just Dragon Quest XI

I dont think -at this point in my life- that I will ever get onto this franchise! I tried the PS2 Game back in the day that was later ported to the 3ds.. and I simply cannot get into it. I might give it one lats try

farley3k wrote:

11 Tips For Dragon Quest XI

I was wondering how big a role metal slimes would play here. Aside from giving dual attacks to each member to improve your odds, encounters with them seem like a game of chance, considering their maddening tendency to flee 33% of the time.

The "no fleeing" and "no buying things" settings seem doable, considering you can't flee boss battles anyway and crafted items are more powerful than store bought stuff.

Darkhaund wrote:

I dont think -at this point in my life- that I will ever get onto this franchise! I tried the PS2 Game back in the day that was later ported to the 3ds.. and I simply cannot get into it. I might give it one lats try

It's ... different. If you approach DQ like any other JRPG then you're likely gonna grow bored. You gotta come at it knowing it's a long burn and probably a bit archaic, but there is decent payoff.

The Kotaku review pretty much spends the entire time explaining that. Yeah, it's long, yeah it can be slow, but you're hanging out with your buds. Come chill!

Darkhaund wrote:

I dont think -at this point in my life- that I will ever get onto this franchise! I tried the PS2 Game back in the day that was later ported to the 3ds.. and I simply cannot get into it. I might give it one lats try

I sometimes think nostalgia plays alot into the love of the series. I was speaking to a friend about it and realized it's a pretty hard recommendation for people who aren't familiar with the series or at the very least dont prefer old style jrpgs to modern takes on it.

I like that the series has remained pretty true to its roots rarely evolving or shaking things up to drastically. Its always been kind of a bastion of comfort for me. Jrpgs were my favorite genre until the PS2 era where stories and character became more complicated as did the game play and mechanics. I liked the simple stories and tropey characters of old games. Even final fantasy has changed drastically from those traditional fantasy games I loved as a kid.

I am sure the genre as a whole is much better now that it has evolved past alot of the old mechanics but it lost some of the charm along the way. I liked a good vs evil battle for the world, protaganists that fall into the savior tropes without a ton of subtlety or shades of grey. I like grinding and random battles and not having to worry about a ton of different systems and mechanics. Again I know I'm in the minority.

I just feel that jrpgs now are either persona type stories with a group of school kids that balance dungeons and living daily life, monster collecting games, or exploit weakness mechanics and tales style or real time combat. I know that boils alot of games down to the most basic format but that's how they feel to me and it's just never held much appeal.

I'm glad there is still a series that I can count on that plays the same as the games I loved as a kid. That said if none of the other games did anything for you I doubt this one will either, it's a very similar game just alot prettier.

I agree and I understand. I also experienced 1st hand the evolution... Final Fantasy was a beloved servies by me. But after 10.... and ell 12.... things have never ever been the same for me.

13 was disgusting IMO and I dont even know about 13-2 and 13-5
15 was OK, but id did not feel like a FF GAME.

The Tales series -is as of now- my favorite
I have tried to get into Trails of cold steel, but it is going so so

I loved Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I CANT WAIT for the Torna expansion.
Given my limited time and backlog is one of the main reasons i hesitate to get into this game

The sound that plays when you exit an area is a riff on the original NES "stair step" descending sound from Dragon Quest 1:

https://www.soundboard.com/sb/sound/...

I feel like one's opinion on whether this is incredibly lazy or charming nostalgic will probably carry over the to entire game as a whole (for the record: I love it!)

Darkhaund wrote:

I have tried to get into Trails of cold steel, but it is going so so

Another slow burner, though not as slow burning as as Trails in the Sky.

I'm gonna go out on a limb that action tends to be more appealing to you right now than turn based games. If you want to play a Falcom game you might be better off giving Tokyo Xanadu or Ys a go. (Or, alternatively, DQ Heroes 2 or DQ Builders.)

DQ games, and the Trails series, are about the journey and not the destination. The journey may seem boring at times, and it can be, but then you'll talk to an NPC who has the worst best worst best pun ever and it'll make you smile. There's a streak of melancholy throughout DQ games that runs counter to the cheerful exterior. For instance, much of DQ7 is about uncovering tragedy. It's what makes some of the vignettes so appealing. They're games that are better on reflection. The Trails series is set in the same world and all the games lightly connect back to an overarching plot. There really isn't any modern games doing what Falcom is doing. It's unfortunate that both Falcom and DQ are trope-driven, but one has to accept that because it is what it is. (Though some of the homophobic jokes in some earlier Trails games are unacceptable to me. I've never found DQ to be as offensive.)

Honestly, if you want to get into the DQ series the best way is to play them on mobile devices. The original trilogy is especially easy to play on your phone since movement is limited and there's no camera to fiddle with. The first two games are merely appetizers, but DQ3 is where things start getting truly interesting. They play really well on mobile and allow you to quick save anywhere. It's awesome and I hope the retro, top-down 3DS version of XI gets ported to mobile one day. It would probably be the best RPG on a phone, honestly.

Bringing this back to DQXI, I'm not sure it'll be the game to get you into DQ if DQVIII didn't do it. There are some quality of life improvements the series absolutely needed, but this is very much a greatest hits DQ game. There's no major innovation here other than being a massive, AAA funded console traditional JRPG. That's pretty rare these days, but it'll probably be best on Switch where you can lay in bed with it or play on a plane rather than sitting in front of your tv.

JustJosh wrote:

The sound that plays when you exit an area is a riff on the original NES "stair step" descending sound from Dragon Quest 1:

https://www.soundboard.com/sb/sound/...

I feel like one's opinion on whether this is incredibly lazy or charming nostalgic will probably carry over the to entire game as a whole (for the record: I love it!)

Pokemon does the same thing. Tradition is important in Japan, so I think it's neat they continue to keep small traditions alive. It's not as if there aren't new sounds in the games (and more new music would be very welcome in DQ) but that feeling of tradition and comfort is important to many.

Heck, I'd even counter Rave's description as DQ not changing much as that was always my impression, but most of the games have shaken things up a lot while the battle system remained similar. From job systems to being Pokemon before there was Pokemon the games have mixed interesting mechanics into the games that then influence the rest of the genre.

Anyone mind if we change the title to just Dragon Quest XI?

If cost of entry isnt really an issue I'd say this is as good a jumping in point as any. The mobile versions of the DQ games are very good but honestly 1 and 2 dont hold up especially well. 4, 5 and 6 are all fantastic ports short of controls with 4 arguably being the most complete version of the game that's ever been available.
Most fans will tell you 5 and 8 are the series high points but 8 has a pretty awful (but still playable) mobile port. There is still no official word on a NA switch release as far as I know I'm guessing it will depend on sales of 11.

I'd recommend this over the mobile ports just to be part of conversation and hype around the new game. It's been years since we have had a new main game in the series and playing along with other people and learning new things could add alot to the enjoyment of the game. Not to mention graphically it's pretty impressive and visually you will get alot more out of this then you would those other ports.

Thanks for the feedback guys

So, never been a fan of JRPG's, but this looks wonderful, so I bought it. I only played 10 minutes or so, but the controls are horrible . Since Steam wont let me see the store page, I am wondering if I can connect a PS4 controller to my pc and control it that way? It seems to be built for that controller, in that every prompt has PS4 controller buttons mentioned, instead of keybindings.

Anyways - the world seem bright and interesting and very good looking. am interested if I can figure out a good way to control the game.

Razgon wrote:

So, never been a fan of JRPG's, but this looks wonderful, so I bought it. I only played 10 minutes or so, but the controls are horrible . Since Steam wont let me see the store page, I am wondering if I can connect a PS4 controller to my pc and control it that way? It seems to be built for that controller, in that every prompt has PS4 controller buttons mentioned, instead of keybindings.

Anyways - the world seem bright and interesting and very good looking. am interested if I can figure out a good way to control the game.

Steam updated something with controllers recently that has screwed up the way 360 controllers work by default in alot of games. Including games that used to work fine, I spent 3hrs one day trying to stop my look from drifting in Prey. Eventually I got it to work the easiest fix is to disable steam controller in big picture mode.

You can also change the dead zone for analogs if that's giving you issues. Open big picture and hit the center home button on your controller of choice and there should be default lay outs and options for the games you're playing and just generally controller settings. Track down the 360 controller if that's the one you use and try applying that setting.

This is a pretty recent and frustrating change that's taken place I'd say since the beginning of summer. I know it doesnt effect all users but it's been a pain in the ass for me. Hopefully that solves whatever issues you are having.

Ps4 and switch controllers supposedly work just as well as Microsoft controllers now so ideally they will be plug and play as well. If they dont work though you'll have to to find the settings for the controller in big picture mode (even if you dont use big picture it's the only way to find the settings). Like I said disabling the controller to work with the over lay ended up being the biggest catch all fix for me, I rarely have to muck about with settings now.

Edit-- before getting on my tangent about how much I hate how controllers work with steam now I guess I should have realized you might just be having issues with DQ11. I'm playing the game on ps4 and the camera control settings did need to be tweaked for some reason interior spaces have a lower sensitivity then exteriors. I just set my outdoor camera to 8 and my indoor 9 and everything feels fine now. May want to tweak the sound options as well since the developers thought the music should be the most prevelant sound in your house let alone the game.

Thanks Rave - Love your icon, by the way!

I just meant with this game, but I'll try plug and play although I am curious how people sit with a laptop, and play with a controller. I usually sit in a comfortably low chair, with my laptop on my, eh, lap, and play - I'd think the controller was ungainly, but we'll see.

The game itself seems quite interesting!

Really want to play this, but I’m holding out for the Switch version. Being able to pick up and play a massive game like DQVIII on the go was fantastic, want to be able to do the same thing with XI. Hopefully it doesn’t take too long, if it does I may cave and buy it for PS4 anyway.

I'm about 10 hours in, and speaking as someone with a nanosecond attention span for games these days, DQXI is becoming more intriguing as it flows along. For me, the only slow part so far has been at the beginning when the dumbo main character doesn't have anybody else in the party to liven things up.

Now my little duo is at the haiku-talkin' village, and I'm totally on board with the plot. I will say, speaking as someone with familiarity with the DQ series the game is slow to introduce new game concepts, and the combat has been simplistic thus far. It could be due to my over-grinding each new area, a completionist habit of mine, but battles haven't been very challenging lately; I may have outlevelled the areas. For this reason I also haven't felt the need to craft much gear yet, although bashing your items into shape with the portable forge is pretty compelling.

I'm really trying to stay away from spoilers, but I did read somewhere that you can eventually swap out the main 'silent protagonist' and just use the supporting cast as your entire party, picking whoever you want to be the leader. This really appeals to me, and I hope I read that right.

You did read that right.

And if you're a completionist the game is going to be super easy for you. It's already on the easy side for DQ, but if you're grinding more than grinding-as-you-go the game is going to stay incredibly easy.

Ok officially turned off draconian difficulty, I'm 10hrs in and have been grinding pretty steady got the first real boss (2 gryphons) and it was just a little too much. With all the games coming out right now I really want to finish this sooner rather then later, I just dont have the time to grind anymore lol.

That said normal difficulty is still a bit to easy I'm over leveled now but those same bosses posed no challenge at all. Oh well. I'll play through this multiple times at some point I'll up the difficulty.

Really enjoying the crafting system so far but I'm guessing there is no alchemy pot equivalent, so is there a reason to keep old gear?

Rave wrote:

Ok officially turned off draconian difficulty, I'm 10hrs in and have been grinding pretty steady got the first real boss (2 gryphons) and it was just a little too much.

I'm guessing you discovered the rideable (hoppable?) Eggsoskeleton, did you find any new places to go with it? I didn't.

You can upgrade your gear at the cost of Pearls of Perfection, but I'm not sure by how much.
By the way, what's the best monster name you've found so far? I'm partial to the Sham Hatwitch, so cute!
IMAGE(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonquest/images/b/b0/DQX_-_Pig_hat.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20160219051052)

Running Man wrote:
Rave wrote:

Ok officially turned off draconian difficulty, I'm 10hrs in and have been grinding pretty steady got the first real boss (2 gryphons) and it was just a little too much.

I'm guessing you discovered the rideable (hoppable?) Eggsoskeleton, did you find any new places to go with it? I didn't.

You can upgrade your gear at the cost of Pearls of Perfection, but I'm not sure by how much.
By the way, what's the best monster name you've found so far? I'm partial to the Sham Hatwitch, so cute!
IMAGE(https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/dragonquest/images/b/b0/DQX_-_Pig_hat.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20160219051052)

Yeah the rideable was cute, dont know if you can miss that first one since a tutorial popped explaining it but that also probably means there are more in the game:).

I'll always be partial to Cruelcumbers seeing them walking around the map is ridiculous but the Sham hatwitches or whatever are cute, love their defensive pose but the name pun is going right over my head lol.

It's not even the difficulty spike that got me it was just the resource grind, I'm using max level scale armour on my hero along with sword and board maxed also the health and support bonus both at +2. Erik is running boomerang max along with max templar and spike helmet. So it's not a gear problem it was just having to heal at the end of fighting every mob and realizing the minute I get more party members I'm going to actually have to start using healing items instead of spells so before I even did the boss fight I just said screw it I dont have this type of time if I want to play other games.

Younger me would have loved this, or the up coming switch version (when it eventually gets an official launch date) will be perfect. This is dragon quest though and there is no way I could have held out for that version.

From your experience, do you think the "stronger enemies" option just boosted the enemy's stats and damage, or did it also change the enemy's behavior? After my first 90 minutes or so, I restarted with that turned on, and I definitely feel like I am seeing enemies use medicinal herbs, buff themselves, call allies, etc., more than they did in my very limited experience with the game before boosting the difficulty.

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Before You Buy

LastSurprise wrote:

From your experience, do you think the "stronger enemies" option just boosted the enemy's stats and damage, or did it also change the enemy's behavior? After my first 90 minutes or so, I restarted with that turned on, and I definitely feel like I am seeing enemies use medicinal herbs, buff themselves, call allies, etc., more than they did in my very limited experience with the game before boosting the difficulty.

I think it doubles all the stats 200% boost or something I've read. I think most of the times you only see enemies use tactics like herbs and calling friends more often because they are living longer and often start faster in the turn order then your characters. I havent gone back to fight earlier monsters though so maybe they are tactically doing more I did feel like monsters were spamming these attacks every turn early on.

I'll stand by what I said earlier and say that it feels more like an old school dragon quest game with the monsters buffed. In the old games you pretty much had to exhaust an area of all town equipment and fully fight every monster until the xp gain was negligable before crossing a bridge to the next area. It's a fun mode but I'd say its artificial difficulty, seems like it's just double stats across the board and probably not balance tested since this mode wasn't even available in Japan.

The main game is VERY easy though so pick your poison. If there weren't so many great games out right now (wow expansion, monster hunter and spiderman for me) I'd have left it as is.

Quote is not edit---doh.

I'm also struggling with the hard mode (Draconian Quest: Hard Enemies) option: I'm about 8 hours in, my characters are level 10, and I'm about to head into the first dungeon. Haven't faced any bosses yet, but can really only do three or four fights with field monsters before having to camp again.

Turned off hard mode on a whim, and of course all of the monsters were way too easy because I'm overleveled. I do enjoy a bit of grinding, but I really wish the hard mode modifiers were turned down just a little bit.

My wife commented that the music sounded like something from WW2-era Germany. You know, something that would be in a propoganda film. I informed her that was very astute based on who the composer is...

I'm slowly making my way through. Only an hour here or there. Helps keep it fresh and enjoyable. So far so good, though the fact that the game had an in-game chase sequence was just weird.

JustJosh wrote:

I'm also struggling with the hard mode (Draconian Quest: Hard Enemies) option: I'm about 8 hours in, my characters are level 10, and I'm about to head into the first dungeon. Haven't faced any bosses yet, but can really only do three or four fights with field monsters before having to camp again.

Turned off hard mode on a whim, and of course all of the monsters were way too easy because I'm overleveled. I do enjoy a bit of grinding, but I really wish the hard mode modifiers were turned down just a little bit.

I'm about as far in as you: my characters are levels 8/9 (I think) and about to head into the first dungeon. I'm also playing with the same Hard Enemies option. I've been doing ok, but occasionally getting wiped, as with the first time I fought the Tricky Devil.

I don't know if you've used the Fun-sized Forge yet, but armor and weapon upgrades helped me a lot. After I got the Forge I managed to make a Bronze Sword +2 and a Divine Dagger +1, which noticeably increased my damage output. Even more crucially, I lucked into crafting a Scale Mail +3 for the hero.

If you pre-ordered the game from Amazon and haven't yet downloaded the rewards, I'd strongly suggest doing so. The Healer and Supplicant accessories restore 3 HP and 1 MP per turn, respectively, and can be upgraded in the Forge. Those boosts are pretty substantial at the beginning of the game, and I look at them as a way to smooth out the experience of Hard Enemies before I get a full party. I also don't feel the game is so hard that those items are necessary: with enough medicinal herbs, you'd get the same result.

garion333 wrote:

I'm slowly making my way through. Only an hour here or there. Helps keep it fresh and enjoyable. So far so good, though the fact that the game had an in-game chase sequence was just weird.

I kind of loved the in-game chase sequence! It was definitely odd but it was also something different from previous games.

Spoiler:

I also loved how the monsters ran from the black dragon, and how bumping into a monster triggered a fight with that monster AND the black dragon (which I was able to run from).

LastSurprise I'll be interested in your take after that first dungeon and that boss battle if you stick with it. That's at the point where even the upgraded supplement and healer were basically outliving the usefulness and I was still needing to heal.

I know I probably could have just used evac, ran to the camp and kept grinding against those enemies until I was able to walk through the dungeon to the bosses and just ignore the mobs. The problem again for me is just the sheer grind now, I didnt have it in me. I was lvl 12 at that point and at least 10 hrs in. I keep hearing the game is like 80 hrs long and at 10 hrs most people are completing a desert dungeon. At this rate the game would have been 200hrs for me lol

I got side tracked hard by spiderman this weekend but I'm looking at almost platinuming that this week so hopefully I'll be deep into this again by the weekend.

I liked the chase sequence too, but when I got dragged into a battle by bumping into a slime I foolishly thought I could take on the big-bad. Doh! Some minor quibbles: I use first person view quite a bit, to look around at the scenery. It's too bad you can't move or even initiate conversations in first person, seems a bit weird.

Also, first world problem: on PC during load scenes I'm missing out on some of the game tips because screens load too fast. It'd be nice to have the option of clicking X to continue instead of just auto-loading.

I like how Fallout 4 rewards you for using higher difficulty, by increasing your odds of fighting legendary critters. It'd be nice if DQXI had something like this, a slight chance of finding rare loot when using Draconian modes.

Crazy I didn't even realize you could bump into anything during that fight. Got lucky I guess.

Your brethren got me killed!!