It’s 9:00 AM, I’ve been up all night, and I’m a few drinks in (I’m an overnight worker on a night off, don’t judge me) and I suddenly felt like this would be a fun little blog post to make!

So, DZ & Riggy vs the Fantasy World is a follow-up/spiritual sequel to DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) II. Of course, it cannot be a direct sequel because World(s) II starred actual real life DZ and Riggy while Fantasy World stars fantasy/medieval versions of the two. So, how is this still a follow-up since it’s not called “DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) III”? Well, there are some similarities and I just randomly feel like listing them! So…

1. Familiar Stat Names: Character stats are once again called power, guard, wit, ego, reflex, and luck. I almost used different terms for the stats when I started the game, but then I said to myself, “Why not just keep them the same?” So I did!

2. Equippable Abilities: In the previous game, the player equipped DZ, Riggy, and friends with amiibos to grant them temporary abilities to use in battle. This returns in the form of Tech Cores, an equippable item that can be purchased in most towns. Many bosses also drop Tech Cores of their own signature abilities.

3. That Chrono Cross/Trigger Music: A musical piece I used in the previous game was from the Chrono series (Lucca’s Theme in Trigger, Summer’s Cry in Cross) and it would play whenever you would beat most of the worlds. I decided to bring this back again! Whenever you beat a boss battle, this jingle plays as your victory fanfare. Originally, I used a fanfare tune from RPG Maker 2000, but I felt like using this track was more appropriate for the sake of continuity/consistency.

4. That Sounds Familiar: I literally grabbed the entire sound effect folder for the last game and plopped it into this game’s directory. So, you’ll be hearing a lot of the same sound effects. For better or for worse.

5. Overworld Bosses: In the previous game, you would unlock some optional overworld boss fights by completing certain worlds that were intended to be optional super bosses. In this game, you can find “rift hunters” in taverns that start appearing a few hours into the game. These rift hunters look for dimensional incursions into the world from other realities and close them. Rift hunters can hire the party to help! Enemies that come through these rifts on the overworld are from existing commercial games and is intended to be a direct nod to the themes of DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) II. Unlike in the previous game, these are not super bosses and can be beaten as soon as you’re able to fight them!

6. Familiar Faces: Outside of the six party members, a lot of community members (and some very obvious cats and dogs) show up again! Even though there are currently only six planned party members, I still set out to make 100% sure that EVERYONE who appeared in DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) II will reappear in this game in some form or another.

7. Returning Portraits: Every party member in this game uses the same portrait that I cobbled together in the generator for DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) II. The only exception is Sp1TehKey since his portrait had headphones on, so I redid his!

8. Musical Cues: The title theme from DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) II, which is a fantastic track by the composer of the internet, Kevin MacLeod, is used yet again on the title screen for this game. I’ve also reused the exact same font for the title screen and the in-game dialogue windows.

9. Same God Damn Mini-Games: Blackjack, Triple Triad, even the freakin’ slot machine. They’re all back. Triple Triad’s been modified to play slightly differently, but it’s still here!

10. Community Created Characters: Brungle, Ganglim, Hudson, Jugman, Vera (my Blackmoon Prophecy self-insert NPC) and more all return yet again!

11. FREEDUM: A big part of the previous game was doing things in whatever order you wanted, though you had to be somewhat careful due to the difficulty rating of the worlds. I’ve decided to try and make this game feel a little open as well. While the story is linear (since this is just DZ & Riggy: The JRPG), players still get to explore pretty freely a few hours in after obtaining a vehicle to travel all across the world. Don’t feel like going where you need to go? Put the brakes on the story and just go exploring!

12. Intro Sequence: The intro for the last game had a goofy sounding AI voice laid over black and white scenes followed by a parody of the Rocky title crawl. Guess what? These two things are both back.

13. spectrumbranch Music: spectrum’s gone from just composing the final boss theme to composing the regular battle theme that you will be hearing ALL. OF. THE. TIME!

There are some other shared similiarities between this game and DZ & Riggy vs the World(s) II, but I am seeing double and cannot think of them right now. I hope that the elements that I’ve carried over from the last game to maintain a sense of continuity are appreciated!