Dragon Quest XI - First Reviews

The latest FF has two modes - Active and Wait. Wait is more tactical, haven't tried it but it is supposed to be more like turn-based. Active is fun as all hell. But it requires some twitch skills at times, although the difficulty is pretty forgiving (unless you're driving around at night and encounter a daemon, then watch out!)

And it's not a button masher. You get bonuses for team strikes, circling enemies from behind, using "warp points" where your character can fly up high, survey the field and then strike. You have magic and you can craft your own creative spells (yes, spellcrafting is in the game!) It's a heck of a combat system. I'm loving it. Also complete with parrying, roll dodge (although insta-dodge by pressing X right before attacking automatically warps you out of danger. Difficult to master, though.) And much more. It's a simple system to learn, hard, hard to master. For me, anyway. You also get team strikes, you can outfit your companions with new special attacks, secondary weapons and even magic you created, and the nice thing is your the only character who has "Ascension", i.e. skill trees. But you can bolster your companions via the various trees, which are similar to Skyrim's perk chart (maybe better, though.) So you can spend AP to have your one companion wear 2 accessories, or learn a new special move, etc.. It's a great game, I'm thoroughly impressed. Playing without a hitch on mostly the highest settings, GTX 970, and a Steam Controller.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
The latest FF has two modes - Active and Wait. Wait is more tactical, haven't tried it but it is supposed to be more like turn-based. Active is fun as all hell. But it requires some twitch skills at times, although the difficulty is pretty forgiving (unless you're driving around at night and encounter a daemon, then watch out!)

And it's not a button masher. You get bonuses for team strikes, circling enemies from behind, using "warp points" where your character can fly up high, survey the field and then strike. You have magic and you can craft your own creative spells (yes, spellcrafting is in the game!) It's a heck of a combat system. I'm loving it. Also complete with parrying, roll dodge (although insta-dodge by pressing X right before attacking automatically warps you out of danger. Difficult to master, though.) And much more. It's a simple system to learn, hard, hard to master. For me, anyway. You also get team strikes, you can outfit your companions with new special attacks, secondary weapons and even magic you created, and the nice thing is your the only character who has "Ascension", i.e. skill trees. But you can bolster your companions via the various trees, which are similar to Skyrim's perk chart (maybe better, though.) So you can spend AP to have your one companion wear 2 accessories, or learn a new special move, etc.. It's a great game, I'm thoroughly impressed. Playing without a hitch on mostly the highest settings, GTX 970, and a Steam Controller.

Thanks. Sounds motivating! Maybe i give it a try afterall.

Originally Posted by vidder
Thanks. Sounds motivating! Maybe i give it a try afterall.

Please do! It's a treat, and I haven't played a proper FF game since 10. I have been playing the old-school ports but they pale in comparison due to the sheer amount of convenience and nice, new features that 15 adds. It's really a game for long-time fans AND new players, just as the title screen suggests.

I think anyone here would dig it. Wait mode also has its own skill tree, which is nice. You can scan enemies for weaknesses and more in Wait mode, i.e. pseudo-turn-based mode.

Easy mode also has a "can't die" option, I think, for those who may struggle on Normal. I've only died a few times (it's kind of hard to, your companions can revive you), but Easy mode specifically has a cute Carbuncle come help you if you are struggling. Difficulty is well-balanced so far, if a bit on the easier side once you (well, I won't spoil the story here. )

Oh, and once you unlock the open-world, difficulty can ramp up. I had a huge fight last night that was rough. Using curatives is nicely done, too (game pauses, let's you carefully choose them, etc..)

Oh oh, and dungeons! The game auto-calibrates you're running and "creeping". If you're in a new area in a dungeon, you creep through. If you've explored it already, you run. Automatically. That's the type of polish this game has. You can still override it with the sprint button, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
And it's not a button masher.

This is true - you can only kill outlevelled trashmobs that way but why would you grind pathetic trashmobs over and over? You'll level on metal slimes anyway that provide thousands of xp when killed (they don't appear before northern part of a desert so no level 99 before that ).

Unlike TRF, I recommend no grind anywhere and I recommend sprinting/galloping wherever you can while avoiding timewaste on endlessly respawning trashmobs.
To run/gallop hold shift on the keyboard.

I have no idea what ramped difficulty is TRF talking about. So far I didn't have any instance where I'd think "maybe I should grind".
Note however that the game contains crafting. Make new equipment as soon as you unlock a recipe and make sure it's at least +1 (+3 is max) - also improve existing equipment to at least +1. So far I had no reason to grind trashmobs for ingredients (you find those on the map in chests or as shiny loot) and besides at camps there is a shop where you can buy ingredients if you need any.

Finally, the horse racing bullshit is optional. Thank god for that. You don't need to win it during the story (no reward if you do) and you have no reason to waste time on it later.

Good news! A modder to the rescue:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/74212…3620103882377/

- Remaps Escape Key to Backspace by default (user configurable)
- Allows arrow keys and WASD to be used interchangeably

Was it so hard to do for whomever made this pisspoor port?

Originally Posted by joxer
Good news! A modder to the rescue:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/74212…3620103882377/


Was it so hard to do for whomever made this pisspoor port?

Finally it must be so hard to port a console JRPG.

Not just JRPG games either as I've seen other games were you cant map the arrow keys, or use WASD together. It's a conspiracy nowadays I tell ta. Moving on.
Thanks for the link Joxer.

Originally Posted by joxer
This is true - you can only kill outlevelled trashmobs that way but why would you grind pathetic trashmobs over and over? You'll level on metal slimes anyway that provide thousands of xp when killed (they don't appear before northern part of a desert so no level 99 before that ).

Unlike TRF, I recommend no grind anywhere and I recommend sprinting/galloping wherever you can while avoiding timewaste on endlessly respawning trashmobs.
To run/gallop hold shift on the keyboard.

I have no idea what ramped difficulty is TRF talking about. So far I didn't have any instance where I'd think "maybe I should grind".
Note however that the game contains crafting. Make new equipment as soon as you unlock a recipe and make sure it's at least +1 (+3 is max) - also improve existing equipment to at least +1. So far I had no reason to grind trashmobs for ingredients (you find those on the map in chests or as shiny loot) and besides at camps there is a shop where you can buy ingredients if you need any.

Finally, the horse racing bullshit is optional. Thank god for that. You don't need to win it during the story (no reward if you do) and you have no reason to waste time on it later.

The game doesn't promote grinding, which is cool. I didn't say to grind, I just meant that some battles can be rough because I'm bad at the combat. But now Noctis is getting really powerful and it's easier. The difficulty is well-balanced leaning towards easy I'd say, right?

I also let the car rides run so I gain EXP + AP while doing so (I unlocked those skills.) I also like using chocobos for the same reason, they're just fun to ride, too. I rarely run as much now as I rent the chocobo for a few days and call when needed.

Did you like the game, jox? By the way, I'm The Smoker #2. Hope you don't mind. I picked it up while in the hospital and it's actually a relaxing hobby for me, lol. Newport 100s.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
The game doesn't promote grinding, which is cool. I didn't say to grind, …

So you didn't grind tokens in casino to buy *everything*?


I did. Till I got 30.000 tokens, took me cca an hour. And to buy everything one needs 300K. So now I'm gonna check if there is some cheat for that stupid game of chance in what's supposed to be RPG and not horse racing game as such amount of grind is unbearable.

I don't like the game as I thought I will - puff puff is too scarce for my taste and overall design reminds me on Ys7 too much.
Quit smoking while you still can.

Originally Posted by joxer
So you didn't grind tokens in casino to buy *everything*?


I did. Till I got 30.000 tokens, took me cca an hour. And to buy everything one needs 300K. So now I'm gonna check if there is some cheat for that stupid game of chance in what's supposed to be RPG and not horse racing game as such amount of grind is unbearable.

I don't like the game as I thought I will - puff puff is too scarce for my taste and overall design reminds me on Ys7 too much.
Quit smoking while you still can.

I quit a few times years back, I'll eventually do it again. Right now it keeps me occupied.

I didn't get to the casino yet. Only chapter 6. At least grinding enemies is an option you can skip, just chocobo past them all.

Well… Aside horrible casino grind (posted on steam, slime quest slot machine autoplays on PC 100 turns if you press HOME on the keyboard. yea, don't ask, dunno why home key is used in a game) I got this sidequest where you need to grind ball cactus groups till a gold one appears. Had to kill cca 10 trashmob groups till one appeared. So…
Then there are some silly crossbow targets all over the place not easy to spot. And then you start looking for them while riding and usually initiate some unwanted fight because trashmobs respawn almost instanly.

Other than that, I posted already, there is absolutely no reason to kill respawned trashmobs over and over for hours. Except "shiny" ones so you can ride them and reach spots not possible otherwise. Normal trashmobs… Kill one of some type and then outrun others whenever possible, no reason to waste time.

Note that I'm still early in the game. I got to the point where you get a ship but am first exploring other areas that are possible to explore. Maybe the (no) necessity to grind trashmobs in openworld changes, maybe not.
Dunno what chapter I'm at but the casino is in a port town close to venetian town you escape with a ship from. I didn't go where the main story wants me to go, but went across the sea to a port town named Puerto Valor - one of sidequests chain (brother/sister letter) points you to it.

Originally Posted by TheRealFluent
By the way, I'm The Smoker #2. Hope you don't mind. I picked it up while in the hospital and it's actually a relaxing hobby for me, lol. Newport 100s.

I won’t preach or bring this up again as you’re an adult free to do as you want, obviously.

As someone who’s lost 4 loved ones to smoking related illnesses, please quit now and find another way to relax.

Anyway I searched for fluent on steam and came up with 1500+ results. I haven’t played eliminage gothic yet so I’m not sure what to look for. Also couldn’t find you on Rpgwatch steam group.

If you want to friend me on steam just search for sakichop. I did and apparently there’s only 1, me. that’d be cool.

If Anyone else wants to friend me you can do the same.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I won’t preach or bring this up again as you’re an adult free to do as you want, obviously.

As someone who’s lost 4 loved ones to smoking related illnesses, please quit now and find another way to relax.

Second this as I watched my father die of lung cancer.

It was not a good life experience, and made me quit.