Dragon Quest Tactics: Let's Play Just Breed

First of all: The title is a lie. This game isn't related to the Dragon Quest series at all, except for the fact that it was published by Enix. You won't be seeing familiar spells, or cute Toriyama-style enemies, or any of that mess. What it does have, however, is art by a famous comic artist, a quirky sense of humor that'd be right at home in a Dragon Quest game, and an excellent fan translation. It does seem like if they made a few changes, they could have slapped "Dragon Quest Tactics" on it and made serious bank. But we'll get to that stuff later.



Just Breed is an SRPG for the NES, and unlike the last couple of games I've LP, it's legitimately a good game with no need for qualifiers.

...

Well, that's a lie too. Just Breed, despite being one of those fancy 6 megabit carts, is still an SRPG on the NES and as such suffers from the limitations of the system. It's certainly impressive, both graphically and structurally, but a lot of that is dampened by the fact it was released a week after Final Fantasy V. So, you know, if you really, really wanted to play a light, breezy adventure, you would have had a much better alternative.

Whatever, moving right along, here's our backstory:


Clearly, the story isn't breaking new ground. It should surprise no one to learn that ~OUR HERO~ has a quasi-romance goin' on with Firis. They've been friends since childhood, you see, and now she's the Sapphire Priestess and he's the Captain of the Guards.

Speaking of ~OUR HERO~, dude needs a name:


Five letters.

Also:
We need a team name. It's not something the game actually requires, but it'll be useful later on in the LP. Since ~OUR HERO~ is affiliated with the Sapphire, try to include that in the team name. Shades of blue will also be acceptable. Alliterations are highly preferred.

Remember: Five-letter name for ~OUR HERO~ and a team name
Thanks y'all~

PS
I promise the game is more than just black screens.

Sapphire Priestess, hmm? Boy, the potential for crude jokes abounds.

Let's see, what to call our hero. Firis sounds like ferrous, so... Too bad it's not six letters, or I'd choose Steele. Therefore, I choose Henry instead.

Team name, team name... If we're Captain of the Guard, needing Sapphire or shades of blue and alliteration, I'm going with the Sapphire Squad.

I second this.

This sounds like a good plan. Lets do this plan.

Hero name: FIGHT
Team Name: Sapphire Salamanders

I don't know what it is but I just find it harder and harder to come up with character names that I like.

Team Name: Teal Tyrants.

Then maybe we should call the hero Oxide. Or not.

I can't think of any good names because my brain just keeps suggesting Faris.

Aquamarine Avengers
Bejeweled Blue Buttkickers
Cerulean Corundum Clan
Darkest Diamonds
Ensanguined * Eating Enormen (I'm sure there's an "E" word for Giant, but I can't think of it) Ettins!
This is so much effort just for a FF1 joke, you don't even know.

Off topic, but ... ...how does this even work, given the way priestesses tend to function in these sorts of things?



*Okay, I give up. Ensanguined is already a stretch and I can't find any word referring to gems or crystals that starts with E.

Pants

Viridian Vagabonds

E...merald?

These ain't no Vestal Virgins if you know what I'm saying.
(I am saying that the Priestesses are allowed to get ~married~ and ~have kids~ and still keep their jobs.)

We won't meet the Emerald team for a few updates.

Yay, support!

Turnip: I didn't say so in my previous post, but I was a big fan of your last LP... If this one turns out to be good too, perhaps I might even play along.

Yay for job security and maintainable bloodlines!

Er... the title SHOULD be read as Adjective Noun, right?

Main character: JoHn. Stands for John Henry, in a weird way.

Team Name: Blue Brigade.

It's more like... a command

No, but really: The title would be synonymous with "Righteous Group," but you know, Japanese game developers and English words...

I'd play "Just Breed! The Monster-Raising Game"

I'd play it so good

I thought this game would be about monster breeding when I first saw this thread.

I was kind of thinking it was Dragon Quest Wars...

Even though I'd heard about this game before, my first thought on seeing the thread was "Oh hey! It's that game where that family gets it on with a pantheon!"

Hero: Jake

Team: The Blues Brothers

Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action!

Well now... I've grabbed myself a copy of the game, muddled through two battles and got my Antique Armour. Things are looking pretty good so far, though I'm hoping you can provide some good tips and tutorials for us. ^^

Chapter 1: Sapphire Festival


Our story opens in the town of Astholm, a peaceful little burg situated up in the mountains. It's night time and the Sapphire Festival is in full swing.


And our hero, Captain Oxide, is busy guarding the southern entrance when one of his subordinates arrives to relieve him of his duty so he can go dick around at the Festival. It's good to be the Captain.


The Sapphire Festival is certainly no Millennium Fair, that's for sure. It's mostly just people congregating in the center of town, talking about how excited they are. The Inn Keeper is excited because he's making money hand over fist thanks to the Festival, the Doctor is drunkernated.

As you can see, the game has a pretty standard old-ass DQ menu where you have to pick "Speak" off a menu to talk to people or search the scenery. Spoilers: The search function is much less useful than it is in most Dragon Quest games.


Well... ok. Not everyone is excited. About half the people in town say some variation on "HEY THIS TOWN IS SO PEACEFUL NOTHING BAD COULD EVRE HAPPEN HERE."

(But at least he recognizes that Captain Oxide is the one to thank, not some rock.


Mercifully, the game doesn't actually require you to walk around and talk to everyone. Modern games could take a note from this. This lovely lady is helpful enough to point you in the direction of the plot trigger... lover-boy!


It's actually difficult to miss Firis since she's standing beside a unique building and has a unique sprite.


Aww, she just wanted to see Oxide before the ceremony to calm her nerves. :3 She makes a date to meet up with him after the ceremony, and runs off to the church to get ready. At least we know the ceremony isn't some sort of ritual human sacrifice.

...and with that, the ceremony automatically begins.


Two old geezers escort Firis out of the church...


...and place the Sapphire Tiara atop her head...


...followed by a brief prayer.


That's all for the ceremony. I don't understand what Firis was so nervous about. Everyone's busy gabbing about how ~beautiful~ Firis and the Sapphire are, and while Captain Oxide certainly agrees that his girlfriend's a hottie, he can't waste time bragging about it because he's got a date to get to.

There's a park up in the north of town where Oxide and Firis's date spot is.


Firis comes a running as soon as Oxide touches the tile in front of the tree while the festival music dies down and sappy music takes its place.


She didn't change into something more comfortable because she wanted to show Oxide her Priestess getup, which covers like 90% of her body.


Since this is a JRPG and the characters have known each other since they were kids and are in ~love~, Firis asks Oxide if he remembers moments from their childhood. In this case, she asks him if he remembers watching the Sapphire Festival together.

He does.

Firis exposits that they're both eighteen now, and that eighteen is the age where you can be a Priestess, and she inherited the position from her mother. I think we already knew all of this...


She quickly changes the subject to how quiet it is with just the two of them, which I suppose is something of a consequence for dating a silent protagonist. Instead of making out, the two just awkwardly look away from each other and stare back towards town.

M..maybe he'll put his arm around her?

Or... grab her hand?

Actually, this would be a good time for disaster to strike, don't you think?


Lightning strikes and sends Oxide flying and a band of monsters suddenly appear!


The large one introduces himself as Gel du Rey (not to be confused with Gilles de Rais, who was a pedophile and serial killer), an on orders of Lord Ezelkiel, he is abducting the Sapphire Priestess. He and his minions vanish almost as quickly as they appeared, taking Firis with them.


While Oxide is stunned, (Note: It is generally frowned upon for people in leadership positions to freeze up under stress, particularly when their position also involves protecting others) the vaguely mushroom-looking monster kicks him in the face.


Well, at least we still have the Sapphire, right...?


And then the title screen pops up, which I have politely uploaded for you to watch here in ultra-low quality because I messed up and resized it by accident. Ooops!

(And yes, you have to sit through the whole thing when you play the game)


Oxide decided to leave alone on a journey to rescue Firis and equipped Firis's Sapphire Tiara. It gleams. I'll... I'll get to what the Sapphire Tiara does next update when we get to actual gameplay. Yeah, sorry, no gameplay this update.


A young woman is waiting right outside of Oxide's front door just so she can ask him if he's spoken to the Elder yet. The Elder is very concerned and also is a plot trigger.

But first...


...

Firis's mother is nun. I almost said something earlier about how Priestesses aren't nuns, but... uh. Anyway, she's hanging out in the church and is quite upset that her daughter was kidnapped. She encourages Oxide to take the Sapphire Tiara with him, because it'll help him find her.

So. Astholm is able to be peaceful because it has the Priestess, Sapphire and Town Guards, and now one of those things was lost so they're sending the other two away to find it. I don't think the people of Astholm have thought this plan through.


The rest of the townpeople are pretty gloomy too, but a conspicuous number of them are talking about Magic. I wonder what our next plot objective will be??

Seriously, these folks are obsessed with magic.


An old man in the south of town tells Oxide that the kidnappers went south, even though in the cutscene they took off north across the lake. Unfortunately, Oxide's subordinates won't let him through, under orders from the Elder.


Which is shame, because apparently the town to the south actually sells weapons and armor.

Oxide can't get through the western gate either, so he's left with only one option: Talking to the Elder, who lives in the house beside the church.


Fu...So...Ya...?
(You'd know who that is if Brickroad updated more often)


FuSoYa recaps the story thus far.


FuSoYa points out that this isn't the first Dragon Quest game, so going alone against the hordes of monsters will be suicide. Oxide will need... MAGIC. Luckily, one of FuSoYa's old drinking buddies lives to the west of town and he is an accomplished mage. Oxide can now travel through the western gate!


And as he reaches those gates, he hears someone calling out for him.


Four members of the town guard come a runnin' and beg Oxide to take them with him.

Gill[, Elk, Marsh and Lenny joined the party!

Next Time: The Sapphire Salamanders' First Battle

Heh, my thoughts exactly... And the Tiara does something? Guess I'd better stop and let the pro show me what's what.

What

Somehow I missed this, but really, what

It raises his defense against ice magic.

I mean it was like December of 1992.

Maybe you're not familiar with this, but quite a few Japanese game developers tend to continue to support "old" consoles for far longer than most non-Japanese developers. To wit: only within the last year or two has development for the PlayStation 2 ground to an effective halt over there.

Although even in the US, the NES survived a surprisingly long time. It wasn't exactly flooded with new releases between 1991 and 1994, but it was still getting a decent amount of support even with the SNES and Genesis outperforming it.

Yeah dude, but most releases towards the end were cross-platform. Yoshi, Wario's Woods, TMNT Tournament Fighters all come to mind. PS2 has back-compat going for it, too. It's straight up weird to see an NES exclusive from 1992.