Dragon Quest XI - Review @ Invisioncommunity

Invisioncommunity reviewed the J-RPG Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age:

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Review

I’ve been waiting for the time where I could finally write an article about a console Dragon Quest that wasn’t Japan only. The last time we had a console DQ was with VIII all the way back in 2004 on the PS2, since then we’ve had a DS game and a Japan-only MMO, IX and X respectively. DQ finally makes its way back into our consoles, and our lands, with Dragon Quest XI, over 14 months after its initial Japanese release. With such a gap, fans have either spoiled the game by watching Japanese playthroughs or translated it for their playing pleasure ahead of its English release. If only the Trunks lookalike protagonist could have sent the game back to us all those months ago.

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Overall Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age gets an 8/10, it is beautiful, exciting and brings back that good VIII feel of yesteryear. Fans of the series will love the updated combat system that keeps to the core of the series design, improved graphics and larger maps. The music is reminiscent of the past but sound design clings onto that nostalgia a bit too harshly with retro choices in a modern release. The difficulty is pretty solid if you decide to fight enemies but can ramp up if you move around the very easy-to-dodge foes. If you are a fan of the series, DQ11 is pretty much just more Dragon Quest, without any drastic changes to the formula.

More information.

So it sounds like you can easily avoid combat (land), but if you do the difficulty will get harder. That of course makes sense, but it kinda sounds like "taking out the trash [mobs]" would count as "grinding", but voluntary. This is extremely appealing to someone like me.

Yeah it doesn't sound all bad, if you can accept a certain amount of trash that you'll need to regulate for grinding purposes. I'm still wanting to give this one a chance, perhaps during the upcoming holidays.

Originally Posted by tekulte
So it sounds like you can easily avoid combat (land), but if you do the difficulty will get harder. That of course makes sense, but it kinda sounds like "taking out the trash [mobs]" would count as "grinding", but voluntary. This is extremely appealing to someone like me.

To me the default difficulty was too easy, so I skipped like 90% of the encounters so I didn't overlevel, and the part of the game was more enjoyable that way. There are also difficulty settings you can set in the beginning of the game (can't change it on-the-fly) where you can adjust different things like "no escape from battles", "no shopping", "no armor", "no exp from easy mobs", "stronger enemies" (wish I had selected this), and "cursed" (randomly lose turns in combat).

Originally Posted by wolfing
To me the default difficulty was too easy, so I skipped like 90% of the encounters so I didn't overlevel, and the part of the game was more enjoyable that way. There are also difficulty settings you can set in the beginning of the game (can't change it on-the-fly) where you can adjust different things like "no escape from battles", "no shopping", "no armor", "no exp from easy mobs", "stronger enemies" (wish I had selected this), and "cursed" (randomly lose turns in combat).

I started the game with "stronger enemies" enabled and I end up disabling it. Most enemies can one-shot you and you spend all fights healing your characters. You're also forced to grind for hours to beat bosses. It's not fun.
The way you played is better.

It's not fun after a while regardless what you do. Too many things are plain annoying.
For example it is not fun clicking 4-5 times to save the game then waiting half a minute for it to save 3 bytes (not more as trashmobs will respawn) with some pipe organ midi score as if it's not installed on SSD but on Nintendo Gameboy.

But well, I budged because I didn't know what that series is. Bitten by the snake once… No more dragon quest games on my PC.
Just like Ys7. Speaking of Ys, if you don't like it, you won't like Dragon Quest either. It's same shit, new wrapping.

Originally Posted by joxer
It's not fun after a while regardless what you do. Too many things are plain annoying.
For example it is not fun clicking 4-5 times to save the game then waiting half a minute for it to save 3 bytes (not more as trashmobs will respawn) with some pipe organ midi score as if it's not installed on SSD but on Nintendo Gameboy.

But well, I budged because I didn't know what that series is. Bitten by the snake once… No more dragon quest games on my PC.
Just like Ys7. Speaking of Ys, if you don't like it, you won't like Dragon Quest either. It's same shit, new wrapping.

How can you say they are the same thing? One is twitch based the other is turn based, that alone makes them as different to me as Trump and Jesus.

I haven’t play a JRPG in quite awhile, but when I used to they were always combat heavy and required grinding levels to take on stronger enemies. I didn’t have a problem with that formula back then and probably wouldn’t now as long as the combat is fun.

So I’ll pick this up at some point and hopefully play it. My gaming time has been very limited for quite a while now though and my backlog is years and years long. So who knows?

Originally Posted by sakichop
I haven’t play a JRPG in quite awhile, but when I used to they were always combat heavy and required grinding levels to take on stronger enemies. I didn’t have a problem with that formula back then and probably wouldn’t now as long as the combat is fun.

So I’ll pick this up at some point and hopefully play it. My gaming time has been very limited for quite a while now though and my backlog is years and years long. So who knows?

Ah the good old days I remember those fondly. Nothing like walking 30 steps on a screen then bam! cue screen shake with music, and now entering the fight screen.

The problem was grinding and the frequency of those battles. I still remember the first few JRPGs that offered you the option of buying a potion, or item to lower the rate.

Originally Posted by wolfing
How can you say they are the same thing? One is twitch based the other is turn based, that alone makes them as different to me as Trump and Jesus.

To me a videogame is not gameplay and nothing else. Wasn't I clear already I don't care about gameplay? I care about everything that is not gameplay. Why? Because I don't use mushrooms so every gameplay is okay with me. But if it's equally okay with me, that doesn't mean other stuff I'll ignore. That's how I can.
In other words, with a different gameplay, it'd be the same overrated mediocrity.

Trump and Jesus aren't videogames.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Ah the good old days I remember those fondly. Nothing like walking 30 steps on a screen then bam! cue screen shake with music, and now entering the fight screen.

The problem was grinding and the frequency of those battles. I still remember the first few JRPGs that offered you the option of buying a potion, or item to lower the rate.

Yep, I remember walking in circles (well, squares back in the day) trying to trigger a metal slime encounter.

Spent hours, even day doing just that. Never felt like a chore when I was young, but unfortunately I’m no longer young.

Originally Posted by joxer
To me a videogame is not gameplay and nothing else. Wasn't I clear already I don't care about gameplay? I care about everything that is not gameplay. Why? Because I don't use mushrooms so every gameplay is okay with me. But if it's equally okay with me, that doesn't mean other stuff I'll ignore. That's how I can.
In other words, with a different gameplay, it'd be the same overrated mediocrity.

Uhm… what?

What what. Concentrate on the first and the last sentence.