You'll be happy to hear that every future Dragon Quest game is a massive step up from the original trilogy.
Graphically yes, presentation wise yes, writing wise…....don't know about that where VII is concerned, even VIII was shaky at points.
You'll be happy to hear that every future Dragon Quest game is a massive step up from the original trilogy.
Graphically yes, presentation wise yes, writing wise…....don't know about that where VII is concerned, even VIII was shaky at points.
Graphically yes, presentation wise yes, writing wise…....don't know about that where VII is concerned, even VIII was shaky at points.
7 and 8 were both fine aside from being… too damn long. I only played the "streamlined" version of 7 and it was still ridiculous how many times it made you run back and forth through the same areas instead of just doing fade to black cuts.
I loved 8 a ton but I also played it 15 years ago when I had a lot more free time and open worlds weren't quite as prominent as they are now. I'll get around to the DS revisit eventually with different party members.
7 and 8 were both fine aside from being… too damn long. I only played the "streamlined" version of 7 and it was still ridiculous how many times it made you run back and forth through the same areas instead of just doing fade to black cuts.
I loved 8 a ton but I also played it 15 years ago when I had a lot more free time and open worlds weren't quite as prominent as they are now. I'll get around to the DS revisit eventually with different party members.
8 wasn't really that long by Dragon Quest standards, about 40 hours.
It's just that the early game is very slow.
8 wasn't really that long by Dragon Quest standards, about 40 hours.
It's just that the early game is very slow.
How Long To Beat pegs the average time at 60-80 hours, and 120 for completionists, which was closer to my time. Even if you're really gunning it its 50.
I don't know that I'd be nearly as completionist today though, but I still wouldn't rush.
The 3DS remake might be a bit faster though, its times look to be consistently shorter, not sure where the trim would be. Maybe subtlety in the loading times or being able to see monsters to pick what you farm when metal slime hunting?.
How Long To Beat pegs the average time at 60-80 hours, and 120 for completionists, which was closer to my time. Even if you're really gunning it its 50.
I don't know that I'd be nearly as completionist today though, but I still wouldn't rush.
The 3DS remake might be a bit faster though, its times look to be consistently shorter, not sure where the trim would be. Maybe subtlety in the loading times or being able to see monsters to pick what you farm when metal slime hunting?.
According to How Long To Beat the 3DS version shaves off 20 hours.
It took me about 40 hours to beat personally.
Most of that is probably because of the rebalanced level curve, new fast mode for battles, automated battles and the elimination of random encounters.
Ah, yeah, thats a lot of features that would certainly speed things up.
7 and 8 were both fine aside from being… too damn long. I only played the "streamlined" version of 7 and it was still ridiculous how many times it made you run back and forth through the same areas instead of just doing fade to black cuts.
Honestly the length of VII didn't bother me eventhough I spent and ungodly amount of time fiddling around with the job system which probably maybe should've been introduced much earlier in the game. My issues with the game largely centered on how certain characters like Maribelle or Autonymus were written or certain subplots like Lavender-Carraway or the Vovograd where handled.
I very rarely play a game that makes me hate it's playable or non playable cast or makes me question the writing process for it's subplots or storyline enough to make me hate almost the entire game as a consequence. DQVII pulled that one off hard. And I think I mentioned this before but the whole time travel gimmick that serves as the basis of the game's story doesn't Chrono Trigger use it better?
Snagged Builders 2 for Black Friday at an unbeatable price, super stoked about it and been playing it almost exclusively despite also having gotten 3 or 4 other games too. Exceeds the first game in virtually every way, I'd have probably gone a few steps further personally but they make resources plentiful enough that restoring hunger isn't an issue; cooking, however, should have been more streamlined from early on, it's aggravating waiting for an item to cook one at a time, or forging ore into metal with a time bar until they're completed. That just felt tacked on and unnecessary. But I'm relatively early on, maybe better ones with less waiting will eventually be offered.
Snagged Builders 2 for Black Friday at an unbeatable price, super stoked about it and been playing it almost exclusively despite also having gotten 3 or 4 other games too. Exceeds the first game in virtually every way, I'd have probably gone a few steps further personally but they make resources plentiful enough that restoring hunger isn't an issue; cooking, however, should have been more streamlined from early on, it's aggravating waiting for an item to cook one at a time, or forging ore into metal with a time bar until they're completed. That just felt tacked on and unnecessary. But I'm relatively early on, maybe better ones with less waiting will eventually be offered.
Yeah, I feel the same. Played the demo to the first one until the end, decided to buy it but ended up never playing it for a variety of reasons. The sequel is better in pretty much all aspects. Just finished the story a few days ago and started tying loose ends together, but then Ori was discounted which I haven't played since its inital release, and I'm itching for a good Metroidvania…
Since you're already forging ore into metal, I assume you are at Khrumbul-Dun? Then I can tell you that it doesn't get better from there, the only upgrade in that regard is that you can have your villagers handle the cooking and forging if you build the right rooms for them. Maybe you missed the tutorial in Furrowfield?
My main issues are only three, really: The Transform-o-Trowel cannot build horizontal planes to quickly fill the ground before you, it would have been nice if the Bottomless Pot could hold different liquids at once and certain disembodied voices take way too long to get to their next part, no option to skip as far as I could see.
Dragon Quest 1-3 on Switch are on sale this week.
Yeah, I feel the same. Played the demo to the first one until the end, decided to buy it but ended up never playing it for a variety of reasons. The sequel is better in pretty much all aspects. Just finished the story a few days ago and started tying loose ends together, but then Ori was discounted which I haven't played since its inital release, and I'm itching for a good Metroidvania…
Since you're already forging ore into metal, I assume you are at Khrumbul-Dun? Then I can tell you that it doesn't get better from there, the only upgrade in that regard is that you can have your villagers handle the cooking and forging if you build the right rooms for them. Maybe you missed the tutorial in Furrowfield?
My main issues are only three, really: The Transform-o-Trowel cannot build horizontal planes to quickly fill the ground before you, it would have been nice if the Bottomless Pot could hold different liquids at once and certain disembodied voices take way too long to get to their next part, no option to skip as far as I could see.
The villagers aren't efficient enough to overcome the cumbersome waiting so that's rather disappointing, if it's just going to stay as bad as it is. If I knew in advance what things I would need, or if I could cook multiple items at once just like with forging lots of metal in one go despite it still having to take that time bar for each one, that would be one thing. That's pretty much the only thing the first one did better, no waiting and doing multiples at once. And yeah, those long pauses when being spoken to by the celestial orator are reminiscent of other Square-Enix library titles like parts of Final Fantasy Tactics and Xenogears.
At long last, I'm finally starting my playthrough of Dragon Quest XI, the Definitive Edition on Switch. Thus far it's pretty standard JRPG fare as far as the story and the gameplay, but still fun.
-That opening cut scene with the Dragon Quest theme is cool as hell
-Man, I can't get over the hero's Android 17 haircut
-It's a small thing, but one thing I really appreciate is them taking the time to animate the hero take a book off the shelf and reading it. I'm not sure I've seen that before.
-I recently finished Dragon Quest III and I'm quite pleased at how many of the iconic songs and jingles have persisted up to this game.
At long last, I'm finally starting my playthrough of Dragon Quest XI, the Definitive Edition on Switch. Thus far it's pretty standard JRPG fare as far as the story and the gameplay, but still fun.
-That opening cut scene with the Dragon Quest theme is cool as hell
-Man, I can't get over the hero's Android 17 haircut
-It's a small thing, but one thing I really appreciate is them taking the time to animate the hero take a book off the shelf and reading it. I'm not sure I've seen that before.
-I recently finished Dragon Quest III and I'm quite pleased at how many of the iconic songs and jingles have persisted up to this game.
Small animations can make a big difference in immersion, I've found. I just started Breath of the Wild for the first time about a week ago, and have been consistently pleased and amazed by the small levels of detail literally everywhere and with everything, or at least enough things that I don't notice what's lacking. It's the exact opposite of another game that released recently which I will not name. As for Dragon Quest, I played it on PS4 and freaking loved it. I can hardly resist a good classic RPG, and 11 definitely brings it and delivers.
Dragon Quest Your Story was announced for Netflix.
Still making my way through DQXI
! My god, did this game just pull a FFVI?
Currently playing through DQ Builders. I am progressively getting better at building stuff.
Alright. Finally beat Dragon Quest XI (review with story spoilers below).
! Overall, I liked the game, but…man, I wish I liked it more. Don't get me wrong, the game is good, but in a lot of respects it feels kind of generic as a JRPG. I mean, the general plot is as basic as it gets. Lost prince from a ruined kingdom is "The Chosen One" who must vanquish an evil force that wants to destroy the world. This isn't helped by the fact that it blatantly borrows from many other JRPGs that came before it, including itself. The quest for the six orbs (DQIII), the villain "winning" and destroying the world halfway through the game (FFVI), the enemy becoming an ally (Chrono Trigger), the flying whale (Link's Awakening, FFIV), etc. It's just...after all this time, I feel like we could have a little more originality.
! The locations aren't particularly inspired either. All of them are based on real life countries/cities/regions and they're all pretty obvious. Like, this is Spain City, this is Venice Town, this is Japan Village, this is Middle East Kingdom, this is France Academy, etc. I mean, I get taking inspiration from real life locations, but this really is just importing those locations into this game, with maybe a dash of whimsy thrown in. Heck, in most cases, they actually feel like watered down versions of their real life locations. Like, I'd rather go to Venice itself than Gondolia. It's a shame, because the advantage of making a huge fantasy world is that you make beautiful extraordinary other-worldly locations, but this just feels lazy.
! Also, after jumping from DQIII to DQXI, it's a shame to see that some of the outdated elements of the franchise are still present. Like the weird grouping of enemies, where certain spells can only attack a group of certain enemies, rather than all of them. Oh yeah, and I don't see why they have to make character revivals so danged elusive until late in the game.
! Oh yeah, and the music. It seems everyone's had this complaint and...yeah, the music in this game is really weak. It feels like just the same 5-6 generic tracks played over and over again. Even the final boss didn't get his own music!
! The characters, for the most part, are pretty good, and one of the strengths of the game. Sylvando is great, and probably the best character in the game, made all the more tragic by the fact that he's pretty useless as a fighter. Erik is another good character who has a nice story arc with his sister (that, kinda comes out of nowhere, honestly), but also isn't very useful in a fight, aside from his boomerang. It's a shame that Veronica was the one who had to be killed off since, between her and Serena, she's definitely the more interesting one. Jade is pretty to look, but sadly doesn't have too much else going for her. And the exploitation of her sexuality is honestly kind of gross. I mean, I didn't even get the sense that this was the type of girl who would use her sex appeal to her advantage. Rab is good, but unfortunately falls prey to the "lecherous old man" cliché. But luckily they don't dwell on it too much. And Hendrik? ...Yeah, he's cool.
! As for difficulty, the game itself is fairly easy. The first few dungeons shouldn't be a problem, though it does get harder as it goes along. Actually, about halfway through the second half of the game, I was really starting to struggle with the bosses. I don't know if they really were just that hard or if I was underleveled, but yeah, after that I did go and get myself some better equipment and grind a bit. After that, I didn't really have much trouble for the rest of the game. Even the final boss was basically a breeze. Still, it is a well-balanced game in terms of difficulty and does make you aware of conserving your resources, but beating the game shouldn't be a problem for players.
! Let's see, other thoughts:
-Really liked the Tickington sidequests and being able to play in 16 bit retro graphics.
-Although it's been done before, I'll admit the second half of the game caught me by surprise, and I do think the second half is stronger than the first half.
-Sooooo what exactly happened with Mordegon? Why did he become a big beefy guy and what happened to his mohawk? I liked his first design better.
-Riding enemies is a really cool feature.
-The skill panels are nice, but it's aggravating that they change on you partway and, in some cases, you have to relearn your skills.
! So that's pretty much my takeaway. Dragon Quest XI, a good game, but I feel like it could have been more. Oh well, I'm still not done just yet as I've gotta do all the post-game stuff now. And after that, well, I guess I'll get to the other DQ games eventually.
DQXI was great, then fine, then…I dunno, it just felt like a slog from the halfway point on. It's rare I play a game with intentional retreads and enjoy it.
Also, as has been pointed out to me here, Erik isn't useless, he's just super-crit damage dagger guy.
DQXI was great, then fine, then…I dunno, it just felt like a slog from the halfway point on. It's rare I play a game with intentional retreads and enjoy it.
I liked the character developments in the second half, but…yeah, the retreads were a bit of a pain.
Also, as has been pointed out to me here, Erik isn't useless, he's just super-crit damage dagger guy.
Well, I guess that's my problem is that I always had him use boomerang. Tried to have him to shift to dagger later on, but it was too little too late.
You can always reset skill points at any priest. Dual wielding Erik with swords can do some good damage. Getting the attack that always crits later is one of the best ways to kill metal slimes and their ilk.
You can always reset skill points at any priest.
Yeah, I could. Or I could just stick with Hendrik and Jade who are already powerhouses.
Dual wielding Erik with swords can do some good damage. Getting the attack that always crits later is one of the best ways to kill metal slimes and their ilk.
Hmm, noted.
Holy shit. I actually beat the Timewyrm. And at 138 hours, I think I've done just about all I can with this game.
I mean, I guess I could try to collect all the weapons and armors and accessories and get all the accolades, but I'm not a crazy person.
Beat the story mode of DQB2 and I have to say, it was a lot shorter than I would have imagined. There are only four major island arcs to get through rather than the five one would expect, and you can't even return to that one prison island which is annoying because being able to go back to places you missed things in before is part of the fun, going back with stronger equipment or different abilities. Also I had thought the limit on item storage would be higher in this one than in the previous game and it doesn't seem like that particular aspect has improved very much which is a big disappointment. That, and cooking doesn't work in bulk like how constructing other items does which is a bad approach. If they were to make a third one, I don't think I'd be interested unless they were going to guarantee all of the issues I'm having with it are getting resolved.
I watched Dragon Quest Your Story and it's somehow both amazing and very rough.
If you've played Dragon Quest 5, definitely watch it.
If not… go buy the mobile version and play through the childhood arc before watching.
If not… go buy the mobile version and play through the childhood arc before watching.
Or the the DS port, The emulated version of the SNES original, or if you have a modded PS2 the translated version of the PS2 remake :S
Square Enix is unveiling a new Dragon Quest game on the 27th!
It'll be out in 2021 in japan, we don't know on which console it will be yet.
I finally watched the Dragon Quest: Your Story movie. Its based on the fifth game and… wow, that's squeezing a 30 hour game into 90 minutes all right. And what the hell was up with that ending?
It looked pretty though. I understand why they moved away from the Toriyama style though, the realistic lighting and skin effects would have been severely uncanny valley on a Toriyama face. They would have needed to go full anime style and that still doesn't ever look quite right in CG, though its getting better.
If it had been even half an hour longer they might have had a shot at making it comprehensible, and a pair of movies clocking in at 3 hours would have been actually good.
Makes em wanna play the game again though, so that's something.
But really, WTF with that ending?
Oh that’s neat it’ll be a shame when the servers get shut down within the next few months.
Can we get some ports or a remakes of the Rocket Slime games or something yes I know this is like a condemned man pleading innocence before execution but still.
Oh that’s neat it’ll be a shame when the servers get shut down within the next few months.
Can we get some ports or a remakes of the Rocket Slime games or something yes I know this is like a condemned man pleading innocence before execution but still.
Rocket Slime and Dragon Quest Monsters collections would definitely be welcome.
Bump
Well after 4 months and 3 renewals of my Xbox Game Pass finally beat DQ11 S or at least the main portion of the game.
It was okay definitely didn’t hate it as much as VII but boy oh boy was the game wonky not just from the storywriting perspective but also the localization which I’ve never been terribly fond of. Mini rant and spoilers abound.
! Wasn't really all that fond of the "chosen one" storyline since it automatically gives the hero a chip on their shoulder and while the hero loses his Luminary powers…....he gains them back anyway. I kind of felt it would've been a neat development if the hero managed to overcome the trials in the story without the Luminary powers. This also has some weird gameplay tieover where you temporarily can't use the Luminary skill tree and me being confused as to whether I lost all my invested points.
! Wasn't a fan of twist with King Carnelian even without having read a preview of the first part of the game that twist was super predictable. I felt it would've been better had King Carnelian been legit evil instead of "possessed" by Mordegon it also would've potentially allowed them to better flesh out Mordegon who just came off feeling shallow same problem with Rhapthorne and Orgodemir".
! Localization was messy AND NOT FUNNY. Like I'm no expert in writing subtitles but you typically don't have to write subtitles in a language to indicate that someone is speaking with an accent especially if the character is speaking with a heavy accent along with using slang that will not be familiar to people who understand said slang. Also if you have characters they say speak in lisps having the subtitles written to reflect that is dumb and also looks like you're making fun of people who speak with lisps. Also if you have characters that speak in plain english why bother having characters that speak in different accents or dialects?
! While I liked the character writing for most of the party members here's a tip for writers if you have a character with obnoxious and annoying character traits like say Veronica the idea is that eventually these characters will learn how awful they are as people and work to better their selves Veronica never has that moment in the time leading up to her death. It's like she spends most of her time sniping with Erik (for no reason), In at least two separate scenes cuts down Serena for her naivete, and sometimes complaining about arbitrary stuff. That being said she was more tolerable than Maribelle but yet Maribelle sticks around for much of VII's story. I also liked Serena's character moment which involved her saving the party.....too bad it involved a rather dumb plot hole and was slightly undercut by her pointing out how inferior she was compared to Veronica and at least one villager in Arboria essentially mentioning how the hero shouldn't force her to go along with him (never mind Veronica & Serena setting out to begin with was their choice and almost no one else in the village having an issue with Serena continuing to help the hero).
! The substories were okay but some of them were stupid the Michelle & Kai storyline I didn't hate this romance story as bad as the Carraway & Lavender romance from VII. But it was dumb between the unnecessary and stupid hatred towards the Mermaids from the villagers of Lonalulu, The weird story demonizing Kai told by his daughter, and the letter explaining the true circumstances with Kai that get's found after Michelle kills herself. It also leaves the question of why hint at Kai's grandson ssentially taking his place just to not do it?
! The Miko storyline was awful and lazy I like how when you first visit Hotto nothing's really happening. You go back there after the fall of Yggdrasil and find out that Miko has been sacrificing villagers to the Dragon in the Volcano which you're just told not shown of course. And then there's the resolution where party breaks the curse by feeding Miko's medallion to the Dragon which is rendered moot by Ryu dying as a result of the injuries sustained in two battles with the Party. Also let's not have anyone explain why Miko was sacrificing people to the dragon eventhough lack of transparency was precisely the reason the problems happened in the first place.
! Krystalinda story was okay but like much of the game where it's writing has been concerned didn't make much sense especially since if you go to the Royal Library before you start the questline you're told a bit of Krystalinda's backstory and yet when you meet her her personality is radically different from what said book indicates. And in spite of all of what she does The Queen of Sniflheim decides she's not that bad......even after she trapped her in her place and froze her people. I also liked how Veronica injures Krystalinda when she abushes the party in the forest then uses said injury to unmask her.......and then does it again minutes later and also no explanation as to how Krystalinda wasn't sealed back into the book and still allowed to come back anyway.
! Was there any reason to do the goofy shit of having players unlock the waypoints on maps and then make you do it again after the death of the world tree? not being able to Zoom your way back to Heliodor makes some degree of sense......not much for Gallopolis or Sniflheim. I know the developers might piss off some people making such changes eventhough they've long since got rid of random encounters which people liked and dead characters are revived after battle but do we really need to have Zing with a 50-50 chance of missing especially when you have enemies randomly whacking & thackwing your party or some getting 2-3 turns to hit your party hard?
! The Spectral Sentinels were a neat concept.......too bad at least 3 of them have their designs copied by other enemies. Also liked how after you beat Jasper who comes back with the other Sentinels who are basically defeated in a cutscene by the "Power Of Friendship".
! Ending cutscene was weird you beat Mondregon, his fortress collapses, the party escapes near death, celebrate their victory........roll credits.
! Also eventhough you could marry Jade (along with Gemma) in the 3DS version let's backpedal and just let you romance the female characters......still marry Gemma though.
Like I said liked the game but the journey was "rough" 12 whenever they decide to do that is going to have to make some considerable changes to pull me in.
Does anyone have any good grinding tips for late Act 2 in DQ11 that doesn't make it feel like you're pulling your teeth out. I grinded an hour trying to get hardy hands in manglegrove station only to get 4 levels. And yes i know about electro light and trying to set it up is a giant pain in the ass which can easily fail.
I know that’s how I did it though I probably only utilized Electro Light sparingly since the usual bullshit with Metal Slimes makes it borderline impractical even with Erik using critical claim.
So by the time I decided to finish up almost everyone was in the mid to early 60’s.
Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate got announced.
Dragon Quest X still isn't coming to the west but the new Secret of Mana-style Dragon Quest X Offline might?
Dragon Quest KeshiKeshi is an eraser-based free to play mobile puzzle game.
Dragon Quest Treasures is a spinoff of DQ11 starring Erik and his sister and they really didn't want to tell us anything about the gameplay.
A Dragon Quest 3 remake in the Octopath style was announced, and Horii implied that they were going to remake 1 and 2 the same way which he apparently wasn't supposed to reveal.
A new Dragon Quest Monsters game will be announced in the future.
Bump
So Square announced that they’re dropping another remake of DQ3 and eventually DQ12 which is supposedly going to make some tweaks to the formula and getting a worldwide release.
There’s also a new expansion for DQX which isn’t coming stateside.
Cool. Although I had mixed feelings about DQXI, I'm up for a new DQ game.
I just wish they'd make IV through VIII more available so I could play those (I'm aware emulators exist, I'm just not very keen on them).
Cool. Although I had mixed feelings about DQXI
Who didn’t?
I just wish they'd make IV through VIII more available so I could play those (I'm aware emulators exist, I'm just not very keen on them).
I could see them rereleasing V somewhere down the line with the HD 2D redundant as it would be. But VII and VIII I don’t see happening anytime soon. Being that both were already ported to 3DS not all that long
ago. VII in particular got an iOS/Android port that was never release stateside.
I just wish they'd make IV through VIII more available so I could play those (I'm aware emulators exist, I'm just not very keen on them).
Those all had 3DS reports which are pretty gettable. Though obviously handheld isn't exactly the ideal way to play.
Its an extra shame because the port for 8 is much improved over the original in a lot of ways.
Those all had 3DS reports which are pretty gettable.
I believe IV, V, and VI were released on the DS. And looking at Amazon now, prices are upwards of $200
I believe IV, V, and VI were released on the DS. And looking at Amazon now, prices are upwards of $200
Oh. Well then.
Guess I'm rich!
What we really need is a Dragon Quest IX remake with full online functionality and expanded co-op.
That's been hinted at in the past, but it'll probably come after Dragon Quest XII at this rate.
What we actually really need is 10 with no online, that then comes over here.
Really really sucks that one of the numbered titles is just never going to show up. Ever.
I was really excited for a moment when they announced that… and then dissapointed when they said "no english release". Maybe don't memntion that in a worldwide press conference then?
Much like Final Fantasy they should have left off the number entirely and just made it a spinoff with "online" in the title.
[https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/10/dragon-quest-composer-koichi-sugiyama-has-passed-away
S](https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/10/dragon-quest-composer-koichi-sugiyama-has-passed-away)ugiyama’s dead. Oh well. Ninety years old and that, dreadful opinions on various things. Curious to see what the effect on DQXII will be
As long as we don’t get an all midi soundtrack. Everything should be Gucci.