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I'm not really fond of people calling Expedition 33, a game which very clearly expresses the cultural heritage of its French creators, a Japanese Role Playing Game, or JRPG for short. But it certainly is influenced by JRPGs, and not just the gameplay, also the narrative ingredients. Heavy spoilers in the following sections!

Of course, the influence of Final Fantasy is felt most strongly. Gustave's death is similar to Aerith's death in both timing and effect. Aerith's death was the last escalation of an FF trope that had run through the series ever since its beginning.

Then you have Maelle, whose name means princess, as Verso informed me during the course of the game. FF has recurring character names like Cid, but also Princess Sara, or Lightning's sister Serah, which all are variations of the same name of Hebrew origin meaning princess. Chrono Trigger's Schala is also called Sara in the Japanese original.

Kid Verso's soul that keeps painting the canvas of the game world being tired reminds of FFX's Fayth being tired of dreaming Zanarkand and Tidus into existence.

Less known to Western players would be Dragon Quest X version 2, in which the villain is a painter who creates a facsimile world that serves as refuge for Princess Ann-Lucia, who after having witnessed her brother's death indulges a fantasy of being a different person called Mishua. In this world which is almost the same as the real world, characters from fairy tales are real and people already deceased are still alive.

And of course, Serge from Chrono Cross is dead in one version of reality, while alive in another. This is a metaphor of the process of engaging with fiction. As one immerses oneself in a world that comes alive in the imagination of one's mind, they become absent in the real world, being dead to it for the duration. They can only be alive in one space at a time.

When they finally return to the real world, in a way the fictional world dies as the imagination that sustained its lifeforce turns to memory. Link's Awakening also expresses this beautifully. Or World Destruction, written by Chrono series writer Masato Kato. To stop playing the game means destroying its world, a circumstance that cannot be helped.

Half Life 2, neither a Japanese game nor an RPG, has a similar metaphor to bridge the gap between player and fiction. After they left the world of Half Life by finishing the game, their avatar Gordon Freeman has remained in stasis. And only now that they start playing Half Life 2, Gordon comes to life again.

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New story trailer for DQX Online version 7.3 update, which launches on January 29th. (Also DQX Offline is coming to smart phones, lol.)

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New trailer for version 7.1 of Dragon Quest X (Online), which releases on July 10th.

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One of the coolest things to happen in DQX, if not all JRPGs, or even games, is that you become Hell Emperor (in other words, the devil) in version 5. Anyone interjecting that Japanese makai (demon world) and hell aren't the same thing, the area you start your journey through hell and which links its other bigger areas is called Gerhenna Field, which isn't exactly Gehenna, but close enough to not be a coincidence.

There is one thing that sours the accomplishment though. DQX has many side activities that you can do with other players other than fighting bosses or questing. In version 5 they introduced the card game President. Which is played with a French deck of playing cards, commonly known as Trump in Japanese.

They have a kind of Mount Rushmore in Astortian hell, not really a mountain, just a wall of faces of legacy Demon Emperors. The player's (masked) face is also added to this wall.

Is there some kind of hidden message being alluded here?

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In DQX version 7 you travel to the distant planet Zenias and in the kingdom Amalark you encounter a foe that cannot be harmed by regular attacks called the Fuurazuura. These are usually black with three eyes but there's also a stronger boss called Azu Fuurazuura which is white.

Despite being quite different in many ways they did somewhat remind me of the whispers in FF7 Remake/birth, at first because of the name. Fuurazuura is similar to fiiraa/feeler which is the Japanese term for the whispers. But also the two colors they come in added to the impression that they're similar.

Of course in FF7 the feeler fight over dominion of the lifestream and the fate of the planet, the white and black whispers representing different sides, which are at odds with each other. Whereas the white Fuurazuura is on the same side, just more powerful.

And the Fuurazuura are a threat to people, not just trying to shape their path.

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Picture from the official DQX version 7 site.

Having played DQX version 7 "The Door to the Future and the Dozing/Half-asleep Girl", it has become more clear what the dozing girl part is referring to.

Sometimes Porte is wearing her hood, for example when you first meet her. And at those times she speaks differently, not like her young girl self but like an older person. So it seems there is another person dormant inside her who only rarely can take control.

That other person seems more knowledgeable but regular Porte also knows a lot about creational power which is a key concept in this version and is linked to people completely disappearing from existence and even other people's memories.

It's funny because there's another upcoming game I'm interested in called Reynatis in which hoods also feature prominently. There they're used to suppress magic/power to avoid being spotted whereas here in Porte's case it symbolizes an increase in knowledge/power so kind of the opposite.

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A bit late but I found this commercial for DQX version 7 interesting. Both this ad and the game came out over a week ago, on March the 20th and 21st.

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The finished trailer for version 7 of Dragon Quest X Online, launching on March 21st in 2024. There was another DQXTV stream on the 26th where they showed this trailer again and revealed that the Dragon Mage's zone technique is to turn into a dragon.

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During today's Winter Story DQXTV program they saved a treat for the last hour: a work in progress trailer for version 7. Director Anzai says he had to convince the animation studio for the unfinished trailer to be shown so it won't go up on its own on SE's youtube channel right away. It can be seen at the 4 hours, 41 minutes and 51 seconds mark:

After showing the trailer they revealed the voice actors for Porte (Ruriko Noguchi) and Raki (Rie Kugimiya). Noguchi was invited to appear on the stream to talk about her character as well.

The new magic used by the Dragon Mage was also shown, called Dogan (which I guess captures the sound this earth elemental spell makes on impact).

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The dragon mage is the second master class job, based on the mage and the armamentalist (magic knight). This job uses two handed weapons (staffs, scythes, bows) or wands in combination with small shields and can wear the same equipment as mages and sages. Like the earlier master class job, the guardian, it has a zone state and techniques instead of the usual special techniques. Version 7 will also introduce a completely new type of spell never before seen in Dragon Quest which only this job can use.

Images from the official version 7 site.

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Raki is another new character teased for the next version of DQX, encountered in Zenias. Images from the official version 7 site.

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Some screens showing the new world Zenias introduced in DQX version 7 from the official version 7 site.

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Is Porte the dozing girl from version 7's title? Maybe, but also noteworthy is her name, which resembles words for door in many European languages, e.g. French porte, Italian porta, or German Pforte. So she's connected to both of the two concepts in "The Door to the Future and the Dozing Girl".

Images from the official version 7 site.

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No trailer for The Door to the Future and the Dozing Girl yet but a release date (Thursday, March 21st 2024) and some still screens and key visuals.

The protag's cousin from 5000 years ago, Mereade, wishes for people to walk together hand in hand into a bright future. But Astortia is also faced with a new threat, people not just disappearing from the world but also be forgotten to ever have existed. A new heroine named Porte, a new world to explore outside Astortia called Zenias and a new vocation called the dragon mage are teased for this upcoming version 7.

Images from the official version 7 site.

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A new DQXTV stream is scheduled for November 14th, bringing new information on version 7 which will launch in 2024 (supposedly by March). I guess this is where we'll see the first trailer. Apparently the title was already announced in August but had escaped my attention until now. It's called: "The Door to the Future and the Dozing Girl".

The stream is of course Japanese only, as is the game. It can be viewed on Nico Nico and Youtube.

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DQX version 6 doesn't end with the last boss and not even with the victory celebration following it. There are more quests to do afterwards to flesh out the celestial world and wrap up some smaller loose ends.

That's not new. But there is an actual story quest to unlock, with a voiced long cutscene if you do most of these optional quests that ties up a loose end that is everything but small.

Version 7 has been announced to release next year by March, no trailer or exact date yet. But the version 7 teaser at the "To be continued" screen already shows a red haired girl that supposedly is linked to the Jia-Cto being devoid of creational power and thus having to conquer other civilizations.

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Version 6.4 trailer:

The new Guardian job is the first in a new line of masterclass jobs, which get DQ11 style zone state instead of the special techniques that previous jobs had. Zone state also enables selection of special techniques but additionally buffs stats.

https://youtu.be/IDklbZagy8Q?t=2457

Guardian starts at level 100 since you need the base jobs Warrior and Paladin at level 100 to unlock it (also requires to have cleared all of their job quests).

Like Paladin, Guardian has a very strong defensive technique which temporarily prevents all hit point damage, not just to the Guardian but also party members that are standing close to them. Also has a spell that revives all party members to full HP.

New competitive mode called Valerbootcamp. Two parties/8 players combat one stationary boss at once all using the same job for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. All boss attacks can be avoided and are indicated by danger zones on the floor but if you die, you’re out for the remaining battle. You get a score based on the damage you dish out. The Last 30 seconds are bonus time, meaning scores are doubled and charge time attacks can be used repeatedly without the need to recharge.

https://youtu.be/IDklbZagy8Q?t=3685

Two Japanese Dragon Quest live streams today, one for a new smartphone game and one for version 6.4 of DQX Online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T3QzqFt620

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDklbZagy8Q

The next version of DQX will introduce a new job, the Guardian, which is a mixture of Warrior and Paladin. Expect to hear more about this job today.