Journal

We recently learned that we will be moving across the world at the end of October! (The spookiest time to move to another country)

Back in 2018 I moved from Wales to the US to be with my now-wife. It was a great time, and we have had many cool experiences together here! Though last year we had the biggest experience yet in the form of a lovely and demanding baby named Elwyn. Since then we have been trying for some time to find a way to move us over to the UK where we can be closer to family (and castles, and sausage rolls).

We tried multiple avenues without success, and overall the process took so long that I kind of thought it wasn't going to happen. And now that it IS happening, I am slowly allowing myself to be excited for all the reasons we wanted to move back to Wales in the first place.

One of the things I missed most while living in the US is the sense of history. Yes, the landscape and vast nature has plenty of history, but I miss the man-made history of castles, stone walls, and winding streets. It's something I wasn't even all that conscious of while living at home, but now I miss it tremendously! I can't wait to explore it all with new eyes, and I'll definitely write about some cool places here and share photos.

We are also excited to live much closer to the seaside. Pretty much wherever we live in the UK, we'll be closer to the sea than we are now. With that said, we would love to live right by the sea. Let's make this dream come true!

One of the silliest things I am excited for back home is all the cases for my video games! When I moved over here, I took all the cartridges and discs out of there cases and brought them with me, leaving the cases at my parent's house. I always intended to bring them over with me on a future trip, but thanks to COVID I've only been home once in the past 6 years, so that never happened.

I have a pretty good collection of DS, 3DS and Wii games, and I'll have so much fun reuniting them with their cases and manuals! A lot of them even have my original receipts tucked away behind the manual, and it's always a fun bit of history to remember buying something for a great price (especially since DS and 3DS games have gotten so much harder to buy these days).

Anyway, this is all just a bunch of words to say we'll be moving in a few months, and life is about to get crazy. It felt overwhelming a couple of weeks ago, as we struggled to come up with a plan while also entertaining Elwyn. But since then we have started forming a plan, and bit by bit things are clicking into place.

I'm sure there are things I will miss about living here. Like vultures, apple-cider doughnuts, my job at the library, and my favourite pond full with frogs. But I will hold these memories dear as I make new ones.

I'm nervous and excited and all sorts of other emotions, but I will look forward to the adventures that await us as a family and continue onward!

I recently hit the twenty-hour mark in Dragon Quest VII and wanted to share some thoughts about my experience so far!

I get the impression that this game is somewhat notorious for a couple of reasons. The main complaints I hear are:
1) When starting the game, it takes multiple hours of play before you reach the first battle.
2) It takes approximately 20 hours before you gain the ability to change the vocations of your characters.

Both of these things are true, but are they necessarily bad?

The opening hours of the game luxuriate in establishing its characters and story. It felt so novel for a JRPG to spend this much time easing us into its world! I hear that the introduction of the 3DS remake even cuts out some content from the PS1 original - I would love to try that one too, sometime!

Contrasting with the long opening of Dragon Quest VII, Dragon Quest VIII cuts to a combat encounter almost disorientingly quickly. Before we even know our characters, we're bashing the goo out of a group of over-optimistic slimes.

I like that in Dragon Quest VII, by the time we reach the first battle, we know what a startling and frightening experience this must be for our protagonists! The world we have lived in until this point has been entirely free of monsters, and filled only with an unending sense of childhood adventure and innocence.

As the plot picked up and my ragtag crew of children were thrust into their adventures through time, they felt suitably out of their depth, and I loved my time guiding them through their accidental quest.

If at this point, my characters felt underprepared and out of place, by the time I reached the part of the game that allows me to assign new vocations to each of them, they felt changed, experienced, and deserving of this reward.

So much has happened in these past twenty hours! I will refrain from detailing plot specifics, but will say that the Dragon Quest style of storytelling vignettes is put to excellent use here. I already feel as though I have an entire game's worth of stories, and they just keep coming, and keep getting better!

And the quantity isn't the only impressive point - the variety is huge. I never know what to expect from one town to the next, and the game succeeds time and time again in telling stories that surprise and tug at my emotions.

Before unlocking the ability to assign new vocations, a surprise plot-twist throws you into a story that feels like a season finale. Struggling through it and emerging victorious makes the reward all the sweeter.

I'm excited to see where Dragon Quest VII takes me next. If the first twenty hours have been this rich in adventure, I can't even imagine what I have ahead of me!

Before I sign off, if you want to see the box art - here you go! I think it's a fun cover, and it catches the sense of adventure. I particularly like that the back of the box promotes the vocation system - I admit I can see why people would be irked at waiting twenty hours before being able to engage with a feature so prominantly advertisd, but the journey is so worth it!


Yes, a major motivator to unlock the vocations is to dress everyone up in that sheep costume.

Wow! So many monsters!

I was so excited this week to receive three whole Dragon Quest Monsters games in the post! More exciting yet is the fact I got all three games for only $30!

So what did I get? Well, I got three Japanese 3DS games that, through the magic of a modded 3DS system, I'll be able to play with fan-made English translation patches.

In recent years I have really fallen in love with the Dragon Quest series. Even more specifically, I really love slimes from the DQ series to a silly extent. They make me so happy! And so the Dragon Quest Monsters games are perfect for me as I can delight in as many slimes as I can gather.

Additionally, as the gaming world moves more and more into prioritising digital purchases, I'm excited at any opportunity to buy a physical game. I especially enjoy DS and 3DS games for this, as the boxes themselves are very pleasing and often contain fun goodies and surprises - as we're about to see with our first game of today...

Look at that gorgeous artwork! You can click to enlarge.

Ahhh, I really love the box art to this game! This is Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D - a remake of the very first Dragon Quest Monsters game for GBC. I really love the original game, and can't wait to see how it has changed for a newer console. Plus... look at the weird slimes on the cover! There's weird box slimes! A sprout slime! I am so excited to discover more.

Speaking of discovering more... Let's look inside the box.

Artwork peeping through the interior "windows" is my favourite thing about 3DS cases!

Look at all those monsters! Look how they peep! Ah, it's always such a delightful surprise to open up a 3DS case and see artwork like this. I feel like the form of the case here elevates the experience from internal artwork inside clear cases like Nintendo Switch games. Something about the windows are so playful.

The game also comes with a colourful folded manual, too. Of course I can't read a word of it, but I like having it all the same.

I appreciate the amount of illustrations included. It makes the pages appear a lot more playful.

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Next up is Dragon Quest Monsters 2: Iru and Luca's Marvelous Mysterious Key. What a title!

Unfortunately there isn't nearly as much to say or look at with this game. Unlike the first game, there is no interior artwork, and this one didn't come with any manual.

However, that's not to say there isn't plenty to appreciate on the cover!The swarm of monsters on the cover is very exciting, and I really like the character designs for Iru and Luca. Their big, round hats are so pleasing! I wonder if I get to choose which character to play as?

My favourite part of the back of the box is that wonderful illustration on the right. There's something so carefree and wonderful about it - and these kids clearly really love monsters! I want to share in their enthusiasm and play the game!

Iru and Luca will have to wait until I've finished the first game before I join them for an adventure, though...

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Less whimsical on th surface... Where are the slimes???

Last up in today's haul is Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 3! What does the "Joker" mean? I've no idea, as I don't own 1 and 2 (yet)!

I've long been aware of the Joker games in the series, but something about them didn't appeal to me. They looked a bit edgier than the regular Dragon Quest vibes, and that was offputting. However, this was available for such a good price, I figured I would give it a try someday! Plus, maybe there are edgy slimes? I guess I would be intrigued to see that.

I don't have too much to say about the box art overall here, mostly for those same reasons. It looks "cool"? I like the horst the protagonist is riding on the cover, though. It seems like some kind of legendary creature.

Empty windows are sad windows...

We may be lacking interior artwork, but this game has a few paper goodies tucked inside! There's some kind of Square Enix membership(?) code tucked inside the case. Above the case, on the left, is an advert for a guidebook. The characters continue to look "cool" in a way that doesn't feel very Dragon Quest to me, but I am hoping that by playing the game I will grow to like them. There's also a manual, similar to the first game, that I'll open and share below!

As with the first game, I appreciate the monster illustration! And even if it's not 100% appealing to me, I can appreciate how "in universe" the design of this manual feels.

I wonder how many thoughts and feelings about these games will change and develop when I play them? It will be a while until I do, as I am currently playing (and really enjoying) Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. I enjoy imagining what a game might be like to play by looking at box art and manuals. Illustrations and screenshots present the idea of the game, and our brain fills in all the details.

Right now in my mind, these games seem huge and unknowable! I am excited about the places I will explore, and even more so about all the monsters I will meet. How many new types of slimes will I discover? Hundreds, I hope. Even though I know that's not reasonable.