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You wanna know my personal greatest "Warrior meets Quest" moment?

It's at the end of Dragon Quest VIII, where before Empyrea and her son leave for other worlds, she tells the heroes that she is not a god, nor is Empyrea her original name. What was her original name?

Lamia.

Well, actually she said "Ramia," which makes me wonder a bit at the DQVIII translators in hindsight for not being consistent with older games. But that's minor.

I know that it made me very happy. I know that I've said before that my introduction to the series was Dragon Warrior III, but it was while playing VIII that I realized I was a superfan. It was like my present was calling out to my past!

And then from VIII on, they used the VIII design for Lamia's appearances. In places such as Dragon Quest Monsters Battle Road and the Dragon Quest 25th anniversary intro.

Why am I thinking of this now? Well, for one thing I'm currently playing Dragon Warrior III again (Be on the lookout for fanart! It's a high possibility!), and for another, there is a promotion for Terry's Wonderland 3D going on in Japan right now where you can download two monsters, One of which is Lamia in her original design. And it's not the first time they've done something like this either. They also had a contest when Cobi's Journey and Tara's Adventure came out where the winners would get three special edition monsters put into their game. And wouldn't you know it, Lamia was among them too. I remember reading Nintendo Power at the time and seeing a blurb that said something to the effect of "She helped the hero of Dragon Warrior III, now she can help you too." And being sad that I didn't own either game.

And for the people among us who haven't played Dragon Warrior III, yes, there is Heavenly Flight. It's in VIII too, all orchestrated and beautiful, for those who haven't played VIII either.

So yeah. No one ever talks about this. I have to know if I'm the only one who thinks so highly and has such nostalgia for Lamia. I can't be. What do you think of all this, fellow fans?

I like that part a lot too. And I like it whenever Empyrea or her son pop up in the story proper. And of course, flying in DQVIII is just magical. I know I just flew around for just under an hour after getting the Godbird Soulstone.

It's of course not as magical in DQIII, it being an older game and all, but I did listen to Heavenly flight for a while on the train ride home yesterday while I was playing the game on my gameboy color.