The first Dragon Quest game on the PlayStation, Dragon Quest VII: Warriors of Eden tells the story of a simple fisherman's son. His two best friends are Prince Kiefer, a Rebel Prince who regularly flouts his father's restrictions, and Maribel, the spoiledTsundere daughter of the richest merchant in town. Theirs is an idyllic lifestyle, with no monsters haunting the countryside, no threats to their kingdom......And no other countries or continents beyond their small stretch of land.See, during the final showdown between Good and Evil, most of the world got sealed away by the Demon Lord... and God never got around to fixing things. Whoops. Of course, that's where our hero comes into play, as he and his friends stumble across a great secret hidden in their island's Ancient Ruins and have to Set Right What Once Went Wrong via Time Travel. Or something like that, anyway.DQVII introduced the concept of 'Party Chat' to the series. By selecting 'Talk' whenever you weren't facing an NPC, your party members would comment on whatever just happened. This wasn't restricted to major plot events, either; Kiefer, Maribel and the others almost always had something to say about even the most minor NPC's 'Welcome to Corneria'. This feature made it into Dragon Quest VIII and several of the remakes of earlier games.
Dragon Quest VII provides examples of:
After the End: In a sense. Your little island is the only part of the world that wasn't sealed away, so...
For the curious, the game starts with one little island with two towns, a castle and a fishing village, and a ruins that everyone is forbidden to enter. This is the actual After the End. The rest of the story is nothing but saving each island before it was lost.
All of the Other Reindeer: Oh, Dragon Quest VII adores this one: there's Pamala in Engow, Zebbot and Eri in Falrish, Baloch in Litorud, Sieben and his pets in Loomin, Firia in Gorges, Lief in Labres...
Firia deserves special mention here, because it turns out she's not an outsider at all. She was just born without wings, and her worthless father decided to 'raise her as an orphan' and let her little sister treat her like a slave rather than admit she's his daughter by blood. She takes the news surprisingly well; your party, on the other hand, gets righteously upset.
And I Must Scream: In one village, everyone was turned to stone by the Gray Rain... and have been worn away by the seasons for decades, rendering it impossible to save anyone. With one exception...
The worst part about this is that they glow at night. Poor Clayman assumes this is their hatred for him radiating off of them. In reality, they are just trying to pass on their memories so they can "die" in peace.
Later on, you come across a village that was just hit by the Gray Rain, and can get revenge on the monster responsible before saving everyone.
Apologetic Attacker: The first world-sector boss is Matilda who refuses to fight. This becomes a cross between Tear Jerker and free exp...
Arbitrary Headcount Limit: Like usual, you can only have four heroes in your party. The game handles this by having party members leave for various reasons at certain points: Kiefer permanently leaves shortly before you gain access to the Shrine of Dharma and character classes; Maribel leaves after the events in Past!Mardra, opening a place for Aira to join almost immediately afterward; Melvin gets isolated from your team during the start of Disc 2, allowing Maribel to rejoin you... You do eventually get the chance to choose your team, but really, given that you've only got five heroes total... a fifth slot in battle would've saved a lot of headaches.
Only for your class level. There is none for your characters battle level.
Badass Bookworm: Quite a few NPC allies and helpers qualify, but none as much Saide. He filled a house with books on other cities and traveling and is one damn good brawler.
Big Beautiful Woman: Mollie, the hero's mother. In addition to being a Supreme Chef, she's noted to have aged quite gracefully by some NPCs.
Big Damn Heroes: Most of the time, your heroes arrive just in time to save various towns and lands from destruction and despair. Most of the time.
Blessed with Suck: In the Deja tribe, two special bloodlines are maintained as according to prophecy, descendants of both bloodlines will eventually be called upon to perform a special ceremony. ...A ceremony that will only work once. And nobody's sure just when that duty will need to be performed.
Then there's Coastal, where any babies born there are cursed to turn into hideous monsters and run away from their parents on the first full moon after their birth.
Andhis four sidekicks, who can be almost as hard or harder, depending on your skills.
Book Ends: The game begins in Fishbell during the Amitt Harvest when Mollie gives you a Fishsub to deliver to your father Borkano but he sails off before you have a chance to give it to him. You also discover Maribel stowing away on his ship and she promptly gets kicked off. Later at the start of disc 2 after the first fight with Orgodemir and resurrecting "God" you are given another Fishsub by Mollie to deliver to Borkano but this time it actually gets delivered. Then after the rematch with Orgodemir the annual Amitt Harvest begins again and once again you are given another Fishsub to deliver to your father but this time she makes one for you to bring with you on your first fishing voyage with your father. Once again you find Maribel stowing away on the ship but before she gets kicked off, Borkano allows her to stay on just this once.
Bragging Rights Reward: Your reward for beating the bonus bosses? God moves to your immigrant town.
Calling the Old Man Out: An interesting variation in Gorges: Grandma Pendragon calls out her pathetic son over his treatment of his daughter, Firia. The asshole definitely deserves it.
Can't Catch Up: For a many a player, Maribel can become this. Some try to get her out of this, others know of her leave ahead of time, and purposefully ditch her. Regardless, all of her stats end up lower than anyone's save MP, Intelligence, and Style.
Changeling Fantasy: An odd twist. He was conceived and gestated for seven months centuries ago, and was then transported to the womb of the woman who gave birth to him when his genetic mother turned into a mermaid. His real father, of course, is a Pirate.
Childhood Friend Romance: See the Love Dodecahedron below, despite the participants being older than children. Also, Kiefer's departure does this to quite a few people. The Hero (no, not in a Ho Yay way) has both allies and NPCs able to see how sad he is to lose his good friend. Although the tablet found in the epilogue is comforting, to say the least. Leeza, Kiefer's sister and only other genuine friend and supporter, is technically hit by this, too. She's noted to be depressed until Aira is hired at the castle, and she can finally truly be happy again as she both comes to terms with Kiefer's new life and having a friend/descendant in Aira, who is also pleased by this, never having had siblings or a real home of her own.
Maribel can be a straighter example, and can even be hit by this TWICE. This depends on the player's view of her and Kiefer (though she mentions him A LOT in Party Chat, particularly after he leaves) and how close the Hero may actually be to Princess Michaela.
Chivalrous Pervert: Kiefer flirts shamelessly, but won't go any further.
Collection Sidequest: One Sidequest sees you founding and expanding your own town. To do so, you travel around Present Time searching for Immigrants, who randomly appear in various 'hot spots' in different villages. Oh, and collect enough of different types of Immigrants, and your town will turn out extra-special...
The Monster Park Sidequest, meanwhile, has you recruiting monsters. Not for battle partners like in otherinstallments, mind; just for the park. Oh, and you need to find Blueprints for the various parts of the park, first. And if you manage to recruit every monster available? You get a Momento of Chibi.
Conspicuous CG: With the sprites rendered in classic Toriyama-style 2D looking very much like upgraded Dragon Quest VI sprites as well as 3D backgrounds and attacks...it can look a bit..style-breaking.
Continuity Nod: Numerous to earlier games, as usual, including some of the names of minor characters. Most notable is the return of the town-building sidequest from Dragon Quest III.
Cool Boat: The Marle de Dragonne, which is more of a floating castle than anything else.
It is, more or less two boats, glued together by the castle in the middle.
Crazy-Prepared: SAIDE. The guy is implied to have never been outside of the desert, but is strong as heck for an NPC, has some mad skills, and hasn't even started on his first real adventure until the end of the game. Sure, he's Hadeed's descendant, but Hadeed was never as strong as Saide despite having more fighting experience than Saide!
Darker and Edgier: This may just be the darkest Dragon Quest ever. While previous and future entries often dealt with some rather dark materiel, DQ7 dives headlong into stuff like racism, slavery, multiple acts of genocide, horrific natural disasters and more.
Dying Like Animals: The Hero and his party are the only people in the world capable of fighting monsters and winning. Eventually, this starts to get annoying.
A Fête Worse than Death: The Festival of Engow, which involves throwing torches into the volcano — something the local Big Bad plans to turn to his advantage by stoking an EvilFlame and setting off an eruption.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: The Angel leotard has a bunch of feathers arranged like a Showgirl Skirt. But this is just in the artwork, not the game itself.
Getting Crap Past the Radar: Talking to everyone, both the various NPCs and your own party via Party Chat, results in a lot of questionable scenes. In one instance, you can talk to two kids trying unsuccessfully to milk a cow. Your party observes among themselves that said cow is male, and Melvin comments that he milked many a teat in his day.
God Is Evil: Subverted, the God you first resurrect is actually the Demonlord in disguise.
Also, the real God is a Bonus Boss, and when you fight him, it's just a friendly test of strength in combat. He even looks pretty friendly.
Although, he acts VERY condescending to the party when you talk to him. He does honestly care about humans, he just finds it tiring to speak to creatures which are essentially ants to him.
The Gods Must Be Lazy: Turns out God won the war against the Demon Lord, but after sealing him away and recovering, he decided to let humanity and the four elemental spirits clean up the fallout themselves in spite of being both stronger than the Demon Lord and free to fix the problems created by the sealing of the world.
Likely justified. If he did too much, they would become over-reliant on him, and thus wouldn't be able to grow as a people.
You actually get the opportunity to call God out on this when you meet him as the Bonus Boss. He responds by telling you that you do not realize what true suffering is as he prepares to visit upon you the full wrath of God!
He's probably half-serious though. Given that he's GOD and all, and he did take out Orgodemir, it just left him needing to take a quick breather, which is roughly what his match with you does at most. Besides, he tells jokes and uses Boxer Dance! That alone is a sign that he's just sparring with you.
Heroic Mime: Lampshaded by the Party Talk feature; your allies frequently prompt you to respond, or react as if you had actually said something to them... or just given them a Meaningful Look or two.
Hot Dad: Borkano, arguably (well, his Japanese name is pronounced Volcano!). He's no spring chicken, but he's extremely charismatic (Even the King turns to him for help first!), and quite a few women still wish they could have been married to him.
Amusingly played with when comparing his son to him. People wonder why he doesn't look much like him.
It's because he grows up to look like his OTHERHot Dad, Sharkeye of the Marle de Dragonne Clan.
Jack-of-All-Stats: Your hero, naturally. Dharma lets him become The Ace easier than other characters.
Jerkass: HONDARA. Also, that warrior in the pink armor. After having his abilities stripped of him, he takes the demons up on their offer to use the Soulshatter Sword to shatter five souls, with his justification being that he deserves better than everyone else in the Penal Town. The last soul shattered ends up being Neris' kid brother Zaji. You meet up with him again later, and not only is he not the least bit repentant for what he's done, he actually mocks Neris for wanting revenge.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: "The Pink Soldier" dies protecting another man from a monster attack, which is the only time he ever thinks for anyone other than himself.
Jumped at the Call: Kiefer. He's so excited by the prospect of adventure, that after your first actual fight (against mere slimes, no less), he goes into a hysterical laughing fit from the adrenaline rush.
After Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart, we know the reasons behind all this: he'd been transported to Alefgard as a child, and has been bored stiff with the lack of adventure ever since.
Knight Templar Parent: The King of Estard, who forbids Kiefer from helping to restore the world. Not that it stops him. Tragically, by the time he comes around and is willing to give Kiefer his blessing, it's too late...
And It Got Worse, folks. We get to visit Verdham down the road, and we get to see the results of the fact that everyone went stupid the last time you were here - Iwan loses the house and is worthless, Kaya has married the new owner of the house, we find out that her poisoning jokes weren't exactly jokes, Linda abandoned her family to become a nun at a convent overlooking Pepe's estate at Mentare and recently passed away pining for Pepe, and Pepe has become a confirmed bachelor. Perhaps it's for the best that Verdham in the present is a ruin, with only the decaying herb garden left to mark that it even existed.
Love at First Sight: Michaela has elements of this with the hero. What really hits it off for her are his age similarity to her (a breath of fresh air when your castle if full of older people) and kind-nature. Though it's never really explored much, the Hero is noted by allies to get a bit shy around her when Party Chatting, and is said to be rather happy to be kissed by her in the epilogue. This is all to Maribel's chagrin, of course.
One Man Party: Amazingly, it's not the hero. Protip: Despite it being completely against common sense, teach Gabo healing spells. He's the only character that never leaves your party, including the main character, and running out of healers sucks.
Only Sane Man: In Krage, only the elderly mayor manages to resist the poisoned water long enough for you to retrieve the cure, and only he drinks the Holy Dew willingly.
Our Souls Are Different: They can be sucked out by a magical sword. And restored by stabbing the victim with the same blade.
Papa Wolf: Borkano. The remaining sea-monsters in the world are why he's so against you and Maribel traveling with him.
In a later example, he's rescued by Sharkeye, after its implied that he's been fighting monsters on the sea -ALONE- for a good while no less.
Parental Obliviousness: Subverted; the heroes' parents find out what they're doing early on and cope with it... to varying degrees.
Pet Baby Wild Animal: Sieble does this twice, with Rocky the Bombcrag and Chibi the larval Hellworm. Um... yeah. Guy has exotic tastes.
Plot Hole: After your first fight (against Slimes, of course), Kiefer's reaction suggests this is the first time he's ever encountered monsters, let alone fought some. Then Caravan Heart came out...
Fridge Brilliance: He didn't fight in Caravan Heart, his monsters did.
The icons look like fists, but they're claws in the artwork and attack animation. His high strength still lets him give a good haymaker though!
Precision F-Strike: Averted. A lot of other "bad words" are used though. Even by Gabo. Pretty jarring considering the NES and GBC entries...
Prolonged Prologue: You need to spend at least two hours of gameplay to get into a first dungeon and first battle with a slime.
The Quisling: In Dune, Hadeed insists that Queen Ferid has become this. Ultimately, she's a sympathetic example, struggling to protect her people while undermining the monsters wherever possible.
Real Men Wear Pink: Played with; the party meets a warrior in pink armor who's headed to the Shrine of Dharma to change classes. He's stripped of his powers by the monsters' trap and shunted to the shanty town like everyone else. He then goes mad and takes the demons up on their soul-stealing deal, and is ultimately killed during an uprising... But dies while defending another man, who is inspired by his sacrifice and calls him a hero.
Sadly Mythtaken: Happens in-universe; thanks to Time Travel, the heroes witness several events which are then twisted by the passage of time, leading to various effects. In at least one instance, the twisting is deliberate to guard the town's reputation.
Satan: Orgodemir is clearly meant to be a parallel to him.
He's certainly cruel enough. Not to mention, extremely prideful.
Sealed Good in a Can: The hero Melvin was sealed away in case the Demon Lord happened to rise again.
Shout Out: The man who tasks you with building your own town? Sim.
The Slacker: Hondara, the hero's worthless wannabe Con Man uncle. Your mother frequently worries that her son might turn out the same way. The Holy Water he offers to sell you, though? The real deal. Surprises the hell out of his neighbors. The Hot Stone he's trying to pawn off also turns out to be very significant to the plot.
Squishy Wizard: Maribel has elements of this, though the game's job system lets you compensate for this to some degree if you want.
Talking Is a Free Action: You can talk to your other party members at any time, even during battle! ...However, if you choose to talk three times in a single turn instead of selecting your actions for that round, the enemy gets a free round of attacks.
Time Skip: Aside from the obvious, you get to revisit a few 'past time' towns while working on other villages in the region. One case gives you an update on the Love Dodecahedron mentioned above: Iwan married Linda, but lost his family fortune and now works for the new rich guy in town; Linda's become a Missing Mom and left her resentful son with Iwan; Kaya married the new guy and is slowly poisoning him as revenge in Iwan's name...
Torches and Pitchforks: Shows up in Labres, when the citizens try lynching a monster that's holed up in the church. Turns out, however, that the 'monster' is the kindly priest, who voluntarilychanged into a monster to protect them for as long as he lived as a mute, hideous demon.
Town with a Dark Secret: A minor version, but still irritating: Present day Labres turned the tale of how they nearly killed the priest who sacrificed so much to protect them into a yarn about them protecting the priest from 'evil travelers', and treat the family that's been passing down the truth like freaks. While you can expose the truth, the adults just keep covering it up — but hey, at least the kids find out what really happened and decide to work to overturn those lies.
Tragic Monster: Matilda. Her fate leaves your little group a bit shaken and forces them to recognize that their quest is Not a Game.
Translation Train Wreck: There are numerous typos in the English version, but given the sheer amount of text they had to translate...
Triang Relations: Layla and Jann are in a relationship, but there are complications even before Kiefer enters the equation...
Tsundere: Maribel, who's heavy on the tsun-tsun and not so much with the dere-dere for most of the game.
Two Guys and a Girl: Your hero, Kiefer and Maribel. Then, Hero, Maribel, and Gabo.
Xanatos Gambit: Played by GOD of all people. Blocked entirely for plot contents. God has set up his battle with Orgodemir so that his four Spirits can be revived if they fell. He sealed his warrior Melvin away for the Hero to gain and add strength to his party. The Hero was about to be born in a Doomed Hometown, but God saved him and moved him to the continent of Estard in the future when the Ruins could be used. The Hero was originally a child marked with the Aqua Spirit's brand - but only half, his father Sharkeye was not killed, only Sealed in ice until needed so that the Hero can gain the entire seal. Estard on the other hand was the ONLY island that was spared from Orgodemir's destruction. On that island was the Ruins that allow the Hero to go into the past and save all the worlds. The shards to get to each world are arranged in difficulty to allow the Hero to grow. Then right after the Hero has killed Orgodemir, the revival ceremony to revive God is allowed to finally work. Sadly right after that is the Body Snatcher incident but... God's Gambit works perfectly.
Your Princess is in Another Castle: Great job, you resurrected God! Wait a minute... he's starting to enslave everyone... and seal off the world again.
Congratulations! You've just destroyed the Demon King and finally brought peace to the world. Except you're still on Disc 1.
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