Dragon Quest XI - First Reviews

Originally Posted by PegasusOrgans
Hot bar's are a relatively new feature. Every older RPG used similar menu's. Many CRPGs still do, so it's not a JRPG thing. Actually, the menu in DQ xi would have been seen as very simple and easy compared to a Bard's Tale, Realms of Arkania, or most RPG pre-late 90's

I remember playing Wizardry where in order to cast a spell you not only had to navigate through all the menus, but you also had to go to the manual, look up the nonsense words which was the name of the spell you were casting, and then type it in.

I had to do this so many times that even 30+ years later there are still spells I remember the name to. Tiltowait!

I have no problemm with the menu based combat. It’s pretty much the same as dragon warrior and wizardry’s. Except in wizardry’s you typed the name of spells which was both cool and infuriating since all the names were weird and I’d forget how to spell them.

Anyway can’t wait to grind some metal slimes, assuming that’s still a thing. The slimes are just so cute.

Esc cannot replace Backspace idiocy.
Thankfully, tab for menu instead of whatever other key and m for map instead of another whatever key can be set. This is the default keyboard setup:


Will Square Enix ever stop with this backspace bullshit?

EDIT:

I'll definitely be getting this sometime. For my kids if not for me.

I played DQ8 (PS2) over a few years, when I was looking after our young twins (also later, when I got "dad, whatever happened to that game with the fat guy who did the underpants dance?"). It was kid friendly, so I didn't have to worry about "exposing" them to anything objectionable. Also, being turn-based, I could play parts of it one-handed while I corralled a child with the other arm. Tone wise, the game avoided that squicky, uncomfortable combination of "kiddy stuff" melded with adult content that JRPGs often go for, whilst incorporating an almost British sense of humour (helped by some excellent voice acting).
I imagine this installment will be the same.

Graphics-wise, it's pretty much exactly what I would expect from a modern Dragon Quest; going from the lower res 3D of DQ8 and DQ9 (DS), to modern day 3D gfx, while keeping the same look.

Not sure if it's in the pricewatch thread but DQ XI is 20% off at greenman gaming. ( in the US, not sure about other region)

Going to grab it now.

PC port has some real funky unneeded crap (talking about keyboard); think I'll wait until they fix it with a patch. Of course if they never fix it i'll be waiting a long time.
-
The thing I find confusing from reviews is that the key mapping for movement is different than that for the menu and while you can remap keys you can't remap movement to be the same as menu (wasd for menu and ESC force quit); really why is it so difficult for them to do a decent implementation any child could do.

Originally Posted by lostforever
I will be 40 soon but I really started with RPG when Morrowind came along. I never played many of the older RPG you mentions. I did play wizardry 8 about 10 years ago and its one of my favourite RPG. I don't really care itf its CRPG or JRPG etc as I like them all but I do find menu based combat UI annoying and a design we can do without. However if Dragon Quest XI is really good, I will put up with it but probably not at full price

Ahhhh, NOW I get it. I'm, actually around the same age as you. Thing is, tho, I grew up playing non-action RPGs ie real, turn based RPGs. Some of the first RPGs I ever played were Final Fantasy 1, Dragon Warrior 1, Bard's Tale 3, Ultima 4, Gold Box series, Might and Magic 1… some on console some on PC, so a menu driven combat system indicates a real RPG. Sure, action RPGs like Diablo and Morrowind don't do menus, but they're also not true blue RPGs and were made to appeal to the non-niche mainstream players(not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm guessing, being my age, you played mostly action games? I played my share, but Turn Based Strategy(X-Com, Civ, Master of Magic) and CRPGs were what really made my imagination soar. And a big part of that was the combat being slow, chess-like and representative of amazing battles that dwarfed anything in action games.

And none of that is to say that you are wrong, you're probably right, that having old timey, turn based combat will hurt a game's sales and probably increase the time investment. Still love them, and the people that were the base upon which the RPG genre survived long enough for Diablo and Morrowind to even exist love(d) it too. You might never grow to like it, but if you've never played a turn based RPG, you might discover something you might actually like.

As for keyboard remapping. I saw there was some, and I haven't tried it myself but I hope they do fix that. Otherwise, it seems like a great port and, personally, I'm using a gamepad as I grew up playing the series on the NES and it just felt right.

Originally Posted by PegasusOrgans
Ahhhh, NOW I get it. I'm, actually around the same age as you. Thing is, tho, I grew up playing non-action RPGs ie real, turn based RPGs. Some of the first RPGs I ever played were Final Fantasy 1, Dragon Warrior 1, Bard's Tale 3, Ultima 4, Gold Box series, Might and Magic 1… some on console some on PC, so a menu driven combat system indicates a real RPG. Sure, action RPGs like Diablo and Morrowind don't do menus, but they're also not true blue RPGs and were made to appeal to the non-niche mainstream players(not that there's anything wrong with that). I'm guessing, being my age, you played mostly action games? I played my share, but Turn Based Strategy(X-Com, Civ, Master of Magic) and CRPGs were what really made my imagination soar. And a big part of that was the combat being slow, chess-like and representative of amazing battles that dwarfed anything in action games.

And none of that is to say that you are wrong, you're probably right, that having old timey, turn based combat will hurt a game's sales and probably increase the time investment. Still love them, and the people that were the base upon which the RPG genre survived long enough for Diablo and Morrowind to even exist love(d) it too. You might never grow to like it, but if you've never played a turn based RPG, you might discover something you might actually like.

I used to play strategy games before RPGs. I was never into first person shooters if thats what you mean by action games. I love turn based and slow combat but I think it can be done without menus.

Maybe I am over reacting here about menus but we will see

How would you do turn-based combat without a menu?

I've been playing it a bit. While I usually disagree with 90% of what Joxer says, this time I have to say he's spot on about the annoyance of the key bindings and it's restrictions. Some of the more annoying things can be remapped, but the button to exit out of a menu cannot be changed to escape. More annoyingly, every time you hit escape, a dialog box comes up asking you if you want to quit to desktop, and you have to click no before you can do anything else. I usually do this about 20 times in every play session as I try to exit out of something. You also use different keys to move in the game world than you use to move between menus so I'm constantly having to change the position of my hands on the keyboard. And of course you can't change that or just click on the menus with your mouse.

So anyway it's annoying and poorly implemented, but it's nowhere nearly as much of a train wreck as say Dark Souls. It's still extremely playable, just with a few jarringly bad design decisions that will take time to get used to. I haven't played it long enough to form an opinion about the core game yet.

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to just use a gamepad?

That question reminds me on school dealers - would you try some dope and make it a lot easier? And the result is the same. Addicts, mushrooms of plastic or nature, just push it forward trying to get more "followers".


The port isn't trainwreck as @fadedc already posted, but could have been much better. Should have. I can't understand how Square Enix accepted to release this onto PC. Maybe they didn't expect much sales so left it in silly state?
Also, did anyone notice there is only one PC review out there (and not good at all, basically 10 sentences about the game)? I wonder why.

For me playing with an xbox controller on pc its a super smooth ride up until now. Love this game already. GFX is great, soundfx are oldschool, TB-combat, story seems to be nice enough. What else do you want? (theoretical question)

I almost got this but went with FFXV instead. I'm glad I did. I'll grab this later, but I did hear the DQ games are a bit formulaic. Which also is apparently why the fanbase continues to love them. It's a buy-when-have-money-and-need-new-game for me.

Originally Posted by JDR13
How would you do turn-based combat without a menu?

Like Might and Magic X. This is much better implementation than menus.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
I almost got this but went with FFXV instead. I'm glad I did. I'll grab this later, but I did hear the DQ games are a bit formulaic. Which also is apparently why the fanbase continues to love them. It's a buy-when-have-money-and-need-new-game for me.

How is combat? Is there any chance for a pause and strategy, or just gamepad hammering?

Originally Posted by vidder
How is combat? Is there any chance for a pause and strategy, or just gamepad hammering?

I like to know that as well…

There is demo of that game on steam but its huge download and too lazy

Originally Posted by vidder
How is combat? Is there any chance for a pause and strategy, or just gamepad hammering?

Well I mean it's a turn based game, you pause for each character's turn and can spend all the time you want figuring out what to do. As for depth of strategy, I'm too early in the game to discuss that. DQ games aren't usually super complicated, but you do have multiple party members with multiple abilities. You need to use some basic strategy and ability management to win, but your not usually busting your brain.

I'm currently playing with the draconian quest option of "monsters are super hard". So far the level of challenge there seems good, not too hard and not too easy. I'll see how it is further in.

Originally Posted by fadedc
Well I mean it's a turn based game, you pause for each character's turn and can spend all the time you want figuring out what to do. As for depth of strategy, I'm too early in the game to discuss that. DQ games aren't usually super complicated, but you do have multiple party members with multiple abilities. You need to use some basic strategy and ability management to win, but your not usually busting your brain.

I'm currently playing with the draconian quest option of "monsters are super hard". So far the level of challenge there seems good, not too hard and not too easy. I'll see how it is further in.

TB? Really?? From videos and reports i gathered that it is action combat: so everyone fights at the same time. Please clarify.

AAhh, you mean DQ! My question was regarding the latest FF game…