But this is an MMO, so how *about* those party members? Well, if you're not adventuring in real-time with anyone, you can temporarily hire AI-piloted versions of real players in whatever state they last saved the game in. When they log back in, they get some money and experience for helping you out!

Another example. Many DQs have a system where you can have AI handle your party's battle actions. No-one in human history has used this. Here, taking care of *yourself* in combat keeps your hands full enough, so having the game autopilot your comrades (very well, actually) is necessary for once.

Indeed, Dragon Quest X is standard DQ until it VERY SUDDENLY ISN'T in some unique ways. I stumbled into a four-hour murder mystery sidequest. Not a single battle. Culminates in a Detective Conan-type criminal reveal by way of submitting evidence Phoenix Wright-style. Came out of nowhere.

An incredible tutorial moment where the sky goes black and thunderous and the music totally drops out while you have to make a desperate run back to your village while it's getting destroyed. It's a surprisingly evocative, threatening moment for a series that primarily deals in laughs and tears.

Fights are, incredibly, still turn-based, with the familiar DQ fight/magic/skill/item menu setup. In a series first, there's an action-time-battle element. Turns come quicker if you take a while to input a command, which reduces the rush to find what you want to do.

You don't actually have a full party of four until you complete the first quest for whatever race you picked, so this seems to be an introduction less for DQ players who are new to MMOs, but perhaps MMO players who are new to DQ.

You can choose one of your six DQ9 classes starting out: warrior, mage, priest, thief, martial artist, or minstrel. Virgil here's a thief: a bitta stabbing, a bitta healing, and a whole lot of being able to detect treasure and enemy info.

I started off as a human for a brief tutorial, and was then promptly killed and reborn into a race of my choosing. I went with a 'weddie', these charming Toriyama fishfolk. The funny thing is I inhabit the body of a swordwoman who had also just died... surely I'm just possessing her?

I have never played an MMO. Perhaps a fan/machine-translated game I need a Japanese address, payment plan, and VPN to play isn't the easiest one to start with. But I come into this to finally play the only mainline DQ I haven't, so I'm going to be grateful for the substantial tools that we have.

~THE ADVENTURES OF VIRGIL~
⚔️My Dragon Quest X journey⚔️

I actually started this save file on Dec 27th, but this strikingly pretty New Year's area is too good to pass up for the first post.

Ch. 3
This chapter could straight up be a DQ quest. Take a turtle back to sea and fight a bear warrior. I wonder if Gon's jajanken attack in HxH has some inspiration from this part, but then again janken is everywhere. Love the sea turtle himself having an elderly British note in his dialogue.

Ch. 2
I actually owned volume 1 when I was 10. Bought it from Ottakar's bookstore (feel old now?) with pocket money. The sex comedy stuff I can take or leave, but the early Goku/Bulma dynamic has lines that have stuck with forever. "An' a centipede for flavor!" has been in my mind for 20+ years.

Ch. 1
The recent DQ3 remake was what finally got me reading. Toriyama is the master of instantly recognisable gross/scary villains and cute/unusual monsters. From the get-go, DB is populated by creatures like this squat pterodactyl. Great panelling, you can really feel that FWAK. This dude is DONEZO