Current Events > Never played Dragon Quest. Trying XI for Switch demo.

(+) Yeah! (+)

It feels very charming, like the music and art. Combat seems very simple right now tho, I know this series is about being classic which I dont mind. Should I get the game?

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I'd like to know as well. It's got a DQ8 vibe to it. How does it stand up with that game?

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No idea, never played the series

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I think you've basically got the idea already, so you can decided for yourself.

I think what will sell me is if the combat gets better, more fun and tactical. I just learned about the skill tree thingy so thats nice.

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Musourenka posted...

I'd like to know as well. It's got a DQ8 vibe to it. How does it stand up with that game?

For me, 11 was like a beautiful cross between 8 and 9. I absolutely loved every minute of it.

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How is the story, characters and world building?

Im a bit iffy about a silent protagonist but it has to be done well.

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FF_Redux posted...

How is the story, characters and world building?

Im a bit iffy about a silent protagonist but it has to be done well.

I dont like it. Its generic, boring and repetitive. I guess thats part of the charm of Dragon Quest games but they are so traditional that its painful.

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FF_Redux posted...

I think what will sell me is if the combat gets better, more fun and tactical. I just learned about the skill tree thingy so thats nice.

If you play with the optional stronger enemies mode it absolutely requires tactics to beat most bosses.

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Boring for me. I quit mid-way through the game. Play V instead.

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I finished the demo in 9 hours and 30 mins! That's a meaty demo man.

I bought the game, it's so charming and it feels kinda nice to play this super classic JRPG. My first DQ game

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8 is one of my favorite games ever but Xi fell rather short for me

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Delirious_Beard posted...

8 is one of my favorite games ever but Xi fell rather short for me

I wouldn't know

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Delirious_Beard posted...

8 is one of my favorite games ever but Xi fell rather short for me

What do you think 11 was missing that 8 had?

Just using this as a way to prioritize which games to get first.

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It's cute and fine, but nothing special. About as traditional of a JRPG as one can get in the sense of the genre. Don't expect the combat to change much in terms of development or strategy.

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I loved 11. Its not overly complex but its a great experience and I love the music and visuals.

If you want the combat to feel more tactical you need to activate the draconian challenge for stronger monsters. Makes the game infinitely better imo

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Puns, turn-based combat, lively cast, and beautiful animations. DQ has stayed closed to its roots while still managing to grow and adapt QoL changes that have come with new generations.

It's the greatest JRPG series of all time.
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Yes. The battles become more tactical. You get choices of actions and each choice of active battle party has unique special moves. Then there are transformations.

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I loved 11. If you enjoy the game I highly recommend playing 5 afterward.

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3,4, and 5 are the best games in the series imo. 5 has the best story. 3 is probably the most tactical because of how your characters are more customizable and the focus on more non linear exploration where you're often more forced to figure stuff out yourself.

IndustrialTrudg posted...

3,4, and 5 are the best games in the series imo. 5 has the best story. 3 is probably the most tactical because of how your characters are more customizable and the focus on more non linear exploration where you're often more forced to figure stuff out yourself.

Havent played 3 but 4 is probably my least favorite of those Ive played. I liked how it started with the different chapters but once you have the full party its weaker imo

ivw played 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, and Im about ten hours into 5

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Musourenka posted...

What do you think 11 was missing that 8 had?

Just using this as a way to prioritize which games to get first.

mostly in the scope of its world. it largely ditches an overworld for more segmented, corridor-like areas. that might appeal to some, but I found this to be probably my biggest letdown. the world just doesn't feel like a place. there's tons of invisible walls and impassable terrain in what feel like areas you can explore. i found it telling that i started to just follow the minimap because i didn't really trust the actual world to guide me. the towns on the other hand are still wonderful and imo the best part of the game. tons of NPC's and dialogue, enjoyable exploration and they're all visually distinctive with cultural flairs.

i also feel like the combat is a downgrade overall. the new flourish this time around is the Pep mechanic which i found to be largely inferior to the tension mechanic from VIII. there's also the matter of handling how turns play out. in all previous games you picked all commands for all party members at the start and watched a turn play out. in this game all commands are selected as a character's turn comes up in the order. this allows you to play a more reactive game, but it leads to fights rarely having any moments to breathe. it also makes turns harder to decipher between, so choosing an action like guarding makes it hard to tell how long that would be for. i prefer the combat pacing of the previous games, and sadly there's no option to play the old style, at least in 3D. you actually do use the old turn style in 2D mode but i didn't have any interest in playing the whole game in 2D

with regards to story i feel like this one leans a bit too heavily on previous lore for my liking (it's still completely decipherable for new fans, but there's a lot of callbacks and references), the characters are mostly solid but I feel like having a silent MC hurts this game a lot more than others in the series because of how plot-relevant they are. as for the cast, they're okay. mostly carried by a select few. what the cast is missing is interactions, and one of the reasons for that is the party chat. in 8 you had less party chat overall which miffed a lot of people, but they made up for it imo by having the characters interact more with each other during it. in XI there isn't any interaction, it's all "single character reacts to thing that just happened". there's a lot more of it, but I was less invested in it on the whole.

oh and the music just absolutely sucks, or it's mostly that the songs you'll most frequently be hearing are the absolute worst tracks in the game. the overworld theme in particular is so bad that in the definitive version they let you switch it to VIII's overworld music.

a lot of my criticisms really just come down to preference. plenty of people love XI and consider it among the best in the series.

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11 is a perfect staring place in my opinion. Yes, the combat gets more tactical once you start getting more party members. You're going to have to master debuffing and buffing timing and trust me one misstep there can cost a battle later on. Dragon Quest games always start deceptively simple to help ease you into the protagonists shoes and to give you confidence going forward. This game has a ton of nice, quality of life stuff like camping giving you free heals etc but the game is designed around that.

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I'm liking XI (60 hours in) but I completely agree with Delirious_Beard.

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TheGoldenEel posted...

Havent played 3 but 4 is probably my least favorite of those Ive played. I liked how it started with the different chapters but once you have the full party its weaker imo

ivw played 4, 7, 8, 9, 11, and Im about ten hours into 5

Why do you think it becomes weaker? My only issue was not being able to control ally's which I thought was weird. I think it had the best final boss in the series.

solosnake posted...

If you want the combat to feel more tactical you need to activate the draconian challenge for stronger monsters. Makes the game infinitely better imo

hmm. I already played like 10h and I have to make a new save for this. Is it worth it?

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Thanks for the info, @Delirious_Beard . I will give the demo a go as well. Looks like the change in combat turns is happening in Bravely Default II as well.

One thing I liked about 8 is that your main character isn't (as far as the main story goes at least) some sort of legendary hero -- He's a lucky soldier continuing to do his duty for the king and kingdom. DQ always has silent protagonists, but having one who is basically an ordinary person works perfectly. Also, even though the main cast is small, they're all great individually and together.

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PatrickMahomes posted...

Don't expect the combat to change much in terms of development or strategy.

If anything, combat degenerates as the game goes on.
Hero/Eric/Sylvando/that-eighth-guy, all dualwielding Falcons, just lawnmowers everything that isn't a boss - and even some of those.

DQ is the comfort food of JRPGs, its combat never reaches any strategic heights that you'd find from a company like Atlus for example, but XI does a few things of interest like the skill tree you mentioned and gearing up is more fun than usual with the forge. Still a good, nice game if you are down for something safe and relatively simple with a solid style behind it.

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Megaman50100 posted...

like the skill tree you mentioned

The fun part comes from branches that touch another, combined with easy respec. Work into a skill on the edge of some other branch, respec the branch you took to get there, then build off of the "skill island" you just made.

It's a common trick to get Sylvando's awesome Hustle Dance immediately.

I only played Definitive Edition, but isnt there some rights issue or something with the soundtrack that lead to certain releases of the game having a blatantly bad quality dumbed down version of the soundtrack?

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Megaman50100 posted...

but isnt there some rights issue or something with the soundtrack

Kinda?
The composer is a bit of a dick, and wanted to sell concert tickets.

Some in the topic did not like XI sound track so much. I love Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Here is a steam mod
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521444556

Main goal of this mod is to provide the proper auditory experience that is deserving of this masterpiece of a game by applying all available orchestral variants of the songs present in the game, as composed by Koichi Sugiyama and performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
All necessary steps to obtain musical bliss will be detailed below.

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FF_Redux posted...

hmm. I already played like 10h and I have to make a new save for this. Is it worth it?

thats a tough call, only you can really decide that. If you want a more challenging experience, I would say go for it

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Got six hours into the demo before i ran out and bought it

Only played like another hour and havent touched it since

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