The dangers of the sea

The world of Dragon Quest IX is now mine. With the ship, I can go anywhere. So long as the monsters along the way, or  wherever I end up don't destroy me.

That's happened surprisingly little. And only in the sense that Peridot's been killed.

That's one of this game's oddities to me. The status effect that a character is labelled with when they have zero HP isn't "KO" or "Fainted," but simply "Dead."

The only other games that I've played that have been so frank are Ogre Battle and Fire Emblem titles. What's more, in at least one Ogre Battle game dead characters can come back as undead beings.

Frank as it is with it's status effects, will a coffin drug along long enough (even if behind a ship) in Dragon Quest IX eventually spring open, revealing an undead class character?

How Kay manages a masterful timeskip

The first chapter of River of Stars' fourth part is further proof that this book could've be five separate books. As with the previous shifts between parts there's been a timeskip.

After reading about the emperor's okaying the move to retake Kitai's old lands, we're dropped into the middle of the struggle. A half year in, things (and the barbarian Altai) are quickly heading south.

Though what lead to this turn of events could fill a separate book, this timeskip works.

Throughout River of Stars the narrator is much more of a storyteller than I'm used to. In A Song of Ice and Fire for example, the narrator is primarily a mediator between George R.R. Martin's characters and the reader.

Kay, on the other hand, uses a narrative style that reminds me of the tone of the game over or game end text in an Ogre Battle game. Every time the narrator takes over from dialogue or description we're treated to a quick overview of events.

Yet, these overviews don't come across as oversimplifications of cause and effect or quick and dirty explanations. Each one reads as though it were carefully crafted and worded. Thus, this latest time jump works quite well. Kay gives enough detail to fire the imagination, but not nearly enough to overwhelm.

Of course, I'd expect nothing less from the writer of the line "The smell was bad with entrails spilling" (409). Short, precise, and vivid, that line would be right at home in Beowulf.