The whole thing about Sugiyama having such a stranglehold on his music though really cements one thing for me: NA's complete lack of Dragon Quest Theatrhythm.
Nevermind that the 3DS is now in its sunset period, so it's unlikely to see a wide release at this point (plus the game is 3.5 years old).
So I know this is meant to be a DQXI thread, but I have a more general question. I’ve been meaning to get in to this series for some time. However, I’m still not sure what the best game to start with that shows what this series has to offer. Best that I can tell, good places to start would be III, IV, V, or VIII. Which one would be the best place to start? I already have VIII on PS2, but IV and V sound interesting.
Edit: Also, DS or mobile for IV?
I would say mobile. The lack of party chat was such a downer in IV that it really ruined the game for me after playing V. It’s not even that V or any of the games are particularly dialogue heavy, but IV seemed especially centered around the party members, so the lack of any dialogue at all really stood out.
Honestly, I’d probably start with III or V. I’ve not actually played III, but it seems like it’s pretty influential on the series. And V is awesome; great story and great hook into the series (it was my first Dragon Quest), but I tried playing it again after playing the later games and it’s a wee bit harder to go back to - still pretty great, but lacking some of the QOL traits the later games introduced.
Yeah, I decided to start with III. It seems fine, but a tad dry. I only just got to the 2nd castle, so I think I was just in the tutorial. And I think things will be more interesting once I get more tools like whips and aoe spells & thief skills. After that, I think I'll go in order (for some reason, IV sounds more interesting than V. I blame this on learning about Healie).
When you play IV, you'll either love, or hate, Chapter 3 (Torneko's Chapter).
I personally loved the opening day for his chapter. I spent a good couple of hours doing his shopkeep thing, especially once you get an NPC who sells you a Sword of Malice. Your goal at that point will be to earn enough to get it for his own use.
I got the game as birthday gift and I'm really liking it so far. Not terribly surprising since I've always liked Dragon Quest. As talked about, the midi music is disappointing. Reminds me of the dark age when Nintendo was still using midi in Zelda. It sounded antiquated then - even worse now in a 2018 game. I'd have been willing to pay extra for the proper orchestrated soundtrack. Oh well, I'll still enjoy it. Just maybe mute the music and put on my own.
The midi music isn't even remotely close to the biggest issue with the music.
There's like 5 tracks all game long.
The midi part honestly doesn't even phase me(I don't know what makes it different than any other video game music. I truly cannot hear anything weird with it but that's just me and not knowing sounds very well), but man there were some parts where hearing the general world theme just seemed completely crazy.
I guess I haven’t played long enough to notice the lack of tracks yet. The midi only bothers me because it’s not very good quality. There has been midi music I’ve liked quite a bit. I can see this getting old quickly.
When you play IV, you'll either love, or hate, Chapter 3 (Torneko's Chapter).
I personally loved the opening day for his chapter. I spent a good couple of hours doing his shopkeep thing, especially once you get an NPC who sells you a Sword of Malice. Your goal at that point will be to earn enough to get it for his own use.
Well, it spawned a spin-off, so there must be eomething there.
And while plenty of games have orchestrated soundtracks, most games of this caliber don't have tracks that sound N64 quality. That's the main thing that's going to leap out at people before the amount of stuff. I mean, you can do midi with instruments that sound vastly better than this.
Actually I'm having trouble thinking of Japanese games which even try to attempt a half-decent digital orchestra in the era of pre-recorded music. There's a lot more live music out there than you see in American games, even in 3ds games, and if its not live they just do something more electronic or pop-ish. Which generally sounds better, but I wonder if there's just a lack of know-how or interest. So you end up with DQ as an oddity purely because this particular composer is being a dick and the company is too traditional to rock the boat.
What’s more tiresome: Quests requiring you to use a pep-up power, or quests requiring you to defeat a specific enemy.
Because dear god I spent an hour (and leveled up my character an entire level in the process, which is pretty impressive given that the bilhaw only gives 2,600 XP) defeating enough bilhaws to get Harmachi to show up.
Pep power quests are easy when you remember you can keep pepped people in the reserves to retain their pep. Then when the right people are all set up, then you can go hunting.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Pep power quests are easy when you remember you can keep pepped people in the reserves to retain their pep. Then when the right people are all set up, then you can go hunting.
This ALSO includes the MC. I didn't realize you could swap them out.
Well, there are also Pep Power quests later on that demand the final blow use the power. Those seemed tiresome enough that I didn't even attempt them.
If you haven't noticed yet, the enemy name when you're selecting them changes from yellow to red as their HP drops. You can just beat the monster up until it's red then sub in the needed characters for the finishing blow.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Well, there are also Pep Power quests later on that demand the final blow use the power. Those seemed tiresome enough that I didn't even attempt them.
If you haven't noticed yet, the enemy name when you're selecting them changes from yellow to red as their HP drops. You can just beat the monster up until it's red then sub in the needed characters for the finishing blow.
Knowing when it’s going to be enough to finish them off completely can be tricky, though.
There are plenty of times when an enemy has remained yellow or red for more than a couple of rounds.
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
Well, there are also Pep Power quests later on that demand the final blow use the power. Those seemed tiresome enough that I didn't even attempt them.
If you haven't noticed yet, the enemy name when you're selecting them changes from yellow to red as their HP drops. You can just beat the monster up until it's red then sub in the needed characters for the finishing blow.
Knowing when it’s going to be enough to finish them off completely can be tricky, though.
There are plenty of times when an enemy has remained yellow or red for more than a couple of rounds.
The pep powers you need should deal enough damage to take a regular enemy down from orange(it totally does not look red on my screen).
The other problem with the Pep Quests is that you need to have the specific weapon skill unlocked too. That can be kind of a pain.
Ha... at least two quests I can’t currently complete because I found out I don’t have the skills after all!
Tonight we discovered how to re-watch all the videos, which may have been a mistake because my kids demanded an hour of those. On the other hand it was cool to view some of them and see the foreshadowing!
So, instead of playing anything new I'm jumping back into a second playthrough of this game with Super Strong Enemies enabled.
I'm using different weapons for everyone so it already feels fresh. This time around MC gets swords and Erik gets boomerangs!
It's definitely no joke, I barely avoided wiping to the tutorial dungeon boss.
Actual honor of first party wipe goes to the 3 great sabrecubs I ran into in Heliodor. They just demolished the MC and Erik, lol.
And you can't really grind out levels, at least in the early game. XP requirements climb so fast you need 50-100% of your lifetime XP to get a new level and it quickly starts taking an hour plus to level up once.
Thank you for the explanation of Hallelujah/Electro Light; first time using it I gained 6 levels. That felt so sweet and was worth the use of the pep pop!
Actual honor of first party wipe goes to the 3 great sabrecubs I ran into in Heliodor.
My first game over during Strong Enemies was against the tree trunk enemies in that area. My damage output was so low that I couldn't keep up with their healing. And I also have "No escaping" on, so that was that.
There's a few bosses in that mode that are really rough, but overall it hasn't been as bad as I was expecting. Fairly far into the second part at this point and haven't hit a snag in awhile.
How much harder is the Lord of Shadows vs Indignus or whatever that shows up at his castle? That was a brutal fight and basically had 4 people die and I kept swapping them out.
I would say the one character I almost never used at all in the final areas of the game was Serena. She has almost no capacity to put out damage beyond the Swoosh line of spells, and while she has the ability to take up Spears, it seems counter-intuitive to making her the best healer that she can be.
I suppose if I had Super Strong Enemies on, she'd probably be a main party member, but Rab is just as effective honestly, and he only needs 1 weapon type thanks to his Zam and Crack spells.
How much harder is the Lord of Shadows vs Indignus or whatever that shows up at his castle? That was a brutal fight and basically had 4 people die and I kept swapping them out.
I’d say significantly harder...
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
I would say the one character I almost never used at all in the final areas of the game was Serena. She has almost no capacity to put out damage beyond the Swoosh line of spells, and while she has the ability to take up Spears, it seems counter-intuitive to making her the best healer that she can be.
I suppose if I had Super Strong Enemies on, she'd probably be a main party member, but Rab is just as effectively honestly, and he only needs 1 weapon type thanks to his Zam and Crack spells.
Yea on hard enemies I basically needed to have someone buffing and healing every turn just to survive against any boss.
I was sorta sad because I put points into her harp abilities but I could barely use them because she rarely had a turn where casting one was more worthwhile than healing or if she had a rare turn to buff it would be used casting kabuff. And by the time a turn rolls around where everyone is fully kabuffed healed to a spot they won't die next turn and she was sitting on an open turn the fight would basically just be over.
How much harder is the Lord of Shadows vs Indignus or whatever that shows up at his castle? That was a brutal fight and basically had 4 people die and I kept swapping them out.
I’d say significantly harder...
Shite, thanks. I'm obviously leveling as I'm going through the castle but I kinda want this game to be over with since I have like a dozen games queued up. And if I start any of them I'm very likely to abandon this one and have to restart in several months.
How much harder is the Lord of Shadows vs Indignus or whatever that shows up at his castle? That was a brutal fight and basically had 4 people die and I kept swapping them out.
I’d say significantly harder...
Shite, thanks. I'm obviously leveling as I'm going through the castle but I kinda want this game to be over with since I have like a dozen games queued up. And if I start any of them I'm very likely to abandon this one and have to restart in several months.
Game isn't remotely over when you beat the Lord of Shadows, that's just the end of Act 2!
Act 3 is technically "post-game" but it's filled with so much story, cinematics, extra quests, etc. that it feels like part of the main experience.
I tried tackling it at level 58. Got slaughtered. Did some grinding. Came back at level 62. Still got slaughtered, but I lasted a few rounds and did a fair amount of damage. So I figured a few more levels would be safe, right?
Came back at level 70. Slaughtered! Wtf?
Ok. Came back at level 73 + brand new equipment. Surely now I would slaughter it? Nope, my party got wiped out! I mean, I could possibly do it with some changed tactics, but it still felt difficult considering I’d gained 11 levels and yet lasted no longer!
I tried tackling it at level 58. Got slaughtered. Did some grinding. Came back at level 62. Still got slaughtered, but I lasted a few rounds and did a fair amount of damage. So I figured a few more levels would be safe, right?
Came back at level 70. Slaughtered! Wtf?
Ok. Came back at level 73 + brand new equipment. Surely now I would slaughter it? Nope, my party got wiped out! I mean, I could possibly do it with some changed tactics, but it still felt difficult considering I’d gained 11 levels and yet lasted no longer!
I think I beat him around level 60ish, normal enemies? The key thing for me was crafting an anti-paralysis ring for each party member; his burning breath or whatever is low-key the strongest move he has. He can't use Disruptive Wave, so all of your buffs will stick forever. Bring Hendrick, and either Sylvando or maybe Serena to get your survivability as high as it will go, since youll need it. And then your choice of attacker(s).
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
How much harder is the Lord of Shadows vs Indignus or whatever that shows up at his castle? That was a brutal fight and basically had 4 people die and I kept swapping them out.
I’d say significantly harder...
Shite, thanks. I'm obviously leveling as I'm going through the castle but I kinda want this game to be over with since I have like a dozen games queued up. And if I start any of them I'm very likely to abandon this one and have to restart in several months.
Game isn't remotely over when you beat the Lord of Shadows, that's just the end of Act 2!
Act 3 is technically "post-game" but it's filled with so much story, cinematics, extra quests, etc. that it feels like part of the main experience.
Ugh so I've heard. Maybe I'll go back to it when I finish Symphony of the Night and Tomb Raider.
I tried tackling it at level 58. Got slaughtered. Did some grinding. Came back at level 62. Still got slaughtered, but I lasted a few rounds and did a fair amount of damage. So I figured a few more levels would be safe, right?
Came back at level 70. Slaughtered! Wtf?
Ok. Came back at level 73 + brand new equipment. Surely now I would slaughter it? Nope, my party got wiped out! I mean, I could possibly do it with some changed tactics, but it still felt difficult considering I’d gained 11 levels and yet lasted no longer!
I think I beat him around level 60ish, normal enemies? The key thing for me was crafting an anti-paralysis ring for each party member; his burning breath or whatever is low-key the strongest move he has. He can't use Disruptive Wave, so all of your buffs will stick forever. Bring Hendrick, and either Sylvando or maybe Serena to get your survivability as high as it will go, since youll need it. And then your choice of attacker(s).
Yes; I should’ve fiddled around with my equipment! I did defeat it in the end, but without any special equipment I was down to just two party members when I finally won.
On the other hand, so far I’ve finished the fourth level of wheel of Harma and found it all extremely easy so far. But I hear the last level is really tough...
I tried tackling it at level 58. Got slaughtered. Did some grinding. Came back at level 62. Still got slaughtered, but I lasted a few rounds and did a fair amount of damage. So I figured a few more levels would be safe, right?
Came back at level 70. Slaughtered! Wtf?
Ok. Came back at level 73 + brand new equipment. Surely now I would slaughter it? Nope, my party got wiped out! I mean, I could possibly do it with some changed tactics, but it still felt difficult considering I’d gained 11 levels and yet lasted no longer!
I think I beat him around level 60ish, normal enemies? The key thing for me was crafting an anti-paralysis ring for each party member; his burning breath or whatever is low-key the strongest move he has. He can't use Disruptive Wave, so all of your buffs will stick forever. Bring Hendrick, and either Sylvando or maybe Serena to get your survivability as high as it will go, since youll need it. And then your choice of attacker(s).
Yes; I should’ve fiddled around with my equipment! I did defeat it in the end, but without any special equipment I was down to just two party members when I finally won.
On the other hand, so far I’ve finished the fourth level of wheel of Harma and found it all extremely easy so far. But I hear the last level is really tough...
Last level of Wheel of Harma requires some outside the box thinking, and a bit of luck. You can absolutely do it with any team, but getting it done in the least number of turns takes some specific team setups.
And the Act 3 Sniflhiem boss is the worst of its kind. Thankfully I can't think of any other bosses that have that combination of abilities that lock you down.
I think I used Serena and her "start the battle with Snap, Crackle, Poof" wand to deal with his burning breath. It couldn't affect her, so she was free to cast Tingle as needed.
That and I'll repeat the huge benefit to spamming Kabuff/Magic Barrier/Insulatle. He can't Disruptive Wave those, so the fight is a race to get buffed before you get killed.
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Nevermind that the 3DS is now in its sunset period, so it's unlikely to see a wide release at this point (plus the game is 3.5 years old).
I just really, reaaaally love DQ music.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
Yeah, I decided to start with III. It seems fine, but a tad dry. I only just got to the 2nd castle, so I think I was just in the tutorial. And I think things will be more interesting once I get more tools like whips and aoe spells & thief skills. After that, I think I'll go in order (for some reason, IV sounds more interesting than V. I blame this on learning about Healie).
Thanks for the suggestions!
Steam: pazython
I personally loved the opening day for his chapter. I spent a good couple of hours doing his shopkeep thing, especially once you get an NPC who sells you a Sword of Malice. Your goal at that point will be to earn enough to get it for his own use.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
I guess I haven’t played long enough to notice the lack of tracks yet. The midi only bothers me because it’s not very good quality. There has been midi music I’ve liked quite a bit. I can see this getting old quickly.
Well, it spawned a spin-off, so there must be eomething there.
Steam: pazython
Actually I'm having trouble thinking of Japanese games which even try to attempt a half-decent digital orchestra in the era of pre-recorded music. There's a lot more live music out there than you see in American games, even in 3ds games, and if its not live they just do something more electronic or pop-ish. Which generally sounds better, but I wonder if there's just a lack of know-how or interest. So you end up with DQ as an oddity purely because this particular composer is being a dick and the company is too traditional to rock the boat.
Because dear god I spent an hour (and leveled up my character an entire level in the process, which is pretty impressive given that the bilhaw only gives 2,600 XP) defeating enough bilhaws to get Harmachi to show up.
This ALSO includes the MC. I didn't realize you could swap them out.
If you haven't noticed yet, the enemy name when you're selecting them changes from yellow to red as their HP drops. You can just beat the monster up until it's red then sub in the needed characters for the finishing blow.
There are plenty of times when an enemy has remained yellow or red for more than a couple of rounds.
The pep powers you need should deal enough damage to take a regular enemy down from orange(it totally does not look red on my screen).
Aah... so it is. Thank you!
Ha... at least two quests I can’t currently complete because I found out I don’t have the skills after all!
Tonight we discovered how to re-watch all the videos, which may have been a mistake because my kids demanded an hour of those. On the other hand it was cool to view some of them and see the foreshadowing!
How long do I have left?
Several dozens hours. It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure you get the boat pretty early in the game.
Nintendo Network ID: PhysiMarc
Steam: pazython
You’re about 1/8th of the way through as I recall!
I'm using different weapons for everyone so it already feels fresh. This time around MC gets swords and Erik gets boomerangs!
It's definitely no joke, I barely avoided wiping to the tutorial dungeon boss.
Actual honor of first party wipe goes to the 3 great sabrecubs I ran into in Heliodor. They just demolished the MC and Erik, lol.
And you can't really grind out levels, at least in the early game. XP requirements climb so fast you need 50-100% of your lifetime XP to get a new level and it quickly starts taking an hour plus to level up once.
My first game over during Strong Enemies was against the tree trunk enemies in that area. My damage output was so low that I couldn't keep up with their healing. And I also have "No escaping" on, so that was that.
There's a few bosses in that mode that are really rough, but overall it hasn't been as bad as I was expecting. Fairly far into the second part at this point and haven't hit a snag in awhile.
I suppose if I had Super Strong Enemies on, she'd probably be a main party member, but Rab is just as effective honestly, and he only needs 1 weapon type thanks to his Zam and Crack spells.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
I’d say significantly harder...
Yea on hard enemies I basically needed to have someone buffing and healing every turn just to survive against any boss.
I was sorta sad because I put points into her harp abilities but I could barely use them because she rarely had a turn where casting one was more worthwhile than healing or if she had a rare turn to buff it would be used casting kabuff. And by the time a turn rolls around where everyone is fully kabuffed healed to a spot they won't die next turn and she was sitting on an open turn the fight would basically just be over.
Shite, thanks. I'm obviously leveling as I'm going through the castle but I kinda want this game to be over with since I have like a dozen games queued up. And if I start any of them I'm very likely to abandon this one and have to restart in several months.
Game isn't remotely over when you beat the Lord of Shadows, that's just the end of Act 2!
Act 3 is technically "post-game" but it's filled with so much story, cinematics, extra quests, etc. that it feels like part of the main experience.
I tried tackling it at level 58. Got slaughtered. Did some grinding. Came back at level 62. Still got slaughtered, but I lasted a few rounds and did a fair amount of damage. So I figured a few more levels would be safe, right?
Came back at level 70. Slaughtered! Wtf?
Ok. Came back at level 73 + brand new equipment. Surely now I would slaughter it? Nope, my party got wiped out! I mean, I could possibly do it with some changed tactics, but it still felt difficult considering I’d gained 11 levels and yet lasted no longer!
Ugh so I've heard. Maybe I'll go back to it when I finish Symphony of the Night and Tomb Raider.
Yes; I should’ve fiddled around with my equipment! I did defeat it in the end, but without any special equipment I was down to just two party members when I finally won.
On the other hand, so far I’ve finished the fourth level of wheel of Harma and found it all extremely easy so far. But I hear the last level is really tough...
Last level of Wheel of Harma requires some outside the box thinking, and a bit of luck. You can absolutely do it with any team, but getting it done in the least number of turns takes some specific team setups.
And the Act 3 Sniflhiem boss is the worst of its kind. Thankfully I can't think of any other bosses that have that combination of abilities that lock you down.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
That and I'll repeat the huge benefit to spamming Kabuff/Magic Barrier/Insulatle. He can't Disruptive Wave those, so the fight is a race to get buffed before you get killed.