just Dragon Quest XI

KozmoOchez wrote:

I think I won't start this until after KH3 is finished. I've had it in my possession since Black Friday. I'm happy that everyone seems to be enjoying it. I've never been a DQ fan although I've played the spinoffs - Builders and Heroes. I didn't have any connections to the characters though so I bounced off both of those after a bit. From everything I've read and seen (including that great Kotaku video) I think I'll see this one through. Besides, a baby will be coming in June and I'll need all the pause-able and "easy to immediately break away from" games I can get. I have Octopath Traveler that was pushed back for that reason.

It's perfect for new child gaming because you can play the game almost entirely one handed.

And the recaps are some of the best ever.

And congrats!

ComfortZone, that's really interesting, because I had exactly the opposite experience:

Spoiler:

Gyldygga was not too hard for me; in my battle, she was a pretty standard, hard-hitting, physically-oriented boss. I think I used the MC, #8, Rab, and Sylvando without subbing anyone out. I did burn one or two Yggdrasil leaves in the fight, but short of that a pretty standard mix of buffing my characters and debuffing others worked just fine. But, I think Gyldygga only used the "turn you to gold" move two or three times, and definitely only used it once in the fight's early stages, so I'm sure it helped that I didn't lose too many turns.

The Auroral Dragon, on the other hand. In my first fight against him, he took Rab out quickly -- and, with him, my only reliable source of resurrection. It didn't help that Rab was holding one of my only remaining Yggdrasil leaves. Then the hero went down, and I couldn't revive at all. I hung in there, and even got him into the yellow, but it was only a matter of time before everyone fell.

I felt that I planned for the second fight pretty well, but it was a real endurance match. I kept trying to use blunt and sap, kept kabuff on where I could, healed steadily, exhausted everyone's MP, used a couple sage's elixer, got him down to the orange / red, and still he wouldn't die. I kept hitting him over and over with powerful moves until I was out of MP, and then my characters dropped one by one. Last, I was left with Rab, who had about 20 HP. I knew that Rab's magic was not very effective against the dragon, so I crossed my fingers and cast Zammle -- AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, GRANDDAD CAME THROUGH!

During and after the events of Arboria, I was thinking some more about similarities between this game and DQ III, assuming again that the hero of DQ III was the original Luminary:

Spoiler:

Serenica, who was reincarnated as Serena and Veronica, was a companion of the Luminary and a sage, right? Well, the sage class first appeared in DQ III, and the sage gained all the spells that priests and mages would gain. Serena and Veronica very much fit the mold of the series' priests and mages, respectively (there are also Sages in VI, VII, and IX, I think, but for other reasons I don't think those games fit the Luminary narrative). Additionally, to become a sage, you had to climb some tower and retrieve a book. The tower contained, among other enemies, the Sky Dragon -- an Eastern-looking dragon that uses the same character model as the Auroral dragon. It makes sense that this guy would remember the Luminary! And, I'm pretty sure that DQ III was the first game to feature that type of dragon, as opposed to the more western-looking green, black, and red dragons.

Just hopped back into the game for the first time in two months. Conveniently, I'm at right around the same bit ComfortZone and LastSurprise are; Sniflheim / Arboria in Act 2.

It's a little rough jumping back in after such a long break; telling me "yo, head to Arboria" is all well and good, but I need you to dumb it down a little more for me, game: which way is Arboria again?

Did a deep respec of most of my characters too. Changed Protag-kun from sword-and-board to greatswords and Luminary healing,

Spoiler:

Hendrick

from greatswords to axe-and-shield, Erik from dual-wielding boomerangs to knives and stealing, and Sylvando from whips to Litheness and Showmanship.

The biggest difference so far has been in Sylv, who before was mostly a buffer and healer and crap offensively. Turns out that focusing him more intently on Litheness and Showmanship means he's just as good a buffer (Oomphle rocks) and an even better healer (more Charm means Hustle Dance heals even more) than ever, but That's Amore and Pink Pirouette do a better job of damage dealing than whips ever did and for less skill point investment. He's not an offensive beast or anything, but he can at least contribute once his buffing duties are done.

Now if only Rab would start pulling his weight. Since the start of the game he's been stuck in the classic Master of None doldrums. I hear his claws finally start to come into their own when the rest of his skill tree unlocks, I may think about respeccing him again (started him out in claws, respecc'd him to wands when it became clear that his claws are for crap, and that's a little better but not by much) when that happens.

Note: The quote button is not the edit button.

KozmoOchez wrote:

Besides, a baby will be coming in June and I'll need all the pause-able and "easy to immediately break away from" games I can get.

Congrats for soon-to-be-born baby! My daughter would have been around 4 or 5 months when I started playing DQ XI, so I can vouch for its baby-friendliness. I was surprised how easy it was to manage, to be honest.

garion333 wrote:

It's perfect for new child gaming because you can play the game almost entirely one handed.

And the recaps are some of the best ever.

And congrats!

halfwaywrong wrote:

Congrats for soon-to-be-born baby! My daughter would have been around 4 or 5 months when I started playing DQ XI, so I can vouch for its baby-friendliness. I was surprised how easy it was to manage, to be honest.

Thank you, and this is very good info as I try to prep my library for baby.

hbi2k wrote:

Did a deep respec of most of my characters too. Changed Protag-kun from sword-and-board to greatswords and Luminary healing,

Spoiler:

Hendrick

from greatswords to axe-and-shield, Erik from dual-wielding boomerangs to knives and stealing, and Sylvando from whips to Litheness and Showmanship.

The biggest difference so far has been in Sylv, who before was mostly a buffer and healer and crap offensively. Turns out that focusing him more intently on Litheness and Showmanship means he's just as good a buffer (Oomphle rocks) and an even better healer (more Charm means Hustle Dance heals even more) than ever, but That's Amore and Pink Pirouette do a better job of damage dealing than whips ever did and for less skill point investment. He's not an offensive beast or anything, but he can at least contribute once his buffing duties are done.

Now if only Rab would start pulling his weight. Since the start of the game he's been stuck in the classic Master of None doldrums. I hear his claws finally start to come into their own when the rest of his skill tree unlocks, I may think about respeccing him again (started him out in claws, respecc'd him to wands when it became clear that his claws are for crap, and that's a little better but not by much) when that happens.

Good to hear, that's pretty much how my party is specced too. Rab has been pretty useful as a support character, buffing and healing, with the occasional offensive spell. I find I don't need him to use weapons very often. At the moment Erik is bottom of the class - I'm struggling to get him to do much damage or inflict status with knives, and he doesn't seem good at much else.

LastSurprise wrote:

ComfortZone, that's really interesting, because I had exactly the opposite experience:

Spoiler:

Gyldygga was not too hard for me; in my battle, she was a pretty standard, hard-hitting, physically-oriented boss. I think I used the MC, #8, Rab, and Sylvando without subbing anyone out. I did burn one or two Yggdrasil leaves in the fight, but short of that a pretty standard mix of buffing my characters and debuffing others worked just fine. But, I think Gyldygga only used the "turn you to gold" move two or three times, and definitely only used it once in the fight's early stages, so I'm sure it helped that I didn't lose too many turns.

The Auroral Dragon, on the other hand. In my first fight against him, he took Rab out quickly -- and, with him, my only reliable source of resurrection. It didn't help that Rab was holding one of my only remaining Yggdrasil leaves. Then the hero went down, and I couldn't revive at all. I hung in there, and even got him into the yellow, but it was only a matter of time before everyone fell.

I felt that I planned for the second fight pretty well, but it was a real endurance match. I kept trying to use blunt and sap, kept kabuff on where I could, healed steadily, exhausted everyone's MP, used a couple sage's elixer, got him down to the orange / red, and still he wouldn't die. I kept hitting him over and over with powerful moves until I was out of MP, and then my characters dropped one by one. Last, I was left with Rab, who had about 20 HP. I knew that Rab's magic was not very effective against the dragon, so I crossed my fingers and cast Zammle -- AND WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, GRANDDAD CAME THROUGH!

Ha, my fight wasn't nearly so exciting

Spoiler:

I had Rab and Sylvando buffing and healing, and the MC and Jade dealing damage. Jade's attack that gives a bonus vs flying enemies was pretty effective, and the MC's Unbridled Blade was as OP as ever.

The dragon fight went pretty quickly for me. His high damage was kind of scary but the Wyrmslayer greatsword plus unbridled blade meant I was hitting for about 1k damage with just that one character. He died in about 4 rounds if I remember correctly.

As for playing the game one handed, you can use the L2 button as the confirm button so you can play entirely with your left hand.

So I "finished" this a few days ago (got to the credits) and thought it ended on a real high note. Because I was playing on default settings I thought much of the game was too easy, but the difficulty scaled up nicely in the final dungeon. It was challenging enough to make me learn the character abilities a bit better, but not to the point that required any kind of grinding.

Definitely planning to wander the world looking for post-game adventures the gang can get into.

Congratulations! I was pleased with how it ended too. There was no over-the-top post boss scene, just a pleasant, satisfying "you did it" moment. The final dungeon wasn't a confusing labyrinth either (like so many games), and the buildup was great!

I've heard a lot of things about the end of the game. Quite a few people seem to think it fell flat because there was no massive fanfare upon completion. Some say there's waaay more story in post-game, and others complain because it...undoes some of the achievements of the main game? I've read minimal spoilers but know enough that I put it down after the final boss.

It may sound weird. I love this game, it's probably my favourite JRPG ever and I should want to play more. But I really enjoyed how it ended and I'm not sure if I want to have that change with the supposed less-than-amazing storytelling that occurs after.

Oh, interesting! I haven't read anything about it, but I'm curious as I came across a few places I couldn't access during the main quest. I wasn't expecting major plot twists or anything like that.

I also liked the restraint they showed with the ending. It was a long game (68 hours was my endgame save I think) but the pacing was spot on throughout.

Act 3 is interesting. I'm still unsure how I feel about it. I think it's probably worth doing at least enough of it to get answers to some of those have questions that I know a few people here have, but on the other hand it does affect Act 2 and its ending and it does so in a way that's not necessarily so satisfying. It is in some ways, but not in others. It's hard to say more without spoiling things and I'm worried I already have a little!

Some Act 3 spoilers ahead!

Spoiler:

As much as I enjoy having Veronica back and answering all of those hanging questions, I'm still not sure how I feel about making literally the entire Act 2 irrelevant. The only character that got to have any real development was the Hero, but he's so much of a terribly boring blank slate that it doesn't really matter. And that's a pretty huge thing to be uncomfortable about!

Read the spoiler, and that's exactly why I'm pretty happy keeping the ending in my mind "as is".

Apparently this will have "newly added character-specific stories, the option for increased battle speed, fully orchestrated field and battle music, and the ability to switch between HD and retro-inspired 16-bit visuals." Can't complain about that. The switch between HD and 16-bit graphics seems like a compromise for not bringing the 3DS version outside Japan.

Chances of it coming to platforms other than Switch?

Right now Square Enix is saying this version is Switch only. However, they are saying they haven’t decided yet if they are going to make the additional content available through DLC to PS4/PC. Honestly, if they don’t, they’re going to piss a lot of people off.

Edit: https://www.siliconera.com/2019/02/1...

They won't say until after the Switch launch. Everyone will double dip. Then they'll announce a DLC update or whatever for PS4 and PC.

I'm such a sucker for gorgeous 3D environments in games that I'm baffled why the 2D option is a thing at all. But I'm sure some folks will appreciate it!

Does 2D mode not show enemies on the field?

I'm dumbfounded of how they are doing 2D and 3D. Does Unreal engine support the 2D?

2D immediately reminds me of every DQ game from 1 to 6 (the original 7 might have been 2D as well, but I didn't play it on PS). I'll bet that people who have a lot of nostalgia for the early games will like it.

I'd bet too that 2D is easier on the battery, which is a nice option when playing on the go. But like Balthezor I'm really curious about how they did it all under the hood, along with how the overall experience differs (On-field enemies vs random encounters? Are the field and dungeon maps the same or different?). Such an interesting concept.

The dungeon map thing would be especially interesting, because there are a number of dungeons that make use of multiple levels of elevation. Of course, they could use stairs as in any prior DQ game, but those games also tend not to allow the player to gaze from a higher level into a lower level -- and the ability to see through this kind of open space is present throughout the 3D version.

The 2D thing isn't new, it was in the Japanese release on 3DS, which never saw the light of day outside of Japan.

I believe it's exactly the same game, just with a different visual presentation.

I'll be annoyed if the non-story stuff isn't added to the other versions. Switch can keep the 2D as well. The speed options shouldn't be exclusive though.

So our public library had this and I couldn't resist checking it out even though I was/am planning on waiting until the Switch version.

Dang it is fun and pretty. Now I will have even a harder time waiting especially since it is still has no firm date just "this fall"

I'm starting a bit of a staycation this week, and I had the hankering to play something different. As the JRPG and CRPG clubs are about to start new games, I figured it would be a good time to jump back into DQ XI!

When I left off (months ago), I was in Gallopolis

Spoiler:

about to deal with the impending crash of Erdwin's Lantern.

Today, I wrapped that up, then went to Mount Huji to deal with a beast in the volcano.

I feel like I'm getting close to the end of Act 2. Can anyone give me a sense of about how much is left? Spoiler for my exact location:

Spoiler:

I killed Tatsunaga, have the hammer and the ore, and I'm about to go into the forge in Mt. Huji.

Yeah, you're pretty close to the end of Act 2, I think. Probably in the last quarter of Act 2, I think? My memory on it's a little hazy though.

As it turned out, I was able to go to the Fortress of Fear right after that segment, so I think I’m right at the end. That dungeon has been tough so far, though. I’ve definitely been drained of Magic a few times and have had to go back to the goddess statue out front. I do like that the dungeon gives you progressive checkpoints though.

As you probably realized, you are in the final dungeon now. I think it took me 3-5 hours to finish. Been quite awhile so I do not remember exactly.