#dragon quest builders

[octo-l95]

Final Boss

[lubbee]

him day!!

[cuuzca]

“Thank you, for giving me your love, today and everyday. You’ve been working too hard now, lets go watch the sun together. Just you and me.”

Happy Malroth Day to my guiding light and one who inspires me everyday! 🎉💜🧡

シドーの日おめ��とう！！

[liquidmetalslime]

Dragon Quest Builders 1 is coming to Steam of February 13, 2024!

It will include all the DLC content, too!

[sapphire-draw]

GATHERING MATERIALS ON BOTH GAMES: DQB1 Builder: (Carefully picking up branches, distinguishing between types of lumber and preserving the chunks, even colecting some foliage too) Malroth (DQB2): (Obliterating forest) W O O D I S W O O D .

[damosparker]

"Have I died and gone to heaven? Or hell, more likely..."

Fashionably late as always but things have been looking better for me these days, so I'm hoping I can post more.

[akimarua07]

B1主とB2主の描き分け 何がとは言わないけど二人の間には大きな差があると思っている

[winxixia]

Trying to get used to Procreate...

[alefgardtravelguide]

Preorders for my DQ1xDQB1 fanbook are finally open!! 🫠✨️ purchase links in the replies below. Pre-orders end 21/09, thank you very much for your patience and support !! ファンブック予約開催! 通販ページは下のリプで。(購入期限 : 9月21日) Store link / 通販サイト: https://konohakairi.bigcartel.com/ Read the free sample / 無料サンプル here! Fanbook FAQ I also have old merch available that I'm trying to clear out 🫡 please read through disclaimers and item descriptions thoroughly!

Reblogs are appreciated!

[isabaeart]

we had so much fun drawing this, here's is some close ups. (❁´◡`❁) Thanks for drawing with me Cuuzca (✿◡‿◡)

[octo-l95]

The Master of Destruction's expressions of affection need work

[lubbee]

yeah so guess what i misread markoth as at first

[cuuzca]

she’s innocent your honor

[amesismellow]

Pop art DQ slimes!

(messing around post-game in dqb2 when I had this idea)

[coffeestarsbooks]

Farming in Dragon Quest Builders 2 is one of my favourite things. Love seeing Wrigley fixing the soil and the robots collecting the crops. They seem so happy to do it! Here is a little section of my Green Gardens on the Isle, where they like to take a break from farming to hang out in the vineyards and have a little downtime.

[regallibellbright]

Okay so that post about tragedies in video games bounced off some neurons and my thinking yesterday about Dragon Quest Builders 2, and a thought finally cohered there, so let’s talk about Dragon Quest Builders 2 and dramatic irony with our BFF, the God of Destruction!

Okay. So Dragon Quest Builders 2 works off the setup of Dragon Quest 2, where a cult of monsters called the Children of Hargon (named for their high priest) are menacing humanity. It’s mentioned, literally once or twice before the final battle, that Hargon is specifically trying to bring about the coming of his evil god Malroth, who he summons as the final boss of the game. This is about all the characterization and build-up Malroth gets, and his design is an evil six-legged dragon with a big skull necklace. He’s not very memorable. But, since he’s a god of DESTRUCTION specifically, it fits really nicely into the idea of Dragon Quest Builders. Builders in this series are tied to any act of crafting and creation - making a house is building, but so is making medicine or cooking. Farming is an aspect of building, outlawed under monster rule along with the rest, because these acts are tied specifically to humanity. The premise of the game is bringing hope back to the world by reintroducing humans to the art of making things. So Builders 2 establishes that destruction is therefore something heavily associated with monsters and monster culture, and as a builder, you represent their opposite. The game starts with Hargon already defeated and a straggling ship of monsters kidnapping you (an apprentice Builder) and some other villagers to execute you in revenge for the cult, Hargon, and the Master of Destruction’s demise.

And then, this is not a spoiler, it makes that Master of Destruction your best friend.

The tutorial of the game has you trying to fix the ship before it sinks in a storm (because good, devout monsters can’t build, but if the ship sinks, they drown too.) It fails, and you wake up on a desert island with a strange young man named Malroth. He has amnesia and likes breaking things and fighting. He tags along after you for almost the entire game. If you destroy a certain kind of block so you can use it, he’ll break more just like it. If you attack a monster that’s not inherently hostile for their item drops, he’ll go out and fight more slimes. He’s stronger and tougher than you as the PC, and most importantly, he draws aggro for the hostile monsters. Mechanically, a lot of the weaknesses of the first game are addressed just by giving you this buddy NPC to help with combat and resource gathering. Since the actual player character is silent, Malroth also fills the traditional role of “companion character who reacts and repeats your presumed reactions so the developers don’t write dialogue for the Player Insert”. When you achieve something, like leveling up or completing a significant build, the two of you high-five. He’s always there, and the player is happy for it rather than annoyed.

And, at least in the English version (the Japanese version apparently uses an alternate kana reading of his name for NPC Malroth that could, conceivably, be an actual person’s name rather than the one used for the boss, but since the game establishes pretty quickly that Malroth has ominous dreams and sometimes hears a voice no one else can who talks about how he’ll awaken soon - and I think even calls him by his title outright, at least in English - I don’t think it’s left much of a mystery in the original, either, especially as the game makes sure to drop the evil god’s name early for anyone who didn’t play DQ2,) the mystery is not “Who is Malroth.” We all know he’s clearly the Master of Destruction reborn. Maybe the English localization could have nicknamed him “Mal”, but frankly I doubt it would have been convincing. They got saddled with one of the most Transparently A Fantasy Villain names imaginable, but honestly even if there WAS supposed to be a genuine mystery around Malroth, I think they lucked out here because I think it works better this way.

The characters don’t know what we do. The game establishes that only the higher-ups of Hargon’s cult know the True Name of the Master of Destruction. It’s dramatic irony, and it’s great. We know that eventually the truth will come out and the Master of Destruction part will almost certainly be reborn, because this is a video game, but we’ve gotten attached to our Destruction God BFF. Again, he makes the game better mechanically just by existing. When there’s inevitably a section where the two of you get separated, shortly before the internal reveal, you REALLY miss his presence. We don’t want to fight him, and we don’t want him to be subsumed by his evil god alterego. But as we get more skilled at building, he gets more skilled at destroying. We know we’re tied onto this log that’s about to go over a waterfall, and we are powerless to stop it, and knowing that he’s the final boss does nothing to stop us from getting attached. I love this. It’s great.

It also helps that the game has an actual mystery, one that it doesn’t start dropping heavy hints about early on. You know that the Children of Hargon were defeated and their leaders are dead, so how have you ended up in an archipelago where they still have control over the land and have subjugated humans? The answer here is genuinely a cool reveal, and plays into a neat little sequence from DQ2. I like it. THAT mystery is framed as a mystery, given just enough hints it still makes sense on replay while not being telegraphed. But I really do think it’s better in this case that we know who Malroth is, because it lets us feel that dread as the game progresses and we’re still getting attached to him anyway.

In conclusion: Dragon Quest Builders 2. I love it. It was my game of the year in 2019 and it was what finally got me to start writing a little again when there were a few lingering plot threads I wanted addressed, and then the game gave a free update that addressed them! I am happy.