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When journeying across the world of Dragon Quest 3 Remake, you’ll encounter plenty of villages, towns, and cities with a great variety of people. Big and small, optional and mandatory, there’s a massive selection. Yet what if you could have a hand in a village of your own?
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Well that very option is presented to you. Someone wants to build their own town, and they want your help to do it. This is a rather involved process that will see you nearing the end of the game before it’s completed, but it’s a thoroughly enjoyable, rewarding experience.
How To Start Building Your Own Town
Finding The Fledging Town
You can first hear word of this town by the docks of Portoga, where two people will be talking about a single man attempting to build his own town off in the western continent. Madness, they brand it. But for you, this should be a rallying call.
When they speak of the western continent, they refer to the one shaped like North and South America, as it is to the west of them, analagous to real-life Europe.
For you to begin this journey, you must first acquire your ship from the King of Portoga. Gather up that Black Pepper for him to be granted a sea-faring vessel of your own, and set off westwards in search of a new town.
The town, which at this point is a solitary building, is found on the northern section of the western continent. It is on a patch of land surrounded by mountains, isolated from the rest of the continent and accessible only from the coastline.
Assigning A Merchant
Enter this home to find the aforementioned old man by himself. He states his hopes to you in building a new town, but understands that it requires economic know-how that he lacks. In this regard, he enlists your help.
Supply him with a Merchant to build the foundations of his home. Bear in mind that the Merchant you offer him will be removed from your party permanently. Thankfully, they don’t need to be at a certain level. If you don’t have a Merchant yet, or don’t want to give up your current one, just return to Aliahan and create a new one.
Oh, and be careful with the name you choose. It may prove rather important.
The Stages Of Town Growth
First Stage
This is how the town, if you can call it that, appears when you first find it. And like this it will stay until you offer a Merchant to the old man to help realise his dream of a bustling town on the coast.
Second Stage
After leaving the unnamed town for the first time, you can go and journey to your heart’s content. A prompt will appear on-screen to tell you when the town has advanced to the next stage of development. This is done both by the passage of time, and in stages based on story progress, so rest at inns and progress the story until it tells you to return.
After you return for the first time, you will see the Merchant has done some fine work, now running a shop of their town and having built a larger home for the Old man as well. What great work! You may also notice the town now bears the name of your Merchant. For us, it was called Morriganburg. Try to give it an appropriate name in your own games, please.
The Merchant’s selection is rather limited in their shop, but they promise you that the town will only grow more. For now, you can leave and continue on your adventure.
Third Stage
After you make sufficient story progress, typically around the time you get the Ultimate Key from the Sunken Shrine, you may return to your Merchant’s town. And it is assuredly larger now.
Fences are erected, the lake is more of a pond, and a new Inn exists now as well. Your Merchant no longer runs the general store either, too busy handling the construction of the town instead. The selection is greater now, though.
Your Merchant isn’t done yet though. The new foundations they’ve laid down in the middle of town are the basis for a new Cabaret Club, something that seems a bit odd for such an isolated place. But surely they know best. You can head back on your adventure now.
Fourth And Final Stage
After you’ve acquired the Mod Rod from Manoza, or with a similar degree of story progress, you can return to your Merchant’s town once again, which at this point is teetering on the edge of being a city. The pond is now walled off, dirt paths replaced with paved stone, the Cabaret Club complete, and your Merchant has even built themselves a mansion. Hm.
Here’s a funny one. With the town now being so affluent, the Inn charges you even more to sleep than it did in the previous stage.
Take some time to look around town. The general store has an even wider selection now, while the Cabaret Club is now host to famed singers. Oh, name-drop your Merchant on the way out to avoid the 50,000 Gold bill. The town’s prices are a bit steep now.
Take a quick stop in at your Merchant’s mansion on the way, which is a tad gaudy if we’re being honest. They will be delighted at your presence, thanking you for your help in realising the town, and promises you that they aren’t finished yet. Make sure to loot the two chests here for a Primm’s Primer book and a Hen’s Tooth. Your Merchant won’t miss them.
Getting The Yellow Orb
At this point, the town has reached the highest level of development it can, but it’s story isn’t quite finished yet, either. If you’ve visited the shrine in Lanson, you might recall two men in the sider passages with cryptic messages. That the Yellow Orb is constantly changing hands, and that the companions you’ve left behind may still have a role to play.
These might not sound connected at first, but they both refer to your Merchant. The Yellow Orb eventually ends up in their town, though it can be a little confusing to get it to actually work. Let’s get into it.
When visiting the town during its final stage, head to the back of the house in the lower left of the town to find a group of citizens conspiring to overthrow your Merchant. They are despotic, wasting the town’s funds on their own glory and vanity at the expense of others. You can’t do anything at this point, but with their plan out in the wild now, they have no choice but to enact it.
If the citizens aren’t behind this building, make sure to visit them at night instead.
After witnessing the sparks of revolution, you need to just continue with your adventure. There’s not much you can do for now but wait, so Zoom around the map for a little bit and sleep at Inns along the way. It might take a few in-game days, but you’ll eventually get a prompt to return to your Merchant’s town.
The revolt was a success, and your Merchant has been imprisoned. The Mansion has been thrashed and soldiers now patrol the town. There is a palpable tension in the town, though a relief that its capitalistic despot has been removed.
Give your Merchant a quick visit in the prison directly south of their mansion and they will give you a quick rundown of the revolt. You see, they actually spent town funds on buying the Yellow Orb from a passing salesman, and simply couldn’t resist. They ask you to take it off their hands, and they promise to start anew with the town when they are freed. Eventually.
You can walk into the cell to free your Merchant if you want, but they will refuse to leave, saying that it would be a pointless endeavor.
Return to the mansion and head behind the destroyed throne to find the Yellow Orb in all its lustrous glory. Finally, this long saga has come to an end, and you are free to continue on your journey to defeat Baramos.
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