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Author Topic: Dragon Quest General  (Read 35288 times)

WarpRattler

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« on: July 30, 2010, 09:15:39 PM »
Getting it out of the other thread.

Anyone aside from Weegee, LD, and myself buy/play it?
« Last Edit: January 18, 2011, 05:11:22 AM by WarpRattler »

Black Mage

  • HP 1018 MP 685
« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2010, 09:31:50 PM »
Yup, I've got it and am a little ways into it.

Been fun so far.

« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2010, 10:38:18 AM »
I got off to an unhappy start because the character creator wouldn't let me have a beard, but then the first battle was against a giant walking cucumber so I was happy again. It's weird hearing all the musical cues that I strongly associatie with the wonderful Rocket Slime.

The localization writing is superb on this. I haven't seen such constant deft alliteration since Stan Lee.

What does DQVC stand for?

WarpRattler

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« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2010, 11:35:26 AM »
I don't think it actually stands for anything - more likely that they just went for an obvious reference. And thanks for reminding me that I need to set up WFC stuff.

I went to GameStop's site to see if either of the locations near me are participating in the map event today - turns out that unless one of them is doing it and just isn't in the online thing (which is a digital map instead of just being a list of participating locations, which is dumb), the closest is at least an hour's drive away.

« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2010, 04:11:23 PM »
What does DQVC stand for?

Yeah, it's just a pun on the home shopping channel, QVC.

I'm not sure what to think of the visible enemy encounter system. The ability to avoid or hunt down certain monsters can be useful, but nothing is worse than being chased by a Great Troll while thinking to yourself, "oh [dukar] oh [dukar] oh [dukar] I'm gonna die oh [dukar]..."

Spoiler for those who haven't made considerable headway into the game: The Gittish Empire is the greatest meta-reference I've ever seen in a game. Everything is spot-on, from the generals' names to the archaic insults they use.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

WarpRattler

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« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2010, 05:24:22 PM »
nothing is worse than being chased
You could just hit X and cast Zoom (or Evac if you're indoors, though I'm guessing in your situation this would involve leaving a grotto). Or find an obstacle to get the monster to run into, since that stops any chasing enemy dead in its tracks. Or if you time it right, there's a way to make a chasing enemy fall far behind, but it only works if you have open space. Additionally, just having the menu open makes it impossible to activate an encounter...and there's a later ability for one of the classes that basically makes you invisible.

I do wish DQ9 had some sort of story log aside from the thing that comes up when you open the world map. I finished the quest at the academy, and it told me the item I recovered there was number six...but I went through the locations I had already finished, and they added up to seven. Turned out that though I had already done the quests at all of the locations, I had forgotten to save after one of them, and I'm guessing what happened was that since I was playing well into the morning hours that day, I ended up falling asleep with the system still on, and it was dead when I woke up. I'd guess the save I loaded later that day was in the same location, so I thought I had finished the quest, and went on to explore the world further.

At any rate, I quickly found out which one it was, and I'm finishing that up right now. But a story log would be really nice.

« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2010, 12:44:26 AM »
Is there any particular reason that this game is written in British? Defence?

WarpRattler

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« Reply #7 on: August 01, 2010, 02:23:12 AM »
I believe all the other Dragon Quest games that have come over here in recent memory have been the same way. And seeing "colour" and "defence" and so on goes along with the variety of European dialects you see throughout the game's world.

I'd guess Weegee feels right at home among his alternative-spelling brethren.

« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2010, 01:01:16 PM »
Dragon Quest V also uses British English, so it can be assumed that most of the series does.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

« Reply #9 on: August 02, 2010, 09:04:13 AM »
This is the face of a killer:



Fear the Darkonium Slime.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

WarpRattler

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« Reply #10 on: August 02, 2010, 12:26:05 PM »
[darnit], man, I'm still busy fearing Shogum. As well as the twisted being I'm going to have to fight when I reach the end of the final story area.

Also, I took down the Nemean yesterday for the quest that involves doing so with the weakest staff in the game. If post-game battles are going to make me actually have to think about what I'm doing like that battle did (and don't become "spam the most powerful move in the game" like Strange Journey's postgame eventually did), I'm going to be enjoying this game for a very long time.

« Reply #11 on: August 02, 2010, 06:06:47 PM »
Shogum isn't terrible with a few Kabuffs and a well-equipped Warrior or Paladin.

"spam the most powerful move in the game"

It's not a necessity, but using Kafrizzle while your Mage's Coup de Grace is active really helps shorten boss encounters. Using the Channel Anger ability beforehand will let your Mage deal 300-400 damage per turn.

Speaking of which, what's everyone's usual team? Mine is Armamentalist/Priest/Mage/Paladin.
YYur  waYur n beYur you Yur plusYur instYur an Yur Yur whaYur

WarpRattler

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« Reply #12 on: August 02, 2010, 07:34:03 PM »
Shogum probably isn't too bad when you're actually at an appropriate level to fight him, either.

Since I've got one of the maps for it, I attempted to fight one of the legacy bosses earlier. I got slaughtered, but it was great hearing "Dormaguez" playing when I fought it.

Have you maxed out the Sage skill track on your Mage? It gets you a 25% reduction on MP costs. And some of the Sage skills are very useful - Jack's Knack, for example, lets you change your characters' vocations anywhere.

Also, I usually have multiple Paladins, because their Coup de Grâce is absurdly good, and the more chances at it, the better. Furthermore, I'm currently trying to max out everyone's Paladin track before I worry about switching them to other classes (I have everyone's except the main character's done) because I've heard resilience and HP are pretty much the most useful boosts you can get.

(Also, I'm sure the most powerful move I was referring to in Strange Journey is more absurd than anything in Dragon Quest IX, since it hits all enemies for massive Almighty damage (a special damage type that isn't affected by the various elemental and physical resistances) and docks all their stats one level. And since all my demons had a special ability that made them return to full HP and MP after every battle, we were basically unstoppable.)

WarpRattler

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« Reply #13 on: August 03, 2010, 04:48:52 PM »
105 hours in, I've only finished about half of the sidequests (not counting downloadable weekly quests), completed 75% of the Bestiary, obtained 24% of the equipment, found 62% of the consumable items, and cooked up 6% of the Alchenomicon.
Bringing this up because I just finished the story, and a bit over 87 hours in, I'm at 73% bestiary completion, 18% wardrobe completion, 57% item completion, and 7% Alchenomicon completion. And 49 quests done.

« Reply #14 on: August 03, 2010, 10:46:29 PM »
Man... I felt bad about putting 27 hours into Red Dead Redemption. Not anymore though because 80 is a sick nasty amount of hours for one story, let alone one game.

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