All told, with the "lets make it 'for adults'" comment and the so-edgy-it-can-cut-grass logo reveal, I'm immensely worried Horii was sold on the idea of changing it to chase after the Western market. Which is the exact opposite of what most DQ fans want.
I agree, but I can understand why it might be necessary given the direction the Japanese gaming market has been going in over the last decade. If it's a choice between making some compromises to appeal more to the console/PC market or going mobile, then the former is definitely the preferable alternative.
My optimistic take on the concept is that the plot might just take the idea of "the world is besieged by a rising tide of monsters" more seriously. For all that everyone in each town in Dragon Quest says "gosh, the roads are full of monsters these days! Everything has been turned upside-down", the towns themselves are usually happy and stable. There's the token one major kingdom that's been smashed into the ground, but everywhere else seems just kind of fine. Even in, say, the second act of Dragon Quest XI, the towns tended to get back to full working order within one or two story events. I could totally see a perfectly Dragon Quest-y plot that had you searching for the macguffins required to drive back the darkness while the darkness is perpetually a few paces behind you devouring all your safe havens.
My favorite musical instrument is the air-raid siren.
All told, with the "lets make it 'for adults'" comment and the so-edgy-it-can-cut-grass logo reveal, I'm immensely worried Horii was sold on the idea of changing it to chase after the Western market. Which is the exact opposite of what most DQ fans want.
I agree, but I can understand why it might be necessary given the direction the Japanese gaming market has been going in over the last decade. If it's a choice between making some compromises to appeal more to the console/PC market or going mobile, then the former is definitely the preferable alternative.
They've already got dozens of DQ mobile games, though.
Here's a realization post that god awful SE E3 presser. Stranger of Paradise, the "soulslike" (way to jump on that bandwagon 5 years late, SE) ARPG remake of Final Fantasy 1 had, to quote someone far wittier than I, dialogue that was the "living incarnation of a 13 year old boys livejournal from the early 2000s."
And it hit me. That's what they think Western Audiences like. Or what they think we sound like in our own media.
If THAT is the mindset going into the DQ12 "for adults," god save us all. Hopefully the edgy Slimes with frowns and massive veins going through their foreheads at least make good plushies.
+1
ThePantsAssociationA million could-be years on a thousand may-be worldsRegistered Userregular
I WANT TO KILL THE DEMON LORD! I NEED TO. IT'S NOT A HOPE OR A DREAM! IT'S LIKE A HUNGER!
They've already got dozens of DQ mobile games, though.
They're making a bunch of spinoffs for mobile platforms, but they seem committed, at least for the time being, to keeping the mainline series on console/PC, even if doing so necessitates breaking with a few long held traditions that were previously considered sacrosanct.
If you ask the absolute expert Tim Rogers for his totally-not-selective-and-anecdotal experience talking with current JRPG devs, this might not be purely a cynical business move. A number of them seem to be really into Game of Thrones and dissect and study Witcher 3 not only for its setting but also game design choices. You could argue that influence is clearly seen in FFXVI and might show up in the next DQ as well.
And in fairness when you look at the Western solo fantasy AAA hits from the past decade+, no they aren't all starring teenage angsty edgelords, but they are muddy, gritty, and often bloody settings. Skyrim, Diablo, Witcher, Dragon Age. As long as they don't get too caught up on protagonists smoldering with generic rage, I think we could see something new and interesting if Japanese devs can take hold of these influences and put their own unique spin on them.
Wow, that dark souls final fantasy 1 remake... I can only imagine the potential there...
Astos, you BASTARD... How dare you poison the elvish prince and steal poor Matoya’s crystal, leaving her blind, you ANIMAL! My sword thirsts for your blood, your corpse will be a monument for the damned!
My optimistic take on the concept is that the plot might just take the idea of "the world is besieged by a rising tide of monsters" more seriously. For all that everyone in each town in Dragon Quest says "gosh, the roads are full of monsters these days! Everything has been turned upside-down", the towns themselves are usually happy and stable. There's the token one major kingdom that's been smashed into the ground, but everywhere else seems just kind of fine. Even in, say, the second act of Dragon Quest XI, the towns tended to get back to full working order within one or two story events. I could totally see a perfectly Dragon Quest-y plot that had you searching for the macguffins required to drive back the darkness while the darkness is perpetually a few paces behind you devouring all your safe havens.
Mine is more the idea that not every bad guy you fight in the game is either working for the Big Bad, deceived/unleashed by the Big Bad to fight you, or (DQ11 spoilers)
The legendary Big Bad that the current Big Bad stole his powers from.
In the "gritty" AAA Western RPGs mentioned above, there are always other, just as dangerous (at least as a threat to your person, if not nessisarily to the whole world) bad guys who are doing their own evil and/or selfish thing whose appearance and motives have little to no connection to the ultimate villain of the story.
Give me some slimy (but not Slime) king or merchant lord that's using the chaos to expand their own influence, not because it falls under the Big Bad's master plan, but because they're just greedy and ambitious enough to try and benefit from other people's suffering.
You could settle for the mobile ports of DQ 4,5, and 6 which are fantastic if you don’t mind touch screen movement.
It surprises me that they never ported those to Steam like they did the FF mobile versions.
The FF were widescreen and played on mobile horizontally though.
The DQ games were based off the DS version and played vertically, with the top half of the screen being what would have been on the top screen of a DS and the bottom half being the bottom screen of the DS. For final fantasy they just had to basically stretch the mobile version (and they still look weird in motion unless you use a custom resolution to set it back to an integer multiple of the phone resolution).
It would require a lot of actual work to put the mobile version on PC without having giant black bar letterboxes on the side taking up half the screen.
Gah! "Act 2" of Dragon Quest XI is just design to annoy me I see.
I get all the characters I'm NOT using back first making boss battles fun since they were not geared optimally, then I get one I was using who is now gimped for a bit, then the last 2 one is dead for good it seems! Game!
Now who is going to help me AoE!
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
I lose the weapon AND worse still all my characters except the Hero are de-leveled, negating like 20 hours of play. I like the concept, but the execution of the time travel is seriously lacking here.
I keep hoping they'll undo this now...or it'll end.
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
I lose the weapon AND worse still all my characters except the Hero are de-leveled, negating like 20 hours of play. I like the concept, but the execution of the time travel is seriously lacking here.
I keep hoping they'll undo this now...or it'll end.
I don't remember the details but yes, I'm pretty sure everyone gets powered back up in Act III somehow.
Go off opening all the ultimate key chests as soon as you get the key, 15 seconds later the Elder watcher zaps everyone to power them all back up. And Veronica is actually 2-3 levels higher than everyone else now.
Oops.
Xeddicus on
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
If you never picked up on it, the text colour of an enemy's name is a rough indication of how much health they have left. You at least have that.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
...you know that there's items to recharge pep, right? Plus Sylvando's got something there (can't recall how that one works).
Then again I was able to stomach the use of two three-person pep powers per fight for grinding levels at endgame (though granted that gives such insane xp...)
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
...you know that there's items to recharge pep, right? Plus Sylvando's got something there (can't recall how that one works).
Then again I was able to stomach the use of two three-person pep powers per fight for grinding levels at endgame (though granted that gives such insane xp...)
Yeah, if you equipped the not one, but three ultra rare pep-megalixers, that you would never use into a bunch of the limited item slots before battle. If not, reload and try again.
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
...you know that there's items to recharge pep, right? Plus Sylvando's got something there (can't recall how that one works).
Then again I was able to stomach the use of two three-person pep powers per fight for grinding levels at endgame (though granted that gives such insane xp...)
Yeah, if you equipped the not one, but three ultra rare pep-megalixers, that you would never use into a bunch of the limited item slots before battle. If not, reload and try again.
It's stupid bullshit no matter how you slice it.
Uh, what? I'm not following. It's not hard to start a fight with everyone in pep, and that'll let you use a couple big combo ones.
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
...you know that there's items to recharge pep, right? Plus Sylvando's got something there (can't recall how that one works).
Then again I was able to stomach the use of two three-person pep powers per fight for grinding levels at endgame (though granted that gives such insane xp...)
Yeah, if you equipped the not one, but three ultra rare pep-megalixers, that you would never use into a bunch of the limited item slots before battle. If not, reload and try again.
It's stupid bullshit no matter how you slice it.
Uh, what? I'm not following. It's not hard to start a fight with everyone in pep, and that'll let you use a couple big combo ones.
No, you had to start with both people (looked it up, it's a 2-man pep) in pep in reserve. Which means you've already spent time specifically setting up for this.
Then you lower the stupid bosses's health.
Then you bring in your pepped people and kill one of them. With an attack that has a 1/8th chance to just straight up miss.
Then you have to go through and use the pep pills (or defend a billion times if you didn't have the foresight to set it all up ahead of time, subbing out people when they get pepped so you can sub them back in later).
Then you kill the other one.
Also, you can add "completely respec 1/2 characters 2/4 times at the start and end" if your current/preferred build for them doesn't include the required skills for that pep power, which one probably won't because it's a useless skill in a useless school for that character.
It's also completely optional if I remember correctly. I'm fine with extra difficult/niche/endgame stuff being optional.
Everything is technically completely optional at that point of the game.
Optional in the sense that you have the choice between going straight to the last boss with mediocre equipment and levels, mindlessly grinding for ten hours, or doing a bunch of quests.
It's optional exactly the same way everything after Zeal in Chrono Trigger is optional. Sure, the story has stopped railroading you from one specific dungeon to the next, but you're definitely not ready for the last boss.
You have to KILL an enemy with a pep power to complete this quest? Screw you, quest designer, you can't even see exact HP much less the damage your stuff will do. And even if you could that's stupid design.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
That's most likely the one I'm talking about- The last party member and Syl's quest yeah? I don't use either in my main party and am just hoping they don't have to be used again because screw that!
But on the upside:
Now I just rebuilt Cobblestone and discovered crafting the Metal Gooreatsword then rerolling it to +3 was only useful to do that bit, but still nice bonus for doing it. Bunch of nifty stuff for sale now.
"For no one - no one in this world can you trust. Not men. Not women. Not beasts...this you can trust."
Not to dance on the man's grave, but here's hoping this means the game series can have good music again. Playing 100+ hours of Dragon Quest 11 with only two dozen tracks that sounded like PSOne-era music was a borderline hate crime.
Not to dance on the man's grave, but here's hoping this means the game series can have good music again. Playing 100+ hours of Dragon Quest 11 with only two dozen tracks that sounded like PSOne-era music was a borderline hate crime.
Posts
I agree, but I can understand why it might be necessary given the direction the Japanese gaming market has been going in over the last decade. If it's a choice between making some compromises to appeal more to the console/PC market or going mobile, then the former is definitely the preferable alternative.
They've already got dozens of DQ mobile games, though.
Here's a realization post that god awful SE E3 presser. Stranger of Paradise, the "soulslike" (way to jump on that bandwagon 5 years late, SE) ARPG remake of Final Fantasy 1 had, to quote someone far wittier than I, dialogue that was the "living incarnation of a 13 year old boys livejournal from the early 2000s."
And it hit me. That's what they think Western Audiences like. Or what they think we sound like in our own media.
If THAT is the mindset going into the DQ12 "for adults," god save us all. Hopefully the edgy Slimes with frowns and massive veins going through their foreheads at least make good plushies.
They're making a bunch of spinoffs for mobile platforms, but they seem committed, at least for the time being, to keeping the mainline series on console/PC, even if doing so necessitates breaking with a few long held traditions that were previously considered sacrosanct.
And in fairness when you look at the Western solo fantasy AAA hits from the past decade+, no they aren't all starring teenage angsty edgelords, but they are muddy, gritty, and often bloody settings. Skyrim, Diablo, Witcher, Dragon Age. As long as they don't get too caught up on protagonists smoldering with generic rage, I think we could see something new and interesting if Japanese devs can take hold of these influences and put their own unique spin on them.
Astos, you BASTARD... How dare you poison the elvish prince and steal poor Matoya’s crystal, leaving her blind, you ANIMAL! My sword thirsts for your blood, your corpse will be a monument for the damned!
Mine is more the idea that not every bad guy you fight in the game is either working for the Big Bad, deceived/unleashed by the Big Bad to fight you, or (DQ11 spoilers)
In the "gritty" AAA Western RPGs mentioned above, there are always other, just as dangerous (at least as a threat to your person, if not nessisarily to the whole world) bad guys who are doing their own evil and/or selfish thing whose appearance and motives have little to no connection to the ultimate villain of the story.
Give me some slimy (but not Slime) king or merchant lord that's using the chaos to expand their own influence, not because it falls under the Big Bad's master plan, but because they're just greedy and ambitious enough to try and benefit from other people's suffering.
Kind of a bummer, but oh well. It wasn't bad, for a mobile game. Never did hit level cap; probably could have, but, yeah.
Wow, it's shutting down? That didn't take too long. Wonder if we'll ever get a genuinely good DQ mobile game.
It surprises me that they never ported those to Steam like they did the FF mobile versions.
Switch (JeffConser): SW-3353-5433-5137 Wii U: Skeldare - 3DS: 1848-1663-9345
PM Me if you add me!
The FF were widescreen and played on mobile horizontally though.
The DQ games were based off the DS version and played vertically, with the top half of the screen being what would have been on the top screen of a DS and the bottom half being the bottom screen of the DS. For final fantasy they just had to basically stretch the mobile version (and they still look weird in motion unless you use a custom resolution to set it back to an integer multiple of the phone resolution).
It would require a lot of actual work to put the mobile version on PC without having giant black bar letterboxes on the side taking up half the screen.
Ah, Square Enix. Never change.
The DQ 10 remake is not one of the options.
Now who is going to help me AoE!
I keep hoping they'll undo this now...or it'll end.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
...I can't remember what happens with Veronica. I think she just gets boosted to whatever level Serena was at.
Oops.
Hope the other upgrade quests aren't like this. They better drop the crystal for the new harp without some BS!
If you never picked up on it, the text colour of an enemy's name is a rough indication of how much health they have left. You at least have that.
Yeeeeah, so... Wait until you find the quest where you have to kill TWO enemies in the same battle with a single target multi-user pep power. Do you like Defending for 30 turns in a row? Well, here you go, bucko!
Also, word to the wise, there's a quest where it goes "This monster can only be defeated by a mighty hero using the power of Mega-Kazapple" or something like that. Here's the thing. Mega-Kazapple is an actual pep power. It doesn't work to defeat the monster. It wants you to use a Zap flavor attack. Mega-Kazapple is a non-elemental physical attack.
Just two of the many things that made me say fuck it and let the world be destroyed. It really dials the bullshit up to eleven towards the end.
...you know that there's items to recharge pep, right? Plus Sylvando's got something there (can't recall how that one works).
Then again I was able to stomach the use of two three-person pep powers per fight for grinding levels at endgame (though granted that gives such insane xp...)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Yeah, if you equipped the not one, but three ultra rare pep-megalixers, that you would never use into a bunch of the limited item slots before battle. If not, reload and try again.
It's stupid bullshit no matter how you slice it.
Uh, what? I'm not following. It's not hard to start a fight with everyone in pep, and that'll let you use a couple big combo ones.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
No, you had to start with both people (looked it up, it's a 2-man pep) in pep in reserve. Which means you've already spent time specifically setting up for this.
Then you lower the stupid bosses's health.
Then you bring in your pepped people and kill one of them. With an attack that has a 1/8th chance to just straight up miss.
Then you have to go through and use the pep pills (or defend a billion times if you didn't have the foresight to set it all up ahead of time, subbing out people when they get pepped so you can sub them back in later).
Then you kill the other one.
Also, you can add "completely respec 1/2 characters 2/4 times at the start and end" if your current/preferred build for them doesn't include the required skills for that pep power, which one probably won't because it's a useless skill in a useless school for that character.
I repeat. It's stupid bullshit.
Everything is technically completely optional at that point of the game.
Optional in the sense that you have the choice between going straight to the last boss with mediocre equipment and levels, mindlessly grinding for ten hours, or doing a bunch of quests.
It's optional exactly the same way everything after Zeal in Chrono Trigger is optional. Sure, the story has stopped railroading you from one specific dungeon to the next, but you're definitely not ready for the last boss.
That's most likely the one I'm talking about- The last party member and Syl's quest yeah? I don't use either in my main party and am just hoping they don't have to be used again because screw that!
But on the upside:
Not to dance on the man's grave, but here's hoping this means the game series can have good music again. Playing 100+ hours of Dragon Quest 11 with only two dozen tracks that sounded like PSOne-era music was a borderline hate crime.
Well he was a big fan of hate crimes
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126