Dragon Quest X is a MMO, not made by Level 5. Still on Wii, now on Wii U

deadonthestreet

So a new Dragon Quest announcement doesn't deserve to be buried in the lets-talk-about-what-GAF-is-talking-about megathread. New thread for new news I say.

http://www.dqx.jp/

Wii version in 2012, no date on Wii U version, no word on US version. Right now it looks like they will be the same game but the Wii U version will look better. Looks like it will be cross platform like FF11, so Wii U players can play with Wii players. You can have an AI party if you want to play your MMO alone which is kind of awesome.

Oh right, and they will probably charge you monies to play it.

Screenshot, etc here http://www.1up.com/news/square-confirms-dragon-quest-online

Algertman

I am going to get this probably. No, I will get this.

Eteric

I will get this out of sheer curiosity.

Shanadeus

Interesting move.
From what I've seen from Dolphin games, celshaded games end up very beautiful in 1080P and with a shit ton of AA.
A game that is with the Wii U in mind, rather than being an emulated Wii game, will probably end up looking even better.
I could even see geometry being different between the two versions, creating higher quality assets during development for the Wii U and using downgraded versions for the Wii version.

Gennenalyse Rueben

Is this going to actually be an MMO, or is it just going to have online ala Monster Hunter 3?

Macro9

Pay to play?

That's not cool at all.

Algertman

Given there are 3 character slots I would assume a monthly fee is out the question? I'm not sure what the average character limit is on MMOs put three sounds low. Micro transactions seem the way to go on this.

CygnusZ

There was something about a TBA monthly fee for the game in Japan. In America they may work out something different.

Restart

Nuts, I was hoping for more focus on local play

Damagemanual

I think this will do well in Japan but it's going to fall flat on it's face in the US.
DQ has always stood for old school JPRG. Moving it into a MMO-style is going to turn off a lot of loyal players (myself included). With the fee (if there is one) being the final nail.

My only hope is that a 3DS DQ game is also slated at some point...

lionheart_m

On one hand...I swore off multiplayer RPGs after WoW. Scratch that, I swore off WoW because I was tired of that universe. Also, I actually like that my games have endings. On the other hand it is DQ...if there's a charming story there I'm willing to try it.

Xagarath

An MMO instead of a charming single player game?

Nevermind that.

Jebral

I've never had any good experiences with online RPGs, and after the wonderful DQ9, well... How disappointing

Chen

Never mind the online part, when are they finally going to hire a different artist? Geez.

Maddoc

Chen wrote:

Never mind the online part, when are they finally going to hire a different artist? Geez.

I dunno, DQ would lose a huge amount of its charm without Akira Toriyama

BigJoeM

Hopefully it won't play like an MMO if it keeps the classic DQ gameplay just with the ability to have other players be in your party i might give it a shot.

It it plays like your standard MMO though there's no way i'm buying it i just can't get into those.

Trebz

Not sure how I feel about this. I don't know why I'd want to play an online-centric game on my Wii, especially now, but I think that Squenix deserves a little bit of trust after handling the past two DQs (the only ones I've really played) so well.

Not that I'm going to pay a recurring fee if there is one.

Algertman

Chen wrote:

Never mind the online part, when are they finally going to hire a different artist? Geez.

The hell is this?

agoaj

I really doubt this is anything like a real MMO, more likely just Dragon Quest with some coop.

Couscous

Maddoc wrote:

Chen wrote:

Never mind the online part, when are they finally going to hire a different artist? Geez.

I dunno, DQ would lose a huge amount of its charm without Akira Toriyama

It would gain the charm of having more than five faces.

Al Baron

Gennenalyse Rueben wrote:

Is this going to actually be an MMO, or is it just going to have online ala Monster Hunter 3?

Well, only first few hours can be played offline so effectively yes.

During today's Dragon Quest X press conference, producer Yousuke Saito said that the game can be played 100% on your own, meaning you don't necessarily have to play with others. However, this doesn't appear to mean that the game can be played without going online.

Square Enix addressed the issue of the game's online system at its support page today. In a brief response to the question "Is it not possible to play without an internet connection," the support page says "It's possible to play offline for the first few hours after the start of the game. However, to play all elements of the game, an internet connection is required."

Maddoc

Trebz wrote:

Not sure how I feel about this. I don't know why I'd want to play an online-centric game on my Wii, especially now, but I think that Squenix deserves a little bit of trust after handling the past two DQs (the only ones I've really played) so well.

Not that I'm going to pay a recurring fee if there is one.

Before you start giving SE too much benefit of the doubt here.

DQ8 and 9 were developed by Level-5, which this one is not.

Turkey

True Fantasy Live Online?

Maddoc

Couscous wrote:

Maddoc wrote:

Chen wrote:

Never mind the online part, when are they finally going to hire a different artist? Geez.

I dunno, DQ would lose a huge amount of its charm without Akira Toriyama

It would gain the charm of having more than five faces.

Monster designs are infinitely more important to DQ

Faces are much less of a concern when this is what you're looking at 90% of the game

The Wolfman

I think I need a hell of a lot more info before I decide whether to be elated or suicidal.

I never got a chance to play with 9's multiplayer, but from what I understand, it's basically a bunch of people tooling around in one world. You're free to go about your business as normal, or hook up and play together. If it's just a large scale version of that, then that's actually not that bad.

If it is full blown MMO... well... good freaking luck.

Macro9

That picture doesn't fill me with hope.

Turkey

Can you mirror it?

The Wolfman

If we got something akin to DQ8, but the only difference is that you can see other people walking around the world doing their own thing, that would actually be pretty damn cool.

Now that I think about it, Demon Souls did something kind of similar. IF DQX's online is exactly like Demon Souls, I would buy this game so hard.

Lucascraft

Square Enix sucks. I don't know any of the company's personnel history, but it seems to me like their entire focus shifted right after FF10. In my mind, whoever the great captain was who was steering the Square Enix ship during the glory days has left, and the company now has a mindless corporate monkey at the helm - a monkey who pushes random buttons which have popular buzzwords on them, and that's the decision that the company makes. On a certain day the monkey pushed the "MMO" button, which is why we got FF11, which should never have been inserted into the core Final Fantasy game lineup. What's wrong with "Final Fantasy Online" as a title? Yes, I'm still bitter about that. What we know as FF12 should have been 11, and what we know as 13 should have been 12.

With DQ10, we have a situation in which it is not gonna be an MMO. Nowhere do they say MMO in the press release. Instead what we have is a situation where the monkey pushed another button with the buzzword "Online Co-Op" on it. From the description, it sounds almost exactly like a Monster Hunter Tri scenario. Sure, you can play offline, but it won't be nearly as rewarding an experience. Its like they want to punish people for ignoring their online component.

In fact, the quote which was posted above is very ambiguous in its wording.

However, to play all elements of the game, an internet connection is required.

The phrase "all elements" doesn't mean jack shit. For all we know, 99% of the game is offline compatible, and the only thing you're missing out on if you don't play connected is access to a trade-hub. This is just hyperbole of course, since its very likely that as others have stated, there will be co-op available. But that doesn't change the point I'm making that their quote gave us nothing concrete at all.

This decision bothers me though. Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, or maybe I've become one of "those guys" - you know - the grumpy old timer with a cane who yells at the kids to get off his lawn. But seeing a 20 year old franchise move in a radical new direction gets under my skin. They should not be calling this game DQ10. They should be calling it "Experimental DQ Game with Co-Op."

Maybe I have nothing to worry about. As I myself stated above, we don't know what "all elements" are that will require multiplayer, so maybe getting worked up over this is a waste of time. But part of me is still angry that they're even discussing multiplayer in a franchise which has been one of the absolute strongest single player experiences in single player history. You just don't get a more rewarding singleplayer experience than in the DQ series.

Macro9

It's possible to play offline for the first few hours after the start of the game.

Which is probably a tutorial or beginner area to get your character made, familiarize yourself with the gameplay, and get the story rolling.

Billmaan

Lucascraft wrote:

With DQ10, we have a situation in which it is not gonna be an MMO. Nowhere do they say MMO in the press release. Instead what we have is a situation where the monkey pushed another button with the buzzword "Online Co-Op" on it. From the description, it sounds almost exactly like a Monster Hunter Tri scenario. Sure, you can play offline, but it won't be nearly as rewarding an experience. Its like they want to punish people for ignoring their online component.

In fact, the quote which was posted above is very ambiguous in its wording.

However, to play all elements of the game, an internet connection is required.

The phrase "all elements" doesn't mean jack shit. For all we know, 99% of the game is offline compatible, and the only thing you're missing out on if you don't play connected is access to a trade-hub. This is just hyperbole of course, since its very likely that as others have stated, there will be co-op available. But that doesn't change the point I'm making that their quote gave us nothing concrete at all.

This decision bothers me though. Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, or maybe I've become one of "those guys" - you know - the grumpy old timer with a cane who yells at the kids to get off his lawn. But seeing a 20 year old franchise move in a radical new direction gets under my skin. They should not be calling this game DQ10. They should be calling it "Experimental DQ Game with Co-Op."

Maybe I have nothing to worry about. As I myself stated above, we don't know what "all elements" are that will require multiplayer, so maybe getting worked up over this is a waste of time. But part of me is still angry that they're even discussing multiplayer in a franchise which has been one of the absolute strongest single player experiences in single player history. You just don't get a more rewarding singleplayer experience than in the DQ series.

The thing is, everything you've just said would also apply to DQIX, and many people were quite pleased with the way that turned out. (I'm aware that not everyone was pleased, but when all was said and done it was still quite a popular game.) In fact, this all really sounds like a continuation of what they started with DQIX. It's what they wanted DQIX to be. I think I'm okay with that.

Macro9

Except the stuff in DQIX was optional. It remains to be seen how much the online stuff will factor into the game but from what's been said you will be forced to go online eventually. How it works from there is unknown to me, but damn being forced into an online world in a main DQ game.

It doesn't even matter if you don't ever have to be involved with other players to me. The idea of it just rubs me the wrong way.

And then there is the talk of having to pay to play.

Basically, fuck that shit.

Lucascraft

Yeah, but with DQ9 you were able to 100% completely ignore the multi-player aspect of the game if you chose to do so. And I chose to ignore it.

This sounds a lot like they are trying to force the online component onto people. Which I don't like. I don't like the fact that its going on the Wii/Wii U either, but that's an entirely different rant.

Conan-san

I'm with the no crowd on this one.

I don't care for MMORPGS (given that PSO perfected the genre and it's been a downward spiral ever since), I don't care for SE's internal development studios (the not use of which is largely how Dragon Quest avoided the FF shaft) and I don't care for a game I need to be online all the time to play on my Wii. That is right out.

On the plus side, I can now play IV V and IV in wait for XI.

Vegan

I'm gonna make a picket sign that says, "MMO? MMno."

carmofin

They say that story is going to matter, but if you have no characters, and your OWN character is completely custom, then there will be no story that I care about (from what I gather that's precisely what was wrong about DQ IX). If I want to play more Dragon Quest VIII I'll play Xenoblade.

SightTDW

It seems like its closer to the Monster Hunter setup with a public town and everything outside being unique to you and your party. At least that's my hope. I can tear things apart, but I figure we've got at least a year until we see anything that will resemble its final state. It seems like its an MMO in the sense that PSO was, as in, its not one. I just hope SE has the common sense Capcom did and doesn't charge to play outside of Japan.

Dritz

It's DQIX with online co-op. If you didn't like DQIX that's fine but it sounds like there are some people in internet land that do like DQIX and somehow find this whole thing bad.

Though if there is a monthly fee and I can't avoid paying it I will be annoyed.

Not being made by Level 5 is also a valid thing to be worried about.

CygnusZ

This is anecdotal, but everybody on Niconama seemed pretty pissed about DQX yesterday.

Pata

Maddoc wrote:

Before you start giving SE too much benefit of the doubt here.

DQ8 and 9 were developed by Level-5, which this one is not.

Irrelevant. Hori designs each game, the "developers" are just code monkeys.

Chen wrote:

Never mind the online part, when are they finally going to hire a different artist? Geez.

You are a terrible person.

CygnusZ wrote:

This is anecdotal, but everybody on Niconama seemed pretty pissed about DQX yesterday.

Japanese nerds rage about everything and deserve to be ignored.

CygnusZ

Pata wrote:

CygnusZ wrote:

This is anecdotal, but everybody on Niconama seemed pretty pissed about DQX yesterday.

Japanese nerds rage about everything and deserve to be ignored.

Eh, Niconama isn't like 2ch where there's always a reactionary anti-movement. Long term fans are understandably pissed off. Now, on 2ch they've actually been holding a funeral for the game since yesterday afternoon.

After DQIX kind of sucking shit, I'm surprised to say it, but I may well be done with the DQ series.