Random thoughts on whatever JRPG you're currently playing?

[Nutmeg]

Finished Gungnir. What a gem. Amazing game system. Feels like every class, character and equipment combination has its place but, since you must develop your characters and obtain your equipment using a finite pool of resources, you'll not be fielding optimal set ups for each stage. Certain combat capabilities (namely damage over time) are must haves unless you want to severely nerf yourself (as I unwttingly did), but other than those, your approach can vary quite a bit. Its all very positional. The only flaw I can see is that the AI doesn't use various siege weapons nearly enough, and also seems to avoid spell AOE at all costs. I beat one stage by setting up a cast on the boss, who then retreated into his own witch's gram (trap) and died lol.

I only know of one western player who managed to three star every stage on nightmare.

Started playing Trails in the Sky 1.

At some point JRPGs (as in computer RPGs made in Japan) descending from the first Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy split into 2 distinct branches. I think around the time of Dragon Quest 5 and Final Fantasy 5 actually. The ones following in the steps of Dragon Quest 5 are what people who define JRPGs as a genre mean by JRPG today (series of Vignettes) although I disagree with that definition. Well anyway this seems to be the best one in that tradition that I've played so far.

 

[Puukko]

Very early thoughts on FF12.

FF is a series I've been meaning to get into forever but have never played more than an hour of any single game. I recently watched a review of 12 by Resonant Arc (excellent channel with in-depth JRPG reviews) and gained a good understanding of the game's development and its faults:



It's all very interesting, especially how Vaan & Penelo were added when the story was largely complete due to pressure from SE management since they were concerned about the marketability of the original protag Basch since he was "older" (not a teenage fuckboy). Based on very early impressions, I'm not going to say if I like Vaan or not, but as far as gameplay and traversing the world is concerned, you can set any party member as the leader so I'm traipsing around as ms. Brown Bunnybutt and will happily play the entire game like that assuming it doesn't start removing party members.

What drew me into 12 despite it not really being typically recommended as a starting point and being pretty divisive among fans overall was the setting. I wanted something more grounded but also adventurous, and I like political intrigue as long as it is done tactfully and not with hamfisted analogues to real life.

Graphics wise the game is very solid and the city you start off in is very detailed and lively. The game originally squeezed everything out of the PS2 and with the facelift of the HD rerelease you wouldn't think it is over a decade old. It has a very 'clean' quality that I like and only details like level geometry in open areas and fairly small zones inbetween loading screens betray that is was designed for the PS2. Fastforwarding makes running through old areas you've already explored a breeze, but I'll have to make sure not to abuse the function too much.

Combat is pretty simple so far but I definitely already see the potential complexity afforded by the game's systems that I hope it'll reach. You can assign AI commands with gambits which are basically if-then statements to automate lots of stuff. Battles take place real-time in the real world against real targets which is absolutely fine by me since I just played two games with random encounters (in busy city streets as well in the case of Raidou 1).

I'm quite confident I'll keep playing. The other option was Xenoblade Chronicles but that may get pushed down the list. In any case, I'm taking a break from SMT - 500+ hours over some 4 months is quite a lot, but I do intend to return to it later in the summer.

 

[mushaden]

Tactics Ogre story is dense. Maybe I should just forget about it and play the PSP version if I want to understand all the shit going on, otherwise I'm gonna have to study the journal thing for like 30 min

 

[Puukko]

TO is another game I gave a brief go earlier this year and would definitely like to play sooner rather than later. I'm a sucker for dialogue written in an archaic fashion which is another thing that appealed to me about FF12 - the translation was handled by a committed team and the characters speak in different tones based on their social standing and background and they chose threatre actors for the roles. Balthier's VA may be my new favorite.

 

[Hyperion]

Balthier's VA may be my new favorite.

He's also Fenris in Dragon Age 2.

Beat Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Have 99.8% of the map covered before entering the boss room. Clearing that room out better fucking give me the 100% I want, because I went full autismo with searching. Great game though. Loaded with SOTN callbacks, as little Easter Eggs for those familiar, plus a little statement by Iga saying Castlevania is still his, just under a different name. Dragged his hairy nutsack all over Konami's face with this game. Starts off real easy, but bosses are varied and challenging enough on their first go that I used a few healing items on 1 or 2 of the later ones. One boss even killed me the first time I went in on him! Can't recommend it enough for anyone who has played a Castlevania before, or is looking to dive into the series.

Bought I Am Setsuna as part of the summer sale, since I wanted a comfy JRPG to play and relax to. Beginning starts off OK, because MP costs are steep, and Ethers are expensive. The game also has a complete absence of Inns, so you better have a nice supply of Tents on you at any given time. Unfortunately, the difficulty is mostly gone now that I can spam abilities as I please since I have tons of Ethers, and characters get abilities that restore MP you can abuse to essentially fully heal yourself at the end of every battle. And I assume I'm somewhere around the 40% finished mark, if I include the side quests, so I've still quite some ways to go.

Quite a bit unfortunate because the game has some interesting underlying mechanics that really felt underutilized. Characters can equip accessories with both skill slots for both active and passive skills, and 1-3 skill enhancers. Using skills in battle confers a random chance one of these enhancers will permanently affix its effect to the skill in question, but at 1/10 the power each, and can be stacked (idk the cap, but the protag has one with 6 of the same affix atm). Mixing and matching accessories as you level to build your skills the way you want is cool, but feels unnecessary and needlessly complex because the difficulty simply isn't there.

Enemies don't drop gold, but materials that can be sold for money and further used to create 'spritnite,' this game's materia that is equipped into a character's own slots that increase as they level, as well as the aforementioned accessories they earn. It sorta works because enemies all drop different loot based on how you kill them - with Fire / Water / Lightning / Dark / Time element. Was the enemy debuffed? Did you fucking slaughter it for >50% of its remaining HP? Did you kill it in <15% of its total HP? (This one can be a real pain in the dick because you often hit so fucking hard you Overkill 90% of the shit you see). Did you use a combo?

Since combat is pretty much copy-pasted from Chrono Trigger, it's intended to incentivize you to use different party members for different enemies, especially if you're material hunting. On one hand, you need to use certain party members to get skills you want, and that's cool. But on the other it can be a fucking drag because enemies immune to Water have a Water-kill drop, and can be fucking aggravating. I've been unable to get a certain material for Remedy because....I'm too strong. I have to have my magicians attack because my fighters hit too hard to get an Exact Kill on some monsters, and it's bogging down the pace of combat and fucking infuriating me.

It makes money a real pain in the ass to get early because you have no MP to fuck around with and get all sorts of different kills on enemies. But once you have resources, combos, and characters you can swap in and out between fights, you get massively overloaded with materials to sell in town.

Standard fight. I see 5 enemies. Cool. I surprise them, and start with full ATB, and a tick of Momentum, which is a reaction-based trigger not far off from Gunblade mechanics that adds varying effects to attacks, spells, etc. I cast a spell to add Lightning to my weapons. Use Crono + Frog's equivalent to a combo to wipe the screen out in a single hit. Because Crono's weapon is Water-based I get: Water Kill, Light Kill, Over Kill, Momentum Kill, Link Kill. Plus the basic drop. That's 6 items per enemy, for 5 enemies. 30 fucking drops every single battle.

At least the soundtrack is nice. It's all piano, so it feels like I'm sitting in a jazz club, feeding a maraschino cherry from my Old-fashioned to a qt I just met at the bar.

There are clearly some decent things here, but execution was lacking because of a senseless need to make a 'throwback' game, instead of just owning it and taking the risk of making your own game. Gonna try to power through and finish it, but it might be hard. We'll see, bros.

 

[Nutmeg]

Trails in the Sky:

I've realized that this particular strain of JRPG is very similar to a western made point and click adventure game. Instead of moving the mouse cursor around waiting for the icon to change to some kind of call to action, you move your character around and wait for the (!) bubble to pop up. There's also some light dungeon crawling thrown in. Since I don't find this core gameplay particularly engaging, what's left is the dialogue. Suffice to say I didn't find Ruan as entertaining as the previous location Bose, because Kloe and Agate aren't as interesting as Olivier and Scherazard. Anyway, I don't know if I'll keep playing this one. Not really my kind of game despite its obvious charms.

7th Dragon:

This game is an overhead, simplified Etrian Odyssey. Good because it's overhead, bad because it's simplified. I also have the same gripe with it as I do with EO. That is, the game consists of devising a good battle strategy, building your party to execute that strategy, and then just executing it repeatedly until the end of the game. In my case the strategy was putting everyone in the back row, getting the knight to shield it, getting the princess to set off mana and life regen, getting the magi to concentrate then nuke, and finally getting the fighter to chase the nuke. Probably will leave this one unfinished, just as I left EO3.

4 Heroes of Light:

You spend a lot of this game with 2 heroes or just 1 instead of 4. When everything is the same color and made up of the same three polygons, it makes it really difficult to figure out if what you're looking at is a walkable path or a shrub or something. More importantly, I feel this game is overshadowed by the games it's a homage to. Namely FF5 and FF3, which I consider best in series.

Beyond Oasis:

This is only a Zelda-like on the surface. It's really a free form arcade brawler. Every time you get to low health, enemies start dropping hearts. Like Zelda, they make you stronger (albeit they make you do more damage, not take more damage to die). Unlike Zelda, you're scored when you finish the game. The fewer hearts you collected the higher your score. Time and deaths are also taken into account, as are the number of enemies killed for a special rank. I love this. Makes the game worth playing today over newer "everyone's a winner if you try hard enough for long enough" action RPGs.

 

[Rahdulan]

Very early thoughts on FF12.

It's all very interesting, especially how Vaan & Penelo were added when the story was largely complete due to pressure from SE management since they were concerned about the marketability of the original protag Basch since he was "older" (not a teenage fuckboy). Based on very early impressions, I'm not going to say if I like Vaan or not, but as far as gameplay and traversing the world is concerned, you can set any party member as the leader so I'm traipsing around as ms. Brown Bunnybutt and will happily play the entire game like that assuming it doesn't start removing party members.

What drew me into 12 despite it not really being typically recommended as a starting point and being pretty divisive among fans overall was the setting. I wanted something more grounded but also adventurous, and I like political intrigue as long as it is done tactfully and not with hamfisted analogues to real life.

Strangest decision in FF12, other than being probably the only core entry that's blatantly unfinished, is why they didn't just make Reks the protagonist. He ticks all the same marketability boxes Vaan does on top of having some actual relevance to the story.

 

[Hyperion]

If Reks lives, the Empire isn't blatantly evil. There's no conspiracy for keeping Basch chained when he was announced executed. The dichotomy of brothers (or other immediate family if you include Balthier) is a major theme of the game. Reks surviving also doesn't serve as a foil to Ashe the way Vaan does. Rasler's Ghost is as big of a point of Vaan's character development as it is for Ashe.

 

[Sigourn]

Played:

• Sweet Home: crap.
• Crystalis: crap.
• Dragon Warrior: crap, but everyone agrees it should be skipped.
• Terranigma: mediocre.
• Yakuza (PS2): real nice, but with some flaws.

 

[Beastro]

Playing Secret of Mana and finding it enjoyable in places and annoying in others.

The best I can say about most of the annoying bits is that they're a fundamental part of the combat, so they work both ways, like the stun locking that can happen. The more annoying bit for me given its action orientation is how the spells are conventional RPG ones, meaning that they never miss. I find it an intrusion into the action and wished they'd been able to put in some system where the spells could be manually controlled and fired. Without that, the result can be unfun and unchallenging where a boss will keep casting spells not doing much leaving you to just suck them up and keep healing, while the reverse can be done where you can just spam damage spells and eat the nuts to restore it back up to do it again and again. I've avoided doing that, but in one battle I needed to given the problems with hit detection that were happening in that fight, which given the other annoying mechanics in it made me just want it to be over.

Another annoying thing is the grinding needed to level up each weapon for each of the three characters, I very much wish they'd tied the leveling to the weapons themselves and just slowed down the exp rate so once each is level up you can swap it and it remains at that same level.

Still, it's a fun little game that maintains a good pace and has a simple enough story to be there but be light enough to not intrude.

 

[Puukko]

Haven't made that much progress on FF12, but some thoughts. After the first couple hours, you're forced into an inescapable sewer section for several hours, where resources are thin and there's only one merchant halfway through who you might not even realize to be one since the first time you're forced to talk to him, he doesn't indicate it. Anyway, this whole time you have to hunt down mimics who suck the electricity from the area which turns off the lights, which causes additional enemies to spawn, like wraiths who split at low hp and skeletons. There's also poison inflicting zombies and new enemies spawn every few meters, so you'd better have antidotes. Luckily save crystals fully heal you for free, but they're a precious resource and at one point there was a stretch of 5 or 6 rooms inbetween crystals. Doesn't sound like that much, but I had to backtrack to open closed gates all while running out of consumables and towards the end of it 3 of my dudes were poisoned while one was dead with no phoenix downs left and I just barely made it to the save crystal. The next area was somewhat easier as the distance to the next crystal before the boss room was shorter, but the boss presented an even bigger wall. She would start with 4 adds and then slowly revive them while also periodically doing two different aoe attacks. It quickly became obvious that I would have to grind a couple levels, so I did and with constant micro management managed to beat her, burning through 20 potions, 5 ethers and using every tool at my disposal. Vaan was my tank with over 1000 hp while everyone else had 350-450 hp and I would have him use balance motes at low hp, which dealt the user's missing HP in damage so I could get about 10 auto attacks worth of damage in per use. I really only had 3 and a half party members since Basch was still a guest so I couldn't change his equipment or licenses and he was barely worth keeping alive. I don't know what the vanilla experience in this place is like, but with this difficulty mod this may have been the most difficult first dungeon I've ever done and I've never been happier to see a dead desert afterwards.

 

[Doktor Best]

Haven't made that much progress on FF12, but some thoughts. After the first couple hours, you're forced into an inescapable sewer section for several hours, where resources are thin and there's only one merchant halfway through who you might not even realize to be one since the first time you're forced to talk to him, he doesn't indicate it. Anyway, this whole time you have to hunt down mimics who suck the electricity from the area which turns off the lights, which causes additional enemies to spawn, like wraiths who split at low hp and skeletons. There's also poison inflicting zombies and new enemies spawn every few meters, so you'd better have antidotes. Luckily save crystals fully heal you for free, but they're a precious resource and at one point there was a stretch of 5 or 6 rooms inbetween crystals. Doesn't sound like that much, but I had to backtrack to open closed gates all while running out of consumables and towards the end of it 3 of my dudes were poisoned while one was dead with no phoenix downs left and I just barely made it to the save crystal. The next area was somewhat easier as the distance to the next crystal before the boss room was shorter, but the boss presented an even bigger wall. She would start with 4 adds and then slowly revive them while also periodically doing two different aoe attacks. It quickly became obvious that I would have to grind a couple levels, so I did and with constant micro management managed to beat her, burning through 20 potions, 5 ethers and using every tool at my disposal. Vaan was my tank with over 1000 hp while everyone else had 350-450 hp and I would have him use balance motes at low hp, which dealt the user's missing HP in damage so I could get about 10 auto attacks worth of damage in per use. I really only had 3 and a half party members since Basch was still a guest so I couldn't change his equipment or licenses and he was barely worth keeping alive. I don't know what the vanilla experience in this place is like, but with this difficulty mod this may have been the most difficult first dungeon I've ever done and I've never been happier to see a dead desert afterwards.

Which difficulty mod do you use?

 

[Puukko]

Haven't made that much progress on FF12, but some thoughts. After the first couple hours, you're forced into an inescapable sewer section for several hours, where resources are thin and there's only one merchant halfway through who you might not even realize to be one since the first time you're forced to talk to him, he doesn't indicate it. Anyway, this whole time you have to hunt down mimics who suck the electricity from the area which turns off the lights, which causes additional enemies to spawn, like wraiths who split at low hp and skeletons. There's also poison inflicting zombies and new enemies spawn every few meters, so you'd better have antidotes. Luckily save crystals fully heal you for free, but they're a precious resource and at one point there was a stretch of 5 or 6 rooms inbetween crystals. Doesn't sound like that much, but I had to backtrack to open closed gates all while running out of consumables and towards the end of it 3 of my dudes were poisoned while one was dead with no phoenix downs left and I just barely made it to the save crystal. The next area was somewhat easier as the distance to the next crystal before the boss room was shorter, but the boss presented an even bigger wall. She would start with 4 adds and then slowly revive them while also periodically doing two different aoe attacks. It quickly became obvious that I would have to grind a couple levels, so I did and with constant micro management managed to beat her, burning through 20 potions, 5 ethers and using every tool at my disposal. Vaan was my tank with over 1000 hp while everyone else had 350-450 hp and I would have him use balance motes at low hp, which dealt the user's missing HP in damage so I could get about 10 auto attacks worth of damage in per use. I really only had 3 and a half party members since Basch was still a guest so I couldn't change his equipment or licenses and he was barely worth keeping alive. I don't know what the vanilla experience in this place is like, but with this difficulty mod this may have been the most difficult first dungeon I've ever done and I've never been happier to see a dead desert afterwards.

Which difficulty mod do you use?

https://www.nexusmods.com/finalfantasy12/mods/59

Unchanged jobs as recommended by mod author for first playthrough.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Terranigma: mediocre.

 

[Sigourn]

Terranigma: mediocre.

With my recent initiation into the NBG Policy, I will simply say it's not for me. Secret of Mana, Terranigma, this specific kind of action RPGs don't appeal to me for the same reasons The Legend of Zelda doesn't.

 

[Sigourn]

Anyhow:

Dragon Quest

This game is grind incarnated. I must have spent 7 hours grinding, and only made it to level 13. The issue is that Dragon Quest is very barebones: there's very little plot, there are no sidequests, there is no strategy (meaning grinding IS necessary), and last but not least, pretty much every important landmark you achieve in-game means "time for grinding". Which in Dragon Quest means: "crossed a bridge? Time for grinding", "New town? Time for grinding", "Need to go somewhere else? Time for grinding". Ended up giving up when I realized (too late) that this game had nothing of value.

Dragon Quest III

So I skipped Dragon Quest II, because the two Dragon Quest games everyone talks about on the NES are III and IV. So I said "there's probably a good reason". With that in mind, it's possible that some of the "innovations" of Dragon Quest III were already present in Dragon Quest II.
It's a party-based JRPG, grinding (so far) is far more toned down as you level up somewhat quickly. Moreover, your party formation means the characters in front are more likely to be hurt, taking a cue from the way the party is displayed as you move around the oveworld.

The dungeon's look much different than they did in Dragon Quest. Previously, when entering a dungeon every single tile would be black except the one you were standing on. Activating a torch meaning you could see around the 8 tiles around your character. Using the Radiant spell (acquired... after considerable grinding) allow you to see considerably past that limit. Dragon Quest III doesn't have such limitations: the moment you enter a dungeon, you see everything around you. IMO this is a massive improvement: sure, it was "realistic" in Dragon Quest, but it was more annoying than it was fun. The menu system has been simplified: gone are the "Take" and "Stairs" commands. Now walking over a stair instantly takes you to the corresponding floor, and in order to pick up treasure chests the "Search" command will do.

The graphics have seen a massive improvement from Dragon Quest. As you can tell from the image above, I'm clearly on a rock-based dungeon complete with ground floors. A far cry from Dragon Quest's artificial "everything is man-made with carved stones and brick floors". Dragon Quest III also includes a day/night cycle that adds some variation to the overworld.

Overall the game is enjoyable so far. It's for certain a game I would have loved to have back on my Famiclone days, though I'm unsure if it was ever released in Spanish.

 

[Rahdulan]

Anyhow:

Dragon Quest

This game is grind incarnated. I must have spent 7 hours grinding, and only made it to level 13. The issue is that Dragon Quest is very barebones: there's very little plot, there are no sidequests, there is no strategy (meaning grinding IS necessary), and last but not least, pretty much every important landmark you achieve in-game means "time for grinding". Which in Dragon Quest means: "crossed a bridge? Time for grinding", "New town? Time for grinding", "Need to go somewhere else? Time for grinding". Ended up giving up when I realized (too late) that this game had nothing of value.

I take it that wasn't the SNES DQ1+2 remake pack? That's the version I'd recommend seeing as it reduced the need for grind all-around with experience and gold changes.

 

[Sigourn]

I take it that wasn't the SNES DQ1+2 remake pack? That's the version I'd recommend seeing as it reduced the need for grind all-around with experience and gold changes.

Yep, I should have mentioned it's the NES releases I'm playing of these games. I actually downloaded the Android release and it is much better in every way (translation, gameplay, graphics), but playing games on a phone is annoying.

 

[aweigh]

for kicks i became curious about that old 3d polygonal remake of FF4 and downloaded the Steam port.

 

[Sigourn]

It bothers me so much that Square Enix insists on their fucking mobile UIs.

 

[aweigh]

Sigourn

Don't play the mobile versions of DQ. Play the SNES remakes. Best version of each DQ as follows:

DQ 1 = SNES remake. Definitive version.
DQ 2 = SNES remake. Definitive version.
DQ 3 = SNES remake. Adds lots of stuff, much more important of a remake than the first two! Definitive version.

DQ 4 = It's a toss up between NES original and the Nintendo DS remake. DS remake has better graphics and sound and script but they butchered the difficulty and made it brain-dead easy. Not rewarding to play through because of this.

DQ 5 = PS2 remake! Absolute amazing remake. Gorgeous graphics, fantastic orchestral score, the definitive version of many people's favorite DQ.

DQ6 = SNES original. Same problem that plagues the NDS DQ4, they fucked up the difficulty balancing and made it way too easy, plus on top of that the SNES original looks just as good (sometimes even better in some aspects) than the NDS version, so there is literally no real reason to get the NDS remake. At least in DQ4's case you could make the graphics/sound/script argument, but in this case that doesn't apply.

DQ7 = PS1 original. Best game in the series. One of the very best JRPGs ever made. Graphics are nice on the 3DS remake but they simplified the class system and lowered the overall enemy difficulty too much.

DQ8 = PS2 original.

9 and 11 only have one version so far.

Sigh, I tried googling for difficulty mods for the NDS versions of 4 and 6, or for the 3DS version of 7, but alas there aren't any that I could find. I looked in Cheat Engine forums (I've used CE before to artificially increase the difficulty in some games by lowering damage modifiers and such), I also looked in nexus and moddb and also in Romhacking.net for rom hacks; no joy.

There is a CE table for DQ8 that has modifiers for damage and HP but that game's difficulty is just fine and doesn't really need that kind of tweaking.

 

[Sigourn]

aweigh How's the SNES remakes when it comes to bugs and untranslated stuff? Specifically talking about 1-2 and 6.
It's a shame 4 didn't receive a SNES remake, reminds me of Final Fantasy III being the only one of the classics without a GBA port.

 

[aweigh]

Never encountered any bugs or translation errors that I can remember when playing SNES versions of DQ 1-3, or 6. DQ fans are a special breed of autist and that works out in our favor as the work they did on those is top-notch.

 

[Hyperion]

Couldn't do I Am Setsuna, bros. It was just too damn boring, with linear weapon upgrades since the Tempering materials were giving too little of a stat increase for the gold investment required. I needed a real RPG experience, so decided to finally buckle down and play Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken land. I love me some Etrian Odyssey, and my first (and only) game with the name Wizardry attached to it before this was Labyrinth of Lost Souls. Goodness, this game shits all over it. Combat is better than any other blobber I've ever attempted - Elminage: Gothic (I didn't make it far, things were too cryptic and autistic for me, but I'll give it another shot one day since I just bought Elminage: Original during the Steam Sale), Stranger of Sword City, the EOs I played (1,2, and 4), and the little I played of Dark Spire before returning it via rental (what a mistake given its price!), and even Shining the Holy Ark / Darkness.

Every blobber at some point boils down to most encounters being you holding A and skipping through the text of enemies missing / hitting you for 1, but Allied Actions add an entirely new dimension such that I'm never skipping except running into weaklings for hunting down materials to sell to the monster shop. Most monsters feel like a bit of a puzzle you need to decode while you figure out their behavior, action patterns, and are usually tanky enough that you need to triage the most dangerous ones since you're only allowed 2 Allied Actions per round. AAs are so good I can't possibly fathom why they never made it into any other blobbers, Wizardry or otherwise. Nobody plays blobbers for story, but even the story is tight, and everything you do, every person you encounter in the labyrinth, all of the sidequests you're completing tie in perfectly and slowly unravel the onion. I haven't been this excited to dungeon crawl since my first playthrough of Shining the Holy Ark as an 8 year old.

Class change orbs, and releasing SP of items to bypass class and gear restrictions is just another great feature, intended or not, that allows for funky party, and build setups. Main character is a Knight, who I'll probably change to Samurai, then use an Orb to turn back to Knight so he can wear Heavy Armor with the most prestigious of weapons because he certainly has no lack of defenses right now. If there's anything to gripe about, it's that combat is less attrition like most RPGs because Allied Actions let you full prevent so much damage through Restrict Shot, and Spell Canceling that the only real threat right now is a Ninja beheading someone. I'm only B5 at the moment, about to hit B6, we'll see how the difficulty progresses.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Sigourn

Don't play the mobile versions of DQ. Play the SNES remakes. Best version of each DQ as follows:

DQ 1 = SNES remake. Definitive version.
DQ 2 = SNES remake. Definitive version.
DQ 3 = SNES remake. Adds lots of stuff, much more important of a remake than the first two! Definitive version.

DQ 4 = It's a toss up between NES original and the Nintendo DS remake. DS remake has better graphics and sound and script but they butchered the difficulty and made it brain-dead easy. Not rewarding to play through because of this.

DQ 5 = PS2 remake! Absolute amazing remake. Gorgeous graphics, fantastic orchestral score, the definitive version of many people's favorite DQ.

DQ6 = SNES original. Same problem that plagues the NDS DQ4, they fucked up the difficulty balancing and made it way too easy, plus on top of that the SNES original looks just as good (sometimes even better in some aspects) than the NDS version, so there is literally no real reason to get the NDS remake. At least in DQ4's case you could make the graphics/sound/script argument, but in this case that doesn't apply.

DQ7 = PS1 original. Best game in the series. One of the very best JRPGs ever made. Graphics are nice on the 3DS remake but they simplified the class system and lowered the overall enemy difficulty too much.

DQ8 = PS2 original.

9 and 11 only have one version so far.

Sigh, I tried googling for difficulty mods for the NDS versions of 4 and 6, or for the 3DS version of 7, but alas there aren't any that I could find. I looked in Cheat Engine forums (I've used CE before to artificially increase the difficulty in some games by lowering damage modifiers and such), I also looked in nexus and moddb and also in Romhacking.net for rom hacks; no joy.

There is a CE table for DQ8 that has modifiers for damage and HP but that game's difficulty is just fine and doesn't really need that kind of tweaking.

Are the snes remakes just romhack patches or completely overhauled? Sadly, back in the day i only played and finished Dragon Warrior 1-2 and didn't have access to DQ. I was unaware on censoring and i can't read japanese anyway. I enjoyed the grinding. I finhed 1 10 times over before finally getting over my frustration and beating 2.

Atm, messing around with Sega-cd emulation and just grinding Alex in Lunar silver star. Funny stuff you realize when just grinding that little start area overand over by yourself. I can bitch slap 1 hit most starter mobs while completely nude. I think i'm level 40 assuming my save isstill there. Not sure if i really want to grind to 99 and realize i can't get any abilities. Since the game is a choo choo train of events i have NO spell abilities, but I'm the baddest ass villager in town.