tendency to finish enemies with a Flying Knee. (Imagining him yelling "KNEE OF JUSTICE!" entirely optional.)
Five-Second Foreshadowing: When the Hero, Carver, and Milly enters Murdaw's Keep the first time during the game's intro, Carver mentions how it's very weird that Murdaw built this Keep and not have a single monster fight the party while they're ready to kick his tail. Of course, Murdaw snatches up the Hero, Carver, and Milly and banishes them, even mocking them for thinking it would be easy and turns them to stone.
Genie in a Bottle: The High Djinks monster line ^note makes their debut in this entry. One of them appears at the top of the Pillar of Pegasus alongside a Devilmoth and a Silhouette in an attempt to stop Peggy Sue from reuniting with her Pegasus body. The Low and High Djinks monsters in particular can be summoned into battle by Malevolanterns and Annihilanterns.
Genki Girl: Ashlynn, so much.
Global Airship: Pegasus when reunited with its Peggy Sue body. To a lesser degree, the magic carpet and the flying bed, though both modes of transportation can't go over mountains, hills or forests.
God Was My Copilot: Pegasus Was My Cart-Mule.
Good Morning, Crono: You start with a dream in which you are defeated by the Big Bad, after which you are woken by your sister. Except it's the opposite. You really did go to fight this guy, he curbstomped your group, and now you're playing as the Dream World counterpart of himself.
"Groundhog Day" Loop: The Castle Graceskull scene replays itself over and over whenever you return to it from the well.
Harmless Freezing: The people of Snowhere spent 50 years frozen solid by a curse from the Ice Queen. By the time they thaw, hardly anyone realises much time has passed.
Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As is normal for Dragon Quest, you enter a name for The Hero at the start of the game, while the others can eventually be renamed after obtaining Lorelai's Harp and using it to reach Appello's underwater cave near Ghent.
Heroic Sacrifice: The elder Isnomor (say that out loud) teaches Ashlynn the powerful spell Magic Burst despite knowing the town is being watched by the Archfiend, and is instantly struck down.
I Am Who?: Let's just say this is used a lot...
I Have No Son!: Carver's father did not take him becoming a martial artist well, to the point that he becomes angry at his wife (and Carver's mother) when she laments his disappearance.
I'm a Humanitarian: Especially in the Isle o' Smiles arc, it is implied that monsters eat people. Why else do they call their captives "meat"?
Improbable Weapon User: Monsters using forged fangs makes sense. Terry using the Orihalcum Fangs does not. Lampshaded in some Fan Art and given a Hand Wave by some as Rule of Funny.
Inconsistent Spelling: Mireyu/Mireille/Muriel/etc... The localization went for 'Milly'. Which is a borderline Regional Bonus/Broken Base for non-Japanese speakers who have debated her name since DQ6 and Dragon Warrior Monsters first came out. At least it was finally reached. You can rename her after you get Lorelei's Harp, anyway.
Ineffectual Loner: Terry subverts this, as he's actually a talented swordsman who can stand on his own. Eventually, however, he winds up playing this straight following his deal with the devil.
Infinity -1 Sword: The non-fashioned Sword of Ramias.
Interspecies Romance: A human fisherman named Rod saves a mermaid named Unda during a storm and they fall in love with each other.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Carver, most notably.
- Arguably Nevan, as while his heart is definitely in the right place, he starts out as a massive Jerkass that's pretty full of himself... at least until Rubiss changes his mind about the importance of the heroes that arrived in Ghent.
Kick the Dog: In Port Haven, Ivy tries to get her romantic rival Ella in trouble by poisoning the dog she's supposed to care for. This doesn't end well for anyone.
Knights and Knaves: In the fifth floor of Gardsbane Tower, the hero finds three doors and three persons. You have to talk to them to figure out which is the right door, but only one of them is telling the truth. The young man on the left claims there is nothing past his door, and the right door is on the right; the old man on the center says you will get hurt if you open his door. And the woman on the right tells the young man is telling the truth. Which of them is is truthful? Actually, the old man, since the center door leads to a spiked floor. Meanwhile, the left door leads to a treasury which is not the one the hero is looking for, and the right door leads to the Tower's real reward.
Law of Cartographical Elegance: Both the Real World and the Dream World have several continents and inner seas which are surrounded by ocean on all sides.
Layered World: When the Hero begins exploring the world, he happens upon huge holes through which another whole world can be seen below. Later it is revealed the Hero is living in the Dream World, which hovers over the Real World, and can be reached via stairs.
Lotus-Eater Machine:
- The party is suspicious of the Isle of Smiles, and suspect it may be this. Well, the island that takes you there is certainly one, and it gets you so high you can't resist them. The Isle itself is actually a trap, another suspicion of theirs.
- There's an obvious one: Lotus Lagoon. It's even more of an example than the previous one, and one reason why it's so effective is that the people who go there came from Despairia...
Loyal Animal Companion: In one dream city, you see a man grieving at the grave of someone he calls his best friend and master; when you visit the real world equivalent, it turns out he is in fact the departed's dog.
Low-Level Advantage: Due to the way vocations improve (by number of battles, not experience, and areas have caps on the level a character can be before they're considered overpowered), a lower-level character can fight in areas with weaker enemies, which makes the battles easier/faster. Negated by the time you get to areas where the level limit is 99.
The Mafia: The Gindoro clan of Felonia, although they have lost all power and been replaced by a clean government by the time the party reaches it.
Magic Carpet: The second-to-last form of transportation.
Magic Knight: The Armamentalist class is this. In addition, the hilariously broken Job System lets you keep the spells learned in one job to another, no matter how inappropriate for the job or the character. Thus it's possible to field an entire team of Gladiators who have just enough MP to fully heal themselves when they finally get low on HP, or Sages who can punch their way through the enemies they didn't set on fire.
Magikarp Power: Ashlynn is extremely weak at first, especially if you make her first vocation a Mage, but with enough work and patience to make her a Sage (and possibly Armamentalist), she becomes the best spellcaster in the game, with devastating offensive spells and healing spells on par with (or possibly even exceeding) Nevan.
Magic Knight: Several character classes combine both magic and fighting ability, most notably the Paladin, Armamentalist, and Hero classes.
Manual Leader, A.I. Party: The DS version has several AI settings (though by default, everyone is manually controlled). Once you have enough characters, you can even switch out the hero for someone else, which makes grinding a lot faster by merely having to push the "fight" button every turn instead of going through pages of spells and abilities.
Mistaken for Granite: In addition to the returning Living Statues and Stone Guardians, the Sculptrice monster family makes their debut in this game, with the Grrrgoyle being a boss in its debut game, while Sculptrices themselves are mini-bosses in Murdaw's Keep.
Mighty Glacier: Carver fits this mold, with excellent HP and strength but the lowest speed of any human PC. So does the Warrior class, which boosts HP, strength, and resilience but sharply lowers speed.
Moth Menace: The Giant Moths, Devilmoths, and the Killer Moths make their debut in this entry.
My God, What Have I Done?:
- Both Ivy and the Mayor of Port Haven eventually realize how horrible they were to allow Ella to be enslaved. Ivy because she only wanted Ella out of the way so she could be with Johan but not actually wanting to hurt her, and the Mayor for realizing that he sold an innocent girl into slavery.
- The people of Greedmore Valley experience a collective one when they find out the chest they were about to kill each other over (and in fact did) is empty.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Hell Gladiator line is introduced in this game, with you fighting the first Demon-at-Arms in the Real World's Reaver's Peak.
Murder the Hypotenuse: Ivy doesn't go as far as murder, but she does try to defame Ella by poisoning the mayor's beloved dog. And she succeeds, until you become visible and are able to tell the mayor what really happened.
Mythology Gag:
- In a bookshelf in Port Haven, there's a diary written by either the PC of Dragon Quest V or someone in an extremely similar situation, debating who to marry.
- One of the Gadabout's random actions in battle is to make up new spell names that do nothing, some of which are the names of spells from the original "Dragon Warrior" localization.
New Skill as Reward: When his real self and dream self are reunited, Carver remembers martial arts techniques.
- When the Hero reunites with his real self, he recalls the Zap spell.
Nightmare Fuel:invoked In-universe example: The prisoner in Arkbolt says this about the growling of Lizzie, the Hacksaurus, in the cell next to him. Yes, he actually says the phrase "nightmare fuel". Carver also names Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy in party chat after talking to the guard guarding Lizzie's cage. Evidently one of the translators was a troper who couldn't resist...
Non-Indicative Name:
- You'd think that the Armamentalist skill Lightning Slash and the Luminary skill Lightning would be Lightning-elemental, but they aren't. They actually share the same element as the Bang line of spells, though they would eventually have the Zap element in later appearances.
- The Ranger class has little to do with nature spells compared to, say, Dragon Quest IX and Dragon Quest X.
No Ontological Inertia:
- Mortamor was the one who created the link between the Real and Dream Worlds, so when he dies, the link is destroyed along with him.
- Discussed by townspeople, who wonder if the fact that the monsters don't go away after Murdaw is defeated has any significance...
No-Sell: Gladiator will occasionally 'shrug off' an attack, negating its effect on them.
Not the Fall That Kills You…: Our heroes can survive falling several yards into the other world through a chasm completely unscathed. Even earlier, they can survive a multiple-story fall in a cave.
Not Quite the Right Thing: In Scrimsley, telling Amos about his transformations might seem like a good idea, despite the game's reluctance to let you, but if you do so, he'll have left town by the time you get back.
Oh, Crap!: In the normal version of the final battle, Mortamor is unshakably arrogant up until the moment of his death, to the point where he never once considers the heroes a true threat. If you defeat the Superboss Nokturnus in under 20 turns, you can convince him to kill Mortamor instead. Mortamor immediately drops his arrogance and, for the first and final time, shows genuine fear. Considering how badly Mortamor gets curbstomped in the ensuing battle, his reaction is justified.
Only Six Faces: A major criticism of the game at the time — Akira Toriyama was right in the middle of his Dragon Ball Z run, and Goku/Trunks/etc was bleeding out into all his character designs. Contrast the art and character designs of Dragon Quest VII, which was done after his infamous split with his publisher.
On Three: the Hero and Carver agree to surround and try to catch a wild mare, who turns out to be Pegasus's depowered body, "on count of three"
Carver: Alright, Hero, ya ready? Count of three, we'll grab her.
Opening the Sandbox: The Real World map opens up completely when the player obtains Lorelei's Harp, whereupon he is able to go underwater and exploring the lands surrounding the inner seas.
Oracular Urchin: Nevan is a male example who changes his tune about your party slightly after sensing your importance. Also, much earlier, Tania is briefly possessed by the Mountain Spirit — actually Rubiss — and encourages you to get going on your epic quest already.
Our Mermaids Are Different: While the mermaids in this game physically resemble Western mermaids, the Japanese legend that mermaid meat grants eternal youth also exists.
Overrated and Underleveled: Terry suffers from this; while stated to have defeated several guards that you took down as a party and was shown to easily beat a very strong monster by himself, by the time he joins, he is more or less an average party member with an advanced job and strong weapon. It doesn't help that immediately after acquiring him, you can use him to get another party member who — even at level 5 —is better in almost every category except agility and style and starts out with the rare and useful Dragon job and could very easily fit into your party immediately. She's the aforementioned "very strong monster" that Terry beat by himself.
Parental Abandonment: The game is most triumphant aversion of this trope in the series. Nearly every party member has parents or a parental figure somewhere. Finding yours kicks off the main plot.
Peninsula of Power Leveling:
- When it comes to leveling vocations (not so much Character Levels; Metal Slime-infested areas would be better for that), the Spiegelspire has relatively weak monsters when it is accessible in the game (assuming you aren't underleveled), but lacks the level requirements of most areas in the game, so beating monsters up here is a quick way to master vocations. It's even possible to zoom there for an easy way to get to and from Alltrades Abbey from there.
- Real Somnia's well can be entered as soon as you get there, but is pretty much suicide unless the Random Number God takes pity on you.
- Mortamor's Dreadlair contains a free health-and-MP refill room less than halfway through, making it an excellent Level Grinding spot.
Permanently Missable Content: Amos, if you tell him the truth before giving him the Seeds of Reason. It pulls out a lot of stops to get you not to do it, but if you do, nothing bad seems to have happened... But then you get the Seeds of Reason, and Amos isn't home.
Pink Means Feminine: During party chat, Ashlynn mentions the Hero she would not mind if he bought her an armor... which happened to be pink.
Prestige Class: A number of vocations like Gladiator, Armamentalist, Paladin, Sage, Ranger, and Luminary require mastering two (three in the Ranger's case) basic vocations first. The Hero class one-ups them by requiring mastery of four specific advanced vocations^note, and Dragon and Liquid Metal Slime require special items, except for the actual dragon and liquid metal slime you can recruit.
Punny Name:
- Mr. and Mrs. Tress' son Matt, who gives you his flying bed. You find them as they are talking to Pastor Bedthyme.
- Mercury, a Liquid Metal Slime Optional Party Member, is named after the element mercury, which actually is a liquid metal at room temperature.
- The Somnia Kingdom (like insomnia) and its queen Apnea (named for the condition sleep apnea).
- The rogue city of Turnscote.
- The former gangland city of Felonia.
Rape as Drama: Milly's past, which involved her father selling her to Felonia's Gindoro crime family, who in turn sold her to the former King of Felonia, who had a whole harem of slave girls used as dancers (and possibly worse things, as there exists a room in the castle that was once his "private pleasure chamber"). Given that Milly is on pins and needles the entire time she is in Felonia (as evidenced by party chat) or whenever Felonia is even mentioned, this trope may well be in play. Even if rape is never mentioned, the implication is still there, and Milly herself refuses to talk about it. The whole thing is not helped by the fact that there's a very good chance Milly was quite young when she was sold as a slave, if the mention of Terry being a very young boy at the time is any indication.
Reincarnation Romance: Talk to Miralda on the throne after breaking her from the mirror, and she will tell you her backstory. Spigel killed her love, imprisoned in the mirror for thousands of years, and after she was released she knew immediately that Ludwig was a reincarnation of the man she once loved
Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Many species of monsters look like flying lizards, snakes, dinosaurs or dragons. ^note In that vein, Murdaw, one of the four Dread Fiend lieutenants of Mortamor, looks like a scaly, horned toad.
Rhymes on a Dime: The mermaids.
Sarcasm Mode: As one NPC comments, "What is it about joining the military that's so alluring? The low pay? The drab uniforms? The all-you-can-eat salt pork?"
Scrubbing Off the Trauma: There's a town named Amor that thrives due to their rejuvenating water, which, shortly after you arrive, turns blood red. Investigation reveals that a woman named Evgenya is trying to clean the blood off her sword at the water's source, consumed with guilt because she believes she killed her lover Ilya. You have to find him Not Quite Dead and fighting a Grrrgoyle, but she'll be cleaning her sword until you do.
Secret Character: Amos of Scrimsley, who's a bit under the weather when you first meet him... for good reason. Also, Lizzie the Hacksaurus, who previously was defeated by Terry in the Arkbolt quest, can be recruited after the latter joins the party.
- In the Updated Re-release, there are a number of "Slime Buddies" for you to do little sidequests for. Each joins after their respective quest is done.
Ship Tease: Ashlynn and Milly hint throughout the game that the Hero and Carver are their types, respectively. In the ending, Milly outright says that Carver is her type, and King Somnius acts as Shipper on Deck for Ashlynn & the Hero. Sadly, they all go their separate ways.
Shout-Out:
- Milly mentions that a castle floating in the sky would make a great subject for a painting.
- Amos, the heroic blond-and-blue-eyed defender with a winged helmet.
- Castle Graceskull.
- Lord Zenith speaks in Ye Olde Butchered English, a homage to the original English translation of Dragon Quest.
- The illustration for the ability Forbearance found in the original handbook has Carver protecting the party in a similar manner◊ to the scene in Dragon Ball Z where Piccolo saves Gohan from Nappa’s attack. As a matter of fact, the illustrations provided for the game's handbook were done by Toei Animation.
- In Clearvale, the party can get a flying bed, a shout-out to Little Nemo.
- Puff-Puff is localised as "Pattycake".
Show Within a Show: You can find chapters of "Warrior Cat Tales" and "A Slime's Story" scattered all over the world.
Skippable Boss: Averill.
Slippy-Slidey Ice World:
- Mt. Snowhere.
- Along with not one, but TWO dungeons that have Frictionless Ice.
Split Hair: Parodied when you talk to a villager in Somnia who boasts that Captain Blade/Rusty is so good of a swordsman that he is able to split hairs. Carver quips he can "merely" split skulls.
Star-Crossed Lovers:
- Rod, an injured fisherman, loves the mermaid who saved his life, Unda. Rod fears that the cove west of the town of Pescado is not a safe place for Unda, and he knows she is longing for her homeland; so Rod he urges her to go back to home when the party offers to escort Unda back to Mermaid Cove.
- The Hero and Ashlynn at the end of the game.
Stealth-Based Mission: Following Rod through Pescado and Mermaid's Cove.
Stealth Pun:
- Milly and Terry are brother and sister. Try putting their names together.
- Ashlynn. Her real world body had been burned to ashes when Sorceria was destroyed in the real world.
Squishy Wizard: Ashlynn, Milly, and Nevan all fall under this for their first dozen levels, but the vocation system allows them all to avert this trope. The 'Mage' class you unlock in Alltrades Abbey fits this to a T.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Dreamaera and Gustbluster monster lines are the Zenithia Trilogy version of the Chimaera and Mummy monster lines.
Taken for Granite:
- This is what Murdaw does to intruders.
- The ultimate fate of everyone in Gallows Moor by Mortamor (except the party and Isaac) once Blackmar is killed.
Tempting Fate:
- The guy in the striped shirt in the Greedmore Valley event (at least in the "bad" cycle) trips over his bootlaces twice running for the Sage's treasure. He decides to ignore it after the second time, declaring "I'm living dangerously!" Of course, he ends up being the only one not killed by one of the other people rushing for the treasure; instead, he tripped on said bootlaces, fell down some stairs, and broke his neck.
- When the party arrives at Howcastle, they are entrusted with Prince Howard, who promptly gives them the slip. After finding him, Ashlynn declares he is NOT going to get away from her again. Howard then runs off three times.
Third-Person Person: "Old Amos" and Madame Luca.
Too Dumb to Live: King Falle of Castle Graceskull. When the world is under attack by monsters led by the Archfiend Mortamor, what does he do? He summons an evil demon, Nokturnus, in the hopes of getting rid of them. You heard me. He ACTUALLY SUMMONS A DEMON, one that could be very well capable of inflicting more destruction than all the other monsters combined. You can see what happened to Graceskull as a result.
Took a Level in Badass:
- As he reveals in Party Chat, when Amos was little, he was called a coward. That's the whole reason he got into the town hero business.
- Prince Howard "the Coward" grows a pair in between the second and final tests of royalty.
Town with a Dark Secret: When the party arrive at Scrimsley, they discover the town has been torn down by some monster last night. Though, the villagers do not want to talk about it, and they hint you should stop making questions and look for lodging elsewhere. It turns out Amos, the local hero, was turned into a werebeast after getting bitten by a monster. Every night he turns into a weredragon and causes havoc, but he never remembers anything. And the villagers do not want him to know it, either, because they love him.
Trapped on the Astral Plane: The first world the game starts in has huge holes in it that let you see another world far below, but the hero and Carver can't interact with the real world until the first MacGuffin is found.
Turns Red: Mortamor's first form is a frail old man which can be beaten without too much difficulty. He acknowledges this, and erupts into a Big Red Devil (well, pink), with the game telling you it's his true form. After beating that, however, he turns into a giant disturbing head and disembodied hands.
Units Not to Scale: As the mermaid Unda is following you around, her sprite is as big as your ship's.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Life between Dragon Quest Monsters and Dragon Quest VI was not kind to Terry or his sister. Despite her having it even worse, it's Terry who gets hit by this trope the hardest — to the point that it becomes an unintentional Player Punch to those Americans who were only familiar with his cute and kindhearted kid incarnation.
Useless Useful Spell: Most of the large pick of status based spells in the game are useless due to not being effective on bosses and sub-bosses. Also, some attack spells are also not as useful as they could be, due to only hitting more than one enemy when they are grouped. But of course, your party is always considered a group, meaning when a enemy casts, your whole party can take massive damage.
Under the Sea: Once you obtain Lorelei's Harp, mermaid magic will allow you to encase your ship in a bubble to explore the seabed, which is necessary to fight Gracos, one of the Dread Fiends.
Ungrateful Bastard: Real World!Somnia, or at least their guards, after you defeat the fake Murdaw. At least until the King sets them straight. Justified in that you were pretending to be the Prince of Somnia previously and the much loved Captain Rusty was sent to his death because of your actions. (Sure, you actually are the Prince of Somnia, but you didn't know that at the time.)
Verbal Tic: Carver has one he picked up from his mother an' everything like that.
Villainous Harlequin: The Prickly Prankster monster line, in the form of Pesky Jesters and Jugular Jokers, in addition to the aforementioned Prankster, makes their debut in this game.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: After being cured, Amos becomes one, and ends up joining your party — but only if you play your cards right! However, he can't be controlled while transformed.
Warrior Prince: The Prince of Somnia leads the group that destroys all 4 Dread Fiends and the Archfiend, is the only person alive who can equip the legendary artifacts and is able to unlock the 'Hero' class much more easily than any other character, only needing to complete one of the four prerequisite classes.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
- The fact that humans see nothing wrong with going out and killing mermaids for their meat (or using them as tourist attractions) despite the fact that they look like beautiful women with mermaid tails shows that this trope is clearly in effect. Averted by Rod, obviously.
- When Terry joins your party, you get asked whether you want to boot someone from the party to make room for him, but when the monsters join, they're automatically sent off to the party planning place.
- If you have a slime-only party at Slimeopolis, you're not allowed to battle without your "master" present.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: One of the dream Somnia soldiers tells you post-ending that this is the first time he's been called to the throne room, and hopes that this will finally be enough to impress his father.
What the Hell, Hero?: Your party sometimes gives you this if you don't go with the obvious choice, like when bringing a man an item his late son had wanted and putting off giving it to him.
Ashlynn: So funny I forgot to laugh, [Hero].
- When you first meet Ashlynn, while trying to retrieve the Mirror of Ra, she's ghostly and states that she's looking for the Mirror of Ra to try to become properly visible. When you finally get the Mirror, it turns out it won't turn her visible, and she despairs at being unseen for the rest of her life, at which point Carver and Milly suggest using the same remedy you've been carrying around to make her visible. She gets upset that you had this option the whole time you were climbing the tower and didn't try it. In the DS remake, she notes that you stated you were invisible and now you are visible immediately, and questioning how you did it, allowing the remedy to be used right away (her looking in the mirror is more to try to get her memory back instead).
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Grim Keeper, one of Murdaw's lieutenants, lampshades the fact that Murdaw inexplicably chose to send you to another dimension rather than kill you during your first fight immediately before attacking you to try and finish you off himself.
Worthy Opponent: Dhuran considers you this. Nice to be respected, even by a Dread Fiend, isn't it?
You ALL Look Familiar: In the original, Amos doesn't have a unique sprite, looking like any other blue-clad warrior, so you're not tipped off that he's recruitable. Much like Tuppence in Dragon Quest V, he gets a unique sprite in the remake, though it is still very similar to the previous sprite. Unlike Tuppence, however, Amos is a hot topic among the people in Scrimsley, so you know that he is important, and are curious enough to go visit him to advance that plotline.
You Know What They Say: Lampshaded by Ashlynn during Party Chat after talking to an old man in the first Somnia after defeating Murdaw for the first time.
You Can See Me?: From the party when they first meet Milly, and from Ashlynn when the party first meets her.
You Can't Fight Fate: Entering the well in the ruins of Graceskull will send you back in time to the events that destroyed it every time you enter it, but you can't save it. A bard on the castle top says this as well. At least in the DS remake you can save a Mottle Slime named Spot...
Youkai: On Mt. Snowhere lives a Yuki-onna named Gerda.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: The Hero and his friends gather their resources to bring Dread Fiend Murdaw to heel. Not only is the original Murdaw you confront actually the King of Somnia under a curse, the real Murdaw is not the only Dread Fiend.
You Shouldn't Know This Already: Zigzagged. You can get into the Spiegelspire as soon as you find it and without having heard how to open it (use Peep on the door), but the cutscene with the Hero's deceased younger sister retroactively changes the name so you're still in the wrong.