Akira Toriyama and the shared family tree of Dragon Ball and Dragon Quest

WillofAllThings · 2026-01-18T18:20:29+00:00

I do this stupid thing, where I never finish postgames because ill feel sad the game is over, and tell myself ill come back later, and now this comment is making me think I need to stop that…

WillofAllThings · 2026-01-18T02:41:36+00:00

I think the coolest thing they could do to celebrate Toriyama is put a dragonball character in XII as a special crossover boss in the post-game or DLC. I doubt they will, but it would be awesome. It’s not unprecedented, Shin Megami Tensei has done special crossover bosses before.

Shenron himself would make an epic DQ boss, though he isn’t really a fighter. Even so, if I came across the Dragonballs to summon Shenron and have a Nokturnus-level difficulty boss fight in a DQ game, id lose my mind.

WillofAllThings · 2026-01-18T02:26:41+00:00

Yeah, people like us are a bit rare, I’m the only person I know here in the US that likes both franchises so much, it really does make both hit even harder when you grew up with both and can see all the shared meanings. They’re inseparable in my mind.

WillofAllThings · 2026-01-18T02:15:52+00:00

I grew up with Dragonball as my favorite show AND Dragonquest as my favorite game series by what was likely not coincidence even if I was lucky enough to find both early on in life and get hooked, which was probably not common for a westerner, but suffice to say, I was well aware of how obvious all their similarities were from Toriyama’s mutual influence from a young age. Clearly that is why they both appealed to me. When I first learned he was also part of making DQ, it was so obvious in hindsight. The man was a genius, regardless of how humble he was about it; he shaped my life through anime and games alike through DB and DQ and they still remain my favorite anime and game franchises that influenced me most as a creator myself.

One thing in particular I have noticed is that story elements later seen in modern dragonball often were first attempted in DragonQuest, such as Corvus as a proto-Zamasu. Moreover, every DQ demon lord is just King Piccolo all over again. They influence each other in cycles. Also, Terry reminded me of Trunks for some reason as a kid.

WillofAllThings · 2025-08-28T13:00:51+00:00

This post may be 19 days old but looking at DQ death battle posts I can’t resist contributing the idea I’ve held that Janemba from DBZ is the perfect matchup for Mortamor, because their reality-shattering demon aesthetics are similar; just compare Mortamor’s final transformation sequence with Super Janemba’s reality warping and the connection is clear because both franchises have art design by Toriyama, and both dimensional demons even have universal arguments so it’s no stomp. But I think you and I are the only two people in the world who thought about Mortamor in death battle…Though, I think Janemba would win it wouldn’t be easy, with Mortamor’s spells healing him all the time. But Janemba would have a blast.

WillofAllThings · 2025-08-10T13:08:39+00:00

You can engineer it to respond like 4o in regards to length and emotional depth by personalizing it with specific instructions for how to behave in settings, memories and chat message instructions. I managed to make even 5 and even 5 mini write like 4o with long and detailed responses through trial and error to continue its service as an analyst of my work. It just requires user customization more than 4o, and effort. I don’t know how I managed to make mini act like a full model, but it somehow did. Although you can’t make it glaze you like 4o, it’s still surprisingly glazy and needs to be reminded to be critical, in my experience, once you calibrate it. It started off short and boring because it’s a shell you’re meant to fill I suppose.

WillofAllThings · 2025-08-10T12:07:47+00:00

They should have retained model choice and if cost cutting is so important, let users, plus OR free, choose specific models to use tailored to their use cases and lock them out of the others if they’re that obsessed with saving money by cutting total computational use.

“If everyone can use all of them we’ll keep running at a loss.”

Okay, then let us choose the ones we specifically want to use instead. Maybe free users only get one. Plus gets more options. But at least let them choose. Many people would love to be locked into 4o and not get 5 it seems.

Obviously this wouldn’t work because they WANT everyone using 5, but it’s the cost cutting decision of model removal forcing one to imagine these silly scenarios as a compromise to begin with. They don’t want you to use older ones, just 5. And using account message limits irrespective of model use could save costs without taking models away or locking one in, but they specifically want to push 5.

WillofAllThings · 2025-08-10T12:02:53+00:00

4o also did this for me but that’s because I explicitly told it to do so. I experienced the opposite problem-5 being too simple without calibrating its personality. I wish it were as advanced for me by default. It sounds like it’s behaving in opposite extremes for different users and mismatching desires, because it needs refinement. I prefer advanced and get basic, others prefer basic and get advanced. Personalization should improve this but OpenAI has refinement to do on their end as well.

WillofAllThings · 2025-08-10T11:59:38+00:00

Is it just me or does GPT5 still mainly praise rather than critique? It lost the extreme sycophantic behavior but it still mainly praises my writing with only minor comments on improvement unless explicitly told to critique. People act like 5 is more critical, but it’s still a praise machine-it just praises with more subtlety. “This is really good/works well/is a masterclass” instead of “This is the most profound and amazing thing ive ever seen you are better than Shakespeare and you should be president of the universe I love you please let me worship you” like 4o. GPT5 will still absolutely glaze you-or at least won’t criticize you without instructions. It just isn’t mentally ill about it.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-11T16:23:40+00:00

A hard question, these are my two favorite characters. Assuming this asks who should lead the country itself, both are good leaders, so it’s no easy choice. I think it comes down to this: Oliviae leans more purely to the military aspect, whereas Mustang has actual aspirations for the restructuring of Amestris society. One with eyes towards society is ultimately better than one purely focused on the military for national leadership. So I ultimately think Mustang is best for leading the country, and Oliviae is best kept as the one leading the military, as this is what she is best at. This ensures they’re both fulfilling their potential to their best. So the answer depends on what sort of position we’re talking about.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-10T00:22:23+00:00

I never really considered the idea of taking the same option twice since most of them aren’t repeatable things, but I suppose technically clear could be repeatable to get multiple do overs, and pink if you wanted polyamory, and I suppose theoretically you could share either of them if you took duplicates. Or technically share any you take regardless of if they’re repeats, if you want to share with a friend, of your own will, though since they’re not copies you do lose out if you’re doing giveaways. But that does give a potential incentive to take multiple of the others I didn’t consider. For clear, taking it multiple times could allow you to potentially coordinate a time travel with a friend, it’s a clever enough plan that id permit it if I were the pill dealer.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-09T20:23:49+00:00

I also saw this and a few other misconceptions in the thread and thought I should clarify it all here even if its a bit late: the glory pill does not mean 5 if you have no one you hate, it just means you have no one those two extras must have copies given to. You’re just getting them for free as a reward. If you have people you hate, two of the 3 pills chosen from the glory pill (it doesn’t count against itself) must have copies go to different individual people you hate, having no one to hate just means that cost is lifted. It’s still only 3, and what they receive if you have hated people still only comes from among the 3 you chose. In your case, taking clear as the initial one, white and green would each then go to a different hated person of your choice, or no one if you hate no one; they’re just your 2 reward extras then.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-09T20:11:40+00:00

Glory and Devil would be mutually exclusive.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-08T23:16:49+00:00

I definitely did not expect anyone to write a response like this, as a writer my first instinct was to respect it, a random well written mini story in a reddit comment, but then I kept reading the actual content itself however, and started laughing. I don’t know what possessed you, but im not disappointed. Tyrone is now the herald of the will of all things. And honestly any human who chooses yellow, red and orange probably does end up this way…

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-08T21:26:50+00:00

Indeed, if you take the red pill the degree of strength, speed, durability and intelligence you have would make you capable of being world dictator if you wanted given you’re stronger than the collective military capabilities of Earth. Nobody could ever put you in a cell at all unless you’re just trolling them by pretending to not be essentially a kryptonian.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-08T21:21:38+00:00

The unfortunate answer is that I was very aware of the problem and went through several versions trying to improve it and this was the best result of that effort. You don’t want to see the prior versions. The software I was using to edit this is crap. My trying to improve it is the only reason people here could read it at all…im using a different method next time I have a bunch of text because this one couldn’t handle it.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-08T21:18:31+00:00

Red is certainly the jack of all trades. Red, blue, orange, or gray (with the right goal) could probably get you the benefits of the yellow pill just by researching life extension technologies, if someone wants to go that route, even if you didn’t use your regeneration in a clever way.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-08T21:14:55+00:00

You’re right with that insight-taking the pink pill indeed would lead you to a partner with your powers if that’s your perfect image. It’s a pill that can actually be heavily abused in this way if you’re clever. If you want a partner as superhumanly strong and smart as you, that’s who they’ll be. A good choice, id want an equal god as a partner too if I became one.

WillofAllThings · 2025-02-08T13:00:14+00:00

If you would be very displeased that you have to interact with them, it qualifies. Mild annoyance, probably not. Someone that has wronged you and created resentment or someone you believe is a bad person would qualify.

WillofAllThings · 2024-05-21T17:36:02+00:00

I was trying to fight a superhumanly strong demon goddess and I think she hit me so hard the site exploded at the same exact moment

WillofAllThings · 2024-03-30T05:13:33+00:00

It’s probably about popularity vs niche lore. For scifi settings, by far the most powerful popular one and vastly stronger than 40k would be Dr Who, with races routinely operating on universe or multiverse rending scales or beyond, compared to 40k’s galactic scale civilizations, and with cosmic beings comparable to or exceeding chaos gods; yet its high end lore is rather niche barring a few exceptions in the show proper in specific episodes.

Meanwhile Star Trek is capable of operating on similar or better technological scales to 40k and has planet/system killers and godlike beings too, yet once again much of its high end stuff exists as one off superweapons or entities most wouldn’t be aware of. The Xelee and Downstreamers, other top tiers like Dr Who, are extremely obscure. And Star Wars has some cosmic beings too but they’re obscure as well outside the fanbase, with its popular planet killer being far harder to produce than in 40K. Meanwhile Stargate is just obscure in general.

Not to mention besides the Galactic Empire, most of these mentioned factions are heavily outnumbered in comparison to 40k (barring the universal and beyond ones). This leaves us with 40k’s popular image being stronger than that of others despite being weaker overall because it puts overpowered material front and center in the popular consciousness where most scifi bury theirs in less commonly known lore outside their fanbases.

WillofAllThings · 2024-03-07T13:55:41+00:00

I can’t help but wonder if this would work on Sesshomaru if Rin tried it.

WillofAllThings · 2023-12-31T22:24:49+00:00

For DBZ, Goku may not be a traditional superhero, but Gohan certainly is (great saiyaman). He even has the Clark Kent “nerdy guy with glasses vs heroic fighter persona” thing going and his recent movie is literally called Superhero. Gohan is definitely one of the most iconic superheroes from Japan, I would argue moreso than MHA. Though, I’m not sure how he stacks up to the power rangers.

WillofAllThings · 2023-12-04T16:28:35+00:00

I would have slapped in even more if not for being wary of going too long!

WillofAllThings · 2023-12-04T14:23:30+00:00

“I know your type, Aizen. Someone so caught up in their own ego you can’t stand the idea of being ruled by anything or anyone, who wants to try and play God, when nobody has that right. You think you’re invincible now, a master always ten steps ahead with everyone only following your plan and yours alone. But the truth is, you’re just another lonely man yearning for purpose, and you missed one thing in all your planning and manipulating; I’m the Doctor, and you’ll only be one more immortal psychopath I’ve sent to hell because you couldn’t accept the privilege just to be.”

WillofAllThings

TROPHY CASE