I gotta say, something just feels right about switching to the Drasilian armor look for the Hero in Act 2
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
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)
- Thread starter Deleted member 10737
- Start date
Where you at? Cuz I'm 70 hours in and very much agree by this point.
Really wish you could toggle the headgear independently from the rest of the outfits.
I only played Dragon Quest IX on the DS before this one. I loved it because i love customizing characters and stat building and all that. But after getting 20 hours into XI I can see why some people were unhappy with the change. The personalities and stories in this game are just amazing. Sylvando is fantastic and man, I was not ready for Michelle.
So are neither of you not enjoying it as much? Becoming too plodding/boring?
I've loved what I have played so far, but have only finished the demo.
Okay the dumbest thing happens in Act 3, something very similar to KH3. Spoilers for both:
Ugh.
Jesus you're playing at blazing speed.
You go back in time and prevent Jasper from ambushing your party... only to do absolutely nothing against the king which you know to be Mordegon. If not for that little black tockle... then what? This is like KH3 where you get a redo of the part everyone dies but Sora does... nothing differently? And both games you're basically saved by outside forces even though the characters should know better.
Ugh.
Jesus you're playing at blazing speed.
is the squid the hardest boss in the game (at least on harder enemies)? I had to grind so much to beat that dude, and I beat him literally last omnislash with only 11 still alive, that I've now low diffed the following three bosses on my first try with no deaths.
I wonder if I missed an obvious strategy, or it's just that the higher hp on the tentacles makes the boss op and imbalanced af
I wonder if I missed an obvious strategy, or it's just that the higher hp on the tentacles makes the boss op and imbalanced af
If you're in Act 3 already, then you can just fight the boss and end the game.
Last edited:
I enjoyed it so much. It's more like Dio meme to me.
YOU THINK THIS IS THE END? But no! It's me! ACT3!!!
I always go to sleep when finished game. But this give me false hope lol. (It's 3 am here.)
Can I know where you found them and what level on average is your party, please?
Late (I assume) act 2, party level is around 50 (and I feel a bit underlevelled TBH, normal difficulty):
The Fortress of Fear
Okay guys I need help. I am getting my ass kicked against the Witch in Act 1. Party is at level 31, I can manage her at the begining but then she spams Blizzard which buffs her attack (around 100 dmg for their whole team) and debuff my accuracy. Also, she attacks 2 times each turn.
Any tips ?
Any tips ?
I beat the
first try on stronger monsters with my party at level 24! I constantly juggled my line up shifting in Sylvano for hustle dance, Serena for Kabuff refreshes, and Rab and Veronica for sap and deceleratlle. I didn't use Confuse at all but had Hero and Jade equipped with the casino weapons and used Serena's Ice Hymn to reduce damage from the breath. It was frequently really close with a few Veronica deaths and many party members around 30hp. Without the casino weapons and line-up juggling I can imagine it being pretty difficult!
Could anyone give me an estimate of my completion %? I'm almost thirty-five hours in. This game is such an absolute delight, endlessly charming and endearing with plenty of challenge and excitement with stronger monsters on. I'm in love.
Tentacular
Could anyone give me an estimate of my completion %? I'm almost thirty-five hours in. This game is such an absolute delight, endlessly charming and endearing with plenty of challenge and excitement with stronger monsters on. I'm in love.
Keep up Veronica's Magic Barrier (x2) and Serena's Ice Melody. Use Sylvando's Hustle Dance for AoE healing.
Keep the boss Sap'd and Decelerate'd, and the Hero Oomph'd (x2) / Oomphle'd, and when you get a chance (preferably between blizzards), use Unbridled Blade. Shouldn't take too many of those to defeat her if they're fully set up.
(If your Hero isn't spec'd GS, then do that. They're way better than swords for much of the game. Unbridled Blade is the lower hidden skill on the GS side of Swordmastery.)
If you're still having trouble, do your best to forge/buy some ice/elemental resist gear. There's a recipe book for resistance earrings and stuff in the library dungeon.
That's pretty much my current strategy. Sap misses a lot so I didn't use it tho.
I'll take a look at some recipe thanks ;)
Seconding this. I made four sets of earrings at +1 and +2 and they make a huge difference for that fight.
I'm here to say that Act 3 is in no way, shape, or form a post-game. The game's story isn't over, so why would it be considered post-game? I can't understand why the notion that Act 3 is some sort of post-game has become so widespread.
Just because the credits rolled doesn't mean you fully beat the game.
credits rolled at the end of the primary narrative with the most story beats. That is "beating a game". I didn't say "fully beating a game".
Just because the game gave you more content towards an extra ending doesn't stop the fact that you successfully completed an entire story w credits.
Act 3 is like a Bonus lap for those having fun, if you aren't having fun then feel confident that you still beat the game.
They should've put save spots in some of the Tockle quests. There's no way to save or get your HP/MP back once you enter Tickington at all, from what I can tell.
There's a free inn in Tickington where you can heal and store your money
So would nier automata fill the same requirement? Or does that get a pass because theres a screen saying "nah dont stop playing" after the credits.
Just made it to Octagonia, about 12 hours in and I have to say I'm absolutely loving this game. It's so impressive to me how good this game looks and that it was able to all fit on the cartridge. Easily one of the best 3rd party efforts on the system.
Got knocked on my ass with strep throat the last few days so I've had more time to play and this has been the perfect game to relax with.
Got knocked on my ass with strep throat the last few days so I've had more time to play and this has been the perfect game to relax with.
Yes, they are still classified as "endings" in the games narrative, its up to you to decide if you want to see them all or not.
This is more similar to Lunar 2's act structure in which the big bad and primary motivator for most of the story dies at the end of the second act, roll credits, and then you have more game left to achieve another ending.
Nothing wrong with finishing the game at the first ending, nothing wrong with going on towards the last ending. Just if you aren't having fun anymore don't torture yourself playing a game when you have seen the credits.
Serena's anti-ice move is a must. If I'm not mistaken, elemental resists STACK additively so if you have multiple sources of ice resist (equipment + Serena's harp), you can trivialize ice damage. Since this boss mostly uses ice attack & you can guess that well in advance from just following the story, I found it to be one of the easiest boss fights in the game in my first playthrough since I had anti-ice equipment already prepped.
Those who are having problems with the Tentacular boss, approach him as if he were a SMT boss. Once you've applied a couple of buffs/debuffs he becomes really easy, even with stronger monsters on. Spam AoE with Veronica and the MC while Serena and Rab do the healing and buffing. You can easily brute force him, without having to grind levels
Act 2 is also kinda nonlinear so you might have done a more difficult path and then gotten back to the easier path later.
That's what happened to me.
Gotcha, then you may indeed have overleveled a bit. Act 2 is where I had my first full wipe out (normal difficulty) though so it might be a good thing you're overleveled.
I wrote out a bunch of tips.
Difficulty:
The game is rather easy on normal mode unless you underlevel. If you want a challenge, at the very least select Stronger Enemies. You can always deactivate draconian mods later so start with all the mods you think you might want and change it later if desired.
If you do select Stronger Enemies (and moreso if you select additional draconian mods), the first few areas are stacked against you (one character party, high stat enemies, minimal healing). I recommend avoiding most fights until you get the ability to craft equipment/items. The mandatory fights before then generally give you helper NPC characters so they're not too tough even underleveled. Once you've got your second party member & the ability to craft things, you can grind out a couple levels and the difficulty becomes much more manageable.
Structure:
The game is long. There are basically 3 acts to the game - the first half, the second half, and the post-game. If you have to ask "Have I reached the second act yet?" the answer is no - the act break is blatantly obvious. Likewise, even though the 3rd act is technically the post-game, there's a lot more story content & gameplay left to go - like someone else mentioned, it's more like a big version of the post-game in Lunar: Eternal Blue than a traditional post-game.
Exploration:
Make sure to try to fight each enemy in every area at least once to see what you can steal from them. The second item listed is the rare drop which you may get from the Itemized Kill pep move (which turns your normal steal chance into a chance to steal the rare item & your fail chance into a chance to steal the regular item). Both regular & rare items may also just drop from enemies upon defeating them.
In a reversal from the Final Fantasy series, bosses generally don't have items that you can steal, but regular enemies all do (and sometimes even the regular steal item is good).
Some enemies & gather points only appear at night.
Some enemy types only pop up with other enemies. Like for example, metal slime-type enemies usually don't show up on the map, but sometimes show up with other enemies. Likewise, there are some very rare versions of some enemy types that have a small chance of showing up with the regular enemy type (there's an early quest to fight one of these around Gallopolis) so just keep fighting the regular enemy type over and over if you're trying to get one of these to show up.
Skill panels:
Every character has 1 special stat panel that PERMANENTLY gives you 10 skill points the first time you allocate it. These extra skill points remain even after refunding the panel. Most of these panels aren't available before you unlock the character's full skill grid, but a couple characters can get these bonus points in Act 1. The game doesn't tell you in advance where these panels are so experiment (save first) or just look up the spots.
Don't be afraid to respec since all it costs is some money (and if you have the no-shop draconian mod, you have more than enough money for frequent respecs). The "best" skill spec for each character tends to change drastically as the game progresses depending on what new equipment you gain, when you hit certain point thresholds to be able tor each key panels, and what enemies/bosses you're up against (for example, Serena's harp & wand skills are invaluable in some boss fights, but not horribly useful early on). Some skill setups are better suited for random encounters & others are better for bosses.
You can freely change equipment mid-battle with no penalty so investing in multiple weapon types for different purposes isn't always a bad idea.
2 atk points = 1 extra point of damage for attacks (so don't be too worried about those +3 & +5 atk point panels unless you're right at the beginning of the game). 4 def points = 1 reduced point of damage taken for attacks.
Generally attack skills apply a multiple to your base attack damage (so they scale really well with improved stats & buffs like Oomph) whereas spell skills have a base damage range that is modified somewhat by the relevant stat (so they scale better by getting more advanced versions of the spell). However, there are some weapon-based skills that scale like spells (like for example, Erik can get a boomerang skill that deals really good damage if you get it ASAP but doesn't scale well past then).
When you refund skill points, you refund them by categories. There is no requirement to have a chain that connects to your starting spot. This trick can be useful for characters like Sylvando (with some refunding, you can get the +10 skill point panel & then get the Hustle Dance panel or some charm attacks right from the start) or the Hero (grab panels in Swordmastery & then refund 1H/2H Swords).
Equipment:
The highest stat isn't always the best equipment - be sure to check the detailed info to see if there are useful secondary effects.
Forging extra levels on equipment has different effects depending on the equipment. On some equipment, it'll just give a small stat bonus whereas on other equipment, the boost is immense to the point where one piece of equipment might be stronger at base level and a different piece is stronger at +3. Also, the secondary effects may or may not be affected by additional levels. Always check the detailed stat page to see how valuable upgrading equipment is.
The charm stat isn't horribly useful on most characters (although it gives a tiny chance of making enemies skip a turn, I believe), but Sylvando & Jade both have skills that use charm to scale their damage/healing so style builds on them can be useful.
Combat:
Dragon Quest is like a SMT game in that buffs, debuffs, and ailments are all very useful, even in boss fights. There are even some special debuffs that make enemies more susceptible to other debuffs/ailments.
Buffs & debuffs generally have 2 levels of power. Applying a 2nd level of power to a buff or debuff will also refresh the duration so for example, going Kabuff and then waiting until it's about to expire before using it again will give you more bang for your buck than just using Kabuff twice in a row.
Turn order is based on your agility stat (modified by speed buffs/debuffs) with some randomization. If a character has over double another character's speed, they will always act before them, otherwise, it's not a guarantee.
If there's a clear panel behind a character's portrait, they haven't had their turn yet.
There's no penalty to switching out a character that has already acted that turn for someone else. Use this to your advantage. For example, swap in a dead character for your healer to revive & then swap them out so they don't get killed before they have a chance to heal. Or swap out a character that's low on life for a full life character & then swap the character back in when it's time to use a full-party heal.
Pepped up status lasts for a set number of turns. The turn count for pepped doesn't go down if the character is in reserve so if you're trying to use a specific pep ability (like Itemized Kill for rare item stealing or a Quest-required one) or you want to prepare for a boss fight, consider sticking your pepped character in reserve.
Characters are more likely to gain pep when they're low on HP and also when other characters in the party have pep. Generally in boss fights, you gain pep frequently since you're losing a lot of party HP.
Here's a big thread with detailed information on skills based on the original Japanese versions of the game if you want to look more in-depth into formulas & effects: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/179347-dragon-quest-xi-echoes-of-an-elusive-age/76888622
Difficulty:
The game is rather easy on normal mode unless you underlevel. If you want a challenge, at the very least select Stronger Enemies. You can always deactivate draconian mods later so start with all the mods you think you might want and change it later if desired.
If you do select Stronger Enemies (and moreso if you select additional draconian mods), the first few areas are stacked against you (one character party, high stat enemies, minimal healing). I recommend avoiding most fights until you get the ability to craft equipment/items. The mandatory fights before then generally give you helper NPC characters so they're not too tough even underleveled. Once you've got your second party member & the ability to craft things, you can grind out a couple levels and the difficulty becomes much more manageable.
Structure:
The game is long. There are basically 3 acts to the game - the first half, the second half, and the post-game. If you have to ask "Have I reached the second act yet?" the answer is no - the act break is blatantly obvious. Likewise, even though the 3rd act is technically the post-game, there's a lot more story content & gameplay left to go - like someone else mentioned, it's more like a big version of the post-game in Lunar: Eternal Blue than a traditional post-game.
Exploration:
Make sure to try to fight each enemy in every area at least once to see what you can steal from them. The second item listed is the rare drop which you may get from the Itemized Kill pep move (which turns your normal steal chance into a chance to steal the rare item & your fail chance into a chance to steal the regular item). Both regular & rare items may also just drop from enemies upon defeating them.
In a reversal from the Final Fantasy series, bosses generally don't have items that you can steal, but regular enemies all do (and sometimes even the regular steal item is good).
Some enemies & gather points only appear at night.
Some enemy types only pop up with other enemies. Like for example, metal slime-type enemies usually don't show up on the map, but sometimes show up with other enemies. Likewise, there are some very rare versions of some enemy types that have a small chance of showing up with the regular enemy type (there's an early quest to fight one of these around Gallopolis) so just keep fighting the regular enemy type over and over if you're trying to get one of these to show up.
Skill panels:
Every character has 1 special stat panel that PERMANENTLY gives you 10 skill points the first time you allocate it. These extra skill points remain even after refunding the panel. Most of these panels aren't available before you unlock the character's full skill grid, but a couple characters can get these bonus points in Act 1. The game doesn't tell you in advance where these panels are so experiment (save first) or just look up the spots.
Don't be afraid to respec since all it costs is some money (and if you have the no-shop draconian mod, you have more than enough money for frequent respecs). The "best" skill spec for each character tends to change drastically as the game progresses depending on what new equipment you gain, when you hit certain point thresholds to be able tor each key panels, and what enemies/bosses you're up against (for example, Serena's harp & wand skills are invaluable in some boss fights, but not horribly useful early on). Some skill setups are better suited for random encounters & others are better for bosses.
You can freely change equipment mid-battle with no penalty so investing in multiple weapon types for different purposes isn't always a bad idea.
2 atk points = 1 extra point of damage for attacks (so don't be too worried about those +3 & +5 atk point panels unless you're right at the beginning of the game). 4 def points = 1 reduced point of damage taken for attacks.
Generally attack skills apply a multiple to your base attack damage (so they scale really well with improved stats & buffs like Oomph) whereas spell skills have a base damage range that is modified somewhat by the relevant stat (so they scale better by getting more advanced versions of the spell). However, there are some weapon-based skills that scale like spells (like for example, Erik can get a boomerang skill that deals really good damage if you get it ASAP but doesn't scale well past then).
When you refund skill points, you refund them by categories. There is no requirement to have a chain that connects to your starting spot. This trick can be useful for characters like Sylvando (with some refunding, you can get the +10 skill point panel & then get the Hustle Dance panel or some charm attacks right from the start) or the Hero (grab panels in Swordmastery & then refund 1H/2H Swords).
Equipment:
The highest stat isn't always the best equipment - be sure to check the detailed info to see if there are useful secondary effects.
Forging extra levels on equipment has different effects depending on the equipment. On some equipment, it'll just give a small stat bonus whereas on other equipment, the boost is immense to the point where one piece of equipment might be stronger at base level and a different piece is stronger at +3. Also, the secondary effects may or may not be affected by additional levels. Always check the detailed stat page to see how valuable upgrading equipment is.
The charm stat isn't horribly useful on most characters (although it gives a tiny chance of making enemies skip a turn, I believe), but Sylvando & Jade both have skills that use charm to scale their damage/healing so style builds on them can be useful.
Combat:
Dragon Quest is like a SMT game in that buffs, debuffs, and ailments are all very useful, even in boss fights. There are even some special debuffs that make enemies more susceptible to other debuffs/ailments.
Buffs & debuffs generally have 2 levels of power. Applying a 2nd level of power to a buff or debuff will also refresh the duration so for example, going Kabuff and then waiting until it's about to expire before using it again will give you more bang for your buck than just using Kabuff twice in a row.
Turn order is based on your agility stat (modified by speed buffs/debuffs) with some randomization. If a character has over double another character's speed, they will always act before them, otherwise, it's not a guarantee.
If there's a clear panel behind a character's portrait, they haven't had their turn yet.
There's no penalty to switching out a character that has already acted that turn for someone else. Use this to your advantage. For example, swap in a dead character for your healer to revive & then swap them out so they don't get killed before they have a chance to heal. Or swap out a character that's low on life for a full life character & then swap the character back in when it's time to use a full-party heal.
Pepped up status lasts for a set number of turns. The turn count for pepped doesn't go down if the character is in reserve so if you're trying to use a specific pep ability (like Itemized Kill for rare item stealing or a Quest-required one) or you want to prepare for a boss fight, consider sticking your pepped character in reserve.
Characters are more likely to gain pep when they're low on HP and also when other characters in the party have pep. Generally in boss fights, you gain pep frequently since you're losing a lot of party HP.
Here's a big thread with detailed information on skills based on the original Japanese versions of the game if you want to look more in-depth into formulas & effects: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/179347-dragon-quest-xi-echoes-of-an-elusive-age/76888622
I just finished the painting boss and got the magic key. Now I took the purple orb. How far I'm I from end game ? No spoilers plz just tell me how many hours or % of the game left.
I thought you were supposed to get a free Skill Seed for completing the demo and transferring your save to the full game. But it didn't get anything, only the 5 Skill Seeds from the free DLC. How are you supposed to get the seed? :/
Edit: OK, nvm. Seems that your didn't actually get anything for playing the demo outside of Japan.
Edit: OK, nvm. Seems that your didn't actually get anything for playing the demo outside of Japan.
I disagree, this is like calling Super Mario Galaxy 60 stars finish as finishing a game just due to the credits sequence.
But I do agree that they shouldn't force finishing it if they aren't having fun.
Was challenged for the first time in the game so far, Tentacular took me 3 or 4 tries, but I managed to beat him without grinding. I'm perfectly happy with the difficulty being on the easier side, I prefer a bit of a joyride through jrpgs, but it was nice to be on the edge of my seat there a bit.
Oh, I guess characters come back with more levels on them. That's convenient.
...Do they come back at a set level, or X levels above their previous? My Rab got like five levels IIRC up to 37
...Do they come back at a set level, or X levels above their previous? My Rab got like five levels IIRC up to 37
Thanks for all of that. I'm like 55 hours in and I haven't once used the respec functionality, I didn't know you could sorta exploit it like that (getting abilities without having to get their neighboring panels).
Especially after everyone's skill board got so much bigger this will be very useful
Huh, that's a weird estimate, but I guess it is pretty open. For me it was 90% through Act 1.
I'm glad the little girls academy is okay
Why is the Hero the only one who can wear the Mardi Garb? Hendrik and Rab both had parade outfits as well
Why is the Hero the only one who can wear the Mardi Garb? Hendrik and Rab both had parade outfits as well
you can't even do two of the orb quest until after you get the magic key, so I think it's your estimate that is off base