I will never forget coming out of the cave and seeing that castle in the distance just amazed by the game's scope
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
I feel like Dragon Quest XI (specially switch ver.) Is really underrated
- Thread starter Prefty
- Start date
I'm about 60 hours into the Switch version. DQVIII is one of my favorite games of all time, and tbh there is nothing that DQXI does that is remotely original or even better than its predecessors. I'd give it a solid 8/10, but the amount of praise I hear for it is kind of ridiculous. It may be the best JRPG since Persona 5, but that is an extremely low bar.
I feel like people who like DQVIII hate XI, and vice versa. What did you love about 8 that you think was missing from 11?
To me there are lots of little magical moments in DQVIII that just aren't quite matched in XI. Just off the top of my head, the moment when you finally get the ship (by recruiting a celestial being to play a magical harp, thus lifting the vessel out of the desert sands) is incredible. There are moments like the werecat sanctuary, the monster arena, and the black and white island. That game had so many magical moments of wonder that I don't think XI has been able to match.
While XI does a better job at telling the isolated stories of each town you visit, VIII has the more interesting world. VIII has better music by far (even when XI's is fully orchestrated.) The main thrust of the story in VIII is far more compelling. While yes, playing as the "sole survivor" is just about as cliche as playing as the "chosen one", the story of VIII is much more personal from the very beginning. I also think the cast of characters is much stronger in VIII.
All that being said , I have enjoyed most of my time playing XI, but while there haven't been any lows (aside from maybe just wishing the game would end already), it hasn't reached the highs that VIII was able to reach for me.
Pretty much this. Really enjoyed the long Switch demo, just waiting for a price drop now. Didn't find the music really bad, the short loop just got annoying (it's just not the right type of music for games), so will listen to podcasts next to grinding.
Really? Annecdotally, I love Dragon Quest VIII and XI feels like a continuation of what they were doing there after we got sidetracked with IX and X.
I'll have to have another go on Switch. There were things that I really didn't like about it - stepping back into old jRPG trappings was rather jarring and not in a good way. I just felt *old* to play, and I personally like the stuff we've left behind being left behind.
Also some weird details like any touch on the joystick making text go forwards, which was really bad in a drifting joystick situation.
Also some weird details like any touch on the joystick making text go forwards, which was really bad in a drifting joystick situation.
Great game.
Not many people on my friends list have it which saddens me a little. Even friends who love JRPG's.
Not many people on my friends list have it which saddens me a little. Even friends who love JRPG's.
Currently playing through it and agree entirely OP
Amazing game but whew... Its fucking huge
Going to be a bit before i finish it
Amazing game but whew... Its fucking huge
Going to be a bit before i finish it
When is the hook on this one? I stopped playing after
the fall of Yggdrasil
I got bored of the gameplay and that god awful repetitive really really bad music.
Yeah I'm playing through the game right now and I thought the same thing. It's pretty annoying.
I have a weird thing with this game. I happily poured 100+ hours into it with no real complaints at all, but none of it really stuck with me after I beat it. As much as I liked the game most of it just feels like a blur. Neither the story or the characters left any lasting impressions on me.
Yeah its good. Turn on auto scroll text and put battle speed on maximum. Also play it on normal difficulty like they designed it. The difficulty ramps up in the third act.
I found ultra fast to be too goofy looking so left it on the fast middle setting.
I also wish there was a more stable camera mode. I turned off the free running so everyone is just standing in a line, but the camera angle change during every single attack seems unnecessary.
I'm so torn between PC and switch... the difference in visual quality is huge but the switch has more content. I really love how vibrant the game looks on pc.
One cool thing about the PC version is the Ansel support, though I can't say I used the feature for anything savory...
I did some pc / switch comparison screenshots with the switch demo if anyone is interested
I own it on both PC and Switch. I will just say being forced to press a button to advance the dialogue in voiced cutscenes annoys the shit out of me(I want to watch them like a TV show) so the Switch version adding auto dialogue scroll and faster battle speeds was a godsend.
Is it really though when it's praised as the greatest JRPG ever?
That said, I've really been trying to get into it. Been playing the demo since it came out and I guess I'm about 5 hours into it, but gosh I am not having fun. OST really isn't exciting, and it outright grates on you (I'm playing Switch Btw), combat is about as uninteresting as it gets, some of the story quests so far have felt like filler side quests, not finding running around in the world that fun. I know I'm still at the start and I haven't even finished the demo, but it hasn't done a good job convincing me to buy it.
That said, I've really been trying to get into it. Been playing the demo since it came out and I guess I'm about 5 hours into it, but gosh I am not having fun. OST really isn't exciting, and it outright grates on you (I'm playing Switch Btw), combat is about as uninteresting as it gets, some of the story quests so far have felt like filler side quests, not finding running around in the world that fun. I know I'm still at the start and I haven't even finished the demo, but it hasn't done a good job convincing me to buy it.
Having never played a DQ game before, DQ11 on the Switch became one of my favorite games of all time and marked the first time in years I fully engrossed myself into JRPG world. It really reminded me of my younger self playing the Final Fantasy games for the first time. It was a really great experience overall.
Yeah this is my take. Its a solid game but feels very by the numbers. Nothing about it really stands out as exceptional.
I played it on Switch and I believe without all the QOL improvements and the orchestrated soundtrack I would have enjoyed the game significantly less. I watched videos of the PS4 version and I was surprised at how much of a the difference the truly dreadful midi soundtrack and the glacially slow battle speed make. I honestly don't think I could have played the game that way. The battle system, while not amazing and rather simplistic, was a lot of fun with draconian difficulty and ultra-fast speed enabled. I enjoyed trying out different set-ups for maximizing damage.
Finally, there are all these little things that make the experience more enjoyable (party members in the field, forging everywhere, side stories for the characters, separating appearance and equipment). I think the game might have done better if the Switch version was the vanilla version, but then who knows. It's Dragon Quest and for some reason it just doesn't appeal to the west. It is a mystery to me, though, FF sells millions, Tales and Persona do well, even Octopath Traveller sold over a million, so it would appear DQ11 should have done better than it did.
Finally, there are all these little things that make the experience more enjoyable (party members in the field, forging everywhere, side stories for the characters, separating appearance and equipment). I think the game might have done better if the Switch version was the vanilla version, but then who knows. It's Dragon Quest and for some reason it just doesn't appeal to the west. It is a mystery to me, though, FF sells millions, Tales and Persona do well, even Octopath Traveller sold over a million, so it would appear DQ11 should have done better than it did.
I enjoyed what I played, but ultimately dropped it. I got through the horse race in the desert town. It wasn't grabbing me, and there were more interesting games out at the time for me.
I've been thinking of giving it another shot on Switch, especially with the soundtrack changes and the 2D mode.
I've been thinking of giving it another shot on Switch, especially with the soundtrack changes and the 2D mode.
Best RPG after Chrono Trigger??
OP's absolutely right, DQ XI truly is underrated.
Ive been playing the switch demo some more and the more I play it the less bothered I get by the visual downgrade. Ill probably grab it when it gets on sale
I disagree that the game is underrated. As many others have said the game has received a lot of praise. Edit: If you're looking for this game to show up on "Best of the Generation" lists on IGN, etc., you're underestimating how niche JRPGs are.
I also disagree that the Switch version in particular is especially worthy of praise. It looks terrible, even in handheld on the Switch's 720p screen. On a 4K TV the loss of graphical fidelity is too much to overcome.
I'm also going to give the game demerits for refusing to make the new content in the Switch version available to PS4 and PC owners. I don't expect it to be free, but I also dislike Square's habit of enhancing later ports without supporting the original versions. Now I'm stuck choosing between playing a version that looks terrible or a version that is missing some essential features. This happened, to a lesser extent, with Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age. Thankfully the existence of mods on the PC version allowed me to patch in some of the features they added to the Switch and Xbox releases.
I also disagree that the Switch version in particular is especially worthy of praise. It looks terrible, even in handheld on the Switch's 720p screen. On a 4K TV the loss of graphical fidelity is too much to overcome.
I'm also going to give the game demerits for refusing to make the new content in the Switch version available to PS4 and PC owners. I don't expect it to be free, but I also dislike Square's habit of enhancing later ports without supporting the original versions. Now I'm stuck choosing between playing a version that looks terrible or a version that is missing some essential features. This happened, to a lesser extent, with Final Fantasy 12: The Zodiac Age. Thankfully the existence of mods on the PC version allowed me to patch in some of the features they added to the Switch and Xbox releases.
It is so so bad system. Even the Final Fantasy games on PS1 had more interesting battle system and they are 20 years old games.
This is the best RPG on the Switch no hands down. Everyone needs to buy it if they haven't already.
A true 90's-esque JRPG that starts slow, but ends up packing quite the punch. You can spend 100+ hours going for a 100% run which might turn some people off, but to me it was worth it.
A true 90's-esque JRPG that starts slow, but ends up packing quite the punch. You can spend 100+ hours going for a 100% run which might turn some people off, but to me it was worth it.