• 6 years ago
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    Gahhh, I wish I had more time to play this game! I've had the PS4 version for 5 days now but I'm only 30 hours in, and it seems I'm only halfway through.

    They made a real DQ game here. A worthy successor to DQ8. Not that DQ9 wasn't any good, it just wasn't what I'd hoped for. DQ11 so far has met my expectations on almost all accounts. There's two aspects where it does fall short, though...

    First off, the music. There doesn't seem to be as much original music in this as previous games. They've recycled a bunch, especially from DQ8. While there are some areas and scenes where this makes sense, just randomly throwing in a town theme from DQ8 because there's only 1 original town theme is kind of a bummer.

    Secondly, DQ8 was the perfect game at the time. The only thing it was still missing was a seamless world, which might not have been possible with the technology they had. My vision for a DQ8 successor is that it'd finally have this seamless world.

    Unfortunately, the game is still heavily zoned, perhaps even moreso than DQ8. In DQ8, I feel you could follow a path, and you'd either hit a loading screen for a town, a dungeon, or the sea. It was extremely smart and elegant in its zoning. In DQ11, you can reach the end of a path and will need to load the next zone. Granted, they can be massive, but I suppose having the horse available from the get-go can make them feel a lot smaller. At least you don't need to load a house's interior anymore.

    I just hope the game wasn't held back by the 3DS version... It's been said that the 3DS version didn't start development until the PS4 version was halfway done, but that it was "always the plan" (sure....). It's also been said that the 3DS world had to be scaled down, because the 2D version got too big for a 2D sprite-based RPG.

    It's fine, though. This is, by all accounts, the game I've been waiting for. I went into it thinking I'd probably like it more than Breath of the Wild, but didn't think it'd top Nier Automata. Now I'm not so sure anymore. It's so good!

    I'll be starting a new playthrough of the 3DS version on my Liquid Metal Slime 2DS XL today on the train. The game doesn't have a job system, but the skill system is basically the same as DQ8 (just with a hexagonal license board presentation), meaning there's quite a bit of replayability as using a new weapon can make you feel like using a new class.

    I've also tried out the password system to import my PS4 save into the 3DS version, and yes, it totally works! Your party's levels will be set to that of the hero, and your equipment will be the best purchasable at that point. You might lose a little story progress though, as I think you need to hit a completion flag for each town. So while not a substitute for a true cross-save cloud service, it's perfectly fine if you want to switch versions halfway in case you're going on vacation or whatever.

    All in all, the game definitely feels like a sendoff for the series and a big thank you to the fans. Yuji Horii himself said there might not be another one directed by him (guy's in his sixties, y'know?), so he really had to make this the best game it can be, and use all his ideas he'd built up over the years. I'm extremely excited to see how this story ends, moreso than any DQ before it.
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    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … From what I understand, you wanted an open world DQ. That would be really amazing, but DQ never rolled like that. I am so fucking pumped for this game, if it's as good as DQVIII i'll be in heaven :D
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    • Axersia
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      Axersia
      Editing … It didn't need to be open world, just seamless. With good level design there's plenty of ways to gate the player. Keep in mind even Jak & Daxter was a seamless game. I guess I always just figured that with current-gen hardware, they'd try to make a game where you could just walk into a town without a loading screen. It's totally doable, and I'm a bit worried they didn't even bother as they had to divide the game into chunks for the 3DS version anyway. Speaking of which, I got to play a couple hours of it today, and it's a completely different experience. You can still ride a horse, but there isn't much point to it because you can just walk from one end of a zone to the other in like 30 secs. A distance that would've felt like a "journey" in the PS4 version. The battles are also sped up (not necessarily a bad thing...). If you want a quicker abridged version with the same story, the 3DS version is the way to go. Also, the 2D mode feels... off. It's too spacious. You can definitely tell that had they made it any bigger, it would've become a problem. But was it really worth sacrificing the size of the game world, just add in a retro mode as a bonus? Ah well, I suppose it doesn't matter. Anyone who cares enough to play the game as it was intended can just play the PS4 version.
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    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … Sure but when we're talking about RPG's or adventure games, those caracteristics are usually associated with open-world games. But I understand your point, and I agree it would've been better for immersion. I guess the culprit there might be the decision of making a 3DS version, but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the decision was made early on in development. I love the DQ team, but when it comes to game design and holding on to traditions they're total dinossaurs.
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