Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

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Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime

Developer(s)	TOSE
Publisher(s)	Square Enix
Release date(s)	^JP December 1, 2005 ^NA September 19, 2006
Genre(s)	Adventure game
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) CERO: All Ages
Platform(s)	Nintendo DS
Media	64 MB + 8KB EEPROM

Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest 2 in Japan) is an adventure game, and is the sequel to Slime MoriMori Dragon Quest: Shougeki No Shippo Dan. It was released in Japan on December 1, 2005 and in North America on September 19, 2006. It is a spin-off of the Dragon Quest series and is starred by a Slime, a common enemy in the Dragon Quest series as well as its official mascot.

1 Story
2 Gameplay
3 Multiplayer
4 Puns and References
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] Story

Rocket Slime is set in the kingdom of Slimenia, a peaceful land populated by friendly slimes. Slimenia is invaded by the Plob (a platypus mafia, with numerous other monsters in tow), who beseige the capital city of Boingburg with the enormous Platypanzer tank. The Plob kidnaps 99 of the town's 100 inhabitants. The player assumes the role of Rocket, the only slime to escape. Rocket must rescue his fellow slimes, foil the Plob's plot, and unearth the Schleiman Tank, a legendary weapon capable of standing up to the Platypanzer. As Rocket rescues the other slimes, they return to Boingburg and begin rebuilding the city. Some can also join him in tank battles, allowing the player to fight with the assistance of a variety of AI allies.

Rocket, the main hero of Rocket Slime

[edit] Gameplay

The game is played from a top-down perspective. Play begins in the town of Boingburg, where the player can talk to its inhabitants, purchase items, save his or her game, and various other tasks. Upon leaving the town, the player moves across a map screen to one of several stages; when he leaves a stage, the game lists everything the player has collected, and Rocket automatically wakes up in his bed in Boingburg. Rocket can jump by pressing the A button and glide by holding it in midair. When the A button is held on the ground, Rocket can use the directional buttons to stretch out and then release the A button to snap forward, damaging enemies and knocking anything he hits into the air; this maneuver, called the Elasto Blast, is his main method of attack. Rocket can catch and carry falling items and enemies, up to 3 at a time; these items/enemies can be thrown with the B button. One such item, the Slime Knight, enables Rocket to attack with its sword by pressing the Y button while holding it. Throughout the levels, there are train tracks with carts rolling on them or similar transports; Rocket can place himself or rescued slimes onto these carts to return to town, or toss enemies and items onto them to add them to his inventory. There are enemy tanks within the levels, each with its commander standing on a special platform in front of it; upon approaching this platform, the player is given the option to begin a Tank Battle.

[edit] Tanks

In Tank Battles, the player still controls Rocket instead of controlling the tank directly; the bottom screen focuses on him as normal, while the top screen shows a zoomed out view of the two tanks and their HP. He (and his crew, if any) begin in the cockpit of their tank. Each tank has two cannons in its cockpit and various ammo chutes placed throughout it which drop ammo at certain intervals; by picking up ammo and throwing it into a cannon, it can be fired at the enemy tank. One cannon fires directly at the enemy and the other fires in an arc; if ammo collides with other ammo, both pieces are destroyed (with the exception of exceptionally durable ammo such as shields, which can withstand multiple collisions). Before leaving town, the player can select a stock of exactly 30 different pieces of ammo from any of the items that have been collected; ammo is never depleted from stock; when a piece of ammo is spawned, it has a 1 in 30 chance of being any item loaded into the tank. Ammo types range in the speed at which they travel between tanks and the amount of power they have when they strike another tank as well as having some special powers should they successfully strike the opponents tank; for example, a rod while remaining on the cockpit will repeatedly cause lightning to strike at the tank and anyone on the cockpit, while some items will set aflame anyone and anything within the cockpit upon impact. Other ammo types may repair the tank, pass right through other kinds of ammo, or even drain some of the opposing tank's HP into your own.

A tank can have up to 3 AI-controlled crew members. Each one has its own behavior patterns, which can be switched between by pausing the game. They can also take damage and be defeated, after which (with the sole exception of Rocket) they will eventually respawn in a small shrine within their own tank. Crew members (including Rocket himself) can be fired out of cannons as well; when they reach the enemy tank, they land in its cockpit instead of doing damage.

Each tank also has a front door which automatically opens for its own crew. Enemy crewmembers can break through the door with repeated attacks, thus providing another method of entering an enemy tank. Once inside, one can fight the enemies to disrupt their work, steal ammo to bring back to their tank, and destroy the computers scattered throughout the tank. The door has one such computer which will cause it to open and close uncontrollably upon breaking, making further infiltration easier; the other computers are connected to the ammo chutes and, when destroyed, will cause them to drop ammo less frequently and occasionally drop burning ammo which damages anyone who touches it.

A tank is not immediately destroyed when its HP reaches 0; instead, the door to its engine (shaped like a heart) is broken. To finally destroy an enemy tank, Rocket must enter it, break through several barriers protecting its engine, and strike said engine with an Elasto Blast. The tank is otherwise fully functional while this is going on, and it is possible to deplete an enemy's HP and strike its engine even after losing all of your own.

Later on, battling in a tank arena becomes available to Rocket. Here, Rocket chooses a tank of his choice and fights his way through four battle ranks, with three fights in each rank. Successful completion of a rank wins Rocket a special item for his tank, most of which cannot be found elsewhere.

There are several different tanks found throught the game; these vary in size, strength, and specialties. During the entire course of the regular game (with a single exception), Rocket will always use the Schleiman Tank. After rescuing a certain slime however, Rocket unlocks the Tank Masters minigame, which will give Rocket the choice to fight a tank battle against all of the tanks in the game, as well as offering him the ability to choose to enter any of the tanks he previously encountered. Many of the game's monsters have their own tank modeled after them, such as the Platypunk's Platypanzer, or the Jailcat's Purrsecutor. All bosses and Tank Battles can be replayed, but sometimes, the tank commanders will be changed. (Notably, where you beat Slival.)

[edit] Monsters

Many monsters in the Dragon Quest series appear in this game. Like the slimes, they show more personality in this series. Rocket can defeat them for money and items, or he can ship them by train back to Boingburg where they settle down peacefully. When you collect 30 monsters of one type, you can recruit them to fight alongside you in the Schleiman Tank.

[edit] Items

There are plenty of items strewn across the game's stages. While the practical use of these within levels rarely goes beyond the ability to toss them at enemies to defeat them, all items can be shipped on the train back to Boingburg (much like you would do with enemies). Once obtained, these items can be placed in the Schleiman Tank as ammunition, or later in the game, synthesized to make even better items. Recipes are required to make new items via synthesis, and can be found in some levels or as rewards for rescuing Slimes back to town.

[edit] Allies

The town of Boingburg has 100 inhabitants (not including Rocket), all of whom are slimenapped by the Plob and need to be rescued. While most of the townspeople have little use besides providing conversation and encouragement, many of them provide necessary tasks such as selling items, unlocking minigames, or even joining your Schleiman Tank's crew. Of course, any monster captured and shipped back to Boingburg may eventually become your ally as well.

[edit] Multiplayer

Utilising the wireless functionality of the Nintendo DS, a multiplayer tank battle can be played in multi-card form, meaning every player must have his or her own copy of the game. Single-cart download only allows for two mini-games, a surfing mini-game and a tank battle demo.

[edit] Puns and References

The English localization of the game is rife with puns and cultural references. Most of the slimes have punning names, typically some combination of the slime's personal traits and a slime physical property or onomatopoeia for a slime-like sound. Examples include:

Roboglop - A cyborg slime. (c.f. Robocop)
Mother Glooperior - A slime who dresses as a Christian nun and operates the town church.
Viscount Viscous - A King Slime.
Fort Knight - A knight monster. ("Not too weak!" c.f. a fortnight, which is two weeks)
Startist - A star-shaped slime who unlocks the painting minigame.

The Plob (a PLatypus mOB) is headed by Don Clawleone (c.f. Don Corleone from the film The Godfather).

The game also contains many references to other games by Square Enix:

Ducktor Sid (who actually appears to be a duck-billed platypus) teaches Rocket how to use the tank, making him similar to the recurring character Doctor Cid in the Final Fantasy series.
Some enemy tanks contain puns on names of various video games, such as "Harvest Loon" (Harvest Moon, series developed by Victor Interactive Software), "Chrono Twigger" (Chrono Trigger), and " DQ Swords" (which is subtitled The Revolution is coming! Wee!)