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Dragon Quest 3 Remakehas plenty of locations spread across its world that are analagous to real-world locations. Edina is England, Baharata is India, Jipang is very obvious. And deep in the continent that resembles South America we have Manoza, based on Argentina.
Except Manoza’s people are suffering under a despotic king, one who has taken a sudden change for the worse. There’s quite a bit involved in saving the city, including some magical artefacts that can be used elsewhere in the game. Here’s how to bring this city back to its peaceful glory.
Exploring Manoza City
Exploring The Town
Before you can reach Manoza,you must first find the Ultimate Key, and then use the various Teleportals around the map until you end up in the Wayfarer’s Chapel, which opens into the enclosed mountain range of Manoza. Now you can proceed into the city, and witness the struggles of its people.
Inside, the people will be attending a funeral of a beloved family member who passed, and it is here you learn of the general issues facing the city.The king suddenly turned violent, arresting anyone who dared offend him, including one of his closest friends. The people are on edge, and it is now your duty to bring peace back to Manoza.
Check by the northern graves first topick up a Mini Medal. There will also be a man here at night who only grumbles. Check back here after you’ve gotten Ra’s Mirror for a surprise.
Along the way to the castle, you may encounter an old man who mentions how unsettling he finds it thatthe king sleeps by himself in his room, completely unguarded. Keep this information in mind for later.
As you approach the castle, a friendly face, the son of the true king’s best friend, will tell you of his father’s exile, of the change in the king’s attitude, and briefly allude to the fact that he believes it to be a monster impersonating the king. At this point, you should know that whoever this king is, he’s bad news.Approach the castle.
Of course, the soldiers will not let you through the main gate, sohead to the right insteadand claim to be part of the staff to be allowed entry.
Exploring The Castle
Once you’ve inside the castle, you’ll want toavoid approaching the king yet, as they do not take kindly to unexpected guests. Take this time to search the castle for evidence first.
In the kitchen past where you entered, you will finda Mini Medal in a barrel. From here, weave your way around the throne room to reach the upper right corner of the map, which brings you tothe staircase leading to the second floor. Here, a servant will discuss how they really need to fix the railing on the roof. Proceed upwards.
Indeed, the railing is broken so jump down through it. Run all the way around to the upper left corner of the roof tofind an Imp to recruit, and then enter the door to their right to find yourself in the king’s bedchambers. In here, you can find the rather ironically-titled “Would I Lie To You?” book.
Having uncovered a means to reach the king’s room without going through the throne room, head back to the first floor and enter the throne room. Furious at your presence,he will have you thrown in the prisons immediately. Have no fear though, as this is an easily escapable predicament.
Exit your cell using the Ultimate Key and head to the lower right cell, which is actually a secret passage to a deeper part of the dungeon housing the real king. He will tell you totravel to the cave to the south-east of Manoza, that Ra’s Mirror is hidden here. You have your mission.
Navigating Manoza Cave
Critical Path
Manoza Cave is not an exceptionally long dungeon, nor even a particularly difficult one. It isthe obscene number of mimicsthat make it so difficult. If you’d prefer to play it safe, you may just ignore every chest and following the critical path to acquire Ra’s Mirror nice and quick.
From the entrance,proceed directly north until you can turn to the west, and follow this path until the second south path. This exit will lead you to floor B2. From here, you are immediately in the centre of the room, with another exit far to the south.
This will bring you to floor B3, with a treasure chest you can reach and another on the grassy platform surrounded by water you cannot. Proceed to the next exit, which leads you to floor B4. Which is alsoconspicuously empty. So then where is Ra’s Mirror? Well, we’ll have to return to B2 for that.
From here, you can either wind your way back up through the cave if you want to gather treasures, or you canjust use Evac to escape quicklyand start at the beginning of the cave instead.
Optional Items
Like the monster disguising itself as the King of Manoza, theManoza Cave is hiding plenty of treasuresthough just as many of them are monsters in disguise. You’ll want to bring along a companion withthe Peep spellso you can check anychest you aren’t sure is a mimic or not.
7,921 Gold Coins
B2
The first north path after taking the south path, to the left of the three northmost chests.
Iron Mask
At the end of the north corridor, the lower right chest.
Ice Shield
In the central corridor north of where you find the Rockbomb.
B3
By the left side near a pillar.
The Cat Suit is a humourously rare item, with only around three of them in the game in total. If you want your party to look like the finest delegation of felines there is, you won’t want to miss it.
Getting Ra’s Mirror
The real jewel that you’ve come to Manoza Cave for is Ra’s Mirror, the item that will supposedlyreveal the false king’s true form. Yet having gone to every floor, it’s been nowhere in sight. Ah, but that is because it demands what the majority of Dragon Quest 3’s later dungeons require - tactical falling.
You may recall in floor B2,a large hole in a dedicated room of its own. Well, falling into this hole will lead you directly to floor B3, to the central grassy platform that you previously could not reach. And inside the chest is none other than Ra’s Mirror, the coveted item you were searching for. Finally, you canreturn to Manoza Castlewith this to reveal the monster behind the city’s woes.
Battling The Boss Troll
With Ra’s Mirror in hand, your next task is simple - corner the king. This isn’t possible during the day as they will just arrest you again, though you can do sowhen they go to sleep at night. Do you recall what the old man said earlier, about the king sleeping alone? Follow the route to his bedroom to get started.
Once you’ve entered the room, you can use Ra’s Mirror to reveal the king’s true form, that ofthe Boss Troll. They don’t take very kindly to you revealing their true form, and try to destroy you in battle instead.
Thankfully, the Boss troll is actually quite a simple boss. The hardest challenge in battling them is keeping your party alive against their powerful attacks. They don’t have a massive variety of moves, though they hit hard, andhit twice every turn.
Make sure tobring companions that can heal and buffyou to keep up with the Boss Troll’s powerful attacks. A Sage is great for this as they can heal and buff at the same time, alternating between support and attack.
The Boss Troll is weak to both Fire and Ice, giving you a good degree of freedom in battling them. Though you’re able to use Sap to lower their defences, they have quite a high resistance to this. Make sure toprioritise buffing yourselfbefore weakening the boss.
Overall,their attack pattern doesn’t changethat much. At the beginning of the battle they’ll primarily use a physical attack, throwing eitherKasap or Fuddlein between. Fuddle is one of the strongest moves in their arsenal becauseone confused companionis enough to take down your entire party. Bring confusion immunities if you have accessories for it.
The best strategy in eliminating the Boss Troll’s own turn isusing Snooze on him. He is quite susceptible to being put to sleep, even multiple times in a row. It’s not foolproof, but if you can get a character faster than the boss to cast it, you can effectively remove his turn. He tends to wake up quite quickly though.
UsingAcceleratleis a great way of bringing everyone up to speed, as the Boss troll does not have obscenely high agility.
There’s not much beyond that.He will gain Attack Attackeras his health gets low, though at this point the attack reduction shouldn’t be a major deterrent. Keep at them and they’ll be down in no time.
After their defeat, the real King of Manoza will thank you, allowing you to keep Ra’s Mirror and evengifting you the Mod Rodthat the Boss troll used to assume his form. And with that, Manoza has been saved.
The Mod Rod needs to be given away as part of the story, though you can use it yourself until then togive your party random different looks.
