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)

Durden · Oct 18, 2019

Uggggggghhhh....I'm pretty sure a YouTube thumbnail just spoiled a pretty major returning character for me from the earlier games. God I fucking hate when that happens. I'm just searching for DQ music and then "oh you wanted to see an image near the end of the game right?".

God fucking dammit. If it's legit which it certainly looked to be, that would have been so cool to see without being spoiled.

ned_ballad · Oct 18, 2019

There's actually just one more thing I think I want to take care of before I call this done

either marry Sylvando or Serena, but it's hard to pick...

Skittzo · Oct 18, 2019

Durden said:
Uggggggghhhh....I'm pretty sure a YouTube thumbnail just spoiled a pretty major returning character for me from the earlier games. God I fucking hate when that happens. I'm just searching for DQ music and then "oh you wanted to see an image near the end of the game right?".

God fucking dammit. If it's legit which it certainly looked to be, that would have been so cool to see without being spoiled.

Errr... Having beaten it I'm not sure you saw what you think you saw. I think I know what you're talking about and if I'm right it's not a returning character.

Durden · Oct 18, 2019

skittzo0413 said:
Errr... Having beaten it I'm not sure you saw what you think you saw. I think I know what you're talking about and if I'm right it's not a returning character.

Please don't go into more detail if this is true but...

I saw a thumbnail that showed the Dragonlord, from DQ1, in DQ11.

Deleted member 33571 · Oct 18, 2019

This game has gotten pretty dark at a couple points already but the goddamn priest in Puerto Valor, who I probably spent more time talking to than any other character because of the casino, having died caught me more off-guard than anything so far lol. And the new priest saying that there's nowhere for his spirit to go without Yggdrasil? Wild.

At first I was like 'how has anyone survived the event at the end of act 1', and I'm still wondering that to an extent, but the ways they've woven it into the worldbuilding are so effective.

Skittzo · Oct 18, 2019

Durden said:
Please don't go into more detail if this is true but...

I saw a thumbnail that showed the Dragonlord, from DQ1, in DQ11.

All I'll say is that you don't have to worry, nothing was spoiled for you.

ned_ballad · Oct 18, 2019

You know, looking back, a gender choice in this game could have been feasible just by swapping Gemma's and Eleven's roles in the story. Just a clean swap of who their parents are, their house, etc.

Although I guess it'd require them to do voice acting for multiple voice lines that reference the player's gender, but it's not like it'd be impossible, story wise, for this game to have offered a gender option

Durden · Oct 18, 2019

skittzo0413 said:
All I'll say is that you don't have to worry, nothing was spoiled for you.

Oh....huh. Well cool! Thanks for the clarification. I've been loving the story a lot and it's revelations, so I'm super glad I'm still blind.

Skittzo · Oct 18, 2019

ned_ballad said:
You know, looking back, a gender choice in this game could have been feasible just by swapping Gemma's and Eleven's rolls in the story. Just a clean swap of who their parents are, their house, etc.

Although I guess it'd require them to do voice acting for multiple voice lines that reference the player's gender, but it's not like it'd be impossible, story wise, for this game to have offered a gender option

One day I wanna see a canonically female protagonist. I know 3, 9 and 10 let your choose genders but we've never had a straight up female DQ hero.

Lord Vatek · Oct 18, 2019

skittzo0413 said:
One day I wanna see a canonically female protagonist. I know 3, 9 and 10 let your choose genders but we've never had a straight up female DQ hero.

4 did too.

The closest we've come to that is DQX having Anlucia as the mascot character of the game.

Fireblend · Oct 18, 2019

Started Act 3 proper.

It really doesn't seem to me like this is a multiple timelines situation, at least not with what I've seen, I dunno if the time traveling stuff gets expanded upon later but the events in the tower read to me like pretty straightforward time travel, i.e. that world stopped existing the moment the time sphere was destroyed.

Skittzo · Oct 18, 2019

Lord Vatek said:
4 did too.

The closest we've come to that is DQX having Anlucia as the mascot character of the game.

That's right, I forgot about 4 having gender choice for some reason.

Apopheniac · Oct 18, 2019

jedivulcan said:
I wonder if it was a creative or technical decision. It seems easier to pick a single style for both the music and the visuals and scale it to HD.

ned_ballad said:
A lot of the Tickington missions re-use tilesets, so that might have been a consideration

Since the assets already existed from the 3DS game, maybe there was an issue with porting them over? I could see replicating the 3D-style games, considering the Switch game doesn't use the chibi models

retrobotjr · Oct 18, 2019

Just rolled credits for the first time, first time doing so in a mainline DQ (though I did beat DW Monsters when it came out). I've wanted to enjoy DQ for a long time but none of them ever stuck until now. Gotta keep going and see what else there is to do now!

Nelo Ice · Oct 18, 2019

In act 3 doing the wheel of harma .

Trial 4 was pure luck. My chats were all 67 more or less and I barely got to 18 moves. And that was mostly due to everything rolling my way in the first 3 battles. Last battle Hendrik nearly died before I could finish the last enemy.

Kurtikeya · Oct 18, 2019

So is there freeplay after beating Calasmos? Because one quest is contingent upon that.

Deleted member 38050 · Oct 18, 2019

Kurtikeya said:
So is there freeplay after beating Calasmos? Because one quest is contingent upon that.

Yes totally! You can go beat his ass again if you want, too.

Eterno · Oct 19, 2019

Finished Act 1 after 35h of gameplay and I'm probably done with the game, but I have a question though.

I heard that the end of Act 1 was a great moment so I was very excited to climb the World Tree, but then the way it's all done made me feel like I wasted 35h of game time. I expected an epic boss fight, but was served with an unwinnable battle that is not even a fight Basically all the work to get to the World Tree resulted in absolutely nothing, no reward whatsoever, even scenario wise (all way too obvious). Seriously what was the point of this first act? I wouldn't be upset if it was maybe 10 hours into the game, but after 35 hours of getting stronger, gathering orbs and all, it all feels pointless.
They should have at least made the fight against Jasper a real one you can win and then the King could have buffed him up after That would have given me some sense of power instead of my whole team being an absolute powerless bunch.
So I get this a Final Fantasy VI's World of Ruin situation and my question is, is the world drastically different in Act 2 like WoR or is it just a gloomy version of the same world as Act 1? I don't think I can go through the same world again after this.

Joltik · Oct 19, 2019

Okay no spoilers, just give me a "yes or no" answer for Sylvando. For context I'm in the middle of Act 2.

will his skill tree "expand" to new unlockable skills like what happened to other characters or is it a what you see is what you get with him? I've nearly filled out his showmanship and Lithiness skills but I have 50+ points left because I'm not sure where else to build his tree. He's mostly a support character who's weilding whips, but his abilities are doing higher damage than that thanks to his high Charm stat.

Clay · Oct 19, 2019

Eterno said:
Finished Act 1 after 35h of gameplay and I'm probably done with the game, but I have a question though.

I heard that the end of Act 1 was a great moment so I was very excited to climb the World Tree, but then the way it's all done made me feel like I wasted 35h of game time. I expected an epic boss fight, but was served with an unwinnable battle that is not even a fight Basically all the work to get to the World Tree resulted in absolutely nothing, no reward whatsoever, even scenario wise (all way too obvious). Seriously what was the point of this first act? I wouldn't be upset if it was maybe 10 hours into the game, but after 35 hours of getting stronger, gathering orbs and all, it all feels pointless.
They should have at least made the fight against Jasper a real one you can win and then the King could have buffed him up after That would have given me some sense of power instead of my whole team being an absolute powerless bunch.
So I get this a Final Fantasy VI's World of Ruin situation and my question is, is the world drastically different in Act 2 like WoR or is it just a gloomy version of the same world as Act 1? I don't think I can go through the same world again after this.

I thought that part was great, it really defied expectations. I knew Jasper was going to come and try to screw things up somehow, but I did not see the king being Mordegon the whole time coming at all, and definitely did not expect things to get as desperate as they do. I didn't really care that there wasn't a battle there. You're meant to feel helpless, letting you beat a boss so that you get an arbitrary pat on the head would have ruined the vibe. You'll have other moments where you get to feel powerful. I'm not sure how to answer what the "point" of the first act is. Do you question the existence of any story that doesn't have a happy ending? DQ11 is pretty chill for the most part but it should have been clear from stuff like the mermaid quest that it isn't all charm, whimsy, and sunshine.

The world isn't drastically different, but the second act feels pretty quick compared to the first. You really just stop in at each town, and if you're there for an extended time it's because you're going somewhere new. For example, you probably noticed you never visited the volcano while you were in Hotto. But you do visit each town again and the towns themselves do not have significant changes for the most part. You do definitely visit entirely new areas as well, but they tend to be smaller and you spend more time revisiting the towns).

I loved the second half of the game. I already liked the first act way more than I was expecting it to but it mostly due to the game's charm, the story is pretty cliched but moment-to-moment writing and the characters were great. The story goes to some really unexpected places in the second half, it'd be shame to only play through the opening act.

Have you already stopped playing? The beginning of Act 2 gives you a taste of what the tone will be like, I would definitely play at least a bit to see if you're still dissatisfied. Maybe take a break, put it down and pick it back up in a few weeks or something. Realize that you're only a third or so through the entire story, the end of Act 1 isn't the huge crescendo it sounds like you wanted it to be, it's the end of the first arc of the story.

Joltik said:
Okay no spoilers, just give me a "yes or no" answer for Sylvando. For context I'm in the middle of Act 2.

will his skill tree "expand" to new unlockable skills like what happened to other characters or is it a what you see is what you get with him? I've nearly filled out his showmanship and Lithiness skills but I have 50+ points left because I'm not sure where else to build his tree. He's mostly a support character who's weilding whips, but his abilities are doing higher damage than that thanks to his high Charm stat.

No, for whatever reason Sylvando doesn't get an expanded skill tree in Act 2 like the other characters. Just experiment with the points, you can respec your characters at any time at a chapel.[/spoilers]

FSLink · Oct 19, 2019

Joltik said:
Okay no spoilers, just give me a "yes or no" answer for Sylvando. For context I'm in the middle of Act 2.

will his skill tree "expand" to new unlockable skills like what happened to other characters or is it a what you see is what you get with him? I've nearly filled out his showmanship and Lithiness skills but I have 50+ points left because I'm not sure where else to build his tree. He's mostly a support character who's weilding whips, but his abilities are doing higher damage than that thanks to his high Charm stat.

Yes.

Clay · Oct 19, 2019

Joltik said:
Okay no spoilers, just give me a "yes or no" answer for Sylvando. For context I'm in the middle of Act 2.

will his skill tree "expand" to new unlockable skills like what happened to other characters or is it a what you see is what you get with him? I've nearly filled out his showmanship and Lithiness skills but I have 50+ points left because I'm not sure where else to build his tree. He's mostly a support character who's weilding whips, but his abilities are doing higher damage than that thanks to his high Charm stat.

No, for whatever reason Sylvando doesn't get an expanded skill tree in Act 2 like the other characters. Just experiment with the points, you can respec your characters at any time at a chapel.[/spoilers]

Bitanator · Oct 19, 2019

Eterno said:
Finished Act 1 after 35h of gameplay and I'm probably done with the game, but I have a question though.

I heard that the end of Act 1 was a great moment so I was very excited to climb the World Tree, but then the way it's all done made me feel like I wasted 35h of game time. I expected an epic boss fight, but was served with an unwinnable battle that is not even a fight Basically all the work to get to the World Tree resulted in absolutely nothing, no reward whatsoever, even scenario wise (all way too obvious). Seriously what was the point of this first act? I wouldn't be upset if it was maybe 10 hours into the game, but after 35 hours of getting stronger, gathering orbs and all, it all feels pointless.
They should have at least made the fight against Jasper a real one you can win and then the King could have buffed him up after That would have given me some sense of power instead of my whole team being an absolute powerless bunch.
So I get this a Final Fantasy VI's World of Ruin situation and my question is, is the world drastically different in Act 2 like WoR or is it just a gloomy version of the same world as Act 1? I don't think I can go through the same world again after this.

Play through act 2, but don't do act 3 if you have these thoughts, as I'm sure that will drive you nuts.

julian · Oct 19, 2019

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.

Joltik · Oct 19, 2019

FSLink said:
Yes.

??
Clay just gave me a different answer. So do you mean:

"Yes his tree will expand like the characters" or "Yes it won't expand like the other characters as he started with his full tree when you first got him in Act 1

Clay said:
No, for whatever reason Sylvando doesn't get an expanded skill tree in Act 2 like the other characters. Just experiment with the points, you can respec your characters at any time at a chapel.[/spoilers]

does he have any pep-up power up skills or pep-up chance +5% skills? If so, do you know which branch they are located at?

Aexact · Oct 19, 2019

Joltik said:
Okay no spoilers, just give me a "yes or no" answer for Sylvando. For context I'm in the middle of Act 2.

will his skill tree "expand" to new unlockable skills like what happened to other characters or is it a what you see is what you get with him? I've nearly filled out his showmanship and Lithiness skills but I have 50+ points left because I'm not sure where else to build his tree. He's mostly a support character who's weilding whips, but his abilities are doing higher damage than that thanks to his high Charm stat.

Yes.
But.
... yes.
...

Optional quest in Act 3. It's kinda underwhelming utility wise but the story scenes are fun.

Nelo Ice said:
In act 3 doing the wheel of harma .

Trial 4 was pure luck. My chats were all 67 more or less and I barely got to 18 moves. And that was mostly due to everything rolling my way in the first 3 battles. Last battle Hendrik nearly died before I could finish the last enemy.

Ugh I watched some video runs of those trials for advice and I just feel resentful with how their luck shakes out sometimes. Veronica getting echoes and lucky timing on Pep Ups or crits.

Eterno · Oct 19, 2019

Thanks guys, I'll let my frustration cool down a bit and a play a few hours of Act 2 to see how it goes.

FSLink · Oct 19, 2019

Joltik said:
??
Clay just gave me a different answer. So do you mean:

"Yes his tree will expand like the characters" or "Yes it won't expand like the other characters as he started with his full tree when you first got him in Act 1

does he have any pep-up power up skills or pep-up chance +5% skills? If so, do you know which branch they are located at?

It'll expand. Just make sure to pay attention to sidequests in part 3. And I'm not sure which branch, by the time I was in act 3 I had plenty of money / skill points to respec to whatever I needed for certain situations.

Joltik · Oct 19, 2019

^^okay got it. Thanks Aexact and FSLink.

Nelo Ice · Oct 19, 2019

Aexact said:
Ugh I watched some video runs of those trials for advice and I just feel resentful with how their luck shakes out sometimes. Veronica getting echoes and lucky timing on Pep Ups or crits.

Mine boiled down to Rab's kamikaze taking out nearly everyone in fight 1 and Veronica's magic burst taking out half of the enemies in the third fight. Then Serena's kathwack taking out the remainder without any of them casting bounce.

Aexact · Oct 19, 2019

Nelo Ice said:
Mine boiled down to Rab's kamikaze taking out nearly everyone in fight 1 and Veronica's magic burst taking out half of the enemies in the third fight. Then Serena's kathwack taking out the remainder without any of them casting bounce.

Kamikaze strat was what frustrated me. I didn't realize it could miss!

Deleted member 19782 · Oct 19, 2019

Is Tatsunaga an RNG boss? The Luminary keeps getting killed by his crits (Draconian modifier). My party is around level 45 (I am still missing Erik, Veronica and Serena) with my whole gear being +3 and having 5 Yggdrasil Leaves each

Clay · Oct 19, 2019

Joltik said:
^^okay got it. Thanks Aexact and FSLink.

Sorry if my answer confused things! You specified no spoilers so I was trying to be as non-spoilery as possible.

A lot of people call Act 3 the "post game," which I usually take to mean there will just be a few extra bosses, maybe a couple dungeons, something like that, so I was pretty surprised when there was a ton of story and characters were still getting expanded skill trees and stuff like that.

But to be clear, you shouldn't save your points until then, use them now. And if you ever wonder what's in the hidden spaces on a characters skill tree just use points to see them and then rectify them at a church.

Feltrol said:
Is Tatsunaga an RNG boss? The Luminary keeps getting killed by his crits (Draconian modifier). My party is around level 45 (I am still missing Erik, Veronica and Serena) with my whole gear being +3 and having 5 Yggdrasil Leaves each

I played with no modifiers so I can't be of too much help, but I will say that that was one of the last things I did in Act 2. You might want to do some other stuff and circle back after you've found some new recipes and leveled up a few times.

Deleted member 6230 · Oct 19, 2019

So uuhhh

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

SPRidley · Oct 19, 2019

Just arrived after you leave Gondolia. This game is SOOOOO good.

I only have a problem, the way they added the 3ds content. When I was playign that section i was like, oh wouldnt this part be more charming if every game had its own graphics isntead of "everything is super nintendo!". I said, well, i suppose it was to difficult to do, this is cute enough.
Then i read that the 3ds eversion actually used the graphics of each old DQ, i couldnt belive it so i looked for a video.

FFS, why didnt they port that exactly how it was? Im sure it was more time consumming doing what they did for switch, and playing each section just feels the same instead of a celebration of the older DQ.

Other than that (and a little salty theres no First person camera like ps4, becuase i would adore just being in one place truning the camera around, i didnt even need for first person to move) the game is an bsolute blast.
But i dodnt undertand the definitive edition monicker when they took out some of the ps3 and 3ds good parts out, or changed them for the worse.

Durden said:
Uggggggghhhh....I'm pretty sure a YouTube thumbnail just spoiled a pretty major returning character for me from the earlier games. God I fucking hate when that happens. I'm just searching for DQ music and then "oh you wanted to see an image near the end of the game right?".

God fucking dammit. If it's legit which it certainly looked to be, that would have been so cool to see without being spoiled.

I got spoiled of a character searching for "best weapons for the characters" :(
I should have known better i suppose.

Skittzo · Oct 19, 2019

Aexact said:
Yes.
But.
... yes.
...

Optional quest in Act 3. It's kinda underwhelming utility wise but the story scenes are fun.

Actually I found one skill in particular really useful:

Ladies First. It gives any female party member 2 turns per round. Really helpful when Jade was my primary damage dealer.

Aexact · Oct 19, 2019

skittzo0413 said:
Actually I found one skill in particular really useful:

Ladies First. It gives any female party member 2 turns per round. Really helpful when Jade was my primary damage dealer.

Oh yeah, I've given that one use too. The rest of em seem based on giving him a unsuitable role though.

... In an unrelated matter.
Screw it!

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

Also, for anyone trying to reforge a 2nd Sword of Light, the game doesn't count normal Orichalcum as the right ingredient, you need the rareified Orichalcum that you got from the plot in Act 2. Stumped me for a good bit when the Crucible kept telling me I didn't have the right ingredients.

werezompire · Oct 19, 2019

Got to Dora-In-Grey on Hard mode & expected a tough fight since she was one of the hardest bosses in the game when I played on PC, but apparently they nerfed her in this version. In the previous version, she got 3 moves a turn if you had the Stronger Enemies draconian mod, but apparently in the Switch version, she only gets 2. Probably for the best since she was a big roadblock originally.

Deleted member 2791 · Oct 19, 2019

Okay, I think I've reached Act 2 now (or what I believe it is).

Is it really only the halfpoint? 'cause i'm already at 45 hours played lol

THANKS · Oct 19, 2019

I wish that you could disable the analogue stick dialogue skip controls. My slight joycon drift means I occasionally miss some dialogue :(

I guess I can hold it in the up direction during dialogue.

h8bit · Oct 19, 2019

is the most efficient way to grind at the end of act 2 really to use the electro light pep power? :/ there's no metal king slimes anywhere otherwise?

also what level should i be by now? i'm around 49 on most characters i think

Fireblend · Oct 19, 2019

h8bit said:
is the most efficient way to grind at the end of act 2 really to use the electro light pep power? :/ there's no metal king slimes anywhere otherwise?

also what level should i be by now? i'm around 49 on most characters i think

I beat the act 2 boss around that level pretty easily (no draconian modifiers though).

h8bit · Oct 19, 2019

Fireblend said:
I beat the act 2 boss around that level pretty easily (no draconian modifiers though).

sounds good, i'll stop horsin' around and get to it then. thanks!

KtotheRoc · Oct 19, 2019

I'm not wild about having to complete the main campaign before being able to complete all the Tickington Quests. I know why they do it, but I'm not wild about it.

werezompire · Oct 19, 2019

Passing Assassin said:
Okay, I think I've reached Act 2 now (or what I believe it is).

Is it really only the halfpoint? 'cause i'm already at 45 hours played lol

There's basically 3 acts (Act 3 is technically the post-game, but there's a LOT of story & gameplay content there) so you're not even halfway through.

Deleted member 2791 · Oct 19, 2019

werezompire said:
There's basically 3 acts (Act 3 is technically the post-game, but there's a LOT of story & gameplay content there) so you're not even halfway through.

holy crap
It has to be the longest DQ game ever then, because I've beat the entirety of DQVII in less than 80hours and that was the previous longest.

BassForever · Oct 19, 2019

Major spoilers for act 2 and how to build a certain party member

What's a good way to build Serenica? She has so many options it's a bit overwhelming.

NekoNeko · Oct 19, 2019

Isayas said:
In another 20hrs.

I just ended it with 10.5h on the clock.

Isayas · Oct 19, 2019

Dachhase said:
I just ended it with 10.5h on the clock.

Good stuff

werezompire · Oct 19, 2019

BassForever said:
Major spoilers for act 2 and how to build a certain party member

What's a good way to build Serenica? She has so many options it's a bit overwhelming.

I'm not there yet on the Switch version, but when I played the PC version, the main thing was just to make sure to get the passive that gave her a chance to cast spells twice. It has a high rate of triggering (I'm guessing somewhere between 25%-50%) & it works on all spells, not just offensive ones so it's great for buffing (Kabuff giving 2 levels of defend up to the entire party), debuffs/ailment (two chances at inflicting dazzle or whatever) and healing (if the first cast didn't heal to max, the second one probably will).

Other than getting the doublecast passive, she's great no matter what you do with her so grab the abilities that look good to you and have fun.

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