Dragon Quest Vii Fragments Of The Forgotten Past (3ds)

[Rene Seiler]

Animmediate success upon its Japanese release, sales for the game have totalled 4.06 million, making it the best-selling PlayStation game in Japan by April 6, 2001. It was less well-received in countries outside of Japan, with critics commenting on its dated graphics and long length.

The game was produced by Yuji Horii, who has presided over the Dragon Quest series since its inception. Artwork and character designs were once again provided by Akira Toriyama, famous mangaka and the artist responsible for all previous Dragon Quest games.

The game follows the Hero and his friends as they discover secrets about the mysterious islands surrounding their home of Estard. Through some ancient ruins, they are transported to the pasts of various islands and must defeat evil in each new location. Game mechanics are largely unchanged from previous games in the series, although an extensive Vocation system, allows players to customise their characters.

Dragon Warrior VII is best known for its huge size. Without completing the game's side quests, a single game of Dragon Quest VII can take a hundred hours or more. In terms of gameplay, not much has changed from previous installments; battles are still fought in a turn-based mode from a first person perspective. Although non-battle sequences are rendered in 3D, battles themselves are still portrayed two dimensionally. The ability to talk with the party characters in and outside of battles was added to this game. They offer advice about battle strategies and plot points, or simply comment on how they feel at a given moment. There are four ways and means of locomotion: feet, boat, magic carpet, and skystone. Each of these can move across different terrain.

The main flow of the game is different than the other Dragon Quest games; instead of exploring one large world, the party goes to separate continents by placing stone fragments upon their appropriate pedestals in the Shrine of Mysteries. Once all of the missing fragments are located and placed for a particular pedestal, the party is transported to the trapped location in the past. After solving whatever problems plague the location, the party then travels back to Estard, the beginning island. From there, they can travel via boat, carpet, or skystone to the modern version of the location they just saved. These saved lands appear on the main map, although the originals (from the past) can be revisited through the ruins. Like most of the other Dragon Quest games, this game has several mini-games to participate in. The Haven, similar to the Immigrant Town in Dragon Quest IV, lets the player recruit people from various towns. They then live in the town, which changes depending on the type of people living there (e.g. several merchants will bring more stores to the town). A prominent feature in most Dragon Quest games is the casino. Poker, slot machines, and luck panel can all be played in Dragon Quest VII. The Excellence Grading Organisation allows the player to compete for the highest stats, like the Best-Dressed Contest from Dragon Quest VI. The player can also catch monsters, although they are only displayed in Monster Meadows, unlike in Dragon Quest V, where monsters fought in the party. enclosure plans are found to add new environments to the park.

Dragon Quest VII used a Vocation system for learning abilities, similar to that of Dragon Quest VI. Some available Vocations include Warrior, Martial Artist, Priest, Mage, Troubadour, Dancer, Jester, Thief, Luminary, Pirate, Shepherd, Armamentalist, Paladin, Druid, Champion, and Hero, some of which are unlocked by mastering other vocations. The game also includes monster vocationes, which can be unlocked by using the appropriate monster heart or mastering pre-requisite monster vocations.

Characters generally stop learning character specific spells and skills around experience level 15; however, around this time in the game, players will reach Alltrades Abbey, where they can give their characters certain vocations. Each non-monster vocation belongs to one of three tiers (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced), while monster vocationes have more tiers. Characters gain levels in vocations by fighting a certain number of battles, as opposed to gaining experience points. Characters learn different spells and skills when they reach another vocation level and their stats are affected by what vocation they are. Once a character reaches the 8th and final level of a vocation, it is considered "mastered", if a character masters certain vocations, higher tier vocations will become available to them. For example, if a character masters the Mage and Priest vocations, which are both Basic, then the Intermediate vocation Sage will be available to them. If that character was to then master the Luminary vocation, the Advanced Summoner vocation would open up.

Dragon Quest VII tells the story of a young hero, the son of a prominent fisherman in the village of Pilchard Bay on Estard Island, the only landmass in the world, and his friends in a fantastical, medieval-like world. They set out on adventures through the world's past and learn about its history. Upon discovering different lands in the past and solving the troubles, they reappear in the game's present-day map.

The party begins their adventure when the hero and Kiefer discover a mysterious fragment of a map that the former's father brings home from a fishing trip. Further investigations lead the hero to discover that the world he lives on, which seems to consist of only his small island, used to contain many continents that have somehow been sealed away. By placing other stone fragments found throughout the journey on pedestals in Estard's ruins, the Hero and his friends are sent to different lands in the past which the party eventually realizes. Once they solve the problems in the area's past, the landmasses appear in the present, eventually leading to the revival of an ancient hero.

After the world is restored, Orgodemir, the Demon Lord, disguises himself as the Almighty and seals each island containing a Great Spirit away; this time, Estard is sealed as well. The party sets out to revive the elemental Great Spirits: Water; Fire; Earth and Wind. The Great Spirits confront Orgodemir and he is then revealed as the Demon Lord to the world, whereupon he claims to have done so to trick humanity before knocking the Great Spirits away from the Cathedral of Blight. Orgodemir then raises the Cathedral of Blight; and with the aid of the Skystone, the party confronts him in a final battle.

Dragon Quest VII was designed by series creator Yuji Horii and directed by Manabu Yamana. Shintaro Majima signed on as art director, while series veterans Akira Toriyama and Koichi Sugiyama designed the characters and composed the music respectively.

The game was officially announced in 1996 and originally planned for the Nintendo 64DD. On January 15, 1997, it was announced that development had been moved to the PlayStation. By the next day, both stock in Sony and Enix rose significantly in Japan. By 2000,Dragon Quest VII was predicted to be so successful in Japan that it would "create a 50 billion yen effect on the Japanese economy", said research firm DIHS. Dragon Quest VII would go on to be released on August 26, 2000 and sold 4.06 million copies in Japan alone, becoming one of the highest selling games of all time.

The game was delayed numerous times before its actual release. Work on the game was extended because the development staff wanted to perfect the game due to high expectations from the fans and because the team only consisted of about 35 people. Before its release, it was ranked as the most wanted game in Japan and Square, knowing about Dragon Quest VII's release, moved its Final Fantasy game to come out at a later date. Horii stated in an interview that the team focused more on puzzle solving than the game's story. Being the first game in the series to include 3D graphics, the team was also initially reluctant to include CG movies and cinematics due to letters written to Enix by fans fearing that doing so would change the overall feeling of the series.

The English language localisation of Dragon Warrior VII began directly after the game's Japanese release. Enix of America was tasked with translating over 70,000 pages of text via 20 translators and 5 copy editors. No effort was made to edit or censor the context of the Japanese script. Weeks prior to the game's US release, Enix released new information about the game's different mechanics on their website weekly to introduce players to the game. Paul Handelman, president of Enix America, commented on the game that "All the talk this month about new systems with the latest technological wizardry doesn't diminish the fact that at the end of the day, compelling game play is what it's all about, and Dragon Warrior VII provides just that." Dragon Warrior VII was released in the US on November 1, 2001 and was the last game in the series to have Warrior in its title instead of Quest. In 2003, Square Enix registered the Dragon Quest trademark in the US, with the intent to retire the Dragon Warrior name. Soon after the game's release, developer Heartbeat went on hiatus. Justin Lucas, product manager of Enix America, commented on the hiatus, saying that the developer merely "worked their tails off on Dragon Warrior VII and Dragon Warrior IV. They decided to take a sabbatical for a while and rest up", noting that it had nothing to do with the game's US sales.

The back of the Dragon Warrior VII manual in North America contained an advertisement for Dragon Warrior IV, an enhanced remake for the PlayStation of a Nintendo game of the same name. The localisation was subsequently cancelled, due to Heartbeat's hiatus.

As with every Dragon Quest, Koichi Sugiyama composed the musical score and directed all the associated spinoff soundtracks. As a first for the series, the original sound version was bundled with the symphonic suite in a two-disc set called Dragon Quest VII: Eden no Senshitachi Symphonic Suite + OST. The entire first disc and the opening song of the second disc consists of the symphonic suite, while the rest of the second disc is the original sound version. A disc titled Dragon Quest VII: Eden no Senshitachi on Piano was also released, and contained 27 piano-arranged tracks. The Symphonic Suite was later reprinted by itself in 2006.

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