here’s a hint from the archives
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Think I remember reading an interview with the dev team where they lamented not being able to balance the last half because of running out of time? Lemme look.
Oh wait, I was totally wrong, they delayed the game to balance it MORE. Imagine how bad it would’ve been without it: Dragon Quest II – 1987 Interview - shmuplations.com
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Speaking of DQ1-style solo play, when I was running a single Hero in my DQ3 game before getting bored, I remember getting into this battle and thinking, “fuck!” until I remembered a spell but didn’t expect it to actually work:
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hahah hell yeah that spell gets so little use in a regular playthrough too, since you don’t get any exp or gold from poofed enemies
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Playing through the one remake makes me realize how badly I took for granted making one of my DQ3 crew a Thief, never wanting for healing items and stuff after a few hours, selling stuff in bulk. My poor DQ1 hero just has to work on that grindset to get by…
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holy shit this interview is incredible
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I’m in what I think is the last third of Dragon Quest VI. At the start of my playthrough, I was optimistic that we’d be able to beat it in one SBcon. Now I know that that is a recipe for disaster. I’m going to hide the details below and spoiler text within so people can manage how much knowledge they’re exposed to
Dragon Quest VI My Journey So Far
Beating Mudo is possibly the most liberated I’ve ever felt playing a video game. Not only did more of the world open up, but I also knew that I could face anything and be victorious. That’s not to say that the game stopped being challenging or that my party stopped getting wiped out. Rather, I had changed. I had hardened into a diamond.
After beating Mudo, you go on a series of quests with each one opening up more of the world to you. At some point yesterday, I realized that I may have acquired all methods of travel. One of them upends everything and has turned me into a termite: I don’t merely sail atop the ocean. I can dive to its very depths. Here I find new paths, dungeons, and homes. There is barely any indication where these are. I must find them through thorough determination. More than any other Dragon Quest, I feel a looseness to the pacing. The tight storytelling structure and rhythm has completely broken down.
Running parallel to this maximalist freedom of movement is a maximalist job system. This job system contains another system within it that I have yet to even scratch: monster recruitment. I wish I had chosen different jobs on that first visit to the shrine. Now, I just have to live with who I am: a superstar, a battle master, a paladin, beast master, and a sage . If I were to make a recommendation to the Dragon Warriors ahead of me, it would be this:
- Dancer>Goof-off>Superstar
- Fighter>Soldier>Weapons Master
- Soldier>Wizard>Fighter-Mage
- Beast Master>Thief>Merchant>Ranger
- And in the wagon: Priest>Wizard>Sage
I don’t know if that makes sense, but I would really like to fight in the Slime Arena. I don’t know if anything makes sense anymore.
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It’s when they talk about 2 in the beginning of this one
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I love this and am generally super positive on Heartbeat’s work on the series (7 is a masterpiece and they basically invented the NES/SNES remake aesthetic as well as the principle that dragon quest remakes are against all odds almost always great), even though 6 is one of the few games whose middling critical consensus I think is basically correct. it kind of makes sense as an overcorrection from 5, the only DQ that’s in both the great storytelling trilogy and the breezy playable 20 hour game trilogy, but imo sits uneasily in both of them (it’s too easy in part because it never really lets you get good, I’ve never loved the second time skip), but the result is that 6 has conspicuously no pacing and gets completely wild with it, which might be worth being contrary about if 7 wasn’t better in every way.
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11 > 7 > 5 > 3 > 4/1 > 2/6 > 8 > 9 imo
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I’m in the middle of reading these interviews and it’s great to see everything spelled out so clearly.
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I was just on there this morning. Didn’t read too much because I didn’t want to spoil anything but I laughed at Yuji Horii trying to say they rushed DQII for The Children and also the revelation that they balanced the game using a shitty computer simulation that didn’t take into account that there would be multiple enemies in a battle.
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I keep getting greedy in areas out of my scope and dying! I gotta stop doing this!!
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I started playing the gbc version of dq2 because I like how it looks and I wanted to play on a handheld. It’s cool they added the wounded sprite for the intro guard where he’s clutching his side but now the two guys carrying him to the king are out of step so it doesn’t look like they’re carrying him anymore. smh…the danger of remakes
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Those translations are so dry it’s hilarious I adore them I wish I could write a game like that
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It’s another Nob Ogasawara joint. He made a career out of making 32 characters count.
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the GBC remake-of-a-remake sprites are so fucking adorable, like the platonic ideal of Dragon Quest
im especially fond of DQ3 GBC’s visuals. the SFC remake is gorgeous, a genuine step up from DQ6 (which already looks very nice) and yet the GBC version almost looks better by being such a lean clean late Game Boy Color translation thereof
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I’m going to make it to the top of this stupid tower full of stupid bandits one of these days, dammit.
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