I did not think I'd like this game. It's about as classic as you can get, there's little in terms of story, and the soundtrack sucks. Despite this, I found myself greatly enjoying the game after some initial discomfort (it is not fun with anything but a full party), and before I knew it, I was finishing the game with almost all the side content complete. (Note: at the time of writing this, I still intend to go and do post-game, but have not yet.)
The character building in this game is really good. Managing equipment and skill trees is very engaging for me, and it really feels like all the decisions you make in regards to building characters matter. The combat is a lot more built around RNG than I thought it'd be, but there's enough room for strategy in there to make it feel like something to work around rather than something to be at the mercy of. Another huge point in the combat's favor is that status effects actually work on bosses. It's not every the time, but it's enough for it to feel like using characters or abilities that are based around status actually feels like something viable, which is more than I can say about a ton of other RPGs. One caveat is that I was playing with the Draconian Quests for Stronger Monsters and Reduced EXP from Easy Fights, and I think the game would've been significantly more boring without those. The game not letting you turn them on after the start is a mistake, I think, when there is no real reason to do so other than to prevent people from getting achievements more easily, I guess.
As for the story, it's barely there. Usually I play RPGs for the story elements but for this one I quickly decided I just wasn't gonna have any expectations for this game's, and I'm glad I didn't. The occasional impactful scene came as a pleasant surprise, where as the rest of the "adventure of the week" type plots stayed mildly entertaining instead of disappointing.
Overall, I think this game is a great JRPG that got me interested in a series that I've been writing off for the last several years.
UPDATE: I played the post game. Note that I do not say finished; combat loses some luster once you get into late game, imo. The plot is actually pretty interesting in the postgame, but the combat and specifically the character building starts devolving. Eventually you get to a point where it stops feeling like making big choices about your new abilities and more like just checking boxes off of the list. Similarly, combat starts getting homogenized down to one-size-fits-all strategies (Magic Burst spam). I don't really hold any of this against the game; after all, it's post game, and I feel bad for punishing the game for having too much content, because I imagine there are people out there who enjoyed having all of it, even if that person wasn't me.
The character building in this game is really good. Managing equipment and skill trees is very engaging for me, and it really feels like all the decisions you make in regards to building characters matter. The combat is a lot more built around RNG than I thought it'd be, but there's enough room for strategy in there to make it feel like something to work around rather than something to be at the mercy of. Another huge point in the combat's favor is that status effects actually work on bosses. It's not every the time, but it's enough for it to feel like using characters or abilities that are based around status actually feels like something viable, which is more than I can say about a ton of other RPGs. One caveat is that I was playing with the Draconian Quests for Stronger Monsters and Reduced EXP from Easy Fights, and I think the game would've been significantly more boring without those. The game not letting you turn them on after the start is a mistake, I think, when there is no real reason to do so other than to prevent people from getting achievements more easily, I guess.
As for the story, it's barely there. Usually I play RPGs for the story elements but for this one I quickly decided I just wasn't gonna have any expectations for this game's, and I'm glad I didn't. The occasional impactful scene came as a pleasant surprise, where as the rest of the "adventure of the week" type plots stayed mildly entertaining instead of disappointing.
Overall, I think this game is a great JRPG that got me interested in a series that I've been writing off for the last several years.
UPDATE: I played the post game. Note that I do not say finished; combat loses some luster once you get into late game, imo. The plot is actually pretty interesting in the postgame, but the combat and specifically the character building starts devolving. Eventually you get to a point where it stops feeling like making big choices about your new abilities and more like just checking boxes off of the list. Similarly, combat starts getting homogenized down to one-size-fits-all strategies (Magic Burst spam). I don't really hold any of this against the game; after all, it's post game, and I feel bad for punishing the game for having too much content, because I imagine there are people out there who enjoyed having all of it, even if that person wasn't me.
I went into this expecting an old school throwback turn-based JRPG because I've never played Dragon Quest beforehand, but what I got was a deceptively simple yet incredibly polished and wonderfully charming game that starts knocking those expectations away throughout its lengthy playtime. It’s refreshing to play a JRPG that very sincerely sticks to its guns about its own tropes and tradition in a landscape where games have started to become a bit self-aware about them and loses out on some of that magic. It’s not really reinventing the wheel so much as it’s finding new things to do with that wheel and perfecting them. Like, the game design is pretty straightforward and simple by today’s standards but it manages to still feel really engaging and plays to its strength for that. The combat never feels too broken and finds a good general balance that makes boss fights and random encounters feel as fair as possible to the player while still offering a challenge. Except for the third act which is almost like a post-game, with bosses that really push you to strategize and experiment with your party members, but also feeling way more important to the overall story than you thought. It’s not quite as good as the first two acts, mostly because it felt lacking in narrative momentum due to its gameplay structure, but it redeems itself by revealing a bunch of story stuff that makes this feel that much essential to the entire experience.
You can also feel how much more fun Toriyama had with designing characters for this franchise than everything since Beerus and Whis in Dragon Ball rn
You can also feel how much more fun Toriyama had with designing characters for this franchise than everything since Beerus and Whis in Dragon Ball rn
post-ironic cliche tropes done right with some Yoko Taro influences (don't ask me why)
ultimate bedtime fairy tale with great characters and fantastic vibes living in a world of Akira Toriyama's artwork
- music is a letdown but you have an option to use the DQ VIII overworld theme so do that
- default overworld music theme is rage quit inducing EAR CANCER
- i'd recommend using "stronger monsters" draconian option because the default game is too easy in the beginning
- Act 2 was a drag but for a reason
- Act 3 is not a "post-game"
- Act 3 is what really makes this game special and unique, it IS essential to the story and actually pretty amazing and extremely satisfying
- this game is better than final fantasy VII remake
could have been better if not the ear cancer music and strange difficulty curve, but you know what?
I don't care
ultimate bedtime fairy tale with great characters and fantastic vibes living in a world of Akira Toriyama's artwork
- music is a letdown but you have an option to use the DQ VIII overworld theme so do that
- default overworld music theme is rage quit inducing EAR CANCER
- i'd recommend using "stronger monsters" draconian option because the default game is too easy in the beginning
- Act 2 was a drag but for a reason
- Act 3 is not a "post-game"
- Act 3 is what really makes this game special and unique, it IS essential to the story and actually pretty amazing and extremely satisfying
- this game is better than final fantasy VII remake
could have been better if not the ear cancer music and strange difficulty curve, but you know what?
I don't care
I absolutely loved Dragon Quest VIII back in the day. I loved the art direction, the humor, the back-to-basics dungeon crawling, and the challenging gameplay. DQXI has a bunch of that but it really does nothing to propel the series forward. It's very long and, in my opinion, overstays its welcome after the 40 hour mark. The game consists of chasing macguffin after macguffin with little else motivation to go on (this is an issue I have with many games featuring a silent protagonist). It's definitely worth playing but, especially in the definitive edition, the whole is less than the sum of its parts. 3.5/5
One of the best JRPGs ever and a testament that you don't need a million bells and whistles and 500 subsystems to just have a good time being a hero and saving the world. It's basic, and it works precisely BECAUSE it's basic.
This is only my third DQ game but the first I finished and it convinced me to go back and give the series a serious try. It's extremely charming, from the designs to the character personalities to the creatures and the world.
The post-game story is very nice and I like that it closes some plot threads, but admittedly it kind of messes with one of the best things about the original story, so it's more of an extra ending than anything.
This is only my third DQ game but the first I finished and it convinced me to go back and give the series a serious try. It's extremely charming, from the designs to the character personalities to the creatures and the world.
The post-game story is very nice and I like that it closes some plot threads, but admittedly it kind of messes with one of the best things about the original story, so it's more of an extra ending than anything.
I've put only around 9 hours into this, picking it up and dropping it due to getting more invested into other games. I wanted to actually put all my attention towards it, but I can't. At least not right now. I'm too bored.
Presentation and visuals are great, but there's absolutely nothing unique about this game whatsoever. This is basically what I imagine people who don't like JRPGs think all JRPGs are. It's the video game equivalent to a seasonal "cute girls doing cute things" anime: mildly amusing and safe, but also utterly dull and trite. Apparently, the plot goes places that makes it more interesting later, but now you're getting into "oh trust me, it gets good 20 hours in" territory which I'm not falling for anymore.
I might pick this back up in the future when I have nothing else to play, but I can't force myself to play through this at the moment.
Presentation and visuals are great, but there's absolutely nothing unique about this game whatsoever. This is basically what I imagine people who don't like JRPGs think all JRPGs are. It's the video game equivalent to a seasonal "cute girls doing cute things" anime: mildly amusing and safe, but also utterly dull and trite. Apparently, the plot goes places that makes it more interesting later, but now you're getting into "oh trust me, it gets good 20 hours in" territory which I'm not falling for anymore.
I might pick this back up in the future when I have nothing else to play, but I can't force myself to play through this at the moment.
(This is the worst review anybody has ever written. I’m sorry. Basically, I hugely recommend this game to anybody looking for a good, relaxing, wholesome experience. I should probably just copy+paste this at the top so you can know my opinion straight up and skip the rest of this nonsense.)
-
I’m a little late to the party, here, but Dragon Quest XI is the best JRPG I’ve played in years. Five or six years after release, when everybody else seems to have finished talking about it, it is my game of 2023. It is a lungful of fresh air. It is joyful like I haven’t known in the longest time. It is a mirror that shows not the adult you’ve become but the child you forgot about.
“Oh. There you are,” you might think to yourself as you’re running through the greenest grass you’ve ever seen in your life, grass that glows at the edges when it catches sun. “There I am.”
Am I being a little too sentimental? Maybe I’m just tired. Over tired. I work five days a week, man, and I write fiction every morning and lunch time, and some evenings, and I'm training for another marathon. I’m probably a workaholic. I’m probably running from something. At any rate, video games are supposed to be my down time activity. Yet whenever I sit down to play something new these days, particularly new AAA games, I find myself growing even more exhausted. Exhausted by the mindless, cynical stories with nothing to say, by the recycled, towering mechanics, all waving at you to keep your attention, by grim art styles, edgy dialogue, blood and violence without stakes or point, existing just for its own sake, because most people won’t play a game if you can’t remove somebody’s brains from their head through a hole in the back of their skull.
If I’m lucky, I’ll play one big budget game a year that actually makes me feel something. It’s completely mind-numbing, and makes me feel hopeless about an activity that used to bring me so much joy. Memories of Pokémon Yellow, Final Fantasy X, Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil (GC) and all my other childhood favourites are buried under a stinking and growing landfill of Resident Evil 7 and Borderlands and Divinity II, games that have absolutely nothing to say, just time to kill. Buried deeper, still, by ports and remasters of those old favourites of mine that just feel wrong now. Ocarina of time doesn’t feel good without the N64 controller, and Link’s weight is all wrong in the 3DS remake; FFX characters lose their expressive eyes in the HD remaster; Jill Valentine has impossibly jiggly boob-physics in the HD remaster of Resident Evil (GC) (Maybe it was always there, and I couldn’t tell back on the CRT) and there are new ‘loading’ message screens that pop up during startup, made without any effort to mesh with the aesthetics of the game, as well as an analogue control system that doesn't work with the fixed cameras; did you play Pokémon Let’s go? I could write all day about those games and how they hollowed out the originals. My favourite video game is probably FF7 on the PS1, for the strides it made but also the way it wears its faults on its sleeves, for its whimsy and strangeness and beauty (and music). The HD port, though, is full of weird audio bugs, and has these features that might well make the game more palatable, like speed up, but which end up ruining the immersion of the game. And as for the remake…! I spent about fifteen hours on it before I couldn’t freaking take it anymore and I just had to—
…Well, Dragon Quest XI is a vital reminder that big budget games can, and do, still have souls.
It is a wake-up call that, likely, will go unheeded, even by its own publisher—in interviews, developers have spoken about making the next game in the series more mature. Well, we know what mature means in gaming. Edgy humour, swearing, dark colour palettes, violence... It means, potentially, more sales. It means, certainly, creative hamstringing in a rush to make money out of what sells right now.
This is supposed to be a review, isn’t it? Well, I feel strangely unprepared to talk about Dragon Quest XI, even after 80+ hours of gameplay. Maybe that’s why I’m dragging my feet about it.
Dragon Quest XI is bursting at the seams with excellence and elegance. The simple story is bolstered by incredible dialogue and voice acting. The characters are wonderful and whimsical. The stakes are high, the pacing is on-point, the politics are navigable and entertaining, the skits are hilarious, the tragedies awful. The battles, similarly, are simple yet effective. Turn-based, slow-burn affairs where your team works together to pull off fantastic moves and spells and combos, where buffs and de-buffs become increasingly vital as you move forward in the adventure (or, if you’re starting on Harder Monsters, vital from the get-go). The character development is slow and steady, rarely overwhelming, giving you hours to think about how you’re going to develop your characters while you traverse the world map, what skills and spells you’re going to have them learn, and then which team strategies and loadouts you’re going to employ. The side quests are good. The hero’s haircut and outfit are awful to the point of hilarity. The art direction is out of this world.
…
I should feel happier about it. I have a new game to add to my list of favourites, and it is a generous one, filled with extra difficulty modes that make it extremely replayable. But it is like being in the height of summer, knowing the trees will turn soon, and then… I don’t know. Play this game at your own risk, I guess. It’s an eye-opener. It takes you by the hand and makes you stop and smell the roses, and you think, I love the smell of roses. Shouldn’t there be fields of them everywhere? Well, why aren’t there? And why is everything farmland without hedgerows or ponds or other important fixtures of local habitats? Why is all the topsoil damaged? What’s happened to the climate? Why did humans wipe out 60% of the world's populations of wild vertebrates over the last fifty years? Profits? Well, aren’t roses profitable? They’re not? But they’re so nice! What will Dragon Quest XII be? Will it also be nice? Or will it only be...?
…
(This is the worst review anybody has ever written. I’m sorry. Basically, I hugely recommend this game to anybody looking for a good, relaxing, wholesome experience. I should probably just copy+paste this at the top so you can know my opinion straight up and skip the rest of this nonsense.)
-
I’m a little late to the party, here, but Dragon Quest XI is the best JRPG I’ve played in years. Five or six years after release, when everybody else seems to have finished talking about it, it is my game of 2023. It is a lungful of fresh air. It is joyful like I haven’t known in the longest time. It is a mirror that shows not the adult you’ve become but the child you forgot about.
“Oh. There you are,” you might think to yourself as you’re running through the greenest grass you’ve ever seen in your life, grass that glows at the edges when it catches sun. “There I am.”
Am I being a little too sentimental? Maybe I’m just tired. Over tired. I work five days a week, man, and I write fiction every morning and lunch time, and some evenings, and I'm training for another marathon. I’m probably a workaholic. I’m probably running from something. At any rate, video games are supposed to be my down time activity. Yet whenever I sit down to play something new these days, particularly new AAA games, I find myself growing even more exhausted. Exhausted by the mindless, cynical stories with nothing to say, by the recycled, towering mechanics, all waving at you to keep your attention, by grim art styles, edgy dialogue, blood and violence without stakes or point, existing just for its own sake, because most people won’t play a game if you can’t remove somebody’s brains from their head through a hole in the back of their skull.
If I’m lucky, I’ll play one big budget game a year that actually makes me feel something. It’s completely mind-numbing, and makes me feel hopeless about an activity that used to bring me so much joy. Memories of Pokémon Yellow, Final Fantasy X, Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil (GC) and all my other childhood favourites are buried under a stinking and growing landfill of Resident Evil 7 and Borderlands and Divinity II, games that have absolutely nothing to say, just time to kill. Buried deeper, still, by ports and remasters of those old favourites of mine that just feel wrong now. Ocarina of time doesn’t feel good without the N64 controller, and Link’s weight is all wrong in the 3DS remake; FFX characters lose their expressive eyes in the HD remaster; Jill Valentine has impossibly jiggly boob-physics in the HD remaster of Resident Evil (GC) (Maybe it was always there, and I couldn’t tell back on the CRT) and there are new ‘loading’ message screens that pop up during startup, made without any effort to mesh with the aesthetics of the game, as well as an analogue control system that doesn't work with the fixed cameras; did you play Pokémon Let’s go? I could write all day about those games and how they hollowed out the originals. My favourite video game is probably FF7 on the PS1, for the strides it made but also the way it wears its faults on its sleeves, for its whimsy and strangeness and beauty (and music). The HD port, though, is full of weird audio bugs, and has these features that might well make the game more palatable, like speed up, but which end up ruining the immersion of the game. And as for the remake…! I spent about fifteen hours on it before I couldn’t freaking take it anymore and I just had to—
…Well, Dragon Quest XI is a vital reminder that big budget games can, and do, still have souls.
It is a wake-up call that, likely, will go unheeded, even by its own publisher—in interviews, developers have spoken about making the next game in the series more mature. Well, we know what mature means in gaming. Edgy humour, swearing, dark colour palettes, violence... It means, potentially, more sales. It means, certainly, creative hamstringing in a rush to make money out of what sells right now.
This is supposed to be a review, isn’t it? Well, I feel strangely unprepared to talk about Dragon Quest XI, even after 80+ hours of gameplay. Maybe that’s why I’m dragging my feet about it.
Dragon Quest XI is bursting at the seams with excellence and elegance. The simple story is bolstered by incredible dialogue and voice acting. The characters are wonderful and whimsical. The stakes are high, the pacing is on-point, the politics are navigable and entertaining, the skits are hilarious, the tragedies awful. The battles, similarly, are simple yet effective. Turn-based, slow-burn affairs where your team works together to pull off fantastic moves and spells and combos, where buffs and de-buffs become increasingly vital as you move forward in the adventure (or, if you’re starting on Harder Monsters, vital from the get-go). The character development is slow and steady, rarely overwhelming, giving you hours to think about how you’re going to develop your characters while you traverse the world map, what skills and spells you’re going to have them learn, and then which team strategies and loadouts you’re going to employ. The side quests are good. The hero’s haircut and outfit are awful to the point of hilarity. The art direction is out of this world.
…
I should feel happier about it. I have a new game to add to my list of favourites, and it is a generous one, filled with extra difficulty modes that make it extremely replayable. But it is like being in the height of summer, knowing the trees will turn soon, and then… I don’t know. Play this game at your own risk, I guess. It’s an eye-opener. It takes you by the hand and makes you stop and smell the roses, and you think, I love the smell of roses. Shouldn’t there be fields of them everywhere? Well, why aren’t there? And why is everything farmland without hedgerows or ponds or other important fixtures of local habitats? Why is all the topsoil damaged? What’s happened to the climate? Why did humans wipe out 60% of the world's populations of wild vertebrates over the last fifty years? Profits? Well, aren’t roses profitable? They’re not? But they’re so nice! What will Dragon Quest XII be? Will it also be nice? Or will it only be...?
…
(This is the worst review anybody has ever written. I’m sorry. Basically, I hugely recommend this game to anybody looking for a good, relaxing, wholesome experience. I should probably just copy+paste this at the top so you can know my opinion straight up and skip the rest of this nonsense.)
Yeah this game's vanilla as hell, but it's like some nice Haagen Dazs vanilla you know what I mean?
I'm happy that Western audiences came around to liking Dragon Quest... even if it felt late a lot of the time, it was nice to see people get behind this game. It's a really good game, too, a big, fun, and realized Dragon Quest world that I'll come back to sometime. It's regrettable to think about how this is the last true Dragon Quest game now... but thanks for everything. We'll be back.
A very good classic JRPG that retains what it means to go back to the roots of the genre. A albeit generic fantasy JRPG which has been quite not common in this day n age is a bit refreshing. But after playing many DQ games. I want the series to grow up some and add a more darker tone. Which is what XII is promising. Overall solid JRPG
Pretty much the perfect execution of classic JRPG formula,aside from Jade's sexualization for the sake of comedy and some repetitive music,everything is fantastic,easily one of my favorite games right now
Eu não sou fã de jogos de turno e fui de cabeça no DQ pra entrar no mundo dos JRPGs..
Esse jogo se tornou um dos melhores que joguei na vida
Desenhado pelo Akira Toriyama, trilhas sonoras e clima bem dragon ball clássico, o que torna especial pra mim
uma história fantástica, mesmo tendo mais de 7 personagens cada um com sua personalidade e a história da tempo pra ter a construção de cada um.
O enredo me lembra muito One piece, onde o jogo parece ser dividido em arcos de áreas da história que mudam muito, nunca vai ter uma história igual a outra durante o enredo todo
Recomendo jogar com áudio em japones, e precisa entender inglês pq n tem legendas em portugues (♥♥♥♥♥ square)
Como pode ver só zerei após as 70 horas, o que não falta é conteúdo, pra mim vale full price mas pra brasileiros sempre espere uma promoçãozinha
História magnífica
Trilha sonora nostálgica
Personagens cativantes e memoráveis (fanboy do erick)
Monstros meio genéricos, akira ficou sem ideias pra tanto mob xd
cenários muito bonitos
Esse jogo se tornou um dos melhores que joguei na vida
Desenhado pelo Akira Toriyama, trilhas sonoras e clima bem dragon ball clássico, o que torna especial pra mim
uma história fantástica, mesmo tendo mais de 7 personagens cada um com sua personalidade e a história da tempo pra ter a construção de cada um.
O enredo me lembra muito One piece, onde o jogo parece ser dividido em arcos de áreas da história que mudam muito, nunca vai ter uma história igual a outra durante o enredo todo
Recomendo jogar com áudio em japones, e precisa entender inglês pq n tem legendas em portugues (♥♥♥♥♥ square)
Como pode ver só zerei após as 70 horas, o que não falta é conteúdo, pra mim vale full price mas pra brasileiros sempre espere uma promoçãozinha
História magnífica
Trilha sonora nostálgica
Personagens cativantes e memoráveis (fanboy do erick)
Monstros meio genéricos, akira ficou sem ideias pra tanto mob xd
cenários muito bonitos
The first time a game's title took up the whole google search bar
Tried to play this three times each run I get to the casino and spend literal days grinding out the entire prize pool and by the time I'm out the door I realize that the rest of the game can never compare. Unreal.
The game started pretty strong, with fun visuals, interesting story and great music, but over time it became really stale and pretty boring. I look 2 breaks to finally 'beat' the game.
My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
- Gameplay;
The combat never really clicked. Most characters felt like a one trick pony and there wasn't much to strategize. Items felt useless and barely any minigames/side activities.
+ Music;
The music there is, is very good. But I really wish there was more. Almost all areas used the same music which is a real shame.
+ Graphics;
The visuals were the first thing that got me interested in the game. It's fun discovering new areas and enemies.
- Story/Characters;
Only sylvando did it for me. All other characters were super boring to me. I really dislike the main character was silent. Especially when that important thing with his family happened and he just doesn't respond with any emotion.
Recommend?
No, I'd recommend others JRPG's over this one.
My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
- Gameplay;
The combat never really clicked. Most characters felt like a one trick pony and there wasn't much to strategize. Items felt useless and barely any minigames/side activities.
+ Music;
The music there is, is very good. But I really wish there was more. Almost all areas used the same music which is a real shame.
+ Graphics;
The visuals were the first thing that got me interested in the game. It's fun discovering new areas and enemies.
- Story/Characters;
Only sylvando did it for me. All other characters were super boring to me. I really dislike the main character was silent. Especially when that important thing with his family happened and he just doesn't respond with any emotion.
Recommend?
No, I'd recommend others JRPG's over this one.
This was the first dragon quest game I played. I'm a fan of rpgs so this game really gave me the feeling of a grand adventure.
This game taught me why Dragon Quest endures as a franchise. It's just a good old JRPG romp about faith and friendship, and you need to get into the right headspace to understand that DQ isn't "archaic", it's "timeless".
I knew this game was truly something special not in a grand reveal, not in a spectacular twist, or even an amazing boss fight. I knew it was special when, during a minor story chapter involving a scared kid, the kid is not merely treated as a quest giver. Rather, one of your party members kneels down to the child's level to talk to him, to cheer him up, and to calm him down. Such a profound love is expressed on the part of both that character (who is the best party member in the game) and on the part of the writer for bothering to put in such an interaction.
SHUT IT, YOU! I'll HEAR NONE OF YER WINGIN'! WE'RE DANCIN' FOR THE DARK ONE HERE, SO LOOK LIVELY, OR THERE'LL BE TROUBLE! AND-A-ONE AND-A-TWO, AND A... HUP! HUP! HUSTLE!
Turns around
WELL NOW, WHAT HAVE WE HERE? HOPIN' I WOULDN'T NOTICE YE SLACKIN' OFF BACK THERE, WERE YE? WELL, NO SUCH LUCK! YE'LL BOOGIE OR YE'LL FEEL THE BACK O' MY HAND! COME HERE, YOU!
Turns around
WELL NOW, WHAT HAVE WE HERE? HOPIN' I WOULDN'T NOTICE YE SLACKIN' OFF BACK THERE, WERE YE? WELL, NO SUCH LUCK! YE'LL BOOGIE OR YE'LL FEEL THE BACK O' MY HAND! COME HERE, YOU!
Definitely the best entry point into the series as of today.
Best things this game has: huge detailed cities, great monster designs and animations, cool items and abilities for an addicting turn based system that includes optional faster speed settings, a connected plot that feels like watching 3 seasons of a show. Act 3 suffers from pacing issues and feels way heavier overall, hearing the whale noise for fast travel so much almost made me go crazy.
If you don´t mind turn based games sit down, smoke a blunt and play it´s very fun.
Best things this game has: huge detailed cities, great monster designs and animations, cool items and abilities for an addicting turn based system that includes optional faster speed settings, a connected plot that feels like watching 3 seasons of a show. Act 3 suffers from pacing issues and feels way heavier overall, hearing the whale noise for fast travel so much almost made me go crazy.
If you don´t mind turn based games sit down, smoke a blunt and play it´s very fun.
[EDIT 2 - Updated for proper context after initial writing, along with some details on how people who do like it have treated me. These occasions are so deeply indicative of why I often avoid talking to random strangers about subjective experiences of media, and why I'm seeking out healthier communities where complex disagreements can happen without conversations devolving into childlike behavior. A "negative review" I'll leave on this profile as an indicator of my values (both in games and in socialization), I'm not saying this game is BAD, I'm explaining why this game does not appeal to me and many others like me.]
So for context, I played this for 20ish hours for the Action Button Discord game club. I spent a good amount of time on the server, there were some dope people, but, uh, stay away? It's a very toxic place. All you gotta know is the mods encourage bullying and have a thread dedicated to letting a clique of their favored users bully anyone they want on the server behind their backs (obviously myself included). If you ever visit and notice it feels weirdly hostile all the time, this is why, the clique at the heart of the server actively fosters an immensely hostile attitude because they think it makes them cool or something. I won't post the screenshots of the things they say there, it doesn't even merit attention, it's just a generic bad online community.
Anyways, I said "I have played several and I don't like any JRPGs, they're not for me," knowing JRPGs are quite popular on the server. In reaction to me (and many other users who felt the same), a LARGE number of users aimed to convince people who don't like JRPGs that they should play THIS GAME specifically. In retrospect, this was stated with ZERO context as to WHY -- no analysis of tone, gameplay, structure, themes, or formal qualities. Simply bold assertions that "people who don't like this ENTIRE GENRE should obviously play this because it's amazing." Also, some of them dumped on all other JRPGs while making this recommendation? Which was... Interesting. Among my friends, it's pretty normal to provide more context because we understand that, you know, we don't all like the same kinds of things?
What followed was me trying a game I knew was NOT FOR ME, yet I really wanted to go into with a good faith effort to understand why people felt SO strongly that they'd try to convince people who DON'T LIKE THIS KIND OF GAME to play it anyways. I also wanted to be part of a community and see how it went, obviously! Maybe I'd be wrong. I told my roommates and friends, "Well, I guess I'm trying this thing I know isn't for me because I want to at least try to understand why people might love it so much."
But after 20 hours, I had too many other games to play, and I started to get into making video essays, which didn't leave me with time to do things I wasn't exceptionally loving. Ultimately, I wrote all of this as lesson for myself and others regarding the immense lack of understanding people can have about why other people enjoy and love any given aesthetic experience and why some people DON'T. The reasons I didn't like this game were strong and multitude, and after being treated beligerently for months in a community I realized in retrospect was quite toxic, I really didn't feel like tossing them in the trash rather than laying them out at least for myself.
When it comes to JRPGs, I have fond memories of FFIX as a child, and then I played some subsequent FF games, I've tried many turn-based games and RPGs, but I don't think I've finished a single one. The only JRPG I've liked AS A GAME is FFXII because it let me script my party members and feel smart without the thing I hate most about the genre. I find turn-based combat without a grid to be interminably boring, I just cannot ever get into it (and with a grid, I think it's cool, but I also kinda suck at it or eventually find it too repetitive, so I still don't finish those either). I've now tried TWO of the "great contemporary JRPGs," DQ11 and Persona 5, and they're both still VERY boring to me, though for different reasons.
As for the combat of DQ11, I immediately turned on auto-battle and cranked the gameplay speed up to max. I tried taking control a couple of times, but every time it felt pointless, there were no decisions I made that weren't obvious, nor any decisions I saw the AI make that weren't the same as I would make. It took 20 hours for me to see a battle where the AI made a couple of odd decisions, only to learn that it was programmed to understand future moves the enemies would make so it could choose the right moments to heal. After 20 hours, I reached a point where when combat started, I would sometimes put my Steam Deck down and watch TV and just wait for the battle to end to pick it back up. The game plays itself flawlessly, the choices I made out of combat (gear, skills) also felt completely inconsequential, and I considered this all a boon because I would've quit trying to see what the game was about sooner if it was any other way. Some seemed to enjoy taking control, others thought it was a better JRPG because it played itself? Either way, this showed me that in gameplay, I'm fundamentally disconnected from the people who like such an experience.
The only credit I could give to the combat with MY values is the monster designs. For me, they're 3x better (more charming, more aesthetically appealing) than Pokemon, and I honestly wanted to befriend or capture them more than kill them. I actually found butchering them in the hundreds to honestly just be a bit tonally dissonant and bizarre. Why would I want to kill things that are cute and charming?
Exploration was fine, the levels are simple and easy to explore. There are some creative moments I found in exploring towns specifically, I would expect those to evolve further over the course of the very long game. But I found most of my engagements with the world to be relatively shallow and like anything I've ever experienced in a 3d game. It didn't do enough to awaken or even tickle the exploration addict in me, especially as the primary reward mechanism was tiny chests and smashing every single pot in the world (which, I get it, that's how these games have always been, but...I didn't like it then any more than I like it now). I don't assume anyone who loves the game would put level design at the top of the pillars of their conception of its greatness.
So how about the story? Kind of...the main appeal of RPGs? Welp, in this case, I felt more detached from the core audience here than I've felt from any game in a long time.
I got 60 hours into P5 because it has a mature and compelling story that focuses on adult and human problems, has generally relatable stakes, distinct and clear themes, a deep and IMMEDIATE focus on character relationships and character progression, etc. All the reasons people say it's amazing. I may even finish it one day!
DQ11 by contrast is best described as a children's storybook, and I cannot say that with the fond and loving tone that people who love the game do. Within 20 hours, not a single emotionally impactful moment happened. When the protagonist witnessed the burning remains of the town he grew up in, he stared at the wreckage dead-eyed and eternally silent, his companion made a blithe remark, and then I looted the wreckage of his childhood home for pots to break (full of worthless items). Whatever depth one might claim to occur in this game's first 20 hours could easily be argued not to be occurring in the text itself, any "deep" take I can imagine would just be interpretation weakly supported by the dialog or events of the story. Most I've seen who love the story evangelize its simplicity, I don't think I even saw a positive remark about these story beats (all the remarks I saw regarded how charming people found the companions and NPCs). Extreme storybook simplicity appears to be the explicit INTENT of the story.
But... Personally, I haven't read children's storybooks of this nature since I was 8 years old. I can't even really remember liking them, to be honest, even as a small child, I feel like they just HAPPENED to me. I didn't start enjoying or caring about stories and reading until my friend's mom read us the first couple of Harry Potter books, and then my brain EXPLODED with an OBSESSION for reading, sending me spiraling into Enders Game, which then sent me into that entire series, quickly picking up more adult fantasy/sci-fi fiction alongside YA fiction. By the end of high school, I didn't even read YA much any longer.
And that may come across like I'm trying to "I am very smart" about reading. But no, I'm 32 as of writing this, I really don't care what someone thinks of my (admittedly not even very good) reading history. I'm just clarifying what I enjoyed as a child and why that led to who I am as an adult. I wasn't 12 years old saying "Wow, I'm too smart for baby books," I just read what was on my mom's bookshelf. The "criticism" levied at me by uncharitable people who are bad at talking like adults was: "You should just get over yourself, it's really just a skill issue that you can't enjoy such delightful bedtime story vibes." Of course, that response is massively more insulting than anything I'm saying here about what I enjoy and value personally -- but I've come to discover many people who pretend like subjectivity is the highest moral good are also often the rudest and most insulting towards anyone who has a even slightly differing opinion to them and actually bothers explaining it with formal language. Oh well!
So... While I was fascinated to see a Discord server full of adults -- some I know in their 30s like myself, many of whom I know love esoteric cinema, presumably complex adult media, literature, philosophy, etc -- get incredible joy and comfort and warm feelings from the video game version of an epic-length children's storybook, I can't fundamentally empathize with what they feel. It's not a frame of mind I can EXPERIENCE, let alone enjoy. I tried my best to "get it" from their perspective, that's why I tried the game in the first place. I don't look down on anyone who can enjoy this, I can actually admit that seeing what other people could enjoy here opened my eyes to aspects of game interests I never really bothered engaging with and trying to understand, and I'm glad I tried. Still, ultimately the experience clarified the CANYONS of value differences between me and the demographic of this game.
In the 20 hours I played, I spent 99% of the time bored, frustrated, and confused, challenging the dialog, challenging the plot beats, challenging the world-building, and showing my roommates in bafflement to see if they felt similar to me. I think fans would say I shouldn't even TRY to analyze the plot, themes, or character writing in an analytical way, or "do so in a way that meets the product at its level," but that level is very explicitly... That of a child. I don't want to be in the frame of mind of a child. Frankly, I've almost NEVER wanted to be in the frame of mind of a child, even a lot of the time when I was a child!
The best the game may have done for me is to be funny, and it even didn't accomplish that to my taste. I consume tons of comedy from across the globe, and the humor here (such as a scripted event where you walk a dog up to a guard to make the guard who is scared of dogs run away, that's it, that's the whole joke) just made me feel like I was witnessing something made for a primary audience of 8-year-olds. I understand some people get something out of warm and simple comedy that exists more as a tonal effort than as an effort toward "clever comedy," but that just doesn't register for me as anything beyond "huh, this is for kids I guess?" Sometimes a work of media needs a BIT of comedy like that to get the engine going, but I can't enjoy it as the primary substance. (I have a sneaking suspicion that some adults who love this game because those elements are delivered with a JRPG would never touch a book or TV show or movie that has exactly the same tone or substance.)
The structure and feel of the towns were quite neat, but it didn't entice me the way similar areas in something like FFIX do. Something about the aesthetic here feels... Basic? Washed over with the storybook aesthetic and very little of substance or nuance beyond simple signals and symbols -- this is the city where we have a horse race, this is the city where we have a fighting tournament, this is the city where people speak in haikus. Again, I have this suspicion that maybe the story gets more profound or more serious dozens of hours in? (Spoiler: There is some huge twist in Act 2.) I don't know, but the world so far felt like it had less depth or maturity than even "Avatar: The Last Airbender," something still a bit too childish for me personally, which I know is a more controversial take than all this. (Note: Two of my favorite media products in existence are "Steven Universe" and "Adventure Time," and I've also recently rewatched early "Spong Bob" to confirm that it's a work of comedic genius, so I am not at all principally against children's media universally -- in those cases I specifically like them because the writing and comedy do not infantilize the audience. "Appealing to children" is not a negative quality, but to me "appealing PRIMARILY to children" doesn't leave me as a member of the audience -- escapism into a comforting frame of mind is not of value to me, I seek comfort in many other places.)
Some folks who like this game in that server had obvious acerbic, sarcastic, and/or dismissive responses to anything I've written here. Since writing the unedited version of this review, I've been thoroughly insulted by multiple adults for not liking this video game explicitly designed for <10-year-olds as the primary audience (they actually ended up so hung up on this review that they were complaining about it weeks later). I didn't bother expressing any of my opinions in their discussion thread until after abandoning it (to explore how receptive the community would even be to a differing opinion) because the thread was basically nothing but adoration and I knew I'd just be hit with an attitude of "you're not the audience, soft sweet cartoon games should not be analyzed the way your brain thinks, get out."
Regardless, I've done my best to filter my opinions about this game to be as charitable as I can while still being true to how I feel based on my own values, and to clarify the enormous canyons that can exist between value systems -- the lesson being that you probably know what you like better than any pushy stranger on the internet who can't properly filter their opinions into something useful for anyone who doesn't already feel the same way that they do. (Well, actually the REAL lesson is that if you find yourself in a community that's full of impolite conversations, constant sarcasm, a tone of endless insincere insulting irony from people who really should have aged out of that already, and passive-aggressive bullying, a lot of which is not only perpetuated by the mods but actively supported by them -- uh, maybe you should just leave and not try to figure out how to fit in! It turns out there are definitely communities where NONE of this happens.)
The closest I can get to empathizing with people who like this game is a realization after trying it out. If FFIX were remade, I would want it in exactly the same format as this. I love that world -- its stories, characters, dialog, aesthetic, coziness, complexity, and simplicity -- in the closest way I can get to the way other people love this one. I haven't been able to make myself replay it because I cannot tolerate experiencing that kind of JRPG combat, and so I'd love to get to "play" FFIX as a narrative adventure with combat that manages itself. DQ11 and FFIX share MANY of the same aesthetic principles, but FFIX has a stronger appeal to writing sentiments I care for, including a much more IMMEDIATELY deeper approach to character writing, dialog, and emotional adult storytelling that is requisite for me to begin to enjoy any work of writing of this kind.
So for context, I played this for 20ish hours for the Action Button Discord game club. I spent a good amount of time on the server, there were some dope people, but, uh, stay away? It's a very toxic place. All you gotta know is the mods encourage bullying and have a thread dedicated to letting a clique of their favored users bully anyone they want on the server behind their backs (obviously myself included). If you ever visit and notice it feels weirdly hostile all the time, this is why, the clique at the heart of the server actively fosters an immensely hostile attitude because they think it makes them cool or something. I won't post the screenshots of the things they say there, it doesn't even merit attention, it's just a generic bad online community.
Anyways, I said "I have played several and I don't like any JRPGs, they're not for me," knowing JRPGs are quite popular on the server. In reaction to me (and many other users who felt the same), a LARGE number of users aimed to convince people who don't like JRPGs that they should play THIS GAME specifically. In retrospect, this was stated with ZERO context as to WHY -- no analysis of tone, gameplay, structure, themes, or formal qualities. Simply bold assertions that "people who don't like this ENTIRE GENRE should obviously play this because it's amazing." Also, some of them dumped on all other JRPGs while making this recommendation? Which was... Interesting. Among my friends, it's pretty normal to provide more context because we understand that, you know, we don't all like the same kinds of things?
What followed was me trying a game I knew was NOT FOR ME, yet I really wanted to go into with a good faith effort to understand why people felt SO strongly that they'd try to convince people who DON'T LIKE THIS KIND OF GAME to play it anyways. I also wanted to be part of a community and see how it went, obviously! Maybe I'd be wrong. I told my roommates and friends, "Well, I guess I'm trying this thing I know isn't for me because I want to at least try to understand why people might love it so much."
But after 20 hours, I had too many other games to play, and I started to get into making video essays, which didn't leave me with time to do things I wasn't exceptionally loving. Ultimately, I wrote all of this as lesson for myself and others regarding the immense lack of understanding people can have about why other people enjoy and love any given aesthetic experience and why some people DON'T. The reasons I didn't like this game were strong and multitude, and after being treated beligerently for months in a community I realized in retrospect was quite toxic, I really didn't feel like tossing them in the trash rather than laying them out at least for myself.
When it comes to JRPGs, I have fond memories of FFIX as a child, and then I played some subsequent FF games, I've tried many turn-based games and RPGs, but I don't think I've finished a single one. The only JRPG I've liked AS A GAME is FFXII because it let me script my party members and feel smart without the thing I hate most about the genre. I find turn-based combat without a grid to be interminably boring, I just cannot ever get into it (and with a grid, I think it's cool, but I also kinda suck at it or eventually find it too repetitive, so I still don't finish those either). I've now tried TWO of the "great contemporary JRPGs," DQ11 and Persona 5, and they're both still VERY boring to me, though for different reasons.
As for the combat of DQ11, I immediately turned on auto-battle and cranked the gameplay speed up to max. I tried taking control a couple of times, but every time it felt pointless, there were no decisions I made that weren't obvious, nor any decisions I saw the AI make that weren't the same as I would make. It took 20 hours for me to see a battle where the AI made a couple of odd decisions, only to learn that it was programmed to understand future moves the enemies would make so it could choose the right moments to heal. After 20 hours, I reached a point where when combat started, I would sometimes put my Steam Deck down and watch TV and just wait for the battle to end to pick it back up. The game plays itself flawlessly, the choices I made out of combat (gear, skills) also felt completely inconsequential, and I considered this all a boon because I would've quit trying to see what the game was about sooner if it was any other way. Some seemed to enjoy taking control, others thought it was a better JRPG because it played itself? Either way, this showed me that in gameplay, I'm fundamentally disconnected from the people who like such an experience.
The only credit I could give to the combat with MY values is the monster designs. For me, they're 3x better (more charming, more aesthetically appealing) than Pokemon, and I honestly wanted to befriend or capture them more than kill them. I actually found butchering them in the hundreds to honestly just be a bit tonally dissonant and bizarre. Why would I want to kill things that are cute and charming?
Exploration was fine, the levels are simple and easy to explore. There are some creative moments I found in exploring towns specifically, I would expect those to evolve further over the course of the very long game. But I found most of my engagements with the world to be relatively shallow and like anything I've ever experienced in a 3d game. It didn't do enough to awaken or even tickle the exploration addict in me, especially as the primary reward mechanism was tiny chests and smashing every single pot in the world (which, I get it, that's how these games have always been, but...I didn't like it then any more than I like it now). I don't assume anyone who loves the game would put level design at the top of the pillars of their conception of its greatness.
So how about the story? Kind of...the main appeal of RPGs? Welp, in this case, I felt more detached from the core audience here than I've felt from any game in a long time.
I got 60 hours into P5 because it has a mature and compelling story that focuses on adult and human problems, has generally relatable stakes, distinct and clear themes, a deep and IMMEDIATE focus on character relationships and character progression, etc. All the reasons people say it's amazing. I may even finish it one day!
DQ11 by contrast is best described as a children's storybook, and I cannot say that with the fond and loving tone that people who love the game do. Within 20 hours, not a single emotionally impactful moment happened. When the protagonist witnessed the burning remains of the town he grew up in, he stared at the wreckage dead-eyed and eternally silent, his companion made a blithe remark, and then I looted the wreckage of his childhood home for pots to break (full of worthless items). Whatever depth one might claim to occur in this game's first 20 hours could easily be argued not to be occurring in the text itself, any "deep" take I can imagine would just be interpretation weakly supported by the dialog or events of the story. Most I've seen who love the story evangelize its simplicity, I don't think I even saw a positive remark about these story beats (all the remarks I saw regarded how charming people found the companions and NPCs). Extreme storybook simplicity appears to be the explicit INTENT of the story.
But... Personally, I haven't read children's storybooks of this nature since I was 8 years old. I can't even really remember liking them, to be honest, even as a small child, I feel like they just HAPPENED to me. I didn't start enjoying or caring about stories and reading until my friend's mom read us the first couple of Harry Potter books, and then my brain EXPLODED with an OBSESSION for reading, sending me spiraling into Enders Game, which then sent me into that entire series, quickly picking up more adult fantasy/sci-fi fiction alongside YA fiction. By the end of high school, I didn't even read YA much any longer.
And that may come across like I'm trying to "I am very smart" about reading. But no, I'm 32 as of writing this, I really don't care what someone thinks of my (admittedly not even very good) reading history. I'm just clarifying what I enjoyed as a child and why that led to who I am as an adult. I wasn't 12 years old saying "Wow, I'm too smart for baby books," I just read what was on my mom's bookshelf. The "criticism" levied at me by uncharitable people who are bad at talking like adults was: "You should just get over yourself, it's really just a skill issue that you can't enjoy such delightful bedtime story vibes." Of course, that response is massively more insulting than anything I'm saying here about what I enjoy and value personally -- but I've come to discover many people who pretend like subjectivity is the highest moral good are also often the rudest and most insulting towards anyone who has a even slightly differing opinion to them and actually bothers explaining it with formal language. Oh well!
So... While I was fascinated to see a Discord server full of adults -- some I know in their 30s like myself, many of whom I know love esoteric cinema, presumably complex adult media, literature, philosophy, etc -- get incredible joy and comfort and warm feelings from the video game version of an epic-length children's storybook, I can't fundamentally empathize with what they feel. It's not a frame of mind I can EXPERIENCE, let alone enjoy. I tried my best to "get it" from their perspective, that's why I tried the game in the first place. I don't look down on anyone who can enjoy this, I can actually admit that seeing what other people could enjoy here opened my eyes to aspects of game interests I never really bothered engaging with and trying to understand, and I'm glad I tried. Still, ultimately the experience clarified the CANYONS of value differences between me and the demographic of this game.
In the 20 hours I played, I spent 99% of the time bored, frustrated, and confused, challenging the dialog, challenging the plot beats, challenging the world-building, and showing my roommates in bafflement to see if they felt similar to me. I think fans would say I shouldn't even TRY to analyze the plot, themes, or character writing in an analytical way, or "do so in a way that meets the product at its level," but that level is very explicitly... That of a child. I don't want to be in the frame of mind of a child. Frankly, I've almost NEVER wanted to be in the frame of mind of a child, even a lot of the time when I was a child!
The best the game may have done for me is to be funny, and it even didn't accomplish that to my taste. I consume tons of comedy from across the globe, and the humor here (such as a scripted event where you walk a dog up to a guard to make the guard who is scared of dogs run away, that's it, that's the whole joke) just made me feel like I was witnessing something made for a primary audience of 8-year-olds. I understand some people get something out of warm and simple comedy that exists more as a tonal effort than as an effort toward "clever comedy," but that just doesn't register for me as anything beyond "huh, this is for kids I guess?" Sometimes a work of media needs a BIT of comedy like that to get the engine going, but I can't enjoy it as the primary substance. (I have a sneaking suspicion that some adults who love this game because those elements are delivered with a JRPG would never touch a book or TV show or movie that has exactly the same tone or substance.)
The structure and feel of the towns were quite neat, but it didn't entice me the way similar areas in something like FFIX do. Something about the aesthetic here feels... Basic? Washed over with the storybook aesthetic and very little of substance or nuance beyond simple signals and symbols -- this is the city where we have a horse race, this is the city where we have a fighting tournament, this is the city where people speak in haikus. Again, I have this suspicion that maybe the story gets more profound or more serious dozens of hours in? (Spoiler: There is some huge twist in Act 2.) I don't know, but the world so far felt like it had less depth or maturity than even "Avatar: The Last Airbender," something still a bit too childish for me personally, which I know is a more controversial take than all this. (Note: Two of my favorite media products in existence are "Steven Universe" and "Adventure Time," and I've also recently rewatched early "Spong Bob" to confirm that it's a work of comedic genius, so I am not at all principally against children's media universally -- in those cases I specifically like them because the writing and comedy do not infantilize the audience. "Appealing to children" is not a negative quality, but to me "appealing PRIMARILY to children" doesn't leave me as a member of the audience -- escapism into a comforting frame of mind is not of value to me, I seek comfort in many other places.)
Some folks who like this game in that server had obvious acerbic, sarcastic, and/or dismissive responses to anything I've written here. Since writing the unedited version of this review, I've been thoroughly insulted by multiple adults for not liking this video game explicitly designed for <10-year-olds as the primary audience (they actually ended up so hung up on this review that they were complaining about it weeks later). I didn't bother expressing any of my opinions in their discussion thread until after abandoning it (to explore how receptive the community would even be to a differing opinion) because the thread was basically nothing but adoration and I knew I'd just be hit with an attitude of "you're not the audience, soft sweet cartoon games should not be analyzed the way your brain thinks, get out."
Regardless, I've done my best to filter my opinions about this game to be as charitable as I can while still being true to how I feel based on my own values, and to clarify the enormous canyons that can exist between value systems -- the lesson being that you probably know what you like better than any pushy stranger on the internet who can't properly filter their opinions into something useful for anyone who doesn't already feel the same way that they do. (Well, actually the REAL lesson is that if you find yourself in a community that's full of impolite conversations, constant sarcasm, a tone of endless insincere insulting irony from people who really should have aged out of that already, and passive-aggressive bullying, a lot of which is not only perpetuated by the mods but actively supported by them -- uh, maybe you should just leave and not try to figure out how to fit in! It turns out there are definitely communities where NONE of this happens.)
The closest I can get to empathizing with people who like this game is a realization after trying it out. If FFIX were remade, I would want it in exactly the same format as this. I love that world -- its stories, characters, dialog, aesthetic, coziness, complexity, and simplicity -- in the closest way I can get to the way other people love this one. I haven't been able to make myself replay it because I cannot tolerate experiencing that kind of JRPG combat, and so I'd love to get to "play" FFIX as a narrative adventure with combat that manages itself. DQ11 and FFIX share MANY of the same aesthetic principles, but FFIX has a stronger appeal to writing sentiments I care for, including a much more IMMEDIATELY deeper approach to character writing, dialog, and emotional adult storytelling that is requisite for me to begin to enjoy any work of writing of this kind.
I cannot recommend getting the platinum trophy for this game like I did.
That's not to say I didn't like it. I mean I wouldn't have put nearly 150 hours into this if I thought it was anything less than great. I'm just saying that I can't recommend people go through the countless hours of maxxing out armor and weapons, mindlessly searching for quest items, looking up different boss strategies, trying to get a jackpot in that goddamn casino, etc. as it can be extremely taxing both mentally and physically. I felt burnt out by the end in a way that I have a hard time comparing to anything else.
I've binged other games before, even other rpgs; but I usually bang out the story quickly and get a healthy amount of side content in before calling it quits. Yet idk what happened here, I started playing this game at the beginning of November and only finished it just last week. I wanna say that I didn't know what I was in for despite vaguely knowing about the game's "epilogue", but in all honesty it was a mix of feeling a "sunk cost fallacy" with the amount of time I had already put into the side content as well as just being so genuinely invested in the world and characters that I almost felt scared to leave them without doing everything the game had to offer.
And that's when I start to think, "do I regret 100%'ing this game?" Some parts of me say yes, as I could've spent that lost time with other games or movies or with friends/family or really anything else. But when I really think about it I think I'll come to be happy that I did finish it in the way I did. I don't 100% games often, especially jrpgs (this might be my first in that regard); but I find that the ones do fully complete are the games that feel important in one way or another. And even if this game isn't one of my all-time favorites in the genre, I can't deny just how much I've learned and grown because of it in the few months since starting my playthrough.
I didn't want to leave my party behind as I had grown attached to every single one of them very naturally. They might not as complex as Xenoblade characters, but they're my friends and I cherished them nonetheless. And once the credits rolled, I felt at peace knowing that I did everything I could for them to live happily. It might sound corny but I even dreamt about them a little afterwards, seeing pieces of how they continued with their lives through my own interpretations of them.
Again, it brings me back to the power of videogames as an artform. You are the one controlling not just the pace of the story but also how you interact with the world and it's people. It's not just about intuitive mechanics and grand story beats, but moreso how you express yourself within someone else's fantasy. And that philosophy will always speak to me.
Edit: I’ve been thinking about this game consistently since I finished it and after ruminating on it some more (especially after the unfortunate passing of Akira Toriyama making me reflect on just how much I loved the characters he designed) I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is a very important game to me. Absolutely one of my new favorites.
That's not to say I didn't like it. I mean I wouldn't have put nearly 150 hours into this if I thought it was anything less than great. I'm just saying that I can't recommend people go through the countless hours of maxxing out armor and weapons, mindlessly searching for quest items, looking up different boss strategies, trying to get a jackpot in that goddamn casino, etc. as it can be extremely taxing both mentally and physically. I felt burnt out by the end in a way that I have a hard time comparing to anything else.
I've binged other games before, even other rpgs; but I usually bang out the story quickly and get a healthy amount of side content in before calling it quits. Yet idk what happened here, I started playing this game at the beginning of November and only finished it just last week. I wanna say that I didn't know what I was in for despite vaguely knowing about the game's "epilogue", but in all honesty it was a mix of feeling a "sunk cost fallacy" with the amount of time I had already put into the side content as well as just being so genuinely invested in the world and characters that I almost felt scared to leave them without doing everything the game had to offer.
And that's when I start to think, "do I regret 100%'ing this game?" Some parts of me say yes, as I could've spent that lost time with other games or movies or with friends/family or really anything else. But when I really think about it I think I'll come to be happy that I did finish it in the way I did. I don't 100% games often, especially jrpgs (this might be my first in that regard); but I find that the ones do fully complete are the games that feel important in one way or another. And even if this game isn't one of my all-time favorites in the genre, I can't deny just how much I've learned and grown because of it in the few months since starting my playthrough.
I didn't want to leave my party behind as I had grown attached to every single one of them very naturally. They might not as complex as Xenoblade characters, but they're my friends and I cherished them nonetheless. And once the credits rolled, I felt at peace knowing that I did everything I could for them to live happily. It might sound corny but I even dreamt about them a little afterwards, seeing pieces of how they continued with their lives through my own interpretations of them.
Again, it brings me back to the power of videogames as an artform. You are the one controlling not just the pace of the story but also how you interact with the world and it's people. It's not just about intuitive mechanics and grand story beats, but moreso how you express yourself within someone else's fantasy. And that philosophy will always speak to me.
Edit: I’ve been thinking about this game consistently since I finished it and after ruminating on it some more (especially after the unfortunate passing of Akira Toriyama making me reflect on just how much I loved the characters he designed) I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is a very important game to me. Absolutely one of my new favorites.
I have had over 5 playthroughs of this game between my first playthrough on 3DS and all the other versions, I never actually got around to playing the Definitive Edition till recently and man, They weren't lying when they said this was a "Definitive Edition" except for ONE thing I'll get to later.
Battle Speed selector is great, Fun-Size forge being used anywhere(Also being able to get buyable items even if you don't have them on hand), I played with JP voices and thought they were great, I actually used a mod for more variety in the music which if you're on PC I highly recommend that but if not the music is fine.
As for that one thing I have an issue with is The World of Tickington and really it's just a small nitpick, in the DS version of the game when you went there if you for example enter Dragon Quest IV world, the cast would look like DQ IV sprites and so on, was such a cool little feature that I'm sad is gone from the definitive edition, also I'm sad the monsters in Tickington weren't animated like the DS remake Dragon Quest games but outside of that it's really cool to see this brought back for console!
Onto the meat, I feel like this cast truly is an all-star cast, No one is really wasted and everyone contributes something. It's REALLY REALLY hard for me to choose a favorite character in this game it's just such a well balanced cast. Probably my favorite in any video game. I also like the small things they do with the Hero in cutscenes to kinda give him some flavor.
There is so much I want to say about this game but it really is a near perfect game and it's flaws don't really bug me that much, I have an even bigger appreciation for this entry after playing through every single mainline DQ(Including DQ X) It really does reward those who have played every entry.
Here is to hoping that in the future we get older DQ games preserved and on modern hardware so more people can experience this legendary series.
Battle Speed selector is great, Fun-Size forge being used anywhere(Also being able to get buyable items even if you don't have them on hand), I played with JP voices and thought they were great, I actually used a mod for more variety in the music which if you're on PC I highly recommend that but if not the music is fine.
As for that one thing I have an issue with is The World of Tickington and really it's just a small nitpick, in the DS version of the game when you went there if you for example enter Dragon Quest IV world, the cast would look like DQ IV sprites and so on, was such a cool little feature that I'm sad is gone from the definitive edition, also I'm sad the monsters in Tickington weren't animated like the DS remake Dragon Quest games but outside of that it's really cool to see this brought back for console!
Onto the meat, I feel like this cast truly is an all-star cast, No one is really wasted and everyone contributes something. It's REALLY REALLY hard for me to choose a favorite character in this game it's just such a well balanced cast. Probably my favorite in any video game. I also like the small things they do with the Hero in cutscenes to kinda give him some flavor.
There is so much I want to say about this game but it really is a near perfect game and it's flaws don't really bug me that much, I have an even bigger appreciation for this entry after playing through every single mainline DQ(Including DQ X) It really does reward those who have played every entry.
Here is to hoping that in the future we get older DQ games preserved and on modern hardware so more people can experience this legendary series.
Loved how the epilogue basically said:
"Everything you did following the 1st act... didn't matter. Go do all that shit again."
Why does the game even have an 'epilogue'? It's basically a 3rd act. Why can't the game just end when it ends, instead of giving you the credits, only to follow that up with another 20 - 30 hours of story content?
I should be happy there's more stuff to do even after 70 hours of playtime, but after feeling satisfied with the ending and having it come out of no-where, it just felt unnecessary.
I'll properly finish it someday I guess, I did really enjoy it, but looking at it now, I made it to the credits after 70 hours of playtime, I'm a bit fatigued with it, and I just wanna play something else...
Oh yeah, and Sylvando is one of the greatest characters in fiction and I wish the game was about him and not this 'chosen' purple dumb-ass.
"Everything you did following the 1st act... didn't matter. Go do all that shit again."
Why does the game even have an 'epilogue'? It's basically a 3rd act. Why can't the game just end when it ends, instead of giving you the credits, only to follow that up with another 20 - 30 hours of story content?
I should be happy there's more stuff to do even after 70 hours of playtime, but after feeling satisfied with the ending and having it come out of no-where, it just felt unnecessary.
I'll properly finish it someday I guess, I did really enjoy it, but looking at it now, I made it to the credits after 70 hours of playtime, I'm a bit fatigued with it, and I just wanna play something else...
Oh yeah, and Sylvando is one of the greatest characters in fiction and I wish the game was about him and not this 'chosen' purple dumb-ass.
For fairness I won't rate this game. Not because it's bad, quite the opposite it's the best Dragon Quest game easily and a great RPG. My "issue" is that I got too excited hearing about this game, how so many called it "one of the best RPGs of all time" and even after getting the true ending I didn't get the monumental praise. I feel I've played other RPGs that have done far more interesting things, taken far more risks in terms of both story and especially combat, and have way more detailed and immersive worlds. Granted it isn't trying to be anything too radically different, rather it perfected the Dragon Quest formula, a formula enjoyed by millions for over 30 years, without coming off as a generic retread of its predecessors. Like, I can't overstate enough that it's one fine game that everyone (and I mean everyone) should at least try its generous demo, it just doesn't do much of anything that elevates to "masterpiece" levels for me. It's hard to pin down specifics for me, really the only things I felt it did wrong were it's pep system since I really didn't like the RNG of it and how it's a bit too easy on the base difficulty without those challenge modifier you select from the beginning. Granted that last one is especially bias since to me an easy RPG is an especially boring game but it at least has options to spice it up (even if I had to redo a good 10 hours since you can ONLY activate them from the beginning). To me, it does everything it needs to fantastically, but something that is a masterpiece needs do something beyond that, though this rant is really just a consequence of having my expectations too high.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the music. Even with the orchestral versions it's very weak in comparison to most of the older titles, especially Dragon Quest V and VIII. It says a lot when the only great tracks are the ones from older games. I guess I'd rather have them there then not if the original tracks weren't that good. Still a poor soundtrack shouldn't deter you from playing this game, I still standby it being the best Dragon Quest game.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the music. Even with the orchestral versions it's very weak in comparison to most of the older titles, especially Dragon Quest V and VIII. It says a lot when the only great tracks are the ones from older games. I guess I'd rather have them there then not if the original tracks weren't that good. Still a poor soundtrack shouldn't deter you from playing this game, I still standby it being the best Dragon Quest game.
this rating isn't even for the game, it's for sylvando
I love this game even more after finishing my 2nd playthrough.
The first time I played DQ11 was also my first experience with Dragon Quest as a whole, and for that reason I don't think I appreciated it as much. Since my first go around I've played through a few more DQ games as well as many more JRPGs and this is the absolute cream of the crop.
My original impressions of this just being a generic fantasy JRPG with turn based combat, but executed very well were not exactly wrong, however I think there's more to the story than that. What I initially read uncharitably read as "generic fantasy JRPG with turn based combat" is actually the result of 30 years of honing a formula to perfection. The generic fantasy setting lends itself to a cavalcade of tropes, and many of those do appear here, but each has its own twist or a way of tying into the meta-narrative that DQ11 paints about the genre that keeps them interesting. The turn based combat seems barebones by comparison to many of its flashier contemporaries, but once you look beyond the surface you witness a deep chasm of number crunching complexity that allows you to pull off all sorts of crazy things within the system while never completely trivializing the game.
One thing that contributed more to my enjoyment of the writing this time around was the knowledge of what Act 3/the postgame entails. No spoilers for that here, but it re-contextualizes the entire journey in a way that makes it read completely differently on replay. I know it's a huge ask for the average person to commit 80 hours to a game once, let alone twice, but that knowledge definitely enriches the experience and I recommend a replay if you were on the fence.
Overall I'm walking away from this playthrough with a strong feeling that this might be a top 5 of all time game for me if only the soundtrack was just a little bit better. RIP BOZO.
The first time I played DQ11 was also my first experience with Dragon Quest as a whole, and for that reason I don't think I appreciated it as much. Since my first go around I've played through a few more DQ games as well as many more JRPGs and this is the absolute cream of the crop.
My original impressions of this just being a generic fantasy JRPG with turn based combat, but executed very well were not exactly wrong, however I think there's more to the story than that. What I initially read uncharitably read as "generic fantasy JRPG with turn based combat" is actually the result of 30 years of honing a formula to perfection. The generic fantasy setting lends itself to a cavalcade of tropes, and many of those do appear here, but each has its own twist or a way of tying into the meta-narrative that DQ11 paints about the genre that keeps them interesting. The turn based combat seems barebones by comparison to many of its flashier contemporaries, but once you look beyond the surface you witness a deep chasm of number crunching complexity that allows you to pull off all sorts of crazy things within the system while never completely trivializing the game.
One thing that contributed more to my enjoyment of the writing this time around was the knowledge of what Act 3/the postgame entails. No spoilers for that here, but it re-contextualizes the entire journey in a way that makes it read completely differently on replay. I know it's a huge ask for the average person to commit 80 hours to a game once, let alone twice, but that knowledge definitely enriches the experience and I recommend a replay if you were on the fence.
Overall I'm walking away from this playthrough with a strong feeling that this might be a top 5 of all time game for me if only the soundtrack was just a little bit better. RIP BOZO.
It doesn't feel like a real game. An adventure of this scale, with this much care shouldn't exist, but it does. Dragon Quest XI is an achievement.
Mid and bland to me to the point it’s probably what an ai would spit out if you asked it to make a jrpg and while Sylv is kinda slay, he is also kinda a gay stereotype.
Dragon Quest XI is an aggressively uninteresting game. Like I realize this series is all about nostalgia, and that DQ1 practically defined the genre, but good lord — this might be the most generic JRPG I’ve ever seen. It’s a NES game with voice acting (though it is cool they happened to include an 8-bit mode I’ll never use, I guess). The story is an almost parodically vanilla Prophesied Chosen One Must Fight the Dark Lord After His Home Village Is Destroyed, yet after two hours they still haven’t destroyed the village or even introduced the Dark Lord beyond references to his inevitable return (which seems to bother no one much at all) (and yes they actually flat-out call him The Dark Lord).
The combat is cosmically bad; it’s DQ1-style "mash A through the menus" to grind and win. Luckily they added this cool new feature where the combat can play itself! At 3x speed! Wonders never cease.
There’s a “free move” combat mode that lets you move your party characters around the battlefield. You would think this would let you setup backstabs and blocks and stuff like a Tales Of game — and you would be wrong! It does nothing. Purely cosmetic timewasting.
Which is more or less what this game amounts to: the most stultifying, time-wasting take on the JRPG formula you can think of. You can literally auto-run from point A to B, take your hands off the controller, and let the game play itss bland-ass self for you. Why isn’t it just a visual novel at that point? Why have combat at all? Who knows. This series has millions of fans somewhere, apparently. Ask them.
So the combat is bad. The dialogue is drivel. But the music is truly awful. They added full orchestration for the Switch version and it’s still possibly the worst RPG score I can remember, all blaring obnoxious fanfares devoid of the emotion of the most forgettable Final Fantasy theme. Words can’t describe how much worse the MIDI versions are.
This game’s only saving grace so far are the Akira Toriyama character designs, yet the characters themselves have none of the life or animation or humor that makes the Dragon Ball and Chrono Trigger casts so memorable. They’re cardboard cut-out stand-ins for RPG types so stock they might as well just be named Fighter, Thief, and Village Maiden in Distress. The protagonist, ofc, is silent — not because you have any real control over the dialogue, mind you.
I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve played a less inspired RPG since early childhood. Dragon Quest XI makes The Outer Worlds look like an astonishing masterpiece of depth and innovation.
The combat is cosmically bad; it’s DQ1-style "mash A through the menus" to grind and win. Luckily they added this cool new feature where the combat can play itself! At 3x speed! Wonders never cease.
There’s a “free move” combat mode that lets you move your party characters around the battlefield. You would think this would let you setup backstabs and blocks and stuff like a Tales Of game — and you would be wrong! It does nothing. Purely cosmetic timewasting.
Which is more or less what this game amounts to: the most stultifying, time-wasting take on the JRPG formula you can think of. You can literally auto-run from point A to B, take your hands off the controller, and let the game play itss bland-ass self for you. Why isn’t it just a visual novel at that point? Why have combat at all? Who knows. This series has millions of fans somewhere, apparently. Ask them.
So the combat is bad. The dialogue is drivel. But the music is truly awful. They added full orchestration for the Switch version and it’s still possibly the worst RPG score I can remember, all blaring obnoxious fanfares devoid of the emotion of the most forgettable Final Fantasy theme. Words can’t describe how much worse the MIDI versions are.
This game’s only saving grace so far are the Akira Toriyama character designs, yet the characters themselves have none of the life or animation or humor that makes the Dragon Ball and Chrono Trigger casts so memorable. They’re cardboard cut-out stand-ins for RPG types so stock they might as well just be named Fighter, Thief, and Village Maiden in Distress. The protagonist, ofc, is silent — not because you have any real control over the dialogue, mind you.
I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve played a less inspired RPG since early childhood. Dragon Quest XI makes The Outer Worlds look like an astonishing masterpiece of depth and innovation.