Dragon Quest and adolescence
The life, death, and rebirth of a man’s love for the Iconic series.
I was 5 years old when I received my first game console. My sister bought me a Nintendo 64 for Christmas. She was 19. She didn’t buy me any games. I spent the next few months playing games that my sister and parents would rent for me. My mother didn’t approve of me playing video games. She said that I would spend my time playing them instead of playing outside and exercising. She was correct. It wasn’t until a year later that I would get my first game that I didn’t have to take back five days later. Ironically it was from my parents. For my 6th birthday I acquired The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was ecstatic.
Two years later the controller stopped working. Link would drift to the left outside of his house in Kokiri Forest. I threw the entire console and cartridge in the trash.
As the years came and went my love for Zelda would only be rivaled by my love for Dragon Ball Z. I dressed as Goku for Halloween when I was 9 years old. My mother used the kanji from Krillin’s outfit for my costume because it was the only symbol visible on the poster in my room. A man probably 15 years older than me laughed at my costume and called it inaccurate as I stood in line for the haunted house at our local park. I cried in the backseat of my fathers Chevy Corsica.
Almost every week my family and I would go to our local movie rental shop and I was usually allowed one game to rent. On a brisk November evening in 2005 we left the car and made our way to the heavy glass doors of the establishment to be welcomed with a common combination of freshly vacuumed carpet, dried paint, and multi surface cleaner. As I paced through the short rows of the game section I see the mainstays of my rental history. Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Silent Hill 2. A new game in the Playstation 2 section caught my eye.
Dragon Quest VIII.
The game’s box art immediately triggered my “anime senses”, something that was already confirmed to be cooler than anything else I was enjoying at the time. I didn’t enjoy american media. I much preferred Mobile Suit Gundam Wing over Fairly Odd Parents.
I gave the case to my mother. We checked out and went home. I played the game all weekend. I was smitten.
Fast forward to Summer 2009. It was the last day of our break, and in the next 24 hours I’d be a junior in Highschool. One of my best friends invited me to Six Flags and being the 15 year old that I was I obliged- despite having a deep resounding fear of the rides. My parents gave me $100, which was a lot of money to me, even now, to enjoy myself at the amusement park. It was considered an early birthday gift. At the time my mother was working at a Mexican restaurant, and my father was working at the local cotton mill and part time as a carpenter at a shop downtown, across the railroad tracks. We were considered middle class, so this much money took me by surprise. I took the cash, my DSi along with a copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor, and took off with my friend alongside his sister and father. I had a blast. I spent a good portion of my time in the various shops, perusing their wares, and chest deep in the ice cold waters of the park’s wave pool. I made an effort to spend as little money as possible at the park. When we went home I asked my friend’s father if we could stop by the movie rental store on the way to my house. He happily obliged. The rental store was attempting to compete with Gamestop (which was 35 miles away) by installing a glass case in the middle of their floor with new games to purchase, as opposed to renting. I took the money I had left and purchased a copy of Dragon Quest IV for Nintendo DS. I went home, took a shower, and almost instantly fell asleep as soon as my body touched the bed.
The following months of school would be spent playing Dragon Quest IV in PE, English, and during lunch. I didn’t stop playing until I was finished. I remember fighting the final boss in the passenger seat of my father’s car while he was in a BBQ restaurant waiting for our dinner to be ready. As he walked back to the vehicle with brisket in tow I exclaimed that I had finished the game. He didn’t react. I didn’t blame him. I was probably more excited than I should have been. I was (and still am) easily excitable.
Summer break in 2010 I would consider to be my most productive, in terms of both gaming and real accomplishments. On the last day of school I came home and finished Final Fantasy XIII. A good friend of mine and I would go to the gym almost every day after school to work out. He lost over 100 pounds that summer. I lost 35. Some days after working out we would go to Walmart because his mother wanted him to pick something up before heading home. In the magazine rack I find an issue of Nintendo Power with Dragon Quest IX on the cover. I had finished five JRPGs that summer so I was experiencing burn out and didn’t really want to pick up another game at the time. I finished FFXIII, VII, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon, and Persona 3 within three months. I didn’t pick up Dragon Quest IX until September of 2010. The main feature of DQ9 was it’s multiplayer functionality. A friend spent the night at my house and we both stayed up until sunrise one humid weekend in October playing together. That was the last time I played Dragon Quest IX with another human being.
I never finished Dragon Quest IX.
I graduated in 2011. As we waited to stand in line to recieve our diplomas a gust of wind billowed and almost blew off my cap. Knowing that the headgear would likely fall down thirty feet from under the football stadium’s seats I held on for dear life while the second and third gusts knocked us around. When it came time to finally go onto the field to get our metaphorical checks out of this restaurant we call the American school system I waited patiently. When my name was called I walked up to my principal, shook his hand, and gained what was rightfully mine. The victory fanfare from Final Fantasy played in my head. I could hear my mother and father’s screams from the middle rows of the stadium. My sister was not there. My nephew was 2 at the time and hated loud noises. A year later he would be diagnosed with Autism. They didn’t miss much. In lieu of an extravagant senior trip the school board opted to simply give us each a gift card for $100. Along with the graduation gifts I had received from friends and family I had a total of over $350 set aside. After the post graduation festivities a friend dropped me off at my sister’s house, where I would spend the night. I awoke the following afternoon to what I didn’t know at the time would be one of the last family trips I would have. I spent my money on a new Nintendo 3DS in Cosmo Black. Along with the nearly $300 console I had also procured a copy of Street Fighter IV 3D Edition. The following year would be spent gallivanting around, not doing much of anything. My father got me a job at the cotton mill. I lasted two days.
January 20th, 2012. The day I would start my first full time job. I spent two days in the upstairs of our local Walmart watching videos on how to properly wash our hands, how to lift with our legs, and the imminent dangers of unionization. I walk downstairs after finishing training to be greeted by my manager. He was a great leader. My coworkers were great too, except for one. When I first met him I shook his hand, and he proceeded to unload his disdain towards another coworker upon me. He told me that she “was a whore” and that her genitalia probably looked like roast beef. I hated this man within 47 seconds into meeting him.
The following six months would be spent avoiding this retch of a man, spending my lunches in the back of the truck that we had previously unloaded playing Resident Evil Revelations, Mario Kart 7, Kid Icarus Uprising, and Dragon Quest VI. I took advantage of my discount at the store, and would come home late at night, legs twitching from the day’s work, tears of physical pain running down my face as I lay in bed contemplating what I would do with my life. I sold my copy of Dragon Quest VI for a paltry $20 at the Gamestop in the next town. Currently looking at eBay I can confirm that this may as well be a crime.
My love of Dragon Quest never faltered, but Square Enix’s confidence in the north american market certainly did. We didn’t receive a new Dragon Quest game in the west until 2015, in the form of Dragon Quest Heroes. On that faithful Nintendo Direct later that year we would learn that both Dragon Quest VII and Dragon Quest VIII would be coming stateside on 3DS in 2016 and 2017, respectively. I would’ve been more excited for this news if it wasn’t for the fact that I was already rolling on the floor screaming at the top of my lungs that Cloud would be coming to Super Smash Bros.
I would buy both games at launch just to show Square Enix that people cared, but I never finished either. The hustle and bustle of adult life was taking over my hobbies. It wasn’t that I didn’t have time, but more so that I didn’t want to play long JRPGs anymore. Final Fantasy XV only took me 40 hours to finish, and although that sounds lengthy that’s peanuts compared to Dragon Quest VII’s nearly 150 hours that it takes to get to the credits. I was exhausted.
2018. Mere days before Dragon Quest XI’s launch in the US (Square had enough faith to localize the newest entry in the series) I got hyped. I requested the following three days after XI’s launch off from work so I could dive deep into the marrow of the what the game had to offer. I took a sleeping pill at 6PM to induce sleep so I could wake up at the exact moment the game unlocked on my Playstation. I played Dragon Quest XI for 14 hours straight. I had done this almost two years before with Final Fantasy XV, but this felt different. I hadn’t waited years for a new Dragon Quest like I did with Final Fantasy. In fact I had’t waited long at all. As the months passed by I chipped at the game more and more. I cried. I laughed. I gasped. Dragon Quest XI became me. I became Dragon Quest.
January 20th, 2019. I finish the Main story to Dragon Quest XI. I purposefully opted not to continue into the postgame because I wanted to wait until Dragon Quest XI S launched on Nintendo Switch. Along with Final Fantasy XV DQ11 was the only JRPG that I had finished since graduating. It’s rekindled my love for the genre. As I’m writing this I’m currently at the point in Dragon Quest XI S where the new story content comes in. Seeing new stories with my favorite characters brings a smile to my face, and I can now say that Dragon Quest XI is by far my favorite game of all time.
From a plucky 12 year old kid smacking candy cats in Dragon Quest VIII to a 26 year old man hunting liquid metal slimes in Dragon Quest XI S, many things have changed throughout my life, but I’ll always know that I can come home and go on an adventure.
