Got this game over Xmas and wow, what a game. This is for sure in my top 3 of all time JRPGs, and will most likely end up being #1. There are so many great quality of life things in this game, that usually bug the crap out of me in JRPGs. The only thing that’s a bit of a letdown for me, and what may keep it out of the first spot, is the shallowness of the skill trees. Final Fantasy Tactics has spoiled me forever on character development and choices.
I’m about 30 hours in, and thought I had a handle on what was going to happen. It’s awesome that I was completely wrong, and was nowhere near where I thought I was game wise. This is one of the few JRPGs where I actually care about the story, instead of it just being a weak excuse to go grind levels.
There’s something really satisfying about roaming around in the game world in this game, easily my favorite implementation of that ever in a JRPG.
Some sort of Dragon Quest meets Pokemon Go kind of game was announced, which is fine but not why I’m here…
This is what caught my eye:
“By the way, about Dragon Quest XII , which I’m sure is on everyone’s mind—[Yuji] Horii and I are currently making preparations on series developments that will connect to XII . I think it’s still too early,
but we would like announce it in some form, so please wait a little while longer.”
I can’t think of a case where Square backported enhancements so it’s pay $60 and 80 hours to see them or live without. TBH, I loved the game so much I might have lived with just the $60 part, but I don’t have time to replay a game that large.
I just tried it a little bit.
The game in 3D mode is incredibly aliased. It reminds me of Guild Wars 2 or Euro Truck Simulator if you choose to render them at 50%. But it is smooth. It probably looks fine in portable Mode, but even on a “small big” screen as my monitor, it’s a bit tough on the eyes. I expect that if you played it on the PS4 or have a big TV, you won’t be able to suffer it. I think this might be a preview of what the Witcher 3 will feel like as well.
Another thing that I expected but sadly got the confirmation: the game is locking Japanese language outside of the others. The reason is simple: DQ11 is monetized on the Japanese eshop with an extra 30$ “English dubbing” DLC. So while the Western version gets the Japanese voices for free, the original text of the game is left out.
I’ve always found the Toriyama/Dragon Quest art design of people to be terrible. But I found DQ11 to be one of the least offensive DQs in this regard. To the point I mostly liked the art direction, which surprised me.
I think for me it’s really just the cross-eyed look. I played Ys 8 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 recently, and didn’t have a similar feeling.
For people who’ve already played this, any recs for people starting the demo? Any Draconian Quest options that people would recommend? Any recommendations on choosing between Japanese / English dialog? (Gemma’s voice in English seems pretty bad, but the rest of the cast seems pretty good).
