Dragon Quest XI

[SymbolicFrank]

Btw, a major difference with 8: no bouncing boobies.

Also, there is no water in the water wells.

 

[Vorark]

Turned stronger enemies off, that Dora fight was killing my mood for the game.

Got the bitch down to red health a couple of times, only to be wiped out by laser or desperate attack. Could probably grind on metal slimes up to lvl 30 but fuck, I don't have the patience for doing stuff like this anymore.

 

[Jinn]

Turned stronger enemies off, that Dora fight was killing my mood for the game.

Got the bitch down to red health a couple of times, only to be wiped out by laser or desperate attack. Could probably grind on metal slimes up to lvl 30 but fuck, I don't have the patience for doing stuff like this anymore.

Dora is one of the hardest boss fights in the game, in my opinion. Going into it with full pep on all characters + Jade's multi-thrust + Kasap did the trick though. I believe I was level 28-29 at the time.

 

[Reinhardt]

She hits hard but drops in 2-3 turns if you go full assault.

 

[glass blackbird]

I think sometimes it's ok for an RPG to just be about good vs evil. Especially since that's become a lot less common these days, everyone's trying to make tragedies or subversions or clever metanarratives or whatever and DQ11 is just about some people trying to save the day because they''re heroes. It's almost refreshing in how earnest it is I think

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Haven't tried it personally... but I like that we're moving forward on model swaps. If even for the fact we may be able to use different costumes without been saddled with inferior armor stats.

 

[Vorark]

People were not exaggerating about normal mode being way too easy, it's worse than baby's first jrpg. There's no point in steamrolling everything, can't play like this. Just loaded my save backup with the stronger enemies still turned on.

Anyone got tips for beating Dora besides going full attack mode on her ass? I tried the Hero-Jade-Serena pep combo but the whore managed to kill the Hero during her first round. Party level is around 26, specs are:

Spoiler

Hero - greatswords
Jade - spears
Erik - daggers, although just use him to apply poison and cast that earth spell which does continously damage
Sylvando - has hustle dance, oomph and is able to cure charm
Serena - has the anti-ailment spell + healing when needed
Rab - zing stick and backup healing
Veronica - useless in this fight

I hardly ever grinded in all the DQ games I've played but maybe my levels are indeed too low?

 

[Jinn]

Yeah, I'd say gain a couple levels, go full in full pep, do a quick pep buff (maybe Serena and Veronica's), buff attack and debuff defense, then multi-thrust your way to victory, swapping out part members when appropriate.

 

[Vorark]

AWWW YEAH, TOOK DORA DOWN!

Got lucky and killed like 5 metal bubble slimes while wandering around her dungeon so the party level ended up around 31-32. Started the fight with the Hero-Jade-Serena pep combo, followed by Sylvando's Accelerate and had Serena protect everyone from charm. The bitch still managed to knock Jade out by using desperate attack + laser but Zing brought her back. Jade even did a crit with multithrust for 400 damage.

Thanks for the help, Jinn and Reinhardt.

 

[Ivan]

In Act 2 now and I'm finding many of the boss encounters very reliant on whether or not the RNG gods will let you inflict status effects on them.

Regardless, loving that they're still fleshing out the characters.

Giant fish man was a pain in the behind, but I got past it!

 

[Ivan]

Anyone else find it funny that Sylv and the Luminary's dads share the same character model?

 

[Frusciante]

What kind of difficulty should I play this on? I didn't know you had to option at the start to ask for tougher enemies. Is the game still challenging enough without that option or should I start over? I'm about 4 hours in.

 

[Removal]

Not really, on the regular difficulty you'll stomp through the vast majority of the encounters with maybe a few spikes here and there and those are all side stepped later on by using Erik's ability to one shot bosses and beefy monsters with little effort

 

[Ivan]

Hard (the extra setting) has been very nice. Only had to re-try bosses in Act 2, Act 1 was pretty smooth.

 

[Frusciante]

Which track should I go in for Erik? I was thinking boomerang to get dmg in on multiple enemies. But perhaps daggers is more fun/better?

Do you get enough skill points to unlock everything at the end or do you need to make choices?

Just started over by the way, for the harder enemies. Hate to do that first part again but ok.

 

[Reinhardt]

Do you get enough skill points to unlock everything at the end

Yes. Just from leveling to 99 you get enough points to unlock almost everything. Each character lacks 10-20 skillpoints at maximum level and you can use skill seeds to cover it if you really want to unlock EVERY skill.

 

[Vorark]

I finally BEAT IT!

Holy shit, was the boss fight a rough ride. Died three times to the first phase and then was on my toes during the second since I didn't want to redo the whole thing. Who said turn based games can't be filled with adrenaline and nail biting moments? Jade multithrusted her way to victory while Sylvando healed and buffed everyone like a champ. The party was around level 55.

Need a break before venturing forth into the postgame.

Spoiler

Veronica...

 

[glass blackbird]

The postgame is like thirty hours long, have fun!

 

[Tribal Sarah]

I haven't liked jrpgs in the past cos of their crappy random battles every 10 seconds and endless grinding. I finally finished the main story last night and I loved it. Probably my favourite game of the year.

 

[Ivan]

I'm in the postgame and am ready to wrap it all up. Going to attempt Calsmos at ~Lv. 60. I feel like after a fantastic meal, the post game is like extra food that while savory, would ruin my appetite. Kinda the same deal I had with Yakuza 0. The critical path is so satisfying, that by the time I'm done with it, I feel full.



I guess at this point I feel like I should start playing the "classics." Would FF4 be a good option after this?

 

[Hyperion]

FF4 is considered a classic, but not a favorite among Codexers. It's short, linear, and has no character building to speak of. If you're looking for a quick storyfag romp though, it's a pretty decent introduction to the series, to whet your appetite for the classics like 5, 6, 7*, 9*, and 12*. FF4 is one of the few games I've played where the romance isn't sickening since it's pre-established, and is between 2 adults rather than a coming-of-age teenage sob story, even though she plays the damsel in distress part more than once.

* - There's a small debate about how 'classic' these really are, but the positive voices mostly outweigh the negative, just like the positive aspects of the game mostly outweigh the negative. 9 is probably the one I would be most hesitant to recommend to you from a storyfag perspective since it's a bit tongue-in-cheek, and never really takes itself too seriously. Soundtrack is on point, and it's the swan song for the classic ATB system. 12 is the most conflicted, but it's my personal favorite, though I will say take my opinion with a small grain of salt, as I'm a self-admitted Yasumi Matsuno fanboy. Most of us here are to a degree, though.

 

[Ivan]

Is it a JRPG trope for the games to end with a fake Act 2 and feature a "secret" Act 3 endgame?

I've heard DQ8 does this, but does this extend to other JRPGs?

 

[Hyperion]

Dungeon Crawlers, and Dragon Quest mostly.

 

[Reinhardt]

Played them in a row and it's the same thing in Labyrinth of Refrain. More gameplay is always welcome, but story-wise DQ11 and Labyrinth both would be better without postgame portion.

 

[Ivan]

So since I'm a glutton for punishment, I'm grinding my way to Lv 70 to take on Calasmos. Gus Fring voice: "I do this"

also, hellllllll no am I going to farm materials to get everyone "best" gear, aint nobody got time for that

all in all though, I do wish the Act 2 ending was where the game ended. While cute, not really a fan of recycling the scenarios from that same Act. Most don't even feature new battles.

Anyway, Dragon Quest 11 has been, on the whole, a fantastic experience, made better by the orchestral mod for sure. I was looking up clips of the Calasmos fight on youtube and the midi soundtrack was an assault on my ears.