Himaji Pane Frees Desert Queen in Dragon Quest VII Reimagined With Party Still Three Strong

.LIVE — Himaji Pane rescued a captive queen from a demon-lord statue late in a nearly four-hour stream on Tuesday night, the eighth installment of her playthrough of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. The member of .LIVE’s VPI first generation is playing it as a *miri-shira* run, meaning she goes in knowing next to nothing about the story, and her party was still one short of a full four.

She opened by returning to the present-day world to build up job experience, then took on a shuffle minigame run by a shopkeeper, working out the right moves from memory. The prizes included a pair of Happy Shoes, an accessory that earns experience as the wearer walks, and chat flooded in with cheers, saying the gear was too good to pick up so early in the game.

“If Maribel said she was leaving the party, I’d quit this game. I could take losing Kiefer, but Maribel is a different matter.” — Himaji Pane, on the thought of losing a party member

In the past, a bandit fight went badly once paralysis set in, and the party was wiped out. The bandits buried the party, but the story carried on and the only cost was gold. Pane said that was faster than being sent back to a save point, noting that viewers disagreed about what a defeat costs in the game.

In the desert kingdom, a fossil she had picked up in the present led a scholar to join the party for a trip back in time. At a village chief’s funeral the bones were returned to the river, and the ancient dragon the villagers had long sought rose from the water. A young villager rode it upriver to find the queen.

The party then worked through a puzzle-filled dungeon inside the statue and beat its boss in a long fight, layering defense-lowering spells, healing over time and earth-element traps while Pane played the healer. Removing the dark ruby that had kept the desert in darkness brought the statue down and saved the queen. Pane then wore the Happy Shoes and said she could not stop walking once the experience started rolling in. She said she would give up the game if Maribel ever left the party.

Pane said she would appear in a one-hour slot from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 8, in a relay stream by the group’s second generation, who are marking their second anniversary. She signed off saying Dragon Quest was planned for the next day as well.