just Dragon Quest XI

Story can be done in 40 hours, but people were reporting more like 55-60 for a normal playthrough.

If you're really taking your time then 80 hours isn't unheard of.

garion333 wrote:

Story can be done in 40 hours, but people were reporting more like 55-60 for a normal playthrough.

If you're really taking your time then 80 hours isn't unheard of.

I feel like 40 isnt even in the same ball park for me, I dont even have the full party yet. Unless things ramp up considerably after getting to the point I'm at I cant even see me doing this in 55-60. Maybe I'm wrong in assuming I've barely scratched the surface yet .

Rave wrote:

I feel like 40 isnt even in the same ball park for me, I dont even have the full party yet. Unless things ramp up considerably after getting to the point I'm at I cant even see me doing this in 55-60. Maybe I'm wrong in assuming I've barely scratched the surface yet .

You've actually finished the game and don't even know it. *Twilight Zone theme*

BoogtehWoog wrote:
Rave wrote:

I feel like 40 isnt even in the same ball park for me, I dont even have the full party yet. Unless things ramp up considerably after getting to the point I'm at I cant even see me doing this in 55-60. Maybe I'm wrong in assuming I've barely scratched the surface yet .

You've actually finished the game and don't even know it. *Twilight Zone theme*

Yay scratched another game off the must finish this year list. Was not as satisfying as previous DQ games after all Lol.

Rave wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Story can be done in 40 hours, but people were reporting more like 55-60 for a normal playthrough.

If you're really taking your time then 80 hours isn't unheard of.

I feel like 40 isnt even in the same ball park for me, I dont even have the full party yet. Unless things ramp up considerably after getting to the point I'm at I cant even see me doing this in 55-60. Maybe I'm wrong in assuming I've barely scratched the surface yet .

40 is probably only the reviewer who skipped every battle and then complained about difficulty spikes when bosses appeared. lolololol

But, seriously, I believe you're nearing the middle of the game even though I'm not there yet.

LastSurprise wrote:

You are going to love Hotto. I sure did.

The dialogue was wonderful!

I have to say, this game is really scratching a JRPG itch I didn't know I had. Lots of fun so far. Just reached Hotto, and have loved every second of it!

Saw a post saying after collecting 6 orbs if you're planning to do post game that you are only about 20% into the game. I only have 1 orb and just got my boat I honestly have no idea how long this game is now I figured 50% was probably right but I guess not?

Love how much freedom you are given after getting the boat though the world really opens up.

I have been doing my best to not read anything about the game but the few things that have surfaced is that there is a major event ("you will know it when you see it" they say) that is the halfway point in the game. I am about 40 hours in and am not at that point yet, but I am pretty slow in JRPGs as I enjoy grinding, leveling up, and unlocking things

Finally have my full party after 43 hrs or so, the story has really started to pick up.

I have to say I really love all the characters but the female characters are some of the best in the game. Really love that the luminarys body guards are all bad ass women that can handle themselves so far. I'm not usually one that pays attention to this stuff but it was really a different tone for a dragon quest game. Sure as soon as I picked up Jade I immediately got a quest to get her a pervy outfit, but I was happy that the armour was outclassed in minutes by other stuff so there is no reason to wear it.

Again not trying to get into a deep discussion about tropes in Jrpgs but dare I say this seems like a pretty good step forward for DQ atleast? I'm hoping they continue to build on this as the game goes on and it doesnt take a turn but it's great so far in my opinion!

Yeah, I've had mixed feelings regarding that sort of stuff so far. I'm not a huge way through it yet (currently in Gallipolis), but I've already got 2/3 parts of the obligatory sexy outfit. And there's a particularly dodgy bit I came across in Gallopolis where a girl offers 'puff puff' but she secretly switches out for one of the big masked muscle men and that's the whole punchline. Obviously I have no idea how prevalent that sort of thing is throughout the rest of the game, but it does sour things a bit.

I mean, I agree that on the whole it's a step forward (I particularly like Veronica so far), but yeah it's yet to completely shed its baggage unfortunately.

I think I reached the "big event" that marks the halfway point to the story. I made it there at level 41 with 70 hours played. I have done every sidequest and quite a significant amount of farming/grinding, so depending on your playstyle you could make it there much quicker.

I have really been enjoying this game so far. Love the light-heartedness and optimism of the story. I just wish that since they had locked everything about the main character they would have given him a voice actor like the rest of the cast. I have never really liked playing a mute character, it always seems so strange to me.

The silent protagonist has gotten a lot of complaints this go around. I think the fact that everything is such high quality but then you have this weird mute guy is too jarring. Horii-san says no, he thinks the silent protag helps with immersion. I disagree to a certain extent. It's a trope. One they should let go of.

The only series which should keep it is the Ys series and that's solely because the silent aspect is ingrained in Adol's character and the 75 game releases in that series.

Personally I found the silent protagonist super-jarring when

Spoiler:

you briefly go back in time, early on in Cobblestone, and the young version of the protagonist is fully voiced.

That seemed really strange to me.

Silent protagonist always hurts my immersion in games. I don't see the character as my avatar in the world, but instead as me taking on the role of a pre-existing person, so when they are silent it makes no sense, especially when other people react as if they talk. I let it slide more when they have you fully customize a character, but even that isn't a free excuse anymore as we have seen games like Fallout 4 and Mass Effect gives us fully customized but voiced characters.

I spend way too much time in this game doing random side activities and fighting. I am way over leveled for where I am at in the game and my gear is better than anything I can buy...

LastSurprise wrote:

Personally I found the silent protagonist super-jarring when

Spoiler:

you briefly go back in time, early on in Cobblestone, and the young version of the protagonist is fully voiced.

That seemed really strange to me.

Spoiler:

Because of this, I wasn't convinced that the kid actually was the protagonist. I was expecting him to turn into a demon or something similar.

In other news, I got my boat and proceeded to do as much as possible before getting on with the story, where I'm about to head to Octagonia. Been good fun so far. Slowly starting to feel like I'm getting over powered too, but I guess that's inevitable.

I'll throw this out there: this game is WAY more fun if you avoid combat as much as possible. You'll accidentally stumble into combat just often enough not to fall terribly fall behind, and it turns the boss fights into fun challenges instead of just "like normal encounters but a little longer." You might take a death or two, but when you do, take a couple minutes to smith some choice bits of equipment up to a higher level, spend a couple of seeds to shore up weak points, and/or respec your skill points more efficiently before resorting to grinding.

Another case of "it's so old it's new again" is the use of +1, +2, +3 in the game instead of a percentage.

I'm so tired of games using percentages for things. Oh, +5% experience. Sweet! Let me know when that stacks four times and then maybe I'll care.

I understand why percentages have become widely used, it's much easier to balance, but damned if there isn't more impact to upgrades in this game because of it's more striated nature. (That's horrible word choice by me but I can't figure out a better word atm.)

The abstract % gear bonuses made Pillars of Eternity 1 rather dreary. Just give me a plus something!

I've been surprised at how open and somewhat non-linear this game has become. I'd read that the game was almost strictly A to B, B to C etc. Happy to see that's not exactly the case if you're prepared to explore.

Spoiler:

I was supposed to be going to some underwater place after doing the mermaid quest, but instead here I am entering some mural in Phnom Nom instead. And that was after exploring around Snilfheim. As an aside, I had to laugh at them having awful Aussie tourists in the Phnom Nom.

I have been really enjoying watching this as a Let's Play. With two monitors at work I can have it running for 8 hours a day. I would never finish it if I tried to play it but this feels like a game well suited to a watching.

farley3k wrote:

I have been really enjoying watching this as a Let's Play. With two monitors at work I can have it running for 8 hours a day. I would never finish it if I tried to play it but this feels like a game well suited to a watching.

That makes sense to me. I got introduced to the series by watching one of my housemates play DQ8. We used to all hang out in the living room and watch somebody play a JRPG, and the only ones I enjoyed enough to remember what they were were Final Fantasy 6 and Dragon Quest 8.

I dived back in this weekend, in a big way. Finished up with Gallopolis and the Slayer of the Sands, got Sylvando, made it to Gondolia, completed a few quests, got some crafting recipes, and reached the next major dungeon.

I love how bright and colorful Gondolia is. Around the time that I was wandering its streets, I started thinking that it would be fun to see a DQ XI tourism guide using screenshots from the game. I tried to snap a few as I was playing, but I haven't used that feature much and it looks like most of my photos didn't actually save. I'll have to play with it a little bit more going forward.

I also love that I can sub individual party members in and out of combat at any time.

Spoiler:

There are a lot of small, charming moments in this game that I really enjoy. It was fun to see how much attention to detail went into the bakery -- the one where Akia definitely wasn't working. Then, when I reached the doorway to the docks and couldn't go in, I loved how quickly Veronica and Serena decided to join Sylvando on a culinary tour of the city, and how Serena slinked away from the Hero and Erik when she "defected" away from pursuing the main quest. I even went back to the bakery to see if the game would show them there, at a table! (It didn't).

Funny you mention taking screenshots. I've been taking quite a lot while playing, which is something I rarely ever do. I think the only game where I've done much of that has been No Man's Sky. But the game looks pretty and is full of personality, so it really makes me want to capture that.

I've reached what I think is the halfway point.

Spoiler:

I was expecting things to get bad, but maybe not that bad.

I was home today waiting for an HVAC guy and a plumber (yearly checkups, no big issues), so I ended up playing a good few hours more of this. I cleared Gondalia, have the boat, and started sailing around and putting in at various ports.

A few reactions here:

  • I really liked the bosses of Gondalia's dungeon. Nothing fancy, just big beefy guys that hit hard. With 5 people in my party, and while taking a lot of damage, I found myself torn about what to do, which I liked a lot:
    Spoiler:

    It's interesting to me that Sylvando has Oomph, and Veronica has Sap. In other DQ games, I would have expected the offensive mage to learn Oomph, and the defensive mage to learn Sap

    I think the best way to handle this fight would have been to either try to go physical, or go magical, but I did a bit of both and was probably less effective than I could have been. For a physical assault, you clearly need Sylvando and Veronica to set things up. For a magical assault, Veronica has a spell that lowers magic defense, and then every of the character has something he or she can contribute. But by the time I applied all the buffs and debuffs that I wanted, I realized that the bosses were doing so much damage that I couldn't keep up with my healing, do damage, and maintain my buffs.

  • Solid storyline moments back at Gondolia, after clearing these bosses. The beats definitely felt earned. I also love "Dave" and the way Sylvando pronounces it.
  • Two things I loved, once I got the ship. First, the display of anchors where you can dock is another solid, little quality-of-life improvement. Second, showing you those anchors really whets the appetite to explore more of the world, and the constraints on where you can travel show you how much more you have left to cover!
  • Also great: an early teaser of what is sure to be a later-game fight against that giant squid.

Oh, and I almost forgot the catsuit! Getting that was a fun little mini-mission. I got to the point in the game that's depicted in our cover image, and thought "crap, haven't gotten the catsuit yet. I'll have to go back for it."

Tagging myself in this thread, this is shaping up to be my GOTY

I just finished up Slayer of the Sands on hard mode, and what a fun fight that was! Took a little grinding until I had mid-heal, and then I just had to play defensively. Hero and Selena healed every turn, Erik used Sleeper Hit + Persecute (when bloody Sylvando didn't wake the thing up), and Veronica defended unless I needed her to cast Sap.

Bloody hell, it was one of the most tense boss battles I've fought in a JRPG.

And throughout the entire questline, Sylvando was a delight (well, when he wasn't waking up sleeping monsters). I really, really love his character.

A_Unicycle wrote:

Tagging myself in this thread, this is shaping up to be my GOTY

I just finished up Slayer of the Sands on hard mode, and what a fun fight that was! Took a little grinding until I had mid-heal, and then I just had to play defensively. Hero and Selena healed every turn, Erik used Sleeper Hit + Persecute (when bloody Sylvando didn't wake the thing up), and Veronica defended unless I needed her to cast Sap.

Bloody hell, it was one of the most tense boss battles I've fought in a JRPG.

Sylvando kept screwing that combo up for me, too!

Midheal! What a boon. I was one level shy of the Hero learning Midheal for this fight, and I think the balance would have been a little better with that one extra heal (and, I had to try twice to win). This general theme, would repeat itself at the next boss, where I was one level shy of Serena learning Zing.

And throughout the entire questline, Sylvando was a delight (well, when he wasn't waking up sleeping monsters). I really, really love his character.

He's great! And, if you liked him in Gallopolis (and who wouldn't?), you will downright love him in Gondolia.

Haha you ain't seen nothing yet! I don't want to spoil things, so I'll just say that Sylvando goes from strength to strength. I'm just over halfway through the game and I've gone from thinking he's ok with some minor quibbles, to loving the character. So good!

I just finished exploring around Puerto Valor, and am about to head to Octagonia, and I’m going to lay down this prediction about Sylvando and a future plot twist:

Spoiler:

I suspect he’s actually the missing son of Don Rodrigo of Puerto Valor, who’s known for training knights.

EDIT: And another prediction, which I was thinking about after the events in Gallopolis with the Slayer of the Sands:

Spoiler:

After mustering the courage to face the Slayer of the Sands, and being exposed as a coward, Prince Faris will fully commit to his chivalric training, and will seek Sir Hendrik's tutelage. Later on, when I confront Hendrik, Faris will show up as a boss. My good relationship with him (saving his bacon, three times!) will pay off, in that he will help me out -- but not before I have to fight him. And, this former-coward-turned-knight will be a much more formidable opponent than he should be, especially on Draconian difficulty.

He's great! And, if you liked him in Gallopolis (and who wouldn't?), you will downright love him in Gondolia.
Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/lTgbFa8.png)

I LOVE HIM

Edit: Smallest, tiniest spoiler I guess. Figured I'd hide the screenshot for those in lockdown mode.