@kory#25071 I was playing the DS version. It was super fun and I loved the pixel art and animation of the enemies. I also really dug the rotating camera (something I had never seen in an RPG like this before. And I thought fez invented the 2D plane in a 3D world thing lol). It'd be interesting to go back and play a English dub of the ps2 version someday to see if that changes up my experience at all.
@Nritter2#25075 @Syzygy#25082 DQ9 also sort of does it, but in a way that is less obvious. your player character is a 3d model, but npcs are just sprites.
@Syzygy#25082 My first memory of this phenomenon was probably rotating the battle screen with the shoulder buttons in FF Tactics. I doubt it is the first implementation, but I thought it was so cool at the time it sure as heck stuck with me.
@saddleblasters#25084 I was actually kind of disappointed by 9 when I first saw it, since I had played DQM Joker, a spinoff on the DS with a full 3D perspective, and I guess I assumed that since DQ9 was a mainline game it would also have full 3D graphics. My first thought was literally “they just took the DQ 4-6 DS engine and made the sprites a higher resolution!” Nowadays I find that visual style (both the pixel art versions and DQ9’s higher res version) extremely charming. It’s the first thing that enters my brain when I think of Dragon Quest. And in the context of the DS’s constraints, it allows for a much richer world than full 3D would. I’m looking at some videos of Joker now, and all of its maps feel so empty.
Finished Dragon Quest XI two months ago and it’s really made me fall in love with the series, even though I didn’t love the game itself as much as some others seem to. I then accidentally put 15 hours(!?) into the Dragon Quest Builders 2 demo before finally taking a break from that world. I’m really curious how long that demo lets you play for.
I also recently got an old 3DS from my brother and am definitely gonna jump into DQVII next. I feel like I’m gonna like VII more than XI for some reason. It all seems a little cozier on the 3DS.
@price#25122 the demo ends when you finish the initial farm scenario. truly a jumbo demo
@saddleblasters#25086 does dq9 still hold up today as a single player experience? I‘ve stayed away from the game bc everything good I’ve heard about it involves the multi-player aspect, and that isn't something that really interests me.
@Nritter2#25144 I personally really loved this game and never touched the multiplayer (I honestly forgot it even had that feature until you just mentioned it). I‘m a sucker for those low fidelity DS 2D/3D graphics and I really liked how you could completely customize your team–I grew pretty attached to my squad of DQ OCs by the end! The story was pretty good and was more impactful than I expected. The music has also really stuck with me–you will hear the overworld music A LOT, so your enjoyment will have a lot to do with how the music lands with you. As I think I mentioned in another thread this is still the only DQ game I have played all the way through, so I don’t have much to compare it with, but take that for what its worth.
@Nritter2#25144 yeah, I agree with @kory#25149. The single player is just a Dragon Quest game. If you like Dragon Quest then there’s no reason why you wouldn’t enjoy it.
@Nritter2#25144 I struggled to get into it though that perhaps might be partly because my eyesight is shot and trying to play on a front lit DS these days is exhausting. I found that I needed to grind quite early on, which combined with the above point of the difficulty in seeing things combined to make an overall unpleasant experience and I ended up bouncing off it.
I enjoyed Dragon Quest IX and I never touched any of the multiplayer or online features. It‘s a solid entry in the series but wasn’t one that especially stood out to me as a contender for best-in-series. I'd definitely recommend it!
I'm curious what it would have been like to play it multiplayer (or to have had more side-quests to do as DLC) but I started it after the Nintendo DS servers were shut down and I've never had nearby friends who were DQ fans. But it was still a satisfying experience!
I‘ve only played XI and V although I haven’t beaten either because, quite frankly, they are both respectably long games. It‘s not often that I can be so captivated with the story of a game that I want to play it to see what happens next. Even less often can a story completely sweep me off my feet with an unexpected twist!
I really respect that XI has more or less stuck with the DQ formula so confidently, even going so far as to include a fully playable 16-bit mode on the Definitive Edition. It’s kind of like drinking a nice Coca Cola from the glass bottle, y'know what I mean?
@SuperEffective#25406 I will say, one thing that‘s really lovely about DQ games is they’re made to be played in chunks over a lengthy period of time, so they go out of their way to make sure you know what you're doing and why at all times. I came back to XI after a six month break and the game gave me a short recap of the story up until then and through party chat I was back right where I left off in five minutes.
I often get frustrated with big console RPGs cause they're games that I want to go through slowly when I have plenty of time to play as opposed to an hour here and there, and that means I will frequently go weeks or months without playing, forget what I was doing and simply abandon the game. DQ understands this and just welcomes you back.
That's a long winded way of saying it's never too late to finish DQXI if you ever feel inclined!
@christoffing#25479 That's such a great quality of life addition to a game! I wish more would do it, but I am sure it is quite resource intensive to implement. I also started DQ XI and, despite being thoroughly charmed, also was drawn away for an extended (ongoing) break. Knowing this I am much more likely to going back–that loss of inertia can be almost insurmountable for some games.
Yeah, I‘ll reiterate, and repeat what I probably already said above in the thread:
in dec 2020 I picked up a Dragon Quest 8 save file that I hadn’t touched since 2015 or 2016! Since then I had moved between states, and between like 5 or more different dwellings, completely wiping my short term memory slate clean.
Usually in such a situation, I would only remember the first parts of the game that I had played multiple times before. Well I did forget some of the recent events, but the game was pretty damn welcoming and gave me context right away. I did a tour of every town with the Zoom spell to see what all the NPCs had to say. I was back up to speed in no time and was able to power through to the end of the game, and did not feel like I was lacking any context to enjoy it.
I did also scrub through a playthrough video on 3x speed to see everything beat for beat at some point, but I didn't have to!
@christoffing#25479
Yes, I do think this thoughtfulness is just another endearing quality of this franchise! They may have really thought of everything.
I got DQ11 running at a stable 70-80 fps during all occasions including the big cutscene at the start of the game when you are first accompanying your first party member through a dungeon! This is no small feat on my minisforum elitemini h31g
Very enjoyable. Getting over 60fps in dragon quest adds so much to the immersion for me, plus coinciding with the weed holiday has me really enjoying this cartoon D&D world quite deeply already!
Unfortunately, I'm reconsidering my friendship with a person for like the third time now because all I did was say how much I was enjoying DQ11, and, predictably this was their reply: telling me how much they dislike the game and sending this image to describe why...
content warning: typical 4chan hate speech:||[URL=https://i.imgur.com/RCKVNbJ.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/RCKVNbJ.jpg[/IMG][/URL]||
**I'm sorry to occupy your mind with such carcinogenic hate speech for even a moment.**
I was never a 4chan person, I certainly don't interact or get opinions from those video game boards, every time I've gone there (once a year, if that) it's very poor taste, bottom of the barrel video game opinions, similar to those who get all their taste in music from Reddit. This person is attacking someone for liking something, straight up... "Fans always say they appreciate the little things" is a pretty bad argument if you ask me.
if I could punch whoever wrote that in the face, I would.
And maybe I should drop this "friend" finally, who says they appreciate and enjoy stuff about DQ11 only after giving me their negative opinion, in response to me gushing about it. They really bring me down and argue a lot when I'm just trying to have fun. I'm upset that they infected my brain with this 4chan bologna at all.
It's the same type of stuff that Tim just absolutely puts to rest in his videos, like people saying the original Midgar sequence of FF7 is only 3-8 hours long.....
Saying "you're only ____ for 20 minutes" is hardly applicable to an RPG, where you are role playing and everyone will have a different experience. The lack of nuance here is depressing. I probably spent about an hour in Heliodor, but I also wasn't expecting much from it. People in the town say "heliodoor is huge". It's an HD Dragon Quest game.... It plays like an HD PS2 game-- That's why I bought it, that's what I expect, that's what I enjoy, and that's what I got!
Took the bus to the office for the first time in awhile. Getting knowledge imparted unto me by this lobster on my way home.
@treefroggy#27515 Their “criticism” of you, to use the word exceedingly generously, makes no sense. Like, they can‘t say that Dragon Quest games don't have a lot of small, charming details that sell its overall execution, so what they’re left with is needing to say that Dragon Quest fans are just inherently stupid or pretentious for liking the games for these particular reasons. And because other games also pay attention to detail, I guess? I doubt you said that only Dragon Quest games do that.
That's a real "with friends like these" kind of "friend" you've got there.
Imagine being angry about Dragon Quest, of all things! And pretentious like, if you‘ve ever appreciated a game because of its charm you’ll enjoy DQ. I always recommend the series to people who say The Wind Waker is their favorite Zelda game, which is probably the least pretentious Zelda opinion one could have.