Train rides are life’s loading screens ; a moment that is prolonged without a wide range of action and that unites the fun (playable, some would say) parts of our story.
When, the other day, I got ready to watch the CGI anime film Dragon Quest: Your Story on a journey on the tracks, I did it with the sole objective of passing the time, having something in front of me capable of occupying my mind and making the Time goes by faster like those simple minigames that some titles offer on their loading screens. Let everyone visualize the surprise that I got when, after an hour and forty minutes of film, I was not able to hide a satisfied smile on my face. He had just had an adventure greater than he imagined .
As of this moment, and although we will avoid it as much as possible, the article contains spoilers for both Dragon Quest: Your Story and Dragon Quest V.
There is something in the air of film production companies that generally prevents them from making good movies based on video games. Some fail to catch the correct tone and others do not even come close to understanding the essence of the title they are adapting, having in common some names or settings and little else. There are exceptions (counted on the fingers of the hand) to this unwritten rule and below I intend to unravel the mysteries of a film that I would include among those rare cases without hesitation.
A story from players for players
Let’s start by clarifying that I am NOT a big follower of the Dragon Quest saga. Although I enjoy Akira Toriyama’s medieval RPG style and dragonball designs, I have barely played a title and a half of all those that the Japanese franchise carries behind it and I had never tried the fifth installment, the one on which the film is based. This made both the characters and the events new to me and that there were many references and nods to the more veteran players that I missed, but the experience did not lose quality.
The plot is probably the most universal that can be found in any narrative composition: the hero’s journey, that struggle of the individual against the elements and the world to achieve the goal for which he was predestined . In Dragon Quest: Your Story our hero is called Luca and his mission is to find his missing mother (honoring his father’s last wish) and stop Bishop Ladja before he manages to free Nimzo, lord of all evil , with the help of a legendary sword. During this journey, the protagonists’ outer journey will be accompanied by an inner journey that, although not as deep as one might wish, is satisfactory and consistent with the story and what we know about them.
The film has a good rhythm, agile and with a correct narrative structure that accelerates in the less important moments and recreates just enough to get the viewer excited. These ups and downs can be a bit abrupt and, especially at the beginning, they serve to liquidate a considerable part of the protagonist’s story and compress it into just a couple of minutes of introduction in which the viewer will feel disoriented or will have to spin characters on their own. and concepts. These first moments are aimed at the very hearts of the fans of the saga by tracing directly from the original title the scenes and mechanics (which will later be replaced by 3D animation) of that first part of the story. Removing this first stumble, the film knows when it should be epic, when it should be cute and when it should be funny, managing to keep the audience’s interest. The soundtrack comes straight out of video games and makes your hair stand on end with those crescendos at the right times.
On the negative side, the most purist and faithful followers of video games will find differences in the plot that may not be exciting or in the design of the characters (which differs from the style of Akira Toriyama), but that should not pose an insurmountable problem if it is understood that the film is an adaptation and not a copy . On the other side of the coin, those who are not familiar with the Dragon Quest will feel a bit lost or disoriented in certain scenes both due to the brief presentation of characters and concepts and the abundant (almost overwhelming) variety of characters, monsters and villains, making more than one go out of history and may even lose interest in continuing to see it; Although the ideal is to make a little effort and get back into the movie .
The final twist
As the plot progresses, even the viewer who is scratching his belly and removing the legañas will notice that there are certain details that seem out of tune . They may go unnoticed or that some justify them thinking that they are references to the video game itself on which the story is based, but it is much more. As if from a reinterpretation of that scene in which Charlton Heston curses wars and the human species in front of a half-ruined Statue of Liberty , the viewer discovers that he is not watching a movie based on a video game, but rather a movie. about that video game. He realizes that all he has seen until then is not the world in which the plot takes place, but the experience that a young gamer (Luca) is living in a virtual reality simulator.
Instead of the sinister Nimzo as the final enemy to face in the climax of the film, we have a computer virus whose sole purpose is to ridicule the protagonist and show that nothing that happens in that fantasy world is real. And we get to the true essence of the film; that powerful message that overcomes everything that has already been learned about the importance of family, sacrifice and love: what happens in the video game is not real, but what the player feels when he experiences it is .
It is those memories (well seasoned all with nostalgia) of childhood, of afternoons playing, of victories and defeats and of the decisions made that make Luca face this virus and complete the story, his story . And I cannot speak of the end without mentioning that moment in which, to face the final enemy, the antivirus of the video game appears to aid the protagonist. And who could this guardian be if not a slime, the most representative and iconic monster of the Dragon Quest saga? It is surprising to see how a detail as simple as this can feel like such a powerful and respectful tribute to a saga that in Japan (the country where the film was produced) is a true mass phenomenon and has been part of popular culture since its first installment. .
Films, series, books, comics, plays, songs, operas, sculptures, musicals, vignettes, paintings … Almost any creative product seeks to captivate its audience and, through the tools at its disposal, take them out of their world during a short period of time and abstract it so that it experiences all kinds of new sensations without leaving the site. A video game, no matter who it may be, is also a cultural product and it is also capable of doing this and this film breaks a spear so that the place that video games deserve is recognized.
Dragon Quest: Your Story treats the saga on which it is based with respect and care , knows the importance it has for its followers and manages to transfer that emotion to the screen whether you are a fan of the franchise or not. The film is a journey and, like any journey, it is also an adventure .
