Clearing Dragon Quest VII Reimagined with the Hero Alone: A Complete Record of a Solo Journey Where the Party Falls First

In the first boss fight, against the Golem, the uploader declares that, "having lost their mind," they will defeat the Demon Lord with the hero alone. The rule is simple: once a battle begins, the hero takes no action and waits until the companions fall and are lying on the floor. Only after everyone has fallen does the hero start acting. The uploader decides to follow this procedure in every battle from then on.

Since the Golem uses only physical attacks, the uploader reduced incoming damage with Kabuff, which raises defense, and used the Slime Staff to attack. When a King Slime appears it deals heavy damage, and the staff whittled down the Golem's 300-odd HP. The next boss, Chokkinger, uses Focused Defense and Heal, so the fight requires patience. Here the game's new battle system, "Burst," is introduced. It becomes available periodically as turns pass, among other conditions, and lets you trigger a unique technique fixed to each vocation. The Burst technique of the hero's starting vocation, "Blessing of the Sea," is a buff that nullifies one attack, and the uploader used it on turns when Kabuff had worn off. They won after dealing about 300 damage.

From the Fire Giant fight onward, enemies also use Burst. The Fire Giant's defense drops during its Burst, so the uploader timed their own Burst to the enemy's power-charging move and concentrated their attacks. Each Burst allows four attacks, and they defeated it after repeating this rotation about four times.

Death Amigo casts the powerful spell Zam and occasionally acts twice. According to the uploader, taking two consecutive Zams head-on would wipe the party in a single turn. So they stayed on the defensive for a while and waited for the enemy to run out of MP. Once its MP was gone, the only painful attack left was Windsickle, so they kept enough HP to survive two of those while chipping away with Water Dragon Slash. After this battle, Ruff, a wolf who was turned into a human, joins the party.

The uploader rates Machine Master, the boss of a world invaded by clockwork soldiers, as "quite a tough enemy" even within this adventure. The party gained one more member, but in their words, "that has nothing to do with us."

Machine Master acts twice per turn and lands critical hits with high probability. It summons up to four clockwork soldiers, which even a King Slime cannot defeat in one hit. On top of that, wounding them prompts it to heal everyone with Multiheal. The uploader therefore ignored the soldiers and targeted only the main body. On average there is just under one critical hit per turn, but on rare turns it uses only normal attacks. The uploader set their action priorities as follows: Heal if HP was below the amount of two critical hits, Kabuff if Kabuff had worn off, and attack only otherwise. Since this game lets you change equipment mid-battle, they normally used the Holy Knife and the Slime Heart to raise their evasion, switching to the Iron Axe and the Ring of Strength only when attacking. This was a measure to avoid taking critical hits as much as possible. The battle lasted tens of minutes, and they won by dealing with it carefully to the very end.

The Death Machine that Machine Master summons immediately afterward is said in the story to be strong enough to destroy an entire continent. In the uploader's assessment, however, it was "not strong at all," with only its very rare critical hits being barely painful. They waited for the party to fall to its all-target fire attack, and kept physical damage at 0 with defensive equipment and Kabuff. When the buff was erased by Disruptive Wave, they reapplied it, and otherwise just beat it down.

In the world of the Yuvalan tribe, a musician eager to revive God ignores the chief's attempts to stop him and forces the ritual ahead. The ritual fails, and the musician turns into a monster. In this fight against "Jan," a dancer joins in to help, but she keeps singing the whole time, which makes it hard for the companions to fall. It took 10 minutes for Ruff to go down.

Once the hero started acting, Kabuff nullified physical attacks. According to the uploader, up to that point they had been able to keep their HP thanks to defending, but once they switched to attacking, they might die without Kabuff. They defeated the roughly 1,300-HP enemy with dozens of Water Dragon Slashes. After this, Kiefer finds his own path in life and leaves the journey. The uploader sees him off with the joke, "He never grew up to the very end."

At Alltrades Abbey, the party is tricked by a fake high priest and sent to the lower town. The fight against Inop and Gonz after rescuing the real high priest was easy because two NPCs take part. While the uploader was waiting, the NPCs defeated one of the bosses, and the hero hurriedly joined in.

Rescuing the high priest makes vocation changes available. The uploader made the hero a Comedian. Its Burst technique, "Comic Spirit," neutralizes physical attacks, and when it succeeds it raises charm and strengthens Hip Attack. Neris at the arena has just over 500 HP, so a few Hip Attacks finished her off. The reason for choosing Comedian is also explained later. From the arena onward, boss fights follow immediately after changing vocations. The uploader didn't want to keep going back to grind proficiency, so they chose Hip Attack as a technique usable right from ★1.

In the fight against the fake high priest, Antoria, High Priest Fos takes part as an NPC. Fos heals and revives allies on her own, so as long as any allies were alive, the hero had no choice but to keep defending. There was even a moment when the uploader thought the party had finally been wiped out, only for Fos to revive them. So the uploader decided to leave everything but the finishing blow to Fos. Antoria's HP on this difficulty is just under 2,000, and when Fos has nothing else to do she attacks with Crackle. The estimate was that around 60 casts would bring Antoria down. It was a victory won while praying at the end that the allies would fall at the right time.

After this, the hero changes vocation to Shepherd and fights in this vocation for a long time. The approach is to raise defense with Wool Guard, trigger the Burst technique "Raging Sheep," and then attack with Mutton Attack, an offensive technique that scales with defense. The uploader rates its damage output as good for this point in the game, and says it is extremely effective against physically focused enemies; barring critical hits and status ailments, it can basically shut them out on its own.

The members of the Bandit Gang each have just under 300 HP, and one Mutton Attack plus the sheep's follow-up attack took them down one by one. The Bandit Chief was "comfortable" because he wipes out the party with Boom right at the start. One Boom exhausts his MP, and he doesn't use it again. Against the Bone Rider (around 1,600 HP), the ice resistance raised by Wool Guard also served as a countermeasure against Crackle. Mutton Attack also carries weapon effects, so the Holy Lance boosted the damage, and it fell in about four hits. Set, the ruler of the desert (just under 2,000 HP), uses only physical attacks and was nearly harmless; since ice is effective against it, the Ice Blade kept the fight to five hits.

In the duel with the Guardians of the Yuvalans, the dancer Aishe joins as an NPC. The uploader remarks, "Now as ever, Shepherds run rampant in Dragon Quest VII." The enemies have HP in the 300–400 range, and Mutton Attack, the sheep, and Aishe were nearly enough to defeat them. The scene where Aishe shows off her Burst technique also serves as an explanation of how to use her, and the uploader praises it as "good design." They left the last enemy to Aishe.

In the fight against Gracos, the cause of the world where land has sunk beneath the sea, a familiar old musician takes part. This old musician tries to revive fallen allies every turn, so the companions keep getting back up and the hero cannot start acting. The only openings to attack are the brief moments when a revival fails.

The uploader dealt with this through turn order. The old musician has high agility and tends to act before the enemy. So the uploader lowered the hero's agility with equipment to raise the odds of the order "old musician → Gracos → hero." That way, Gracos knocks down the allies the old musician revives, and then the hero's turn comes around. When the chance arrived, they used the Martial Artist's Burst technique, "Sure-Crit Stance," switched equipment, and fired off a Mutton Attack. Gracos has just under 4,000 HP, and the war of patience with the old musician continued until six of these landed. For the sixth, they exploited the fact that Gracos in its Burst state is weak to ice, finishing it with a blow strengthened by the Ice Blade and the Lilliputian Heart.

In the next tower, King Slime has low HP, so poisoning it and then using the Thief's Thanatos Hunt was enough. The Sky Dragon opens with an all-target attack, and the uploader comments that "bosses that open with an all-target attack are all good guys." The Shepherd could completely neutralize physical attacks, and the Bandit Heart roughly offset the breath damage. It went down after six Mutton Attacks.

When the legendary hero Melvin joins the party, the uploader shows irritation that battles will become even more of a hassle. On the other hand, they also point out the advantages of having grown to five. The problem of the hero being targeted constantly and unable to act disappeared, and the hero could now always start acting in a Burst state. Since making use of Burst is the core of combat in this game, this made tactics easier to plan. Amefurashi (2,400 HP) was defeated with six Mutton Attacks. The uploader also admits their true feelings: they want to try new vocations, but the advanced vocations are still far off, and in the first place, getting the party to fall is so tedious that they can't be bothered with regular battles.

On the way to the magical kingdom, the uploader obtained the Miracle Sword. It is a weapon that restores 25% of the damage dealt, and from then on they could heal while attacking. Medil's Messenger (around 2,500 HP) fell to seven Mutton Attacks from the Shepherd.

Zeppel, a king turned into a monster by the ultimate magic, kindly burned away the party with Kasizzle. He uses an ice-element breath, so he matches up well against the Shepherd, but the uploader says, "In the end, the weapon's effect heals me enough, so it doesn't really matter." His HP is fairly high at just over 4,000, but the counter-magic the high priest had been researching weakens the enemy, letting the hero deal damage that would normally be impossible. The uploader explains that this created a situation where the weapon's recovery effect could just barely keep up.

The Shepherd era ends with the fight against Botoku, and the hero takes up advanced vocations. The pattern became raising attack with Oomph, further increasing power with the Gladiator's Burst technique, and pressing the attack with the Armamentalist's "Frozen Frenzy." Against the Dark Djinn, they used Heart-and-Soul Slash. The uploader analyzes that powerful single-hit techniques have an advantage over things like Frozen Frenzy because the Miracle Sword restores more HP from them.

Hell Clouder calls for allies, and its minions, which use Snooze and Swoosh, are also troublesome; in fact, the hero was put to sleep once, leading to a dangerous moment. They cast Oomph before being hit with Fizzle and targeted the main body with Heart-and-Soul Slash. The Gladiator's Burst also increases damage taken, but the Miracle Sword kept HP up. Since its 5,000-plus HP couldn't be whittled down in one go, they thinned out the minions with Searing Slash before the Burst ran out, and reapplied Oomph before the enemy Burst. If HP had fallen short, Miracle Slash was also an option, but this time they judged that the recovery from Heart-and-Soul Slash was enough.

Gamadeus (just under 4,000 HP) went down to four Heart-and-Soul Slashes of around 1,000 each. Looking back, the uploader says the Miracle Sword was the weapon that greatly sped up the mid-game solo journey, and without it the video would probably have been 1.5 times longer. They also comment that the errand scenario of going to collect moss has a nice old-school JRPG flavor.

Balikunaja, which acts three times per turn, uses only normal attacks, so the "Heaven and Earth Stance" could counter all three, and the uploader says they hit back a total of 27 times in a single turn. When the enemy shows signs of Bursting, its normal attacks stop, so they applied buffs during that window. They saved their own Burst, and after the enemy's Burst, once the barrage of normal attacks resumed, they powered up with the Armamentalist's Burst.

In the Demon Lord fight, the uploader centered their strategy on the Pirate's Burst technique, "Rumbling Cannon." Its effect heals on attack and also raises attack and defense, and the uploader explains that as long as you keep attacking, it's like having permanent Oomph and Kabuff with healing thrown in. Recovering with the Bandit Heart, they fired Frozen Frenzy with the Water Dragon Sword, the highest-attack weapon at this point.

When the enemy Bursts and its attacks intensify, they restore HP to full with Miracle Slash and go on the defensive. Even after the Burst ended, the attack boost remained, which kept Miracle Slash's healing amount up. The uploader says that Miracle Slash with buffs is almost essential against the onslaught during the enemy's Burst. Even so, HP was gradually whittled away, and restoring it to max before the Burst was what let them just barely hold out. When switching to offense, they used Frozen Frenzy with a regular weapon to exploit the ice weakness, and attacked the second form (around 5,000 HP) the same way. As frightening moves, they list "Sharp Spikes," which nearly kills even from max HP if taken twice, and "War Cry," which can stun and leave you unable to move. Remarking that it also mixes in normal attacks that do almost no damage, so "if you've been living right, you can survive surprisingly well," they won.

After defeating the Demon Lord, at the ritual to revive God, someone who has taken God's place is revived. The uploader mentions that this background is told in detail in the novelization and elsewhere. They follow the story in a joking tone, calling the temple a "luxury high-rise" and saying the world was plunged into darkness when they came to view the apartment. In the fight against Bondol, where Melvin fights alone to save the hero and the others trapped on an isolated island, Melvin, automatically set to Lv35, won by using the Warrior's Psyche Up to grant a sure-hit effect.

The Fire Spirit (around 6,000 HP) was tackled as a short, decisive battle. After casting Oomph, they fired Frozen Frenzy with Doppelganger using offensive equipment, then switched back to endurance equipment and waited for the next Burst. The calculation was that after defending about three times, Burst would be charged before Oomph wore off.

Before the Nengal fight, they obtained the Shield of Sorrow, which makes it easier to draw enemy attacks to allies other than the hero. The uploader is pleased that this lets them get the party to fall efficiently. In battle, they boosted power with Cosmic Force and parried normal attacks with the Heaven and Earth Stance. The Timemaster Heart makes the stance last two turns, so they cast Oomph in between. However, the enemy's "Sword Dance" during its Burst cannot be nullified with the stance. So when they saw the warning signs, they raised defense with the Fairy Sword to deal with it. The uploader cautions that although it looks weak, it's powerful enough to kill you outright if you take it head-on.

Even after it's revealed that God's true identity is the Demon Lord Orgodemir, the uploader still had tablets left over, so they decided to save the other worlds first. Along the way, they reunite with Kiefer. Since Kiefer, "who we parted with at Lv1," has also grown, the uploader wanted to show how strong they'd become too, and in the Airos fight they defeated the boss with a sequence of Psyche Up, Burst Doppelganger, and Multifists.

Borunga uses only single-target attacks, so it knocked down the allies one at a time for them. After that, they stacked up preparations with Oomph, Psyche Up, an equipment change, and Doppelganger, and defeated it in one go with Multifists. Hellbaom, energized by the darkness lifting, calls for allies, but since they only use normal attacks, the uploader ignored them and targeted the main body. Its HP is low, so Oomph wasn't needed; Psyche Up and Doppelganger alone were enough, they say.

In the final battle, the uploader waits for the party to fall to breath attacks and then turns it into a one-on-one fight. The opening move is to raise attack with the Oceano Sword and stack Psyche Up. The final boss has four forms in total, and the uploader wore an Iron Pot to deliberately lower their agility, creating a state where the second form would act first.

The second form shows signs of Bursting on its first move. So they switched to the Hero's Staff and the Timemaster Heart and weathered it by turning into a lump of iron with Kaclang. According to the uploader, the enemy's Disruptive Wave cancels Bounce but not Kaclang, so they could stay frozen with peace of mind. After the Burst ended, they switched to the Captain's Hat, which raises agility, increasing the chance of acting first and denying the enemy one action. With Oomph and Psyche Up applied, they used Multifists with the Ice Blade, which matches its elemental weakness, to defeat the second form.

The third form's weakness changes, so they switched to the Flame Sword, and used the Timemaster Heart and the Heaven and Earth Stance to deflect its powerful physical attacks while stacking buffs in between. The third form in its Burst state constantly curses you, halving your max HP, but the uploader explains that it's fine because the Grim Reaper doesn't come while you're in the stance. Once the preparations were complete, they settled it with Multifists.

In the final form, they switched to the Hero's Staff to lift the curse, extending its duration with the Timemaster Heart, while aiming to have the curse removed by the Disruptive Wave that comes on the third turn. The Mysterious Armor can restore HP, so the damage taken against the third form can also be healed all at once here. Once they could move after the Disruptive Wave, they switched to the Oceano Sword and prepared to attack. When the enemy showed signs of building up magic, they switched to the Ripple Sword and weathered Magic Burst. After that, they lined up Oomph and Psyche Up, boosted firepower with the Berserker Helm since they had the sure-hit state, added the Killer Panther Heart since HP was full, and defeated the Demon Lord with a final Multifists.

Reaching the ending, the uploader reports that they have finished saving the world with the hero alone. Looking back, they say that going it alone made the individuality of the enemies and vocations feel all the more vivid, letting them enjoy the game in a different way. They then say that they think adventure means daring to take on something with no guarantee of success, and conclude that in that sense, this journey was a great adventure for them as well.