Setting

Like the other Dragon Quest games in the series, the setting of Dragon Quest VI is very medieval, complete with castles, knights, and magic. The main world is divided into the "Real World" and "Dream World", each with a separate, but similar map. To get from one world to the other, the party uses special warps (such as in wells), by ascending/descending stairs on the world map or falling through holes in the "Dream World" to the "Real World".

If something cannot be found in the "Real World", it may appear in the "Dream World", such as with Spiegelspire, in the middle of the quest. Also, another similarity to much of the series is the "Dread Realm". This separate map features a dark island with a psychedelic sea surrounding it and some of the toughest monsters in the game. The final boss, Mortamor, lives there. Also, once Mortamor is defeated, the player can access the bonus dungeon and the secret final boss, Nokturnus. Cheats

Characters

Dragon Quest VI has six main party members, & several optional characters, most of which are recruitable slime enemies.

• The Hero is the main character of Dragon Quest VI. He comes from the small town of Weaver's Peak. Unlike most of the other "Heroes" in previous Dragon Quest games, this Hero does speak- he does so while meeting his clone, and in sequences within Weaver's Peak at that time. The Hero is joined by other characters he meets along his journey. He is later revealed to be the prince of Somnia who often spent time away from the castle. This is due to his parents not giving much time to him or his sister. While he has no official name in the game, he was named Botsu in the manga based on the game.

• Carver (Hassan"ハッサン" in the Japanese version and No Progress translation) meets up with the Hero at Somnia. Carver is the natural fighter of the party and the son of carpenters. After regaining his memory, Carver learns that he is from Port Haven (San Mariinō in the Japanese version), where his parents recognize him. At first, he does not believe them, but after an event in Murdaw's Castle, he remembers his past.

• Milly (Mirēyu"ミレーユ" in the Japanese version, Muriel in the No Progress translation and Milayou in the official localization of Dragon Quest Monsters) joins the Hero and Carver because she can see them in the Real World. She is the typical cleric of the group, and specializes in healing and supportive magic. Before meeting the Hero, she lived with her fortune telling grandmother Madame Luca Luminista.

• Ashlynn (Barbara"バーバラ" in the Japanese version and No Progress translation) joins the group in the Moonmirror Tower, where she is trying to find a way to make herself visible to those around her. She casts magic like Milly, but uses mostly fire-based attack magic. She hails from Sorceria, a village known for its strong magic. Before the party reaches Sorceria, Ashlynn's past remains very mysterious.

• Nevan (Chamoro"チャモロ" in the Japanese version and No Progress translation) joins the party next. He is a cleric from Ghent village, specializing in healing magic. He is also the only one that can steer the Divine Ship for the party.

• Amos is the protector of Scrimsley. He becomes a monster at night and is defeated by the party, but after receiving the Seed of Reasoning, he joins the party on their quest. Amos is an optional character, as it is possible to do his side story wrong & lose access to him forever.

• Terry(テリー) is the final character to join the party, after appearing as an enemy for part of the game. He is a knight who defeats the monster terrorizing Arkbolt, just before the party does, thus gaining the reward. He joins the Hero's party after the battle with Dhuran and reveals that he is Milly's brother.

• Lizzie (Drango"ドランゴ" in Japanese version and No Progress translation) is the female Hacksaurus that Terry defeated. After being locked in Arkbolt for some time, the beast, will join the party if they visit her with Terry. She is an optional character, & her job class is automatically set to Dragon without needing the special item.

• Goowain is a Slime Knight who, with his trusty steed, wanted nothing more to serve the kingdom of Howcastle among its knights. However, when he arrived there, he was imprisoned because he is a monster. The party can find & recruit a dejected Goowain once the events at Howcastle are done. His name is a play on Sir Gawain, one of King Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. Goowain learns support spells, as well as the ever-useful Falcon Slash technique.

• Healie is a Healslime who hangs out in Clearvale, he becomes super excited once the party acquires the flying bed & wishes to join them so he can ride it (despite having his own floating ability). As his name suggests, Healie will learn every Heal spell on his own, even Omniheal. It's unclear if he's the same one assisted Ragnar in Dragon Quest IV, as that one was later turned into a human for his heroics.

• Spot is a Mottle Slime who the party can find hiding along the bushes at Castle Graceskull. He gives no explanation of what he was doing there, but offers to help the party anyhow. Spot has an odd, questionably-useful selection of skills borrowed from vocations the party can use.

• Goober (Slalin"スラリン" in Japanese version)is a regular slime that the party is asked to train after they defeat the Champ at the Slime fighting arena. His owner, Sledge, wants this rookie to go on a journey with the party to further develop his strength. Goober learns a handy selection of healing & attack skills, & upon reaching level 45, he can be taken back to Sledge & acquire a secret skill from him.

• Kingsley, as his name implies, is a Kingslime. He is found at the bar in Slimopolis & will become impressed with the party after they are win many rounds in the Best-Dressed Contest. Kingsley chiefly learns healing abilities, including the rare Kazing revival spell.

• Curie is a Cureslime who can be found within Suite Dreams, meaning the party must acquire at least 10 dreams in order to reach the area where Curie resides. Alternatively, Curie will appear out in front of Suite Dreams instead once the player finishes the main story. Curie is very similar to Healie, only with slightly different stats.

• Shelley is a Seaslime who spends most of the game at various spots searching for Curie, before ending up at an undersea Inn. Shelley is recruited by including Curie in the party & speaking to her. Shelley learns mostly attack skills.

• Mercury is a Liquid Metal Slime (or, Metabble) who appears in the forest where the party acquires their horse early in the game once they have 20 dreams in their possession. Alternatively, beating the main story will cause him to appear here in a similar fashion to Curie's changing locations. The party will fail at capturing him a few times before a stranger intervenes to help them. Amazed at their ability to catch him, Mercury will join. Mercury, strangely enough, has a level cap of only 16 for some reason, but takes much longer to level up than any other character, he also learns Ashlynn's unique plot-acquired Magic Burst on his own! Mercury is also automatically set to the Liquid Metal Slime secret job class without needing a special item for it.

Story

Dragon Quest VI opens as the Hero, Milly, and Carver approach Murdaw, the demon king’s castle. After Milly summons a dragon, the party enters the castle and comes face to face with Murdaw(Mudo"魔王ムドー" in Japanese version). Overpowering the trio, Murdaw appears to destroy each member of the party. The Hero wakes up in Weaver's Peak, and cannot remember anything before the fight with Murdaw. Tania, a young woman from Weaver's Peak, insists that he is her brother.

The Hero is then given a task to get a crown in preparation for the annual Mountain Spirit festival from the elder which takes him to Haggelton. However he finds out the man that is supposed to make the crown has gone out somewhere to the northwest of town and never came back. The hero then heads in that direction and finds a large hole with the crown maker just barely hanging on. The hero attempts to rescue him and succeeds but in the process, slips and falls to the world below. In this mysterious world, the hero finds a nearby town in which the townspeople cannot see him. The hero grabs a tip from one of the townspeople that there's a special well to the north which people went in never came back; thus the hero heads in that direction and returns to his world.

After getting the ceremonial crown from the crown maker for no charge after saving his life, the hero heads back to Weaver's Peak just in time for the festival to begin. During the festival, the hero receives a mysterious vision that a great evil was to take over the world and asks him to leave the village in preparation for this disaster. The next day, the hero finds out that the world that he stumbled onto was called the "Phantom World" and is given a pass by the elder which allows him entry into Somnia, where he can meet the king.

At Somnia, the hero meets Carver, which doesn't seem to remember the hero. The Hero then meets Captain Blade, leader of Somnia's military which gives the potential soldier candidates a task to find a special item in a tower. The hero manages to find this item successfully and formally becomes a soldier of Somnia. After a task which the Hero and Carver work together to get a horse for an old man, Carver also becomes a soldier of Somnia and himself and the hero are given permission to talk to the king where they learn to defeat Murdaw, they need the Mirror of Ra. The Hero and Carver discover another portal similar to the one near Haggleton, which eventually leads them to Port Haven, another town where they can not be seen. Milly, also appearing to have lost her memory, does see them and helps them become visible via Madame Luca's help.

The party discovers a Somnia Castle in the “Phantom World” and learns that the prince is missing and that the Hero looks like him. They also meet Captain Rusty, who bears a striking resemblance to Captain Blade. Gaining entrance to the Moonmirror Tower, the party meets Ashlynn, a woman who was invisible in the “Phantom World” at first, too, and together they find the Mirror of Ra.

The four of them travel to Murdaw's castle, in the original world. After defeating Murdaw, the Hero uses the Mirror on him. Murdaw then turns into the King of Somnia, confused and unaware of what happened. The king reveals that the original world is in fact the Dream World and the Phantom World is the Real World. Upon traveling back to the Real World, the King of Somnia thanks the party for defeating Murdaw in his dreams, but that the real Murdaw lives and that the party must travel to Ghent to retrieve a boat to get to Murdaw's lair. In Ghent, Nevan, a healer, joins the party and allows them to use the Ghent Clan's ship. During the fight with the real Murdaw, the Hero gets is again sent back to Weaver's Peak. However, with the Mirror of Ra, the Hero warps back into the battle and defeats Murdaw.

The Queen of Somnia tells the Hero to discover who he really is. The quest leads the party to Arkbolt, where a terrible monster is blocking a nearby cave. The reward for defeating the monster is the famed Sunderbolt Blade, but before the party can strike the final blow, a warrior by the name of Terry kills the monster, winning the sword. After traveling both worlds, the party learns that Murdaw was not the only evil in the world, having fought several other monsters that all seem to be connected.

In Sorceria, the party learns that this is Ashlynn's home. The elders tell Ashlynn that the Demon Lord is watching her and give her the powerful spell Magic Burst to fight him. The party also learns that the only way to get to the Demon Lord is through Zenith Tower, but to activate the tower, they need to collect the sword, armor, shield, and helmet of legend. While doing so, the Hero meets his double in Real Weaver's Peak, who gets spooked, and speaks 'Y-You. Y-You're m-m-me!', and says that he must prove himself to be faithful to his family if he is to join powers. Returning to Real Somnia, the King and Queen tell the Hero that he is indeed the prince. When he fused with his clone, the Hero gained his memory back, much like Ashlynn and Carver had done.

The party reaches Cloudsgate Citadel and meets Dhuran(デュラン), who claims to have taken over the castle. He summons Terry to fight the party and then fights the party himself. Dhuran then reveals that all the enemies the party has faced were just pawns of Mortamor, the Archfiend. Milly reveals that Terry is her brother and Terry decides to join the party and fight against Mortamor.

Once Cloudsgate Citadel is back to normal, the party speaks to King Zenith who informs them of Mortamor's doings and how to reach the Dread Realm. Mortamor plans on merging both worlds. The party’s horse fuses with Pegasus, allowing the party to fly to the Dread Realm. Several challenges await in the Dread Realm, with one such challenge being the party's strength suddenly and unexpectedly plummeting. With the help of two Supreme Sage brothers, Benjamin and Isaac, the party enters Mortamor's Castle. After solving many puzzles, they come face to face with Mortamor and defeat him. Isaac reveals that the Dread Realm is falling apart and Pegasus helps them escape.

In a similar fashion to Dragon Warrior III, the hero's weapons and armor were renamed for this installment in the Zenithian series. They are known as the Sword of Ramias, Armour of Orgo, Shield of Valora and Helm of Sebath. After the events of this game, these armaments become the Zenithian equipment and are renamed as such.

Production

The scenario designer, as in all previous Dragon Quest games, was Yūji Horii. Similarly, the lead artist was Akira Toriyama. This is the last game in the series to feature the Tenkuu no Shiro (Castle in the Sky) trilogy.

A prequel, Dragon Warrior Monsters (Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland in Japan), was released in 1998. This game featured Terry and Milly years before the events of Dragon Quest VI. It was released in North America the next year, even though Dragon Quest VI was never released in North America. Along with Terry and Milly, several of the main enemies, including Mortamor, reappear, however, their previous roles have been eliminated, making them appear as just normal enemies. Mortamor and Murdaw (DeathMore and Mudou, respectively, in the localization) do appear as very challenging, very late in-game bosses, though.

Release

The initial release was delayed over a year because of Enix wanting to further develop their game. The game was eventually shown at Shoshinkai in November 1995. Dragon Quest VI was released a few weeks later on December 9, with the very steep price of 11,400 yen (roughly over 100 U.S. dollars). The game went on to sell over 3.2 million copies. Since then, in Japan, the game actually made the news in 2005, when a Japanese student threatened another student over an argument about which Dragon Quest is the best, the student doing the threatening favoring Dragon Quest VI.

Like its predecessor, Dragon Quest VI did not receive an English-language localization because of being cost-ineffective. At 4MB, it was one of the largest games made for the SNES as well as the largest the console could support without adding bank-switching circuitry to the cartridge, and translating it would have necessitated even bigger and more expensive ROMs. In addition, the game was a late release for the SNES and by the time an English localization could be finished, Enix had already dropped support for the console in North America and moved to the PlayStation.

Nintendo DS remake

The Dragon Quest VI enhanced remake for the Nintendo DS was announced in late 2007 by Square Enix and was developed by ArtePiazza. The game was released in Japan on January 28, 2010, in North America on February 14, 2011, and in Europe on May 20, 2011.

This version has a few differences

• The Monster Master Class is no longer able to recruit monsters.
• The after-battle monster recruitment has been removed. Instead, there are certain Slimes that will join you once you accomplish a specific task. Lizzie still remains recruitable.
• Since this version comes with a built in map of both worlds on the top of the screen, the World Map and the Magic Map have been removed.
• The 'Tag Mode' system from Dragon Quest IX has been implemented, which allows wireless communication and data transfer between two DS systems.
• A Slime Curling mini-game was added.
• The names of the following characters from this game were changed in Dragon Quest IX as follows: Mireille (Mireyu) as Milly, Hassan as Carver, Barbara (Bābara) as Ashlynn, Redach (Reidakku) as Somnia, and San Marino as Port Haven.

On April 28, 2008, it was reported that Square Enix has applied for the trademark "The Realms of Reverie" at the United States Patent and Trademark Office, leading to speculation that it was the localized title for this game. On May 20, 2008, Square Enix opened up the North American site featuring the three Dragon Quest DS remakes, acknowledging Realms of Reverie as the official subtitle, as well as confirming a release in North America. The title was later changed to "Realms of Revelation" just prior to release. Listings in some stores, including on price tags and the like, still use the "Reverie" title.

Mark Franklin, director of Public Relations at Nintendo, made the claim that Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation “will give fans unique access to a classic game in the series for the first time” outside of Japan.

Soundtracks

As with every Dragon Quest, Koichi Sugiyama composed the music and directed all the associated spinoffs. Three soundtracks were released for the music of Dragon Quest VI. The first was a two-disk soundtrack, which included an orchestral performance and an OST. The second soundtrack was released on August 23, 2000, and just had the orchestral version. This version was released by SPE Visual Works (now Aniplex), and was named Dragon Quest VI ~The Dream World~ Symphonic Suite. This version was featured on Dragon Quest Daizenshu Vol. 2, which is a compilation of Dragon Quest music. A second Symphonic Suite edition of the OST was performed in March 2005 and released on July 19, 2006, also by Aniplex. The Symphonic Suite tracklist is as follows:

All songs written and composed by Koichi Sugiyama. 

Dragon Quest VI ~The Dream World~ Symphonic Suite
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Overture"	1:20
2.	"At the Palace"	3:40
3.	"In the Town ~ Happy Humming ~ Inviting Village ~ Folk Dance"	7:02
4.	"Through the Fields ~ Wandering through the Silence ~ Another World"	5:03
5.	"Ocean Waves"	5:11
6.	"Flying Bed"	2:08
7.	"Pegasus ~ Saint's Wreath"	5:39
8.	"Evil World ~ Satan's Castle ~ Frightening Dungeon"	4:22
9.	"Brave Fight"	6:23
10.	"Melancholy"	3:11
11.	"Ocarina ~ The Saint"	2:07
12.	"Devil's Tower"	1:36
13.	"Dungeons ~ Last Dungeon"	5:52
14.	"Monsters"	4:36
15.	"Demon Combat"	5:15
16.	"Eternal Lullaby"	6:46
Total length:		69:51

Manga

A 10-volume manga adaptation of the game was also made. It was authored by Masaomi Kanzaki and published by Enix in the Monthly Shōnen Gangan between 1997 and 2001. The storyline roughly follows that of the video game from which it was based but with several differences, such as the inclusion of the character Kizu Buchi, a spotted slime.

Despite the very high price of 11,970 yen (about 100 dollars),Dragon Quest VI sold 3.2 million copies in Japan, becoming the best selling game of 1995. In 2010, Dragon Quest VI for the Nintendo DS sold almost a million copies in Japan in its first week. The game sold over 1.2 million copies by March 2010.

According to Nintendo Power, Dragon Quest VI was originally planned for North American release in the spring of 1996 under the title "Dragon Warrior V." However, the Super Nintendo localization of the game never took place, Enix having already given up on the US market. Square, one of the only companies still willing to bring console role-playing video games to the US, was also still struggling to get their games to sell in the US, and therefore, Dragon Quest VI had no companies willing to take a risk for it. In Nintendo Power vol. 81, the staff wrote an article on Dragon Quest VI, hoping the game would find a North American release. They also suggested why the series might not appeal to the American audience: there is too much fighting and not enough adventuring. Other critics have mentioned that class building becomes tedious and that the dual worlds are too overwhelming, both possible reasons against a US release.Dragon Quest VI was listed as #7 among the 10 Best Japanese Games Never Released in the U.S. by GamePro magazine in their May 2005 issue.

Kurt Kalata of Gamasutra praised the game's storyline, particularly its innovative scenario. While comparable to the light-dark world setting of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Dragon Quest VI featured a unique real world and dream world setting, which he suggests had an influence on the later Square role-playing games Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X. Kalata also praised the gameplay improvements, including its class system that improves on Dragon Quest III and is now more similar to Final Fantasy V, and the addition of a bag that improves on the inventory management of previous games. He concludes that it is "still a fantastic game."