Ship (2024)

A ship is a common waterbound mode of transport in the Dragon Quest series, thanks to which the Ocean becomes available for exploration.

The concept of giving the Hero's party a ship first appeared in II and has since then appeared in all of the main series' subsequent games, and even in some spin-offs.

Possession[]

Gaining access to the use of a ship is typically the result of completing some sort of quest or objective. Normally, the point in the game when a ship is acquired is near the mid-point of the game, as having a ship allows access to areas already visited and new areas which are fundamental to the next portion of the game. In the case of both II and III, acquiring the ship is a segue to quests which requires the Hero to travel all over the world to retrieve specific items. That being said, in series there are been cases of sea travel before the formal ownership of a sea vessel, although most of these voyages were one-way trips.

Dragon Quest II[]

The ship was given to the Scions of Erdrick in the city of Rippleport as a reward for saving the daughter of the ship's original owner from a group of attacking Gremlins.

Dragon Quest III[]

The ship was given to the Hero after bringing the king of Portoga some Black Pepper from Baharata. After obtaining the Boatman's bone, the Hero and the rest of the party encountered a Ghost Ship which contained the Lover's locket necessary to dispel Olivia's curse and access the Shrine of Shackles.

A second ship was gifted to the party by a gent who had no further need for it immediately after they passed through the Pit of Giaga and reached the lighthouse of Tantegel. Thanks to this second ship, the seas of the Underworld were able to be freely explored.

Dragon Quest IV[]

At the end of Chapter 4, Maya and Meena were encouraged by Oojam to flee their homeland, the Libeccio continent, after being soundly defeated by Marquis de Léon, and did so by taking the last ship from Havre Léon to Endor.

In Chapter 5, the Hero and the rest of the Chosen were given use of Torneko's Ship, an order-built ship purchased by Torneko Taloon at Porthtrunnel using the bulk of his savings, after helping the latter relight the sacred fire in the Pharos Beacon. Prior to Torneko's return to Porthtrunnel, a mini medal can be found on the ship and can be missed entirely if not obtained at that point.

Dragon Quest V[]

At the very start of the adventure, the Hero, alongside his father Pankraz, was returning to the Boreas continent after a long voyage aboard of the Black Jack, a ship owned by Rodrigo Briscoletti, a millionarie of the Zephyrus continent, making a brief encounter with the man himself and his two daughters, Nera and Debora, while disembarking at Littlehaven.

Ten years later the Hero, now an adult, while fleeing from his slavery at Crocodilopolis, alongside prince Harry and Maria, made a miraculous sea voyage from the central continent back to the Boreas continent inside a barrel, originally meant as cruel way to dispose of the deceased slaves' corpses, reaching, exhausted but alive, the Heaven's Above Abbey, where they were quickly treated.

After exposing Faux Dowager in Coburg, the continent's ban on ship's travel was lifted, and the Hero was able to take a ship for the Zephyrus continent at Littlehave. As if fate, the ship was none other than the Black Jack itself, having been lended for regular transports by Mr. Briscoletti after the regular ferry had been sunk by a sea monster attack.

Eventually the Hero borrowed another ship from Rodrigo Briscoletti himself, in order to traverse the land-locked waterstream stretching between Mostroferrato and Stockenbarrel, and retrieve the Circle of Water from the Cataract Caves. Having to stop by Stockenbarrel due a watergate managed by the locals, the hero has a fateful encounter with Bianca, his childhood friend, who gladly opened the gate and then offered assistance in finding the Ring. Since Stockenbarrel is not a location reachable thanks to the spell Zoom, from that point onward this ship can be used at any time to reach the village, even when the Hero has to retrive the Wedding veil for his bride.

After the Hero's wedding, a second ship, the Black Jack itself, was effectively given to the Hero as a wedding gift by Mr. Rodrigo, and from that point forward it became the main ship for the Hero and his family to travel across the closed-off sea. The Black Jack had been stirred by the same seasoned sea Captain for all those years, one of the very best, and it was the source of inspiration after which the Ship in a Bottle Knick-Knack is made image from.

Eight years later, a third ship was acquired, thanks to Prince Albert, now chancellor of Gotha, having guessed that the Hero, recently saved from his stony prison, would visit the homeland of his mother Queen Madalena, the land of Lofty Peak. This ship was docked in the waters outside the kingdom, and as such it is able to explore the open seas on the outer edge of the map, making it possible to reach areas that ddid not border with the inner sea, such as the above mentioned Lofty Peak, located in the Apeliotes continent, or the small island where the Porgie Estate was located.

One last ship of importance was the luxurious casino ship Ventuno, another of Rodrigo Briscoletti's propeties, semi-permanentely docked at the small Treasure Island in the inner sea due to the monster activities, leading to the development of a small settlement called Pontoon.

Dragon Quest VI[]

After persuasion by a Spirit, the elder of Ghent allowed the Hero and party to use a ship, dubbed the Providence, but only with Nevan accompanying them. Until Murdaw's defeat, the ship was only able to travel to Murdaw's Keep. After obtaining Lorelei's harp to use for underwater travels, the Hero and the party eventually came across a Sunken Ship which contained many treasures, including the Ultimate key.

There was also a ferry that went from Port Haven to the docks east of Somnia and back. The tickets costed 50 gold coins per person.

Dragon Quest VII[]

Two ships became avayable to the party during the story. The first one was a small vessel that Prince Kiefer and the Hero had secretly spent many months restoring to sailing condition, before it being used successfully for the first time to travel to the village of Ballymolloy recently restored in the present. The small vessel was then used repeatedly every time a new land was restored to the present.

The second ship, the colossal Sea Dragon had, since time immemorial, belonged to a long legendary legacy of heroic pirates protected by the Water Spirit's blessing, up to the unmatched pirate captain Sharkeye, who faithfully served and protected the kingdom of Buccanham, even marrying its princess Lady Anaïs. However the Sea Dragon was eventually frozen alongside its crew by Orgodemir for many centuries as punishment for their defience against him, before being finally thawed out in the present by the re-awakened Fire Spirit. After being contacted by the Water Spirit, Captain Sharkeye's mark of the Water Spirit faded away, while the one on the Hero's arm became complete. Recognizing it as a sign of him being his heir to pass his sacred duty to, Sharkeye decided to aid the party by putting his ship and crew under the orders of the Hero, unaware of the fact that the youth was in truth not simply his successor, but also his own time-displaced son, who had been transported by the Water Spirit from the womb of his wife Anaïs in the past, into the womb of another woman, Pearl, in the present.

While initially only able to steer itself towards either Pilchard Bay or Alltrades Abbey, once the Cathedral of Blight revealed itself, the Sea Dragon became able to set sail towards any locations, its crew even assisting in battle against any sea monsters encountered.

The Sea Dragon was massive, being more akin to a waterbound small citadel than a ship, so much so that it possesed five different shops aboard of itself, not to mention various treasure chests, a pub, a church, a prison, a small vegetable patch, a garden with fountain on the deck, captain's quarters designed to be essentially a throne room and even a cabin to sleep inside.

Dragon Quest VIII[]

Fairly early in their quest to track down Dhoulmagus, the Hero, Yangus, King Trode and Medea were forced to take a ferry at Port Prospect in order to travel to the continent further down the south. Due to the presence of a strong marine monster, the ferry was re-scheduled to not depart, but at the dock they reunited with Jessica who, eager to begin her personal chase of the evil jester, used her family's authority over the town to force the Quatermaster to set sail while also enlisting the help of the group, in a mission to defeat the offending monster. Shortly after leaving, Khalamari, a normally peaceful giant sea squid that was brainwashed by the evil jester, attacked the ship, but the Hero and Yangus defeated and returned him to his senses. After formally apologizing for her early behavior at Tower of Alexandra, Jessica ordered the captain a brief return to port, after which the ferry was finally ready to depart for Peregrin Quay. Before departing, Jessica joined the group in their quest against Dhoulmagus, and during the voyage, Yangus recounted to her his first meeting with the Hero, while Trode was finally able to fully repair the Alchemy Pot.

After realizing that their quarry had crossed the sea towards the western continent, the party decided to acquire a ship after hearing rumors at Pickham of one availbable for the taking. The Magic ship in question, was stranded in a dusty wasteland south of Trodain, having laid there ever since the wasteland was part of the ancient ocean floor. The party obtained the ship after retrieving the Moonshadow harp from the thieving Don Mole, and lending it to spirit Ishmahri, who used the magical music produced by the harp to briefly make the memories long since passed of the old ocean reappear, dislodging and lifting the Magic ship from the ground and gently returning it to the water. According to Ishmahri, the ship was hundreds of years old.

Once the party was able to secure the Illuminate sea chart guarded by the ghost of the pirate Captain Crow, they were able to see the way inside the otherwise unapproachable land of Empycchu.

Dragon Quest IX[]

The Hero were given a ship from Ms. Marion Bloom, after saving her substitute from her kidnappers.

Dragon Quest X[]

Unlike most main titles, no personal ship was obtained by the Hero on Astoltia; instead, the major lands of Orgreede, Eltona, Pukland, Dwachakka, the Wenna Islands, and even the smaller islands of Luckland and Lendor were first visited by boarding the intercontinental railway system that connects all of them thanks to the magical, lesser version of the Starflight Express travelling through them. While on the Wenna Islands, a small network of sloops operated by the local Wetlings, acted as ferries to reach the various, separate locations. The last major continent of Astoltia, Rendacia, was only first reached by boarding the massive ship Grand Titus at Lendor's port, after the Netherlord Nelgel, who was barring the way, was finally defeated following a climactic battle.

In order to cross the trecherous Mysts of confusion that were now surrounding Rendacia, which had previously lead to all other ships to sink into the seas, a special compass had to first created thanks to Sage Horro's assistance, the latter also tasking the Hero to locate the missing Princess Anlucia of Grand Zetannia, who had awakened as a hero while Rendacia was sealed in darkness; however, while the ship was already amidst the seas, a servant of Nelgel, a Mohawker, disguised as a sailor, stole the compass, as he was still enacting his defeated master's order to not let anyone reach Rendacia, and it was only thanks to Crow's intervention that it was retrived, even then when the voyage amidst the Mysts finally began, it was not without peril. Furthermore, unbeknownst to the people on board at the time, the land they had reached was not the real Rendacia, but, having somehow managed to breach dimensions while travelling the Mysts of Confusion, they had instead landed on a slighty different copy of the continent created by the Great Demon King Maldragora, as a ploy to remake the world in his image.

The Grand Titus can later be boarded anytime from Lendor to reach either the shores of False Rendacia, or the real Kingdom of Grand Zetannia, after Horro was able to upgrade the magic compass and Anlucia had fully awakened as the hero. A few sidequests require to board the Grand Titus and speak with the people on board.

The same ship later re-appeared as part of the main story when Nagaland was unsealed from the rest of Astoltia.

Dragon Quest XI[]

Sylvando owned a personal ship, christened the Salty Stallion, a masterpiece of nautical engineering created exclusively for him. After the party escaped from Gondolia, Sylv offered his new friends in the Luminary's party its use, commanded at the helm by the expert Dave, one of Sylvando's oldest and most loyal friends.

After obtaining the Lorelei's harp from a kind mermaid named Michelle, the Salty Stallion became able to use special columns of light in order to travel to the underwater kingdom of Nautica or pass through underwater tunnels and reach otherwise locked-off bodies of water.

Following the great disaster that befell Yggdrasil, the group was separated, with Sylvando being retrived by the trusty Dave and the Salty Stallion, while the Lorelei Harp was kept by Jade. Only after reuniting with the both of them the full sea-exploring capabilities of the ship were able to be recovered by the party.

Dragon Quest Builders 2[]

Initially the Builder was kept prisoner, alongside Lulu and other unlucky souls, inside a slavery ship belonging to the very last remnants of the Children of Hargon, Hargon's despicable religious adepts. Captained by the surprisingly not-so-bad Captain Whitebones, the ship was sank during a storm by the spirit of Hargon himself, in order to drag the Builder into the Illusory World. While the majority of its passengers and crew perished, the ship was somehow transported alongside the Builder into the illusion, the ship itself ending up stranded in Malhalla across an inter-dimensional rift alongside its captain. Captain Whitebones, who had survived the ordeal, then out of pride for his vessel began to defy the teachings of the Children and repair his ship the best he could.

Transported into the Illusory World, the Builder then met Captain Brownbeard, a self-proclaimed pirate and owner of a small, modest boat, who likewise had accidentaly wandered inside the illusion. As the only free owner of a sea-faring vessel in the entire illusion world, having they been banned by the dictatorship of the Children, the Builder enlisted the help of the captain to travel across the sea to the various islands aboard of his rather small ship, including the mysterious Explorer's Shores. This vessel was briefly confiscated when the Builder, Malroth and Brownbeard were abducted by the Children and imprisoned at Skelkatraz, but after many days of inprisonment, the group was able to retrieve it before its scheduled sanking.

The Isle of Awakening was also attacked by a mighty vessel commanded by Shane of the Children of Hargon, who commanded his troops into several attacks to the island, until he was slain, leaving his ship abbandoned and empty, anchored not so far from its shores.

Usage[]

Traveling in the ship is much like traveling on land. Typically, the ship travels at the same rate of speed as travel by land. The ship also follows the Hero whenever the Zoom spell or chimaera wing is used. The ship relocates to the nearest body of water to the return point, thusly keeping the player from having to remember where the ship was last used. In Dragon Quest XI, the Salty Stallion can only dock at a port or jetty, and thus Zoom will park her at the nearest dock.

The party also will continue to encounter monsters while on the ship; most notably, even in titles and remakes where the monster encounters are pseudorandom and normally visible on the field, wild encounters while ship-bound are not only unavoidable but also invisible, as enemies cannot be seen on the map, similar to how all monster encounters were in the older titles. Consequently, many foes met in such manner will be of the aquatic family.

Gallery[]