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So Dragon Quest XI S is pretty good

SinDelta

Member
By pretty good I mean its already one of the best RPGs I've ever played and is making a very, very strong case for "Best Game Ever Made."

For me at least. As someone who loves Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild, Chrono Trigger, 13 Sentinels and Odin Sphere I think DQ XI does certain things that allow it to stand on their level.

And I'm just moving into Act 3.

Its certainly given me a new appreciation of the Dragon Quest series, and even gotten me into Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai..

Only problem is the wait for a eventual Dragon Quest XII, and the amount of things that could go wrong, nevermind following up on a title like this.
 
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SinDelta

Member
I gave up when the dragon balls got introduced. But until then it was enjoyable, even for a guy like me who hates RPGs in general and JRPGs specifically.
I've wondered at times what a Dragon Ball RPG would be like. Dragon Quest is pretty damn close to that from what I've seen (and I think it's got way better character development from what I've seen to boot.)
 
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GHG

Gold Member
I tried this the other week, got a coupe of hours in and gave up. While it's clearly a well made game, I just don't have the patience for these types of JRPGs anymore unfortunately, far too slow.
 

Winter John

Member
Yeah, it's a great game. Very light, colorful and with a good cast of characters. I was surprised by how long it is. I've finished the main campaign but apparently there's a ton of content after that. I'm waiting for the new version to go on sale then I'll go through it.
 

p_xavier

Authorized Fister
The S version has inferior graphics, and the extra chapters ruin the flow of the story without bringing much. There should have been a soundtrack DLC for DQXI and I would have prefer that.
 
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darkangel-212559

Dreamcast Love
I keep trying to play this but the first few hours are so slow I keep giving up. Is it worth me pushing through? Also I keep hearing how the game is way too easy throughout the whole campaign and that's always the biggest run killer for me as I get bored. Should I give it another go?

Now Octopath Traveller, holy shit now THAT is a great JRPG. A stone cold classic, for anyone playing on Xbox it's on Game Pass and it would be absolutely criminal to not play it.

OT is up there with the greats, including OG FF7.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
I played the vanilla and it is indeed fantastic. A traditional turn-based JRPG beautifully designed with an engaging story.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
to me its the best DQ, i think its bigger than dq8 thats why i like it and the story is more matured imo
 
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DonF

Member
I keep trying to play this but the first few hours are so slow I keep giving up. Is it worth me pushing through? Also I keep hearing how the game is way too easy throughout the whole campaign and that's always the biggest run killer for me as I get bored. Should I give it another go?

Now Octopath Traveller, holy shit now THAT is a great JRPG. A stone cold classic, for anyone playing on Xbox it's on Game Pass and it would be absolutely criminal to not play it.

OT is up there with the greats, including OG FF7.
Oh I love this game.
I 100% recommend you to go back to it.
If you find it too easy (I didn't, I found it just right but I didn't grind until the final final boss) you can always turn on special modifiers called draconian quest. Things like super enemies, no fleeing and more.
 
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Shut0wen

Member
By pretty good I mean its already one of the best RPGs I've ever played and is making a very, very strong case for "Best Game Ever Made."

For me at least. As someone who loves Ocarina of Time, Breath of the Wild, Chrono Trigger, 13 Sentinels and Odin Sphere I think DQ XI does certain things that allow it to stand on their level.

And I'm just moving into Act 3.

Its certainly given me a new appreciation of the Dragon Quest series, and even gotten me into Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai..

Only problem is the wait for a eventual Dragon Quest XII, and the amount of things that could go wrong, nevermind following up on a title like this.
Its certainly one of the best dragon quests out to date imo, you should get the onew on ds and also 3ds
 

Kuranghi

Member
I never really play RPGs, let a lone JRPGs but I really got into this one. Got obsessed by the Fun-size Forge in the demo. I am always impatient for games like this but I use it as a sort of way to make myself slow down and relax, I just let it wash over me and get lost in each moment in the same way I do with Abzu, Journey, etc. I try to appreciate all the tiny details in the animations, models and environments. Its a joy to behold at 4K supersampled from 6K, I so wish I could play with 8K supersampling but its too much for the old GTX 1080. Got the motion blur just right so 30fps looks like a movie. *braces for impact*

I have the full version sitting ready to go but I'm going to finish a few other titles first before diving in because I know it will take up most of my time when I do. Its the (not main) bad guys that are keeping me interested in the story/scenario, the voice acting is superbly silly and I love it, like Jarvis.

edit - I also just learned that XI is the first one thats like VIII, since VIII. I always wondered why people were not talking about IX & X in the context of this style of DQ game, but its because they're quite different right?
 
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Krizalidx11

Banned
This is my best JRPG in all times since FF8 on PS1, could thumb original FF7 on PS1, the FF7 remake looks pretty but doesn't stand a chance against the glorious DQ11S

on PC it looks nuts with config mods

 
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Saber

Gold Member
You mean DQ XI? Yeah, its one my best DQ games. I love the cast and I'm pretty much fan of turn based rpgs.
 

OneMoreDay

Neo Member
I completed it last month and ... I don't know. It's a rock-solid RPG, but a couple of things soured the experience for me. For someone who has read a lot of fantasy, the story was a little too textbook-ish for my taste. I also found the soundtrack utterly forgettable, which is a pity.

But I mean, I spent 100 hours in the game, so I obviously had a good time. :messenger_tongue:
 

SegaShack

Member
For those that dont know, if you have a PC or PS4 play the original version. The S version is a Switch port with worse graphics.
 
and the extra chapters ruin the flow of the story without bringing much.
Absolutely loved the game until the interlude between Act 1 and Act 2. It absolutely killed the momentum of the game and I thought it was a slog to get through.

Also:

Splitting up the team between Act 1 and 2 made the game way less enjoyable. It seems to be a JRPG trope but I really hate when games do this, along with randomly switching characters in and out of the party. If a game lets me play with the characters I want to play with from the start all the way through to the end, I'm much more likely to actually play and finish the game.
 

SinDelta

Member
I completed it last month and ... I don't know. It's a rock-solid RPG, but a couple of things soured the experience for me. For someone who has read a lot of fantasy, the story was a little too textbook-ish for my taste. I also found the soundtrack utterly forgettable, which is a pity.

But I mean, I spent 100 hours in the game, so I obviously had a good time. :messenger_tongue:
Yeah the story being textbook is one of the things I absolutely love about. Telling a straightforward story is something a lot of modern storytellers seem to have forgotten or actually outright despise.

Dragon Quest XI has for myself actually *partially* made up for Game of Thrones post season 4 and The Star Wars sequel trilogy being such absolute disasters. It is a Pinnacle of Fantasy they could never achieve and the one I have been searching for a very long time.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
It was great. I felt like it could have been just done at Act 2. The villages quest storylines were good. I love completing these games, but it definitely scratches that itch for me for a while. I do agree it sorta had the same formula after a while. I worried about being burned out by it, but it was actually really good.
 

MOTM

Banned
Meh, I quit when, about 12 hours in, barely anything interesting had happened and battles were a trite routine. I had just acquired both sisters in my party.

I had a great time with DQ8 back when it was new. XI just didn't click.
Same quit 10h in, was a pleasant game and all but the story just seemed meh.
 
I played XI on PS4 and S on Switch in 2D. I just hate how you have to play the original XI to get the best graphics, since the S version on consoles is just a port of the Switch version.
 

TimeShinigami

Neo Member
I actually just beat the game yesterday and I gotta say I was disappointed by it. As an RPG it works fine but the game repeats itself and that really bugged me (gather the orbs and your party in part 1... then gather the orbs and your party in part two). The humor also falls flat and that final boss was a joke.
 
I actually just beat the game yesterday and I gotta say I was disappointed by it. As an RPG it works fine but the game repeats itself and that really bugged me (gather the orbs and your party in part 1... then gather the orbs and your party in part two). The humor also falls flat and that final boss was a joke.
The whole "gather the orbs and your party" again in part 2 REALLY turned me off.

I loved the game until the end of act 1, but the interlude stories followed directly by the repetition really killed all my momentum. I joined back up with Rab and haven't picked the game up since.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Booooooring. I think I’m done with the DQ formula of “go to town->get involved with some local problem with 0 relation to your main quest that you don’t give 2 shits about->get breadcrumb that leads you to the next town over->repeat”

Also found the battles to be very boring and slow.
 

SinDelta

Member
Its certainly one of the best dragon quests out to date imo, you should get the onew on ds and also 3ds
I have VIII. It feels very much like a prototype for XI.

I've heard mixed stuff about VII.

I've seen people say V has one of the best stories.

IX is impossible to find as its not listed on the eStore and the Amazon prices are outright Draconian. Heard very mixed stuff on it's MMO like features that are no longer available?
 
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Overall a great game. I thought the last third of the game was a slog and the big story moments didn't really land for me, but I had a great time with it.

It would be nice if DQ8 got a similar treatment where they take the best of the PS2 and 3DS versions and re release it.

Splitting up the team between Act 1 and 2 made the game way less enjoyable. It seems to be a JRPG trope but I really hate when games do this, along with randomly switching characters in and out of the party. If a game lets me play with the characters I want to play with from the start all the way through to the end, I'm much more likely to actually play and finish the game.
100% - that part also dragged on for much longer than it needed to. FF6 has a similar part about 3 hours in but it's done way better.
 

Shut0wen

Member
I have VIII. It feels very much like a prototype for XI.

I've heard mixed stuff about VII.

I've seen people say V has one of the best stories.

IX is impossible to find as its not listed on the eStore and the Amazon prices are outright Draconian. Heard very mixed stuff on it's MMO like features that are no longer available?
VIII story is way better then S, yeah it is the same structure as the newest one but overall it had better characters imo even ones who arnt in your party IX at his point i would just give up and get an R4 card as the price of it will never go down, i never did the online part of it but there is some parts where you need to farm just to gain exp because the bosses are incredibly hard in some parts but the story on that game was also pretty good especially the side quests
 

Rat Rage

Member
I'm so jealous. I wish I could enjoy it, but the music keeps me away from it. There will probably never be a Dragon Quest game with different music... oh well...
 

RCU005

Member
I loved it from start to finish. I almost started it again on Switch today, but I want to buy it on PS4, so I'll wait to play it again until then. It's a very long game, and I still wanted to last longer! It really hooked me and I think it's the best Dragon Quest ever (for me).

LOVED IT!! One of my most cherished games of last gen.
 
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Fbh

Member
Really loved this game.
It's what I've wanted for quite some time. A fun and well made traditional JRPG but with nice modern visuals.

Couldn't help but constantly think "why can't they do this with Final Fantasy for a change?" the whole way through.

I'll say though, I think "harder monsters" really is a must. It gives combat this nice balance where it's not really hard but you need to start paying attention, thinking about your party composition, using buffs and debuffs, etc.
It'd definitely have enjoyed it less if it was basically "press X to win" as people describe the regular difficulty.

The one element that was a big letdown was the music. I've never been too much into the DQ soundtrack style to begin with, but it's really the lack of variety that hurts it the most here.
It's basically the same overworld song for every area in the game (and thank god they put the dq8 one in there because the default one is terrible), the same town song for almost every town and city in the game, the same dungeon music for every dungeon, etc.
When even low budget JRPG's like YS8 can afford a unique track for almost every location there's really no excuse to have such a limited soundtrack in a 50+ hours RPG.
 
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