Dragon Quest XI

[Jenkem]

There's always that one hero in a thread who claims that he didn't / you don't need to do any grinding at all.. Well, in the case in some games, it's true. Certainly is not true for DQ11. I tried playing the game naturally without grinding and after I got my full party it was just a buffet of shit eating for me. I went to Gallopolis and pretty much every encounter there could end up being lethal to the point where I'd get downed before I could even react, so I had to go back and grind a level for everyone in the previous area before moving on there. Some encounters (with the cactuses) were flat out impossibru unless I had Scorched Earth ready. Btw this is with all the best equipment bought and upgraded from Gallopolis. After getting the twins to level 14 things evened out a lot. Vernoica gains Bang and +10 magic damage, which helps a lot, and Serena gains Woosh which is always awesome and finally, after 10 games, a useful spell. Still haven't gotten enough Agility to out maneuver enemies for a first attack reliably. Hopefully there's a Meteorite Bracer in this game as well.

not sure if you are trolling or are actually retarded...

 

[Jenkem]

Jade is third bettest waifu of all time, after Tamryn and Melwyn.

you misspelled "Veronica."

 

[Zep Zepo]

The Led Zeppelin reference made me laugh out loud..late game. Let me know if you spot it.

Zep--

 

[Kruno]

I have a feeling they made the monsters harder on the bloated monster difficulty to the point that you have no choice, even overlevelled, but to use buffs and debuffs.

 

[Hyperion]

I have a feeling they made the monsters harder on the bloated monster difficulty to the point that you have no choice, even overlevelled, but to use buffs and debuffs.

Status Effects, too. I'm still in the early game, but absolutely breezed past the

Spoiler

Grim Gryphons

because I abused Sleeper Hit, and took 'em out one at a time. I read quite a few people struggling against them. I imagine it gets much rougher from here on out.

 

[Fred]

Yeah sleeper hit is really good (and the *6 damage on sleeping target too)
Killed the desert boss with a single wipe, had to grind to level 14 (well grind is too strong of a word, I was lvl13 so the grind was like 10 battles).
As usual "buff" spell makes all the difference (and sap too). At the end he spammed sandstorm so I was in an infinite cycle of healing withotu any opening for damage (and even then when he's not sap'ed the damage is negligible). Vero died, everyone was at 5-20 HP, then Erik got a transe effect and I used the thing that does damage each enemy turn and that killed him (last hit for 49 damage) :D

My boss battles are so close I should record them it's crazy. Didn't had to de-activate hard mode tho !

 

[Vorark]

Funny thing about the stronger enemies...

Spoiler

Got my ass handed to me by the gryphons too. Had to use Erik's continuous damage spell and spam sizzle + a well timed pep attack to finish the job.

Seems we all managed to defeat them by using different methods.

I'm tempted to go Sword & Shield (dem Metal + Falcon slashes) with the hero and Boomerangs with Erik, despite the optimal way probably being Greatsword and Knives.

 

[Hyperion]

I'm tempted to go Sword & Shield (dem Metal + Falcon slashes) with the hero and Boomerangs with Erik, despite the optimal way probably being Greatsword and Knives.

Early game using whatever's strongest is my philosophy. Currently that's a Bronze Sword +3, which I guess I got pretty lucky making right off the bat. I've been holding out on using many Skill Points with the Hero because I figure in true Dragon Warrior fashion there will be a weapon you get via meticulous crafting, or the Casino that vastly outperforms everything else for a long time, and I'll just sink the points into whatever weapon that is. That being said, Boomerangs and spamming Sizz with the Hero takes care of most trash encounters in 1 - 2 turns as long as it's one enemy type, and keeps the damage limited. I used some Perfectionist Pearls to get the Healer + Supplicant both to +2. Hero now recovers +7 HP / +2 MP per turn instead of 3 / 1, and it's made a yuge difference.

I'm 100% positive that 1h swords will be the way to go with the Hero anyway because it's ended up that way in every single Dragon Warrior made.

Very early on, you can actually get infinite Perfectionist's Pearls via the Forge.

Spoiler

After beating the Gryphons in Kingsbarrow, you should unlock the Feathered Hat recipe (via jumping using the Eggoskeleton). The Hardy Hide, and Flurry Feather can be bought from the Campsite Merchant for 150g. Feathered hats +1 sell for 154g, +2 for like 168, and a +3 for a whopping 224g. Just buy as many Feathers / Hides as you can afford, make the Hats, and sell 'em back for (small) profit, while gaining 2 Pearls per action.

 

[Fred]

I'm using boomerang with no point in it, good enough for random battles (you'll use knives for bosses anyway). +3 the cross boomerang (reward from quest) and it's good to go (at least until the desert, where I am).
I go sword and shield too but it's because I picked flame sword first, so I picked the cheap +2% crit, so I picked the +10 atk power (basically I committed myself because each time the sword and shield option was always the best) but from this I started to invest in great swords (not sure how it will turn out yet but it worked ok until now)

 

[Jinn]

Stronger Enemies is just a ton of fun. You have to really plan your battles out and strategically use buffs/debuffs, items, and Pep (I wish they had kept it Zone) moves. Yes there is sometimes a little grinding, but like I said before, when regular encounters are very threatening in and of themselves, combat isn't a chore, and grinding isn't really all that grindy. I like that pretty much every boss battle is a no-holds-barred intense deathmatch.

For anyone playing with Stronger Enemies and wondering what they should do with their Hero, I would highly recommend Greatswords. Makes him a very reliable tank for the for 20-30 hours of the game, especially when you get Cutting Edge. Also makes for a very versatile character with his spells on top of that.

 

[Kruno]

You can respec your skill points. I have GS and Daggers for Hero and Erik, but notice how some of the skills in the skill tree are locked behind 2 trees.

 

[Fred]

For Erik I'm going directly for the dual wield, 16 skill points is expansive that early but it's not that far from the starting point. Dual boomerangs for random battle will be great I hope. (and yeah you can respect in churches)

 

[Vorark]

Veronica is a gift from heaven.

 

[Reinhardt]

Jade is third bettest waifu of all time, after Tamryn and Melwyn.

you misspelled "Veronica."

Veronica is a gift from heaven.

 

[aweigh]

You can see the full skill trees (including the locked/secret ones) by browsing the Attributes section

weird choice since why even bother to make them "Secret" in the skill tree if you can go to the menu and see them???

anyway doing that i spotted that the hero learns dual-wielding in Sword tree... sword and shield is absolutely inferior to Greatsword because early-game shields suck and the Hero already has great Def/Resilience statistics, HOWEVER depending on what kind of 1h Swords with what kind of Bonus Effects on them that you can find it is quite possible that end-game/post-game going with dual swords will be better than Greatsword.

Unlike Erik though the hero doesn't have the 2nd dual-wield skill that raises 2nd weapon's DMG to full value (normally it's half DMG), which means that Greatsword will probably still out-DPS, so it will depend on what kind of bonus effects the end-game swords have.

If past DQ games are anything to go by, which we know they are, the most unique weapons are usually gotten thru exchanging mini medals, casino prizes, or rare chests.

For Serena I decided to make her Spear because of the ridiculous Parry chances she can get, much better in the long-run than going 1h Wand + Shield with her. Like parrying with swords/Greatswords, Spear parrying also blocks spells, which is extremely useful.

BTW, I learned that there is a special char who joins you who isn't in the default party of veronica/serena/rab/jade/Erik/sylvando. Won't say who.

 

[aweigh]

So I just discovered something amazing:

Instead of running a lower resolution like I was doing (was using 1792x1008) it is MUCH, MUCH better to use 1080p and use the game's (the UEngine's) Screen Percentage option and scaling THAT downwards.

Downscaled resolution = UI elements still crispy crisp, still has native resolution crispness overall, better color sampling, etc, only things that get decreased in fidelity is the 3D geometry.

Lower resolution = Affects everything, including UI and on the majority of LCD panels makes the sharpness and color sampling decrease in quality because of the not-native-effect.

Wish I'd discovered this sooner but hey, all's well that ends well. This also applies to video and photo editing as well, btw, it is ALWAYS better to shoot as high rez as possible and then downscale. Man this game is just eyeball porn now.

Turning Temporal AA sampling up to '64' is amazing too. Recommended.

 

[Jinn]

Another magical moment of simple exploration: I'm getting ready to leave an area, feeling I had explored everything to its fullest. As I'm heading to my next destination, I notice a small part of the map I haven't gone to yet that I didn't notice before. As I head there, I see a shimmering on a building at the inn I had rested at before venturing out. I head back, find that to get to the shimmering material, I have to explore the balcony of the inn, where I also find a treasure chest. I jump to gather my prize and move on.

The thing about this simple design is that it is so rewarding not only when you find it, but when you notice what the developers did. They knew a lot of people wouldn't explore that balcony entirely, and they drew attention back to it by rewarding the player with further exploration. Great stuff.

 

[aweigh]

I wish I could find a screenshot of it but one of my all-time favorite lines of dialog ever is in DQ7, after you first arrive at the class-changing temple, when Maribel says that class-changing is the opiate of the masses, luuul.

 

[Blaine]

I bought this and played the first hour with Super Strong Enemies, and from what I can tell, this is A Strictly Classic jRPG Experience. I've played older DQs in ages past, including the original, but man....

It might be TOO classic. I feel like I'm replaying an unspecified classic jRPG, but jRPGs don't tend to be hugely replayable due to linearity and lack of C&C.

Fuck it, I'll guess I'll stick with it, probably. I'm starting to think classic jRPGs wore their welcome out with me a while ago, though.

 

[Jinn]

I would liken it to the regular difficulty in Shin Megami Tensei III. This is a very good thing. The reason I'm so pro-Stonger Monsters is that it doesn't feel like a tacked on difficulty level. It seems well tuned and tested.

 

[Hyperion]

I bought this and played the first hour with Super Strong Enemies, and from what I can tell, this is A Strictly Classic jRPG Experience. I've played older DQs in ages past, including the original, but man....

It might be TOO classic. I feel like I'm replaying an unspecified classic jRPG, but jRPGs don't tend to be hugely replayable due to linearity and lack of C&C.

Fuck it, I'll guess I'll stick with it, probably. I'm starting to think classic jRPGs wore their welcome out with me a while ago, though.

Been going back and forth with this and MHW. Using what seems to be the "difficulty trifecta" amongst Codexers - No Fleeing, no XP from pussies, and Strong Monsters, it's the most challenging Dragon Warrior. Hands down. Harder than doing Dragon's Graveyard right after Dhoulmagus, harder than Graccus in VII, the Hydra from III is a kitten. Every single fight keeps you on your toes, and I find myself casting Heal in battle a lot more than I'm used to because I never know when an enemy will double up its attacks on me. I'm not even far, and the game hasn't gotten that tough yet, but it's fantastic.

Spoiler

You also get an extra postgame dungeon if you beat it on Draconian Mode

 

[aweigh]

With veronica going wands is basically mandatory because it has two upgrades for magical might, which is the stat which regulates offensive spell DMG and success % of landing her ailments. Since she's the only char who gets access to the tippy-top end game nukes and the best ailments, it pretty much means you should just pump her magical might as much as possible. There are 3 magical might upgrades, 1 on her VIM tree and 2 on the wands. Whip looks like a complete trap.

At least Serena with spear she has decent upgrades (two strength upgrades, 2 critical chance upgrades and 1 parry upgrade along with 1 very decent single-target spear ability for end-game), but veronica with whips will be fucking missing all the time and probably won't ever land the whip's on-hit effects on bosses, ever.

Serena's harpestry looks like it might either be a complete waste or mandatory, hard to say so far. protection from elemental spells would obviously be super useful against bosses and enemies with breath attacks... but it depends on whether or not you have items which can duplicate those defenses, and I *think* Rab has access to elemental protection spells which might make serena not mandatory.

(Rab is the old man, he has access to offensive spells and debuffs and defensive veils basically he is the "red mage" of the game, except obviously he doesn't have access to the best of anything). He can't replace veronica's end-game nuking but he probably can raise party defenses enough to not have to take Serena.

Argh, it's gonna be a tough choice when i have the full party! I know i'm kicking serena out immediately, but erik and vero... well i know vero's staying for the whole game in my party at least. i'll probably end up hero/sylvando/vero/jade, with possibly changing jade for either rab or erik depending on hwo good she is.

Don't know yet how the cutscenes will play out, whether or not the game will treat it as the party always being together or what for the scenes.

EDIT: When a jrpg is so good like this one where you really enjoy the combat and the characters, I'm a big fan of the gaming dedicating at least one small section where you have to use each new party member, and then for late-game or whatever making you choose. Seems to me the best possible way to do things, and most do it like this anyway.

 

[Kruno]

Is it just me or has the game's difficulty toned down around the time you get to the Dragonball Z town?
I have two new recruits and everything has become a cakewalk. I never even bothered levelling to fight the spider boss (level 20-23 for my chars). Is this a momentary lapse in difficulty or does the game suffer from "hard beginning, but easy the rest of the way" problem that a vast majority of games have?

 

[aweigh]

i'm not that far yet but i'm fairly sure it won't become a cakewalk.

btw, I just realized that DQ uses "might" to regulate magic power too which means PoE copied it!!!

: O

 

[Curratum]

Oh, dear god...

I got to Heliodor and the FPS went from the 45-60 I was getting in the wilderness between cities to literally sub-20, averaging something like 17.

What the fuck, Squeenix, I thought this was a decent port...