General Gaming Dragon Quest XI Reviews (PC Orchestral mod out)

[Xbob42]

I also switched to Classic. Free-form just kind of makes it feel like a generic action JRPG and doesn't offer any actual gameplay changes. Classic has the dynamic camera and stuff and just feels better for a turn-based game. Free-form is actually really great if you wanna get a good look at the monsters, though, and the monsters look fucking awesome so I guess that's a big plus.

[Brian]

Classic. Free Form felt off to me. 

[crispy4000]

Free form feels slower, even if it isn't, because it looks less dynamic.  I switched to classic after the first few battles and never looked back.

 

[crispy4000]

Also, big update on the orchestral track thing:
 

Quote

UPDATE: 9/19/18

Thank you everyone for your continued patience. In the interest of honesty and transparency, here’s what’s going on currently.

Things are looking good. We’re currently combing through all the music tracks ensuring that we have every single song. Thank you to Preta for her continued hard work on the mod and working seemingly tirelessly to ensure that all the sound files are perfect. Finally, we will be focusing on ensuring our injector is complete by Sunday, as that’s the end of our work week. We will keep that updated in case there’s a change of plan.

Also, special thank you to Canzah for taking charge today. My schedule didn’t allow access to the computer so I’ve been busy all day, and he swooped in to take control. Thank you very much!

Thanks again to all of you for being so patient. This project means a lot to us as long time Dragon Quest fans. We will continue to keep you updated, and hopefully within the next 24 hours we will have a demonstration video for the more skeptical among you

All the best,
-Scened

 

I'm so happy the PC port exists.

[best3444]

2 hours ago, Biggie said:

Didn’t get as much playtime as I wanted last night because I fell asleep on the couch and didn’t wake up until 10. Did manage to play for a couple of hours and make it to Gondolia. It’s great when you enter a new city. How it opens up and sort of presents it’s self is great. Then exploring every inch of it and looking for chests/hidden items is extremely fun. So many townspeople to talk to also makes each city feel alive. This is giving Spider-Man a run for its money on GOTY. 

 

Also was wondering what type of battle-mode everyone chose to play with. Free-Form or Classic?

@CastlevaniaNut18

@Amazatron

@crispy4000

@Xbob42

@jaethos

@AndrewDean84

@best3444

@ManUtdRedDevils

 

I started the game using the default Free-Form but have since switched to the Classic mode. Classic feels more like Dragon Quest to me. 

 

That's great to hear! I will stick with free-form once I get back to it. It won't be until after RDR2. 

[Amazatron]

Yeah, using classic here, free-form doesn't really add anything and felt awkward for me.

 

In terms of the music, it's largely unmemorable, but it certainly doesn't bother me at all.

 

The only thing that is somewhat annoying me is the randomness of getting in and out of pep for those quests where you need 2+ specific people to be in pep together for a specific power.

[Paperclyp]

I’m always classic camera over here. I want it to feel like what it is. 

[Brian]

Party members that have Pep retain the status when removed from the party. I assume eventually you will get items or skills that let you enter Pep state faster. 

[Biggie]

 

2 hours ago, Amazatron said:

 

The only thing that is somewhat annoying me is the randomness of getting in and out of pep for those quests where you need 2+ specific people to be in pep together for a specific power.

Yeah that irritates me too. 

[jaethos]

I switched to classic. I like the dynamic camera better.

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

Party members that have Pep retain the status when removed from the party. I assume eventually you will get items or skills that let you enter Pep state faster. 

Ahhhh did not know this. So as soon as one of the characters that I need to enter Pep enters it I need to switch them out of the party?

[Brian]

11 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Ahhhh did not know this. So as soon as one of the characters that I need to enter Pep enters it I need to switch them out of the party?

Yup

[crispy4000]

Should be out this weekend.

[jaethos]

Awesome. The instrument samples used in the game soundtrack sound like they're from the SNES. It's bizarre how low quality they are.

[crispy4000]

... So 50 hours in, I just reached a big turning point.  It's ironic how much this game functions like another JRPG classic.

But I really liked the twist there too, so I can't complain.  Getting ready for the good times to continue!

[Brian]

Square Enix just announced "Dragon Quest XI S" for Switch. No release date hints, but S, according to developers, indicates "Switch" "Special" "Character voices (shaberu, in Japanese) as well as "Initial of voice actor(s)". "But S doesn't mean small," the firm says. pic.twitter.com/y6VFVwJBdV

— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) September 23, 2018

[Biggie]

On 9/21/2018 at 10:05 AM, crispy4000 said:

Should be out this weekend.

Any chance consoles get this? I lowered the music again last night to level 3. It isn’t good but tolerable at a very much lower level. 

20 minutes ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

Well FML. Looks like I’ll be double dipping. 

[best3444]

^^^Haha. Awesome it's coming out for the Switch. 

[Biggie]

11 minutes ago, best3444 said:

^^^Haha. Awesome it's coming out for the Switch. 

It would be great playing in handheld mode. 

[Paperclyp]

I would’ve had a tough choice deciding between switch and PS4 had it been a simultaneous launch. 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Switch would have been the easy choice for me had it been available.

[Xbob42]

I was just saying this in Discord, but it's a damned shame that with the advent of cloud saves and the rise of more multiplatform games than ever, we don't see a tide of games that just support cross-platform saves. Done with my PC version? Bam, turn on the Switch and pick up where I left off. Damn, forgot my Switch and I'm visiting family. Log in to my PS4 account on their system and continue the same save from there.

 

It shouldn't be a pipe dream, but it feels like it will be for at least several more years, if we're lucky. You'd think developers would be pushing for this kind of functionality, because it would encourage double, triple, quadruple dipping from many people. Lots of folks already do that, I am not one of them unless the game is "console exclusive" and then has a surprise PC launch in a few years. If this were the norm, though, I could see myself picking up a few bigger titles like this for the Switch, although I don't think I'd want it to be my main version.

 

Luckily, thanks to the GPD Win @stepee so generously sent me (along with some big mofo micro SD cards!) I can already do this and have it portable at 60 FPS, but that's not a realistic solution for... well, I'd say 99.9% of people.

[Paperclyp]

Totally agree @Xbob42

[XxEvil AshxX]

14 hours ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

 

You sure the "S" doesn't stand for "Sorry you had to buy this twice?"

 

[jaethos]

The orchestral music mod is out. Just go to the Steam discussion board for the game and you'll see the thread with all the info. It's about 7.6GB if you use the torrent link.

 

It sounds so much better. I installed it last night.

[best3444]

For those thst beat this. Worth a play through? I bought it at launch but got severely distracted. 

[Amazatron]

Hell yes

[crispy4000]

51 minutes ago, best3444 said:

For those thst beat this. Worth a play through? I bought it at launch but got severely distracted. 

 

Absolutely, yes.  You also won't want to stop after you 'beat' it.

[jaethos]

10 hours ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Absolutely, yes.  You also won't want to stop after you 'beat' it.

I don't know, I kind of wish I did. It was a great game over all though.

Spoiler

I wasn't really super happy with act 3 and it's forced everything is great and everyone lives. None of it felt earned. Instead of months of effort and growth everyone just got powered up by the chief watcher for free. They even made the mermaid be alive, basically forcing me to have lied to her, despite her story happening long before the point you time travel back to.

 

[crispy4000]

8 minutes ago, jaethos said:

I don't know, I kind of wish I did. It was a great game over all though.

  Hide contents

I wasn't really super happy with act 3 and it's forced everything is great and everyone lives. None of it felt earned. Instead of months of effort and growth everyone just got powered up by the chief watcher for free. They even made the mermaid be alive, basically forcing me to have lied to her, despite her story happening long before the point you time travel back to.

 

 

Spoiler

I agree about the mermaid point, for sure.  But I enjoyed learning more of the backstory of the original heroes, and the way they did the timeline shift.  I look at act 3 as a chance for redemption.  It wasn't quite as fleshed out as the main game, but generally, still solid.  (... aside from the mermaid.)

This article summarizes most of my feelings.

The watcher thing didn't bug me, because I wasn't looking forward to re-grinding my party anyways.  And you still had to go out and do quests and such to fill out most characters' skill trees.

I liked a lot of the bosses in act 3 too.  The dancing guy in the mural dungeon was my fav to take down.

 

[eventide11]

Is this thing on?? Oh nobodys playing this anymore probably. Oh well. Opinions must be given regardless. Restraint was never one of my strong suits. Just started playing this and my only gripe so far is WOW at how bad the music is. It's like the actually TRIED to make it as bad as possible without it outright sounding like a hippopotamus with diarrhea. Turned it off after 2 hours in. In the first major area of Castle Heileion(?) and the feel of the game is spot on. Visuals and animations are excellent. Best in the series imo but dang... Does the music get better? 

[CastlevaniaNut18]

4 minutes ago, eventide11 said:

Is this thing on?? Oh nobodys playing this anymore probably. Oh well. Opinions must be given regardless. Restraint was never one of my strong suits. Just started playing this and my only gripe so far is WOW at how bad the music is. It's like the actually TRIED to make it as bad as possible without it outright sounding like a hippopotamus with diarrhea. Turned it off after 2 hours in. In the first major area of Castle Heileion(?) and the feel of the game is spot on. Visuals and animations are excellent. Best in the series imo but dang... Does the music get better? 

The game has been out a year, that's way no one has posted in it in a while, dude. The game is actually fantastic and the music is great.

[Biggie]

1 hour ago, eventide11 said:

Is this thing on?? Oh nobodys playing this anymore probably. Oh well. Opinions must be given regardless. Restraint was never one of my strong suits. Just started playing this and my only gripe so far is WOW at how bad the music is. It's like the actually TRIED to make it as bad as possible without it outright sounding like a hippopotamus with diarrhea. Turned it off after 2 hours in. In the first major area of Castle Heileion(?) and the feel of the game is spot on. Visuals and animations are excellent. Best in the series imo but dang... Does the music get better? 

I couldn’t stand the music either. It was the worst music in any Dragon Quest game I’ve played. Turned it down to around a 2 on the volume. I hear the Switch version will have a much better soundtrack. 

[crispy4000]

Or just mod the PC version, as the title suggests...

 

Anyways, I beat the whole thing, post-game and all.  Fantastic game.

[Xbob42]

Yes, the music is absolute dog shit. Even the orchestral versions just polish up the turd that is the OST.

 

But the game itself is fantastic. Love the little crafting system.