The GWJ JRPG Club - Q1 2021 - Dragon Quest XI!

Man. I had the broad strokes of that figured out, but there are some details and efficiencies in there that I didn't know anything about.

That trick is great. I used it a lot in the postgame. Not obsessively, just rotated out people as they pepped, and did the trick when I had all of the necessary members pepped. It easily allowed me to hit level 99 before the end of the postgame.

LastSurprise wrote:

That trick is great. I used it a lot in the postgame. Not obsessively, just rotated out people as they pepped, and did the trick when I had all of the necessary members pepped. It easily allowed me to hit level 99 before the end of the postgame.

Yup, I did that on my first playthrough. It's almost necessary to complete the Wheel of Harma. It does make the Act 3 boss a bit of a joke, though.

Fair. Though I kind of feel like with the Act 3 boss, it's more about the journey than the destination.

Spoiler:

And the Super Sword of Light - can't forget that.

Yeah, making the end boss a joke can be a plus or a minus depending on how you feel about such things. There's something to be said for getting yourself stupid OP and ROFLstomping the BBEG of the game.

And around 68 hours, I’ve beaten Act 2 of DQ 11!

I think my final conclusion here is I liked the game but didn't love it. I feel like the thoughts I mentioned upthread still hold here, around how it was a great short burst game, but I still like my RPGs to pull me in instead. It's probably the best version of an old school JPRG that I can recommend to anyone interested in the genre, with a ton of polish and modern trappings. But over the last decade or so, I've found that the JRPGs I really fall for are either big on writing or characterization (Persona and the Trails of series), or exploration (Xenoblade), that this one didn't quite have for me.

I'll probably set it aside for a bit to play other things since 68 hours over two months is a lot of gaming time for me, and might come back later for Act 3. Everyone said there's a lot of content left, and I can think of at least a couple of threads that are still outstanding.

Spoiler:

It's really teasing that something will happen with Veronica at the end, plus we never did learn what the Seer's deal is.

As a side note, I've now played 6 DQ games (3,4,5,8,9,11), and beaten 3 of them (4,5,11). I'd still put 5 as my favorite, as it has one of my favorite stories in gaming, plus it was a tightly paced 30 hour game. I think this one slides in a as a strong second place.

Quick progress update:

I decided to remove the Draconian Quest option a while ago. The game is not very hard, although some of the bosses do need more thinking on my part, and I'm happy with that.

I made it to Sniflheim this morning (with one orb left to get, with my in game time at about 24 hours), and decided to stop there for the weekend. I have to say, the

Spoiler:

mermaid story was pretty well done. And sad.

I think I've completed all the side-quests that are available up to this point (with the exception of the Ticktockinton quests, which I've been ignoring so far).

I'm sure the game had a very high budget, and yet it doesn't show all that much. And I don't mean that as a negative. Unlike FF, there aren't that many flashy FMVs, and so far all the cutscenes seem to be done in engine. Despite the fantastical nature of the plot, it still feels more grounded that whatever magical nonsense FF plots usually devolve into.

Congrats Sundown! I'll level you up in the other thread.

Sundown wrote:

I'll probably set it aside for a bit to play other things since 68 hours over two months is a lot of gaming time for me, and might come back later for Act 3. Everyone said there's a lot of content left, and I can think of at least a couple of threads that are still outstanding.

Spoiler:

It's really teasing that something will happen with Veronica at the end, plus we never did learn what the Seer's deal is.

Those threads definitely get resolved in Act 3!

One of the things I really loved about Act 3 is how, after a couple hours of scene-setting, the world opens way up. There's stuff to do everywhere and, although some parts is more challenging than others, you can do it in any order you want. The structure reminds me a bit of FF VI's World of Ruin after you reacquire the airship, though the vibe is very different of course.

Still slowly working my way through Act 1. Just finished up Lonalulu and moved on to the Medal Academy / Champs Sauvage / Phnom Nonh. Feels good to have a party of seven, getting back into the rhythm of swapping pepped-up party members out of the active party until I can get the right combo for an Hallelujah (for item farming) or Electrolight (for xp farming).

Mechanically, Erik feels like a bit of a drag right now; he just plain doesn't do enough damage to warrant a place in the active party on his own merits, and yet using him is required if I want to get him pepped up for farming. I'll swap him in on boss fights to set Rubblerouser / Boulderbringer for DoT and then swap him right back out again; even with Dual-Wielding and setting up Cobra Strike / Victimizer, he just plain doesn't do enough damage to be worth the setup compared to a beast like the Hero with Unbridled Blade or Jade with Multithrust.

Huh. I've been running Hero, Erik, and the twins pretty much exclusively up through the end of Act 1, and Erik's generally been my heavy-(physical)-hitter.

I definitely found that Erik started as my heavy hitter but was outclassed by Jade over time. This changed for me when I got to Critical Claim / Double Down, but this at best made him a specialist: those skills are so MP-intensive that they can't be spammed.

I slept on Erik's boomerang skills for too long, though, and only realized how useful they were very late in the game. You can do crazy damage with dual-wielded boomerangs, and I bet they're great for large mobs.

Also definitely found that Veronica's utility dropped off over time. She was great for some random encounters but just can not take much damage herself, so I ended up dropping her in favor of Rab or Sylvando.

As I recall from my first playthrough, Erik starts out in pretty rough shape, becomes a boss slaying beast after getting Divide, then slowly gets eclipsed again in the late game when other characters get almost as good but more consistent because they require less setup.

Reached Act II (I think) today, with the in-game time at round 30 hours. Which is weird, it seems everyone else took significantly longer to get to that point. Not sure what I'm doing differently.

My main party is typically the main character, Jade, Serena, and Sylvando. I used Erik early in the game, but as soon as I had enough people in my party, I put him back on the bench (except to cast the spell that hits enemies before they act). Jade (equipped with a spear) is definitely my best physical damage dealer, followed by Sylvando. Main character's damage output is not great so far.

I assume that I am at the end of Act I based on the story beats and I'm at 42 hours and character levels in the high 30s. I have been doing all of the quests as I get them and the two with special Pep Attacks took me awhile to get. Along with trying to find the Crossbow side quests, I have been running around the world quite a bit. This approach also means that I am significantly overleveled at this point in the game. The only time that I have ever had any trouble was one boss that could cast the insta-death spell.

I'm mostly using the main character, Jade, Serena and swap between Erik and Slyvando. Erik still has strong damage (way more than Slyvando) but he irritates me because his steal rarely hits. I have Slyvando with the whip so it hits all enemies in the group. I haven't tried it yet but if I could, I would just take the main character out as I find that he is the least useful member of the group except in situations where one of his abilities comes in handy.

bobbywatson wrote:

Reached Act II (I think) today, with the in-game time at round 30 hours. Which is weird, it seems everyone else took significantly longer to get to that point. Not sure what I'm doing differently.

My main party is typically the main character, Jade, Serena, and Sylvando. I used Erik early in the game, but as soon as I had enough people in my party, I put him back on the bench (except to cast the spell that hits enemies before they act). Jade (equipped with a spear) is definitely my best physical damage dealer, followed by Sylvando. Main character's damage output is not great so far.

If you only think you got there, you might not have gotten there. When you reach the act break, you'll know.

If you want big damage with the Luminary, go for greatswords! I spent far too long rocking the sword & shield setup, but man does the damage climb with the two-handed weapons.

walterqchocobo wrote:

I haven't tried it yet but if I could, I would just take the main character out as I find that he is the least useful member of the group except in situations where one of his abilities comes in handy.

You absolutely can do this.

Sylv is more of a support party member than a damage dealer, especially early on. His whips deal good group damage considering they don't take MP which is nice for mobs, but against bosses his value is in Hustle Dance (your only multi-heal ability for a long time) and Oomph.

I don't know that the game ever really explains it to you, but a lot of his non-weapon abilities key off of Charm, so try to stack that on his equipment if you can.

Him and Jade both, as it turns out, have skills that scale off charm. I didn’t realize how essential that was to Jade, but she has some great multi-target spells that get crazy powerful with a high charm stat.

One of my favorite later-game skills for Sylv was

Spoiler:

Ladies First, letting you double up on turns for a lady party member. At first this struck me as weird, but then I realized that each of them is the absolute best at what she does.

LastSurprise wrote:
bobbywatson wrote:

Reached Act II (I think) today, with the in-game time at round 30 hours. Which is weird, it seems everyone else took significantly longer to get to that point. Not sure what I'm doing differently.

If you only think you got there, you might not have gotten there. When you reach the act break, you'll know.

I checked a walkthrough, and I'm definitely in Act II, although I think this might be a section that was added for the Definitive edition, because the section I'm at

Spoiler:

(I just complete a short section where Sylvando is on his own, and now I'm playing as Jade by herself as well, after Yggdrasil was destroyed. I'm assuming I will have to play a short section for each character before the party gets back together)

is not listed in there.

LastSurprise wrote:

If you want big damage with the Luminary, go for greatswords! I spent far too long rocking the sword & shield setup, but man does the damage climb with the two-handed weapons.

I will give that a try once I get out of the current section I'm in!

Ahh, got it. Yeah, that's all new for the Definitive edition.

I particularly liked Erik’s part of that section of the game because of his companion.

Jasonofindy wrote:

I particularly liked Erik’s part of that section of the game because of his companion.

I think my favorite was Rab's. I liked

Spoiler:

seeing him as the king, and his imagined birthday, being greeted by his grandson.

Weirdly enough (maybe it's explained later in the story), there was no vignette for Serena or Veronica.

That was a good one too. Honestly, after hearing this was all content added just for the Definitive edition I think all of those vignettes were well done, especially in contrast to the slog that is the added Ticktockington content. I mean Tictockington makes sense as one of the advertised features of the definitive edition was the ability to play the whole game in the old 1990 style so I could see them creating Tictockington while creating all of the other old school assets. It surprises me more that new modern looking sequences were created, but thinking about it, I think all the locations and characters were already elsewhere in the game.

It might be partly a function of having played the standard edition first, but I never cared for the interstitial chapters focusing on the individual characters. They feel a bit tedious and filler-y to me.

Spoiler:

Getting the gang back together in Act II, finding out where everyone is and what they've been up to during the time skip, was a cool thing, and that fun surprise is blunted when you already know exactly where they are and how they got there. Also, waking up in this ruined world as the hero is not as impactful when you just got done throwing a dance party with Sylvando or whatever.

LastSurprise wrote:

Ahh, got it. Yeah, that's all new for the Definitive edition.

I'm surprised to learn this.
I just played through all those stories and they really feel like they set the stage for the second half of the game as well as giving some good depth to a number of the characters.

I've only just read about those stories, and I can see that, but

Spoiler:

I actually really liked the way that the original release handled this. You come to alone, then have to find everyone -- and there are some excellent reveals along the way. The extra depth might have been nice, but I don't think I'd have traded the surprise of discovery.

I only played the original release and have not read the stories directly, but have heard enough that I agree with LastSurprise.

Spoiler:

Not knowing what happened and even if all your party members survived was quite impactful. And each time you encounter an old friend for the first time there is a great sense of relief and joy that they are still around. You slowly get to piece together what has happened from each of them to get a full story of what happened at Yggdrasil which is really cool.

I remember when I got the 8th party member I had a strong reaction of "Is this it? Just me and 8th are going to take on the demon lord? Maybe we are going to build a whole new party for this?"

Malkroth wrote:

I only played the original release and have not read the stories directly, but have heard enough that I agree with LastSurprise.

Spoiler:

Not knowing what happened and even if all your party members survived was quite impactful. And each time you encounter an old friend for the first time there is a great sense of relief and joy that they are still around. You slowly get to piece together what has happened from each of them to get a full story of what happened at Yggdrasil which is really cool.

I remember when I got the 8th party member I had a strong reaction of "Is this it? Just me and 8th are going to take on the demon lord? Maybe we are going to build a whole new party for this?"

I can see this side too.

Spoiler:

I actually started having similar feeling's, beginning to believe the MC and the twins were gone because they have not come up yet. Could the second chapter focus on Sylv, Erik, Jade and Rab as well as potentially some new characters?

I'm not far enough into the second act yet to have the characters start meeting up again but I'm interested to see how much double up there is, going over their time apart again.

Minor gripe: I'm sad that, if I try to Zoom while there is a roof over MC's head, I no longer bump into it. That made me laugh every time it happened. I don't remember specifically which DQ game did that. I think it was VIII.

Progress update: well into act II, I believe I should be able to wrap the main game in early April.

I believe the crashing into the ceiling when using Zoom has been a mainstay of the series for a long time. I remember it happening in 4 when I played it on Android and I feel like I remember it from 7 on PS1. I really do love that little touch though, gives a reason you can't just teleport out of dungeons and such.

On a related note, I loved that Evac and Zoom no longer cost 8 MP each. I hated feeling like my wizard had to keep 16 extra MP in reserve, in case of emergencies.