If you are a manga lover, you must know Dragon Quest: Quest for Dai ((Fly here), an excellent shonen released in the 90s and which will also be entitled to a new anime adaptation very soon, the first having stopped quickly after having simply covered the first volumes of the series. A few years later, it will be the turn of Dragon Quest: Emblem of Roto, also of a very good level and officiating again in the genre Shonen, to look into the case of this series of RPG. The adaptation that interests us today, although linked to that mentioned just before, is more recent (2005) and once aga in adapts the cult series of Square Enix but this time in a slightly more mature style.
Note:
The series ended in Japan with the 34th volume. 10 volumes have so far been released in France and the 11th is expected shortly. The criticism here concerns only Volume 1.
Although opting for a more radical approach, the manga begins in a fairly conventional way by presenting a group of thieves made up of several individuals including the young Aros who has lost his memory. The positive point of this first volume of the Heirs of the Emblem is that it does not really waste time even if as we will see a little later, it also generates frustration. Thus, at the end of the first volume, Aros rediscovers his past as crown prince after having found two childhood friends and this against the backdrop of several confrontations or passages decidedly darker than what we were used to in the previous adaptations. The blood spurts at times and we must admit that the tone is interesting because sharp (without bad pun) radically with Daï or the previous series of Roto.
However, the base remains very classic because it reports the victory of three heroes, Arus, Alan and Aster, over the Demon King Zoma 25 years ago. Following this victory, this caused the disappearance of magic spells, and incidentally of the Royal Family, causing chaos throughout the world. It is in this atmosphere to say the least heavy that begins our story drawn by Kamui Fujiwara already at work on Emblem of Roto. On this point, let us mention dynamic clashes, very well cut and perfectly legible. A delight.
We will not say the same about the design chara of all the characters, Aros being quite common while the look of his friend Li remains rather bland. A detail, however, especially as reading this first volume is particularly pleasant despite the big impression of deja-vu. It is also one of the pitfalls of this volume which multiplies the stereotypes inherent in the genre (the hero's amnesia, his inner struggle urging him not to kill …) and which by going so fast, ultimately minimizes the empathy for the characters we barely discover
The absence of magic as for it (omnipresent in the games as well as the previous adaptations) does not really bother especially as it is here minimized by certain techniques of Li illustrated by the mangaka as if it were about magic attacks. In addition, we find everything that constitutes the fantasy universe starting with creatures and other demons, the different character classes or even the main quest of the hero.
An extremely classic first volume therefore, but not uninteresting so far and above all promising for the future to come.
> Buy Volume 1 of Dragon Quest – Emblem of Roto: The Heirs of the Emblem
By Logan, Journalist igamesnews.com
MP
