Topic: Dragon Quest XI + I, II, III & Beyond

@Ryu_Niiyama I got a bit burned out on jrpgs last year so I started exploring anime which I hadn’t really before. Then got a bit overwhelmed there so back to gaming again right now.

If only I could balance things rather than going all in, but it’s just what I’m like. And yeah, adulting definitely compromises what you can spend your money and time on!

@BruceCM Ys IX hopefully I will get to this year.

First thing that came to mind with DQXII going more adult was the FFXVI trailer. Final Fantasy has always been rated T in the US with the UK rating varying from 12+ to 16+ but that FFXVI trailer pretty much guarantees that it'll be M/18+.

I'm still sour about that XVI trailer. Combat looks like something out of a character action game, there's barely any color, and none of the characters looked unique at all.

@Ryu_Niiyama The color thing is funny, because a few Western RPGs have mixed dark subject matter with gorgeous use of color really well, like The Witcher 3. Especially the Blood and Wine DLC.

If DQ ditches the vibrancy or the Toriyama art style, it'll be DQ in name only. The aesthetic is very important to that series.

What's weird is that, despite hating Toriyama's manga art, I actually don't mind the DQ designs. I think they tone down the Toriyama-ness of it a bit. One thing in Dragon Ball that drove me nuts was the combination of incredibly simple faces with hyper-detailed ears. It's such a weird combination.

Lol, Toriyama's art is probably the one thing that makes me want to play these games. It's such an attractive art style for me.

I'm not gonna read much into the "darker" aspects of DQ XII right now; those comments were vague, and we're still a ways off from the game's final release. I think it's too early to worry about the direction the series is going in until we have something more concrete.

@BruceCM, @TheJGG I've actually owned Dragon Quest XI S since late last year; it was a birthday gift. I originally intended it to be my "long" winter game, but that slot went to Breath of the Wild instead. XD I do honestly intend to get to it soon, but WHEN is the question. I'm sure I'll enjoy it if my experiences with IV, V, and VIII are anything to go by.

@TheJGG You hadn't heard of Akira Toriyama until last year? He's pretty well-known Stateside, though more in the anime and manga sphere; he's responsible for the art for the Dragon Ball franchise. He's a very talented individual, and it's very easy to see that he's responsible for the designs in DQ. There's a unique charm to his art style; the DQ characters are fearsome, full of character, "bad", but (as you so eloquently put it) not evil in the sense of the word. I find it whimsical, unique, and iconic. It's certainly a big part on why I love the series!

Side note: If you ever play Chrono Trigger, which is an AMAZING RPG mashup, Toriyama did those designs as well. Hironobu Sakaguchi and Yuji Horii also worked on the title. It's one of my favorite 16-bit RPGs, possibly my absolute favorite. There are many contenders for that title however.

@Ralizah shrugs. I’m there for the gameplay and story. But I feel that FF’s artstyle has evolved (although not character designs as Amano is still contributing) so I don’t think it will crater DQ if they change out Toriyama (I also acknowledge that my dislike of his art makes me biased). But DQ is a special case due to its longevity and consistency so I suspect no one will rattle that cage. This is making me wanna pick XI back up. I do need to finish it. I put it down so I could beat some shorter games.

Sounded like you did have it, @Tyranexx .... It is quite a long game, particularly since it's worth doing most of the 'optional' bits If you haven't played DQ VI, that's very good, too!

@BruceCM @Tyranexx Yeah I'm at 36 hours and I only just finished the side character stories. Bloody good game, even though I've already played through it twice. I hope to beat the post game stuff, because the final boss ate me up for breakfast.

I'm guessing it'll be a seventy hour game, and 100 if you want to do post game stuff. There'll be some times when it's a complete waste of time but otherwise it's a fantastic game that deserves to be booted up sooner or later.

Yeah, there's a few tricks to defeating him, @TheJGG ..... If you want some tips when you get there again, let us know! I'm sure there's a few here who'd offer their ideas apart from me

I imagine you need to defeat a number of bosses, @BruceCM? All I did was go straight to the final boss and I got crushed. Doesn't help I was significantly underlevelled (Lv51).

Well, that is rather underlevelled, @TheJGG .... You do want to be at least level 70! I was more meaning somethings that, on the one hand, may be obvious but on the other may have not occurred to you When you've done the main game, if you want to check just what else there is to do ....

@BruceCM So I've heard. I tend to use HowLongToBeat to help gauge the length of a game so that I know if I'll finish it before something comes out that I do want to get day 1. Which in my case is early July (Ys IX), so I've started something a bit shorter (around the 30 hour mark) in my Switch library in the meantime. I have no doubt it's an excellent game; it seems to top a lot of lists for longtime fans.

On DQ VI: I'd like to play that entry at some point as well, though not as much as other games in the series. Some seem to love the game, while others feel it has its share of issues. I'd love to get a DS copy to finish out my physical Zenithia Trilogy collection, but it's rare and VERY expensive. I lucked out and bought V through SE's online store years ago when they still made DS games in-house and hosted the occasional sale (They didn't stock VI at that point though). IV was obtained for a reasonable price new (~$28) off of Amazon before the 3DS was fully retired by Nintendo. Definitely a far cry from the prices sellers want nowadays. I know there's a mobile version of VI, but I'm holding out to see if the game shows up on the Switch lol.

@TheJGG Played through it twice already huh? No wonder that runtime on your Switch file had you at 170+ hours last I checked. I'm one who likes to do a lot of side content if there's story involved, but not everything lol. I anticipate that I'll sink at least 80 hours into the game, possibly more depending on how crazy I go with the extras. I try to restrain myself and am at least not a completionist anymore, but the compulsion is hard to overcome.

@Tyranexx Yeah, my third save currently has 38 hours and I find it’s nearly 1:1 in terms of hours to levels. I’m at Lv35 so far but if I told you where I was I’d spoil it. I’d anticipate that number to cross two hundred by the time I hit the credits on this one. Both my first playthroughs took me 39 hours precisely, but I was in a rush. Now I can go as slow as I want, and I can experience the story and side content better.

Eighty hours is a bit of a stretch but that’s probably if you don’t set the battle speed to Very Fast. I’ve allowed all the party members save for the Luminary to be AI controlled, but I need at least some control... but if you struggle with a boss fight the easiest thing to do is to put your party AI on ‘Fight Wisely’ and watch the drama.

@TheJGG Heh, no spoilers, thank you! I can get rushing through, but in my experience DQ is better enjoyed at a slower pace. Not that there was much of a choice in the earlier games with random encounters.

Ah, so you can change battle speed? That'll certainly help. I also often just control the party members and let the AI take over only when grinding. I'm a bit of a control freak. XD I've used "Fight Wisely" a few times in previous titles.

@Tyranexx The AI is quite customisable in battles. Or rather, there's a range of options. There's "Show No Mercy", "Focus on Healing", "Save MP", "Fight Wisely", "Follow Orders" (manual inputs), and "Mix it Up", which is to keep the enemy guessing... Usually I'd control the Luminary manually and leave the other characters on "Fight Wisely", and make everyone AI controlled when it's time for boss fights. The default battle speed is quite slow honestly, so speeding it up saves time.

I always hated random encounters; they ruined the flow of the game for me. Final Fantasy X and Octopath Traveler do this the most because grinding can be very important.

Oh, I definitely liked controlling everyone in DQXI, too, @Tyranexx ..... Definitely worth putting battle speed up, too! I'm waiting for Ys IX on Steam, so if you're playing that on launch, I might be, too

@TheJGG Yep, they've had all of those options in the three titles I have played. Outside of mindless grinding however, I didn't really abuse them much. As much as I enjoyed the earlier games, the AI didn't always do what I wanted even when I chose the correct style. Hence why I liked controlling the other characters most of the time. I might mess with them more in XI due mainly to how long of a run time it has lol.

IV and V on the DS had random encounters. VIII on the PS2 originally had random encounters from what I've read, but the 3DS version handled encounters pretty much like how I've read XI handles them. Believe me, that was a NICE QoL improvement. It certainly made it easier to grind for Metal Slimes. As much as I enjoy classic RPGs, I admit that fully random encounters can get quite annoying sometimes. At least some games with a classic feel, like Bravely Default and Bravely Second on the 3DS, allow the player to customize how often they deal with random encounters...if at all. Want to grind for a bit? Slide it up to the max! Hurting and need to skitter back to a town to heal? Goodbye random encounters!

@BruceCM I think I will play Ys IX at launch, though it'll be the Switch version. The irony is I also have both Ys VIII and Ys Origin backlogged as well lol.

Hello, fellow control freak! ^_^

Probably in part because I also found the AI a bit unreliable in the older DQs, @Tyranexx.... Ys VIII is a great game, though, so I hope you can get around to it soon

@BruceCM I really hope the AI has improved so that I'm less careful about using it in XI.

Truth be told, I'm debating about just shelving IX - I'm just getting it at launch since Falcom games don't have long print runs - and jumping into VIII first, but we'll see how I feel when the time comes lol.

Yeah, it won't matter for the story, at least, @Tyranexx.... Do let me know when you play either, or perhaps you also intend to get Memories of Celceta, which is good, too?