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Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age |OT| Classic Combat Camera is Crucial
- Thread starter Aeana
- Start date
Counting the post-game (and you really should) you're about 20-25% complete.
Edit: Oops, page wasn't refreshed and I didn't see the earlier response. Still, I concur :)
Probably a good 1/5 of the way through. It could be significantly further depending on how much you want to play.
Purely going off memory so this might be a bit off but maybe like...20%? It's a long, long game
I bought this yesterday since it was 50% off on Steam and wow, the game is beautiful on PC. I tried it before on Switch but couldn't get over the smudged out visuals. Gonna have a good time with this.
PS: Fuck Koichi Sugiyama, both for bringing down the potential of this game by the lack of quality music and also for just being an all-round asshole.
PS: Fuck Koichi Sugiyama, both for bringing down the potential of this game by the lack of quality music and also for just being an all-round asshole.
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Look up .ini tweaks for this game to drastically improve LOD and draw distance. It really makes a world of difference. This game's got severe LOD pop-in by default, and you have to get really close to certain geometry for the beautifully-crafted detailed models to be loaded.
Also there is a mod to add the orchestral version of the music.
Oh man, double thanks. :D
edit: installed the mod, makes a real difference. :D
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With corona instigating a social isolation on my end, I've been thinking I could use a comfy game, and DQ XI seems perfect. I'm really torn between the Steam version and buying a Switch for the S edition. I've seen the differences between the versions and think I'm good without most of them, but I'm curious what additional story content the Switch version has. I hear it has more postgame content, more marriages(?), maybe more party talk...? How many hours and what quality of content are we talking about here?
If you can do without it and you're sure your pc can run the game at 2k plus at 60 fps go for the PC version imo. They really went to town on the animations/models/environments in this game and it's all kinda lost on the switch version. The music mod is pretty easy to slip in too.
This is visually my favorite JPG I've ever played :) The base game is also a very very meaty game by default.
I'm planning on eventually getting the switch version in the future down the road for the 2d mode.
The main thing brought over since it was tied to the 3ds 2d mode was the 10 previous game bonus quest you get to do some old boss battles in from old games
This is visually my favorite JPG I've ever played :) The base game is also a very very meaty game by default.
I'm planning on eventually getting the switch version in the future down the road for the 2d mode.
The main thing brought over since it was tied to the 3ds 2d mode was the 10 previous game bonus quest you get to do some old boss battles in from old games
Cool, thank you :) Yeah, I've been thinking it's a game I really love the look of so might be worth just going for the Steam version!
You wont regret it hell here is a generic early game enemy in it :D
Everything in this game from the monsters to the world got this much love and care poured into it. I'd spam screenshots but if you are dipping in it's better to let you experience it yourself :) There are some INI tweaks floating around that clean things up a bit more too.
There's a part at the midway point of the game where you can play as each of the party members (mostly). Its not vital but its fun.
Yep. I shelved the PS4 version and bought it on PC with the mod installed. It is a much more enjoyable experience, I really don't get why they put that crap on PS4.
It wasnt the worst thing ever just pretty bad, then the fucking map theme hits that repeated note and it feels like someone is stabbing your eardrums with a pencil
I got the platinum trophy in the PS4 version earlier this year.
While the music did start to get really old after awhile, it never grated on me. But I haven't heard the orchestrated versions to compare it to.
If the definitive version comes to PC then I might pick it up and play through it again. I'd love to play the 2D mode and I'd also like to see what the game looks like on PC at max settings.
While the music did start to get really old after awhile, it never grated on me. But I haven't heard the orchestrated versions to compare it to.
If the definitive version comes to PC then I might pick it up and play through it again. I'd love to play the 2D mode and I'd also like to see what the game looks like on PC at max settings.
Draconian difficulty is a series of features that you can activate to make the game challenging (i.e. stronger enemies, nullify exp gain from weaker field enemies, etc.).
Unfortunately, you have to restart the game to play with them, since you can only put them on at the start of the game, and while you can remove them at any church, you can't put them back on.
If the game feels braindead easy, and you don't mind trying again with some more challenge, I highly recommend putting "Harder Monsters" on, as the stat boost it puts on enemies evens the difficulty out and makes the game a ton of fun in the long run.
Some have said that the one that restricts your leveling is also a good one, but I'm not into that, since I like to power level when I can to expand my options in combat. Shy Pox and it's worse brother are hilarious though, I'd put it on just to see how they affect the early game.
If you'd rather just press onwards and try to not level, that should be fine then, I just recommend Harder Monsters as a perfect difficulty for the grand amount of options you get as you progress through the game.
You will get messed up in normal encounters and boss fights if you aren't careful, which is exciting.
Also remember, Status Effects Matter.
People stick to the addage that all status ailments are useless as a stone-cold fact fir all rpg games, and it's total nonsense outside of the few games that started it off (Final Fantasy, Cough Cough).
The Slayer of the Sands will be practically impossible if you aren't using your noodle, and many other Physical Damage bosses require more thought to survive due to how the stat boost scales better on Attacks then spells and stuff.
So, you'll have a ton more fun, just skip cutscenes and use the experience you had earlier as a opener to your REAL adventure!
People stick to the addage that all status ailments are useless as a stone-cold fact fir all rpg games, and it's total nonsense outside of the few games that started it off (Final Fantasy, Cough Cough).
The Slayer of the Sands will be practically impossible if you aren't using your noodle, and many other Physical Damage bosses require more thought to survive due to how the stat boost scales better on Attacks then spells and stuff.
So, you'll have a ton more fun, just skip cutscenes and use the experience you had earlier as a opener to your REAL adventure!
With harder monsters on do you have to grind thoughout the whole game or just in the beginning when you only have erik in the party?
Early game and late game. Middle game gives a nice balance of challenging. You mileage *may* vary. But absolutely craft, craft, craft.
"Grinding" is irrelevant, if you wanted to grow really strong fast, by the time it's actually necessary you will have the tools to do so.
(Three party members can summon metal slimes, three can guarantee rare item drops and increase money and exp gained from a fight, and one can put ANYTHING to sleep as long as they are in the same party as the protagonist, including Metal Slimes.
These are all Pep Powers, and as long as you switch the people need for these into the back when they are pepped up, you can swap them into the same party at pretty much any time to take advantage of their powers.
I highly recommend doing this with Spiked Hares at the Insula Occidentalis after getting the ship, since it's way less likely to happen with Bunnicorns early on. Because they drop Bunny Tails as Rare Drops, which increase the drop rate by a static 1% for each one equipped by the active party members, and it's better to try for rate drops once you can use the Hallelujah Pep Power, the one that makes rare drops after the fight guaranteed.
Having eight of them will greatly increase incidental item drops, and that is very helpful.
In any case, enjoy the game again, and come back with more questions when you need answers! Hopefully everything goes smoothly, you shouldn't really need to grind until the Desert, after getting the fifth party member as a guest, since the Camp Site next to the lake has Metal Slimes spawn with enemies there, and you can try to take them down to level a bit more.
The Mages near the alter around there are super easy to beat up for Exp if you need it though.
Oh yeah, and you can only get a maximum of three drops from a fight at a time, so keep that in mind when you are using Hallelujah. And also Hallelujah effects the whole fight, so if you use it, then stall until you can get everyone pepped for the Metal Slime one, you will get a TON of Exp if you take those slimes out. Jade and Serena can learn a spear move (jade a better one) that has a chance to critical hit or miss, and that will kill a metal slime instantly, no matter what kind it is.
thanks for the write up, so basically a good tip is to farm for 8 bunny tails as soon as possible and equip those going forward whenever I'm looking for a rare drop? I never even knew about the bunny tails on my first playthrough.
edit: what are some notable rare drops btw?
A lot of the time, Rare Drops and even regular drops happening more often serves to shore up your crafting resouces, and give you little bonus stuff occasionally, but certain stuff is definitely good to shoot for, and while it's slim pickings for a long while, I'll let you know of a few I think are useful.
Rare drops get a lot more juicy late-game, so I'll focus on the early game here, along with a few useful things not dropped...
Hopefully this can be helpful to you, not a lot in the early game, but this stuff will help out a bunch for when you need them, the rest is pretty obvious. Let me know when you get to "The Second Act" and I'll give more drop advice, or ask if you need any more advice in general!
If there's one last piece of advice to give before I end the post, it's that you can Seriously bullshit the Skill Panels to get way further with less skillpoints then you probably are supposed to, which will lead you to learning critically useful abilitie sooner then later. Sylvando can do it to get Hustle Dance nearly around the time he joins you for real, and THAT is a game changer.
Hope you have an excellent time!
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That's fine, you should just reduce your intentional leveling then and not hunt for Metal Slimes, since you aren't gonna need 'em for a long time then.
Game won't be too challenging, so enjoy it.
Just avoid all random monster fights for the next 5 hours or something and you'll end up under-leveled enough that you'll be good to go.
Edit: The advantage of this method is that in general you can avoid repeating too many overworld fights while maintaining a good challenge in boss fights. If you ever go back to trying to fight everyone all the time though you'll end up making things too easy again. Until the end game where things get difficult regardless of whatever options you've chosen (or so I've heard).
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Unrelated, but definitely kind of bummed that I double dipped for the Switch version and fell off on catching up where I was on PS4 only for the S version to come back to PS4. The graphical downgrade remaining is lame, but the resolution and maybe framerate bump would definitely be appreciated. Too many games man, not nearly enough time for anyone to play even half of what they want to it seems. Must be nice not being interested in like 70% of games..
I turned off the Draconian mode as it was reducing my enjoyment of the game. I turned them off for the squid boss as I couldn't beat it at about 5 levels overpowered. I seem to spend a lot of time grinding. Grind to a new location, a bit of story, grind to the dungeon, a bit of story, grind through the dungeon, get to boss, lose a few time, grind for another level or two, beat the boss by skin of my teeth and grind to the next location.
I found it more exhausting than fun. I stopped playing it on my way to find Jade but might continue and try and Platinum it. I may get the definitive edition at a later date to see if it has PS5 improvements.
I found it more exhausting than fun. I stopped playing it on my way to find Jade but might continue and try and Platinum it. I may get the definitive edition at a later date to see if it has PS5 improvements.
See, I'm not here to disrespect your troubles with the game, but you get a lot of options in combat to counter enemy stregth advantages from Harder Monsters.
Like I said earlier, Sylvando's Hustle Dance is Increadible, because it's a cheap and effective source of Multitarget Healing. Stacking Kabuff on your allies to improve their defense (and making sure they have updated equipment when you can get it) is also important for countering the damage enemies do.
And of course, most bosses can be afflicted with Paralysis and Dazzle to take their turns and make them miss WAY more often.
Harder Monsters FORCES you to really make the most of your options to take on harder challenges. If you wanna take it off because it was unfun, I understand, but if you ever wanted to give it another shot on another playthrough when you've gotten more familiar, I'll highly suggest trying to mix up your approach in the future.
You'd be surprised how crazy you can get that early.
And if all else fails, you can encounter Liquid Metal Slimes on the island north of Lonalulu, in the North East of the map. So that can help with grinding. Very infrequent though.
I was thinking of making a Harder Monsters, No EXP and No Shopping run when I play. What are recommendations from those that have used these three Draconian modes together? I know crafting becomes pretty much a necessity.
What about finding equipment that is not bought? I've already tried the demo at Harder monsters late last year and I remember Kingsbarrow being quite challenging. Will I have issues finding crafting mats to craft armor/weapons for that dungeon I won't be able to purchase? Will there be other dungeons/areas I will run into that problem? Or will I always be able to farm mats from creatures to suit my needs?
Any tips, recommendations or advice from those that have tried these draconian modes, especially no shopping with harder enemies, would be much appreciated.
What about finding equipment that is not bought? I've already tried the demo at Harder monsters late last year and I remember Kingsbarrow being quite challenging. Will I have issues finding crafting mats to craft armor/weapons for that dungeon I won't be able to purchase? Will there be other dungeons/areas I will run into that problem? Or will I always be able to farm mats from creatures to suit my needs?
Any tips, recommendations or advice from those that have tried these draconian modes, especially no shopping with harder enemies, would be much appreciated.
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First off, proud of you for taking on this challenge!
Second, if you've only played so much, I can tell you that you actually can just make it through the game WITHOUT shopping and be totally fine, pretty much all of your equipment upgrades are avalible as enemy drops or as recipes you find on bookshelves or in dungeons.
Second again, while the Exp curve is standardized to cut you off so you don't overlevel for tougher fights and stuff, Metal Slimes still have No Ceiling to them, since it's all based on the enemies you beat in a fight and wether or not you are too high leveled to gain Exp from them, so if you actually DID feel under leveled for a fight, you can fight metal slimes to shore that up a little.
Third, Harder monsters is fun, but remember thatbthe hardest hits you'll take are from enemy Physical Attacks, and your armor will NOT catch up fast enough due to how def works in DQ. (4 def blocks 1 damage)
So, both buffs AND status ailments will be crucial to avoiding a quick demise in bossfights, and even normal encounters depending on what you are fighting! Get used to the idea that disabling magic WILL work on your foes, and that some are more effective then others, and you will succeed!
As far as always having Mats on hand, I'm not sure if it disallows this or not, but a QoL feature in the S version makes it so if you are missing any materials that COULD be bought at some point in the game, that it will let you do so if you try to forge something you are missing items for.
If that doesn't work due to No Shopping kicking in on that, try to use a Pep Power called Hallelujah on monsters called Spiked Hares in the island to the south of the world map, after you get the ship and can travel down there, or sooner if you have access to this pep power AND bunnicorn enemies.
I say this because their rare drop is an accessory thar raises the standard rate of item drops by 1%. Not "1% more on normal rates," literally adds a 1% to like a 0.5% to make it 1.5%, that's what that does. You can equip eight of them in an active party, along with other equipment later that also raises the item drop rate, and you'll be swimming in items most times you fight enemies, Including rare ones!
And above all, have fun! I play the game with JUST harder monsters because I'm not interested in most of the restrictions, but starting off with all three and giving them a fair shot, and removing any of them that hurt your fun, that's totally fine!
I'd keep Harder Monsters and lose the Exp one first, if the game feels restrictive with less levels though, however the difficulty evens out through the middle anyway, so after the starting hump you should be golden!
Also, one last thing... if you ever need any more advice, or a specific boss is kicking your butt, I'll be here to help whenever!
Wow, thanks for your detailed help. It is really appreciated!
I guess my biggest concern with No Shopping is getting an area and not being able to find an equivalent item via crafting that I can find in a shop. I don't want to see a Broadsword in the shop but not be able to craft one, or only have the means to craft something less powerful. As long as I can find something equivalent that is craftable for where I am in that point in the game, I am fine with that. And that includes being able to find the mats for the equipment, as well.
From what I recall when playing the demo, there were sparkly spots that had Medicinal Herbs I can farm. It will be slow going (more slow than buying), but I'm ok with farming those sparkly spots for herbs/mats. But that is great to hear if the game would allow me to buy mats if I am needing them for crafting at the moment. Although I really do think the No Shopping does prevent that.
I believe I ran into Bunnicorn enemies during the demo, which is before going to the continent to the south. I can't remember if I had Hallelujah or not (I don't think so), but it could have been just because I just didn't choose that skill. I got my characters up to around level 12-13. But I will keep that combination in mind with getting the rare accessory (do you remember what it's called?) in trying to get better drop rates. Thanks!
That's great to hear about metal slimes. Will be honest, that was one of the concerns I had with No EXP, in hitting a limit and not being able to get past the area where I am at because it is too difficult. It is good that I can go past with metal slimes, if only a bit more.
So it sounds like it's a 'lot' of luck with Harder Monsters, even with the best armor. Even with really buffing out your armor (extra pluses) doesn't help that much on catching up on the damage they do? As long as one-shot kills don't become a norm with boss battles then I will try to stick with Harder enemies. In the demo I only had Harder Enemies chosen and I liked the balance it had.
Thanks for your help!