Dragon Quest XI

[Data4]

The last one of these I played was 4 on the NES right when it came out. It's 30 years later, or whatever. Will I like this?

 

[GarlandExCon]

I don't see why not

 

[Harry Easter]

The last one of these I played was 4 on the NES right when it came out. It's 30 years later, or whatever. Will I like this?

I think, you will. They stayed the same and only got a bit tweaked here and there. They are like that one meal, that you can always eat.

 

[Harry Easter]

Okay, I finished VIII now and I definitely loved it, so I think of getting XI, which seems to have more of everything (especially more story). Question is, can I still play it? My Laptop is now seven years old, came with Windows 7 (10 is installed) and had roughly the ressources to play Skyrim on average graphicsetting. Could he still do it or should I wait, until I have enough money for another PC (which I will use for the next secen years)?

 

[Sentinel]

Wait. Meanwhile emulate and play Dragon Quest V, DS or PS2 version.

 

[Harry Easter]

Wait. Meanwhile emulate and play Dragon Quest V, DS or PS2 version.

Will do. Maybe I can get a cheap 3DS somewhere, so I can try V. That one and XI interest me the most.

 

[GarlandExCon]

I think like every version of DragonQuest ever (the older ones at least) are available for purchase and download as apps in the app store

 

[GarlandExCon]

Confirmed:

 

[Sentinel]

You can get them for free on the internet fyi.

 

[Jenkem]

Anyone playing Dragon Quest 11 S? All the extra content (new post-game character scenarios, the post game 3ds content where you travel back to past games and is tied into those little ghost things that have absolutely nothing said about them in the PC/PS4 version,) the 16-bit monocled mode, QOL improvements...) make me want to get it.

Part of me wants to wait to see if they will update or release S on PC, but DQ portable is great.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'll get it at some point, but other games take priority for now.

Stygian
Disco Elysium
Romancing SaGa 3
SaGa: Scarlet Grace

and maybe The Alliance Alive.

 

[Invictus]

Hope this releases on some form on IOS

 

[Naraya]

2D mode in this game looks so good it almost makes me buy a Switch

 

[Ialda]

I'm 40 hours into the Switch version and damn, I forget everytime how boring the DQ games have been since 8. I forgot to take the draconic quest at the beginning so that one is on me, but the writing, the characters, the world are still as tedious as ever. The 16bits mode is nice though - and less blurry than the 3D one

 

[Naraya]

I liked DQXI a LOT but was DQ8 any different? Just wondering if it's really worth a try since I've seen people praising it but - and I know it's a bit silly - I really don't like how the protagonist looks like a homeless bum...

 

[Vorark]

DQXI was kind of build upon VIII, although I consider the VIII overworld much better since you are able to freely explore it, find treasures etc. Worth of a playthrough, even more so considering you enjoyed XI.

 

[Hyperion]

Bosses were far less aggravating in XI than VIII, since less buffing and cold wave spam. On Hard Mode they also hit hard enough that you were frequently on the defensive and sometimes didn't get to buff unless you had one of the Psyche Up move between Hero, Jade, and Serena at the start of the fight.

Also, the game was much better paced than VIII until part 3, where I really felt let down by both story and gameplay developments. VIII on the other hand turned to a complete slog once you killed Dhoulmagus, and any sort of challenge beyond aggravatingly padded boss fights was thrown out the window. Unless you did the Dragon Graveyard sidequest first thing as you step off Dhoulmagus's Island. Good challenge inside that place at the right level.

Up until Dhoulmagus I would probably say VIII > XI. As for the entire base game, XI on hard mode was just way more fun. However I didn't play normal, so I can't speak for that.

 

[Tigranes]

This is my first DQ game ever, and it's surprisingly quite good.

Surprising, because the writing, setting, characters, etc. are all humdrum generic fantasy "you can skip cutscenes because you know exactly what will happen" feel-good high fantasy, all the way down to the most generic Chosen One possible & side-stories entirely copied from fairy tales. The combat is pretty standard turn-based JRPG. There's really no gameplay mechanic that is memorable in any way.

What it does do is give you a massive classic RPG adventure with a sense of a journey and progression that you don't really get anymore. The character systems are simple and unimaginative but the skill 'trees' are balanced really well so that you want to respec and try out different combinations to very distinct effects. I think the most important thing you can do is turn on Hard Mode and then not grind - it gives you enough difficulty to actually have to make use of all your resources, and also paces the game far better. I would typically only fight 2-3 random encounters per area, just enough to add most enemies to the bestiary (not all), and I didn't feel cockblocked out of key items or whatever, and the combat was a decent challenge. Only a couple places did I have to stop and grind a little (the desert boss early on, and the fire dragon late act 2).

Not sure how much I'll bother with Act 3/postgame, but it's a well paced extensive romp. I would imagine that at Normal it's a waste of time, though - would turn the game into roflstomping trash mobs then suffering through the most generic cutscenes on earth.

 

[Ialda]

Well, at least I can try to beat the games without ever buying new gear or buying healing items

I liked DQXI a LOT but was DQ8 any different?

Not that much (as said Vorark); and the plot was much more generic in 8 than 11. But still a better game than the DS remakes with crappy "rebalanced" difficulty

 

[sser]

So was DQ IX's "paper doll" setup a one-off for the series?

 

[Sòren]

I liked DQXI a LOT but was DQ8 any different? Just wondering if it's really worth a try since I've seen people praising it but - and I know it's a bit silly - I really don't like how the protagonist looks like a homeless bum...

DQ8 had its moments, but i think character and storywise DQ11 is totally superior. 8 feels quite shallow after playing 11 (which i did myself too).

 

[Abu Antar]

DQVIII had my bros Yangus and Trode, plus an infinitely better OST. I still have to go with DQXI as the better, thanks to stronger monsters and a world that I liked better than DQVIII.

 

[Dexter]

Bought Dragon Quest XI during the Winter Sale and been playing it for the past weeks, I got to the point where Jade and the old guy join your party.

Discovered that there was a Orchestral Music Mod that changes the basic background music that plays at all times into Tokyo Orchestra tracks and applied that: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521444556 since the blaring was starting to get on my nerves and I had set the Music volume down to 2 or something.

Anything else I should know?

What are the ghost thingies that appear from the very first CG movie throughout the game for but don't seem to do anything?

How do you properly activate Pep powers more often or is it totally random? There's sometimes larger time spans where they don't seem to activate at all and they're also required for some quests.

 

[Modron]

Yeah the ghost souls seemed like they were laid out to be some future mechanic to revisit but nope they were just window dressing. As far as activating pep powers, you get an ability to trigger them with your main late game for a ton of mana and items that can pep you up so if a sidequest is just an exercise in frustration you can leave it until the end.

 

[Sentinel]

Dragon Quest XI is the end of an era for the franchise according to the director Yuji Horii. In the handheld version of the game, the tiny ghosts are used to transport you back into "alternate realities" where you get to visit the worlds of the past games (and fight some bosses IIRC). They have some relevance to the plot in the post game story.