Chapter 441: Dragon Quest
The plight of Fanboy and other fanboys like him was actually quite considerable. Since there's really something odd about the scenario.
Odd, even with four games being counted as even.
After crossing a superstitious benchmark like the number 13, the release really sprinted hastily with 3 more.
It's as if that threshold was some line that was hard to cross, but after doing so, there was no going back.
Even doing it three more times for prosperity, posterity... or something like that.
Oddly enough, 13 and 3 are obviously odd numbers, but that's beside the point.
Alexander really wasn't about to argue whether these turn of events were divisible by two or not.
He's just sort of pondering about the proximity of this game's release to that game's release. The logistics of it, that is.
What impact it has on potential sales?
How it would be perceived by the market?
Would one game be overshadowed by the other? What about its influence over another? And why not factor just one more to make four?
These were some of the things he had asked Miss Consigliere a while back. Which, in hindsight, should have been more about simultaneity...
Given that he had clearly forgone some of the calculated adjacency. Instead, he opted to introduce them at the same time.
It's rather risky as flooding the market has never really amounted in something to look forward to. At least, it seems like so.
Alexander can even admit that he's been doing this in every market he's entered, albeit slow and steady.
Nowhere near his overflowing capacity and never overwhelming like a flash flood.
Until now. With the quadrupling of trouble that he considers it to be.
He had his reasons, of course.
Such as considering it better to ram the market at this point in time... before the "bull" finally shows its horns, on an upcoming black Monday.
Obviously, not just driven by the emotional impulse to lash out at the trouble that he had been handed.
He was anything but emotional, after all.
Yet, he's also been a tad impulsive lately... so who knows?
Besides, the games have already been made... so why not?
The three new ones are also rightfully themed for the occasion and any later wouldn't be that inclusive with the seasons' end... so to heck with it...
And as a kind of tradition, Alexander's thoughts eventually and finally drifted to one of them...
For a customary think-through of another property he just plundered.
Starting with an RPG that is very pivotal amongst them.
Something that is not really some final fantasy that falls in line with the Mystic Quest that came before it... however, that's inconsequential...
As Alexander's over-ambition has led him to just put two and two together.
A decision that would most likely result in profits that more than double...
But, if Square and Enix's equation is to be believed, then it's already as good as quadrupled...
Sort of, since that's just how he expected it to be.
Besides, if that's not on theme enough, there's also the fact it's closely related to Dragonball. Specifically to its old creator, Akira Toriyama.
Then again, old is quite jarring, given that this pertains to the new and improved... Dragon Quest.
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To no surprise, it's Dragon Quest.
However, it is a surprise to those who don't know about it. And to those that know of a tabletop RPG game, also called DragonQuest.
Coupled with the 3-pronged Chaos unit notifications that put it at the 14th spot of the menu.
Alongside that unusually orderly Creed Chaos System advertisement... showcasing a sequence where a character in blue armor is confronting a green menacing dragon.
The pixelations aside, the art and the color scheme are really quite reminiscent of Goku and Shenron. Not that the two ever tried to duke it out.
That would be something, wouldn't it?
Maybe this whole Dragon Quest actually leads to that. Making it all the more desirable.
Desirable enough for those that chose to buy it first, that is.
Anyways, as they get to play the game with their GameKeys slotted, an interesting tidbit is the option to name the playable character what they want.
Aside from the default of Alef, it seems that shenanigan-ry is allowed.
Some people even have some hilarious namings in mind. MyButt and BigBooby are just a few samplings.
There's even the quick option to paste the Gamer Account names, so there's that...
And it was onwards to the game.
Where it begins with the hero, "Alef", receiving a king's errand to save the kingdom of Alefgard, which has been plagued by monsters.
A bit too on the nose with "Alef" and Alefgard, but either way, the somewhat chosen hero sets out with a mission to retrieve the Ball of Light... and confront the Dragonlord in Charlock Castle.
The Ball of Light kept winters short in Alefgard and helped maintain peace and prosperity in the region.
As for the Dragonlord, well, the one who shunned the Ball's Light, secluding himself in a mountain cave.
Until a dragon knelt before him in obedience. Enabling him to lord over it. Hence, the moniker perhaps.
Having been corrupted by the magic he learned as well, said Dragonlord suddenly attacked Tantegel Castle and the nearby town of Breconnary with his fleet of dragons and set the town on fire.
Riding a large red dragon, the lord of these dragons descended upon Tantegel Castle and stole the Ball of Light.
Soon, monsters began to appear throughout the entire land, destroying everything in their paths.
This is where "Alef" or "[Enter Hero Name]" comes along.
Along this way, he is the hero who will battle monsters, explore dungeons, and uncover the mystery behind the Dragonlord's nefarious plans.
A quest truly interspersed with a dragon, as titled and advertised.
Oh, yeah... there's a princess to save in the midst of all of it, but that's hardly important.
Since there's also drackys to drackymas, lunatics to prestidigitators, and a whole lot more. Like slimes and she-slimes...
And in a rare and easter egg-y encounter, there's a actually chance to meet a less pointy-tipped and more rounded slime in these free-ranged batches. With insane stats and skills... for some reason...
Long story short, there's a specific role to play in this game... and it's nothing short of just classic RPG fun!
What's not to love? Especially for those that were introduced to the genre via Mystic Quest and really want some more of it.
Of course, even Alexander could not deny that the two Quests have an overlapping beginner and introductory simplicity to them... but he more than made up for it by switching it up with Switch-level graphics.
He wasn't about to laud crappy 8-bit graphics with nostalgia goggles, after all.
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Granted, on the topic of not loving and sense of nostalgia, a man named Yuji Horii can't help but sigh.
At the news from overseas, that was handed to him when their purchased Chaos Systems still magically notified them this far away in Japan.
These other upcoming games in this fourfold were of no interest to him. However, Dragon Quest did catch his eye.
Evoking a feeling of hate for having been beaten to it, and bringing forth a weird sense of nostalgia to what could have been.
As someone who's been quite a fan of the Wizardry and Ultima games of the West... Yuji, as a developer, wanted such a game of his own.
This one not being restricted to hardcore gamers and personal computers, but is made available for the masses through the likes of the famous Famicom.
He wanted to break the West's dominance of RPGs and break the genre into a far wider audience. This was his aspiration.
Enix, Chunsoft, and even Nakamura-san had given him the green light for development. With his own Portopia game as a backbone.
That is until a 16-bit console from the Americas threw the game development world of Japan into a whirl.
And Mystic Quest came along, too. A very basic RPG, played via console, and steadily attracting the gamers of his home country.
All ticked the boxes of his great aspiration, yet it was not his own achievement or creation!
What could be more depressing than that?
Until, of course, this new Dragon Quest is on its way to follow suit.
Which just reminded him that his own game would have consulted a mangaka named Toriyama, for the art style of Dragonboy that called out to him.
Unfortunately, none of that came to pass, and here he was... drinking 'sake' for his sorrow's sake.
In some drunken stupor, Yuji even imagined a faceless Toriyama having sat opposite him.
With a mirthful smile, he expressed. "Ah, what could have been? Right, Toriyama-san?"
Only for the imaginary mangaka to not react much. How could he? When he's just a figment of imagination and an alcohol-induced one at that.
Yet, Yuji actually shook his head in sympathy. Since last he heard, this mangaka is apparently stuck to writing his Dr. Slump for complex reasons, and the man is at a slump with that, too.
Which wasn't too far off with his own situation.
As Enix had scrapped the RPG development, in favor of potential fourth-generation games that he could work on.
And since Yuji himself started out with 'Love Match Tennis', he was asked to go back to that root and improve upon it, visually.
A bitter situation to swallow, compared to the savoriness of the 'sake' he had in hand.
After all, it's probably just going to be some generic tennis game.
Which is really far from something career-highlighting, like Dragon Quest!