Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition |OT| 2D, or not 2D, that is the question (now available on PS4/XB1/PC)

[h8bit]

Alright i'm watching the credit sequence after act two and i'm just so confused as to why

Spoiler: major character spoiler

they made this story about veronica being cursed into being a small child if they never resolve it and end up killing her off. am i missing something lol

 

[Li bur]

I just got back to

Spoiler: Act 2

Arboria, and damn that Veronica scene hit me hard. However Serena just got so OP with her Double Casting I don't know how I can lived without her.

What I'd like to know is, I'm still using wand with serena, is it worth it to forget the Wand tree and refocus to Heavy Wand? And also let's say I'm going with Wand are there any benefit with going dual wielding?

 

[werezompire]

Alright i'm watching the credit sequence after act two and i'm just so confused as to why

Spoiler: major character spoiler

they made this story about veronica being cursed into being a small child if they never resolve it and end up killing her off. am i missing something lol

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

You still need to play Act 3. But I think mostly the point to them doing the whole cursed into a kid body thing was because they wanted to do a twin healer/mage setup like they did in DQ4 but have the 2 characters look noticeably different.

 

[Clay]

I just got back to

Spoiler: Act 2

Arboria, and damn that Veronica scene hit me hard. However Serena just got so OP with her Double Casting I don't know how I can lived without her.

What I'd like to know is, I'm still using wand with serena, is it worth it to forget the Wand tree and refocus to Heavy Wand? And also let's say I'm going with Wand are there any benefit with going dual wielding?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

I used heavy wands with her personally, her healing was fine without the higher Magical Mending stat you get with wands so I figured it would be more useful to have her deal a bit more damage to bosses.

The benefit of dual wielding wands is just the added stats from the off-handed wand.

If you're playing without stronger monsters it doesn't really matter much, if you are playing with stronger monsters I expect using wands with a shield is the best way to go.

 

[Razmos]

I've just

Spoiler: Act 1 spoilers

passed through the gate into the wide open sea

I can see there are lots of different places on the map, is there anywhere I should check out or avoid? Should I just move on with the main story or is it worth exploring?

 

[Apopheniac]

I just got back to

Spoiler: Act 2

Arboria, and damn that Veronica scene hit me hard. However Serena just got so OP with her Double Casting I don't know how I can lived without her.

What I'd like to know is, I'm still using wand with serena, is it worth it to forget the Wand tree and refocus to Heavy Wand? And also let's say I'm going with Wand are there any benefit with going dual wielding?

Click to shrink...

For your second question, I find Serena better with wand + shield - her healing is fine enough with one wand, and equipping a shield improves her survivability significantly.

For your first question:

Spoiler

It's a matter of whether you want her to focus on offense or defense. She has all the spells anyway, so it's a matter of exclusive skills to each weapon tree and the stats of what you equip.

 

[Clay]

So uuhhh

Spoiler

what the fuck am I supposed to do when I start posting as Sylvando after the world tree falls?Ive already beat up the punks in Golondia

Click to shrink...

Your party should have made it clear where you're supposed to go next. Try talking to them, and if they don't give you any clues just leave, IIRC there's only one other town you can even access.

 

[werezompire]

I've just

Spoiler: Act 1 spoilers

passed through the gate into the wide open sea

I can see there are lots of different places on the map, is there anywhere I should check out or avoid? Should I just move on with the main story or is it worth exploring?

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

You can check out the small islands, but you'll need to complete the mermaid scenario (which should be really easy to find since there's a trigger right near where you enter the open sea) in order to get an item that will let you access more of the world map. The boss of the mermaid scenario causes some people trouble so I'd recommend doing the main story ASAP and if the boss is too hard, go check out the small islands while you're gaining extra XP.

 

[Razmos]

Spoiler

You can check out the small islands, but you'll need to complete the mermaid scenario (which should be really easy to find since there's a trigger right near where you enter the open sea) in order to get an item that will let you access more of the world map. The boss of the mermaid scenario causes some people trouble so I'd recommend doing the main story ASAP and if the boss is too hard, go check out the small islands while you're gaining extra XP.

Click to shrink...

Excellent, thank you for the advice

 

[Deleted member 10737]

i'm so happy! usually first party games get imported here quickly but for some reason there's still no sign of DQ nearly a month after release. my brother is on vacation in thailand and randomly asked me if there's any game i wanted since he saw some game shops there, and fortunately they had dragon quest! tomorrow, i'll finally have the game i've wanted to play since 2016!

 

[Kurtikeya]

... In an unrelated matter.
Screw it!

Spoiler: Act 3 Trial rewards

I'm just gonna bite the bullet and marry Gemma. I want that recipe book!

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

Can confirm that you can change your mind anytime after initially picking a partner. Just get to Drustan again (takes 3 minutes max with the Luminary Trial) and beat anyone you like and he'll let you do the forever wish again.

 

[Kass15]

i'm so happy! usually first party games get imported here quickly but for some reason there's still no sign of DQ nearly a month after release. my brother is on vacation in thailand and randomly asked me if there's any game i wanted since he saw some game shops there, and fortunately they had dragon quest! tomorrow, i'll finally have the game i've wanted to play since 2016!

Click to shrink...

Congrats! After just finishing up my second play through this week I firmly believe it's my favorite game of all time. I really hope you enjoy it!

 

[TYRANITARR]

Man, I'm super enjoying this game, but I also feel like I'm playing it twice.

My daughter, 7 years old, is REALLY loving the game! This is her first non-Pokemon JRPG. She super loves the game, but since the Jasper fight she's been having trouble with every boss fight. I'm playing it alongside her so I'm usually a boss behind her or ahead of her. But I'm having to basically do a lot of the grind for her , because she obviously, does not enjoy grinding and fighting trash mobs to level up. She loves the story and the characters and does not go down the beaten path too often to explore, which I feel like is kind of necessary.

Do y'all recommend just playing one file with her? Or does this game ease up eventually and she can make it through boss encounters on her own? I've tried setting the party members to "Fight Wisely" and let it Autobattle, but it doesn't win boss battles, just trash mobs.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, but I don't want to burn out knowing that I have to replay each boss/1 hour of grinding TWICE to help my daughter make it through the game haha!

Right now, we're both at the Tentacruel boss.

 

[mistersensation]

Question- Pep powers only last for a single battle, right? Are they ever really useful outside of bosses? Using them on random mobs that I can kill in 2 hits anyway just seems like a waste, should I just not use them in most situations and instead just keep the pep benefits for as long as they last?

 

[Darktalon]

Modding this game using ReverseNX to play Docked Mode graphics in Handheld, is glorious.

 

[Berordn]

Question- Pep powers only last for a single battle, right? Are they ever really useful outside of bosses? Using them on random mobs that I can kill in 2 hits anyway just seems like a waste, should I just not use them in most situations and instead just keep the pep benefits for as long as they last?

Click to shrink...

Any Pep Powers that result in buffs will expire at the end of battle, yeah. If you've got Pep and it's about to run out then you might as well use a power to do big damage, but otherwise there's no real reason to use it up.

 

[mistersensation]

Any Pep Powers that result in buffs will expire at the end of battle, yeah. If you've got Pep and it's about to run out then you might as well use a power to do big damage, but otherwise there's no real reason to use it up.

Click to shrink...

Cool, that's kind of what I figured. Thanks!

 

[ShinobiBk]

Well I'm definitely going to take back my criticism of the game feeling too linear. I met some mermaid and then immediately went off to visit a bunch of places I clearly am not meant to be at yet.

Click to shrink...

It opens up a lot but at the same time I feel it gets a little too open/unfocused at that point.

 

[werezompire]

Cool, that's kind of what I figured. Thanks!

Click to shrink...

The exception being that the Hero & Erik are useful to pep up outside boss fights for Itemized Kill since that turns your regular steal chance into rare item steal chance. Also, there are a couple of pep powers that are useful for grinding (one that boosts XP gains & another one that has a chance of replacing enemies with Metal Slime enemies).

But other than those, yeah, either take advantage of the boosted stats for several turns or stick them outside your active party to save them for the next boss.

 

[DPT120]

Finished act 1 at 34 hours. Loving the game so far.

Spoiler

Jasper is a bad villain. He's so comically evil I can't help but laugh.

Not really feeling Veronica but she's good in combat at least. I've never used Rab except as a healer

Edit: I've planned out my builds for post-game. O think I'll keep Hero at greatsword until the end and then Respec into swords.

 

[KtotheRoc]

Finished Act 3.

Level 79.

74:39 hours. (Just subtract the 5 hours and 40 something minutes from the demo, lol.)

 

[Apopheniac]

Man, I'm super enjoying this game, but I also feel like I'm playing it twice.

My daughter, 7 years old, is REALLY loving the game! This is her first non-Pokemon JRPG. She super loves the game, but since the Jasper fight she's been having trouble with every boss fight. I'm playing it alongside her so I'm usually a boss behind her or ahead of her. But I'm having to basically do a lot of the grind for her , because she obviously, does not enjoy grinding and fighting trash mobs to level up. She loves the story and the characters and does not go down the beaten path too often to explore, which I feel like is kind of necessary.

Do y'all recommend just playing one file with her? Or does this game ease up eventually and she can make it through boss encounters on her own? I've tried setting the party members to "Fight Wisely" and let it Autobattle, but it doesn't win boss battles, just trash mobs.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, but I don't want to burn out knowing that I have to replay each boss/1 hour of grinding TWICE to help my daughter make it through the game haha!

Right now, we're both at the Tentacruel boss.

Click to shrink...

My personal experience is that the boss battles were easier overall in Act 2, but that's more because of the broader skillsets and spells available than anything else. The only way she's going to get through the boss battles is if you teach her how to use the debuffs and buffs properly, as well as how to build characters' skill trees and equipment sets.

 

[Almyn]

I've just finished the 'main' game with just under 70hrs on the clock. What a wonderful experience this has been. 40hrs for act 1 and 30hrs for act 2 and I could keep going for another 70 tbh. Why do games like this not come around more often? The whole thing has been excellent from beginning to end. Thank goodness there's a rather large post game.

Spoiler

I take back what i said about Hendrik. He's awesome once he joins your party and stops trying to murder you.

 

[KtotheRoc]

I think I'm going to take on the

Spoiler

Tickington boss battles

before I call it a day with this game.

But these fights are tough, lol.

 

[Clara]

Spoiler

I take back what i said about Hendrik. He's awesome once he joins your party and stops trying to murder you.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: Act 2 spoilers!

Hendrik went from being a character I irrationally disliked to one of my faves of all time over the course of this game. He was just a boring, annoying antagonist for the first part, but then when he joined up and turned out to be socially awkward and ridiculous I fell absolutely in love. I'll forever be happy that I wasn't spoiled on him--it would have ruined a lot of the fun.

 

[DPT120]

Spoiler: Sylvando story

LMAO, Sylvando out here recruiting all of Erdrea into his group. I can imagine him rolling up to Mordegon with an entire army of people.

 

[Uncle at Nintendo]

Im stuck on Come On Kiefer. In the mines there are several blocks that wont move to forge a path forward. Does anyone know what I am talking about or had that issue?

 

[Clay]

Man, I'm super enjoying this game, but I also feel like I'm playing it twice.

My daughter, 7 years old, is REALLY loving the game! This is her first non-Pokemon JRPG. She super loves the game, but since the Jasper fight she's been having trouble with every boss fight. I'm playing it alongside her so I'm usually a boss behind her or ahead of her. But I'm having to basically do a lot of the grind for her , because she obviously, does not enjoy grinding and fighting trash mobs to level up. She loves the story and the characters and does not go down the beaten path too often to explore, which I feel like is kind of necessary.

Do y'all recommend just playing one file with her? Or does this game ease up eventually and she can make it through boss encounters on her own? I've tried setting the party members to "Fight Wisely" and let it Autobattle, but it doesn't win boss battles, just trash mobs.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, but I don't want to burn out knowing that I have to replay each boss/1 hour of grinding TWICE to help my daughter make it through the game haha!

Right now, we're both at the Tentacruel boss.

Click to shrink...

You shouldn't need to be grinding much, definitely not an hour between each boss battle.

My suggestions would be:

1) Explain to your daughter that you have to gain levels to play this game and show her how to set auto-battle to Fight Wisely and battle speed to Very Fast. If you have to grind it's pretty painless to gain levels like that, just run around for a bit and let your character do their thing.

2) Use a guide to find metal slimes. Beating a couple metal slimes is usually enough exp to gain a level or two from a single fight.

3) Like Apopheniac said make sure she's using buffs and debuffs during boss fights.

If she really hates grinding that much and avoid battles to the point boss fights become impossible then yeah, I would just play a single file with her. Act 2 felt about the same difficulty-wise as Act 1, there's not going to be a point where the game naturally become easier.

 

[Trode]

I'm surprised at how well they integrated the new scenarios into the game. Usually new content added to enhanced editions tends to stick out like a sore thumb and clash with the established narrative, not here though.

 

[julian]

It opens up a lot but at the same time I feel it gets a little too open/unfocused at that point.

Click to shrink...

That's surprising to hear. It feels like I just unlocked most of the areas I'll need to travel to on the main map (I assume there's another map?) except the place I'm supposed to go.

 

[Nelo Ice]

Whew just did the last wheel of harma trial at 27 turns. Was reading strats that required weapon switching and I got lazy crafting lol. So I did my own thing that was part cheese and part luck. It somehow worked.

 

[Aexact]

Whew just did the last wheel of harma trial at 27 turns. Was reading strats that required weapon switching and I got lazy crafting lol. So I did my own thing that was part cheese and part luck. It somehow worked.

Click to shrink...

Wheel of Harma is so much more difficult than anything else I fought. It's where missing an attack or getting hit by an ailment really got to me. I did the weapon switching and was really impressed with Boomerangs, which I hadn't used all game. Now that I'm in late game, I can try other weapons other than the one path I go all in on too.

 

[Durden]

It's dumb that they added the outfits feature, but didn't allow the default outfits as an option. I prefer the default costumes a lot of times. Especially stuff with like the armor for the hero.

 

[ShinobiBk]

I've switched on the Synth music from time to time and my goodness, it's horrendous.
I have no idea how people were playing the PS4 version unless they were listening to podcasts or something.

Even with the symphonic music, there are some great tracks but mediocre soundtrack overall. I think I might like the overworld theme for XI more than VIII in a vacuum but VIII is more pleasant to listen to repeatedly for so long. The battle theme is terrible and the weak link of the soundtrack given how often you hear it with the dungeon theme right behind it

 

[Apopheniac]

It's dumb that they added the outfits feature, but didn't allow the default outfits as an option. I prefer the default costumes a lot of times. Especially stuff with like the armor for the hero.

Click to shrink...

For Hero, you can use the Traveller's Hood outfit for something similar to the default. But yeah, that is a weird oversight. The fashion option also doesn't work in 2D mode for whatever reason.

I kinda wish they'd let us use the Octagonia masks as outfits for the characters that participated in that tournament with an equipment piece like the Malleable Mask, since those models already exist.

 

[Nelo Ice]

Wheel of Harma is so much more difficult than anything else I fought. It's where missing an attack or getting hit by an ailment really got to me. I did the weapon switching and was really impressed with Boomerangs, which I hadn't used all game. Now that I'm in late game, I can try other weapons other than the one path I go all in on too.

Click to shrink...

Lol I was too lazy to make or find a nice boomerang so was like fuck it just sticking with knives.

 

[mnk]

I just had my first gameover at the start of Act 2. It was a real Xenoblade moment.

Spoiler

That big monster with the decoy cactus just wrecked my merry band of Sylvando fanboys. My poor darlings...

 

[Apopheniac]

Spoiler: Act 3

so do you not even need to do the other Drunstan trials to get all the wishes? I ran the first one a second time to grab some loot I missed and he had me fight the second boss (30 turn limit, spammed Kazap and won in 19), then I got another wish and unlocked the third trial. Haven't done the second trial yet

 

[Durden]

Another thing that bothers me and I realize this is probably a weird personal thing, but I wish that the world map could be accessed in more detail. Like the ability to view it not just in the zoom menu, and zoom in and shit.

One of my favorite parts about the 2D DQs was their ability to cement a sense of place throughout the broad world. Through just the lens of the top-down view, but also through the world map. In DQ11 it still does this impressively considering it's 3D, but I feel like it's a little harder for you to realize where you/cities are in relevance to the rest of the world just because of the way the map works. If that makes any sense.

 

[Aexact]

Spoiler: Act 3

so do you not even need to do the other Drunstan trials to get all the wishes? I ran the first one a second time to grab some loot I missed and he had me fight the second boss (30 turn limit, spammed Kazap and won in 19), then I got another wish and unlocked the third trial. Haven't done the second trial yet

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: Act 3 Wishes

Oh dang. I didn't know they let you fail. There's five wishes and three trials so they make you redo a trial for the other two. The puzzles are already solved but the boss at the end will be different. You could probably do it again until you successfully get all the wishes

 

[DPT120]

These side stories are so sad. I thought they were going to be happy after Sylvando's. Jade's story was really creepy.

 

[NoName999]

Jade's was peak "Anime was a mistake"

 

[Kurtikeya]

Im stuck on Come On Kiefer. In the mines there are several blocks that wont move to forge a path forward. Does anyone know what I am talking about or had that issue?

Click to shrink...

Just push a block next to a samecolored one and they'll both break.

 

[Uncle at Nintendo]

Just push a block next to a samecolored one and they'll both break.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I had trouble on the second to last area. One of the blue boulders absolutely would not move. I refreshed the area several times until it worked. It was really odd.

 

[Apopheniac]

The main things I'd appreciate would be viewable statistics for skills/spells/Pep Powers like power/effect chance/etc, statistics for Pepped Up bonuses, and maybe some extra info in the Bestiary for, like, enemy HP and known spells. I know I can look it up in a guide, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the game to explain what I can do more in-depth.

 

[ArcLyte]

just started this tonight, it's delightful

 

[shadow2810]

the casino jackpot quest is the. worst.

 

[Kurtikeya]

Man it's annoying not being able to check the bestiary while in Tickington. This will take some time to fill out the entries.

 

[Astraer]

Just picked this up and having platted it twice last year, any advice for my switch playthrough? I've already beaten it on harder monsters/less exp.

Is it worth it to play it all in 2D? Wouldn't mind seeing the new content in 3D though so when should I switch back if I wanna see that?

 

[SuperSah]

Just started playing - made it to Heliodor. Man, DQ games never lose their charm :)