Yeah I’m going for dual wielding with Erik as well. I just go for what’s the coolest sounding for everyone and it seems to work
I like using Rab as my healer better than Serena because he has great damage dealing potential too. On turns when nobody needs a heal, he’s far more useful than she is.
Oh no, there are definitely areas where you can get multiples, usually in the cities with subquests and such, but sometimes just in places.
Rab is great if you only want one magic primary in your party, because he has enough heals and enough damage to do decently at both, and only take up one slot.
Still enjoying being the guy who likes the non-orchestral soundtrack.
erik does a ton of damage later in the game with divide + twomerang & stealing becomes essential for material gathering, he’s good
rab has a pep power that’s guaranteed to send anything to sleep for several turns, this has saved me a few times & is an essential tool for killing metals
each of the cast have something useful but jade leaps everyone in damage pretty early, make sure you do the quest that mentions the sages stone asap so you can turn anyone into a backup healer
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I really want to use Sylvando, but he’s consistently been the least useful member of my team. I have him using whips because I like the idea of an attack that hits multiple enemies, but aside from that, I’ve found his abilities mostly underwhelming. Is there some awesome skill I should be building toward on the board?
I’m currently using Hero - Sylvando - Veronica - Rab. What comps are y’all running?
sylvando’s ‘hustle dance’ is the first good multi-heal available and stays relevant the whole way through the game and whips get an ability that cancels out all buffs on an enemy (including pep)
respec is really cheap so don’t be afraid of having a play around
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Sylvando also gets dual weild and that is fun. Hustle Dance is super useful at all times.
Current party is Hero - Jade - Rab - Sylv and I am having a good time with this.
Why does Serena have dual wielding when her only available weapons are a two-handed spear and wand (+ shield)?
I like Veronica too much not to be using her all the time, though I’m starting to see where Rab can be useful too. I tend to cycle people in and out just because I want everyone to get some participation.
Erik also seems to have some skill panels I can’t access yet so I’m curious when I find out what that’s all about.
Jade is just trashing everybody in my game, it’s wild.
I still kinda wish I’d restarted with a couple of the Draconian options. Aside from a few certain bosses so far there’s next to no concern with how I manage my party. Some breeziness is fine…having 90% of encounters being pushovers especially to the degree you barely strategize, is boring. Add in enemies being super easily avoidable with no real threat of being cornered, this whole dimension of DQ got too soft this time around.
As the standard experience it made the first half of the game very pushover, IMO too out of sync with series. It’s gorgeous and true to form otherwise. I get some QoL choices and them trying not to be too demanding therefore tedious in another sense but it’s off balance. VIII didn’t feel this way stepping into higher fidelity and scale.
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Has DQ ever been difficult, though? I don’t really remember that happening, aside from some bosses.
the normal difficulty picks up later, my fight with the act 2 boss was absolutely down to the wire (i luckily managed to cancel its pep with sylvando before it was almost certainly going to wipe me) and i’ve had trouble with a couple of things since, though i’ve done 0 grinding
i had super tough enemies turned on at first and it didn’t seem very well tuned, i think most of my friends who got the game a week or so early tapped out at or before dora
but i mean, there’s always nocturne on hard or a romancing saga 2 final emperor skip run if you want a challenging jarpeg
yeah I’d much rather make the game tough through not grinding at all than by turning it up
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If that means ignoring 90% off everything running around on the maps, instead of say the 50% I do now, or thereabouts, then there’s some inherent shortcomings in design and balancing.
And at that point, the actual hurdle encounters could become nigh undo-able, less strategy and skewed heavy towards RNG.
i’ve been using sylvando with sword & shield but all his points in support skills. he’s surprisingly tanky & has decent strength so he works well as support that occasionally attacks something and can survive full party nukes well enough to help flimsier characters recover.
his “remove all mental status effects” ability saved my ass a bunch during spider boss’s endless kafuddle spamming
It doesn’t help you in your current state but I’ll reiterate that, with ‘no EXP on easy fights (read: you’re >= 1 level above a monster)’ and ‘hard fights’ it’s the best-balanced RPG I’ve played bar none. I breeze through the DQ dungeons that have always been a bit too long but every boss fight comes down to the wire; normal encounters, if fumbled, can nearly lead to wipes.
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I am still not that far (just killed the damned soul-sucking spider) but this kind of balance is exactly what i’m looking for. As in, it’s easy enough to not be a slog to get from point a to point b, and bosses are substantially more difficult yet not enough to be totally frustrating. I’m not in it for an excruciating battle experience, though I can see how those who are would need to create more artificial challenges.
I do hope it ramps up in difficulty a bit as it goes on though, because JRPGs always tend to have this weird inverse difficulty curve when it comes to regular battles, even if bosses keep getting harder.
Oh, I’m also using mostly auto-battle, which I’ve never done in a dragon quest game before. Not having to micro-manage everything is nice, because you can still plan out general things through the skill trees, equipping items, and so on. Though it is disappointing that there are certain techniques (half inch?) that the AI will just never use.
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One of the bosses sure made me consider things when she mentioned that the 7 team members = the 7 colors of a rainbow. I love this kind of detail
It sure didn’t work at all in context because 4 team members out of 7 were wearing costumes!
It works outside but it’s kind of a stretch (You have to consider Veronica and Jade’s hair color over their more prominent clothing color)
Unless I’m wrong it goes:
Sylvando - red
Rab - orange
Vero - yellow
Serena - green
Erik - blue
Jade - indigo
Shy boy - purple
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I’m sure applying those brings the battle and numbers game somewhere more engaging. I’d read “best- balanced RPG I’ve played bar none” as hyperbolic but we are talking two notable adjustments to the base, given everything else in place and series refinement, I can see how that puts the player firmly to task (with far less grind pool).
XI’s a deliciously stacked cake with so many of us feasting and delighted; I don’t want to harp a sour note on difficulty but I’ll stand by the gist of a lil’ too easy as a valid criticism. Contrary to what my profile pic might gesture I’m not expecting “old NES” or “modern git gud” difficulty - just occasionally disappointed this big beautiful DQ doesn’t push back on the player more often, to make a little better use of its game; satisfy incentives underneath the charming characters monsters and plot.
One friend watched me play a few hours here and there “there’s rarely any fear of dying, huh”, another friend started XI (she’s played IX and another on DS) but fell off “seems really easy”. I can’t recommend it as strongly if I have to talk about modes, comfiness, or 40 hours upfront.
I DO like it a whooole lot and might rank godly even if doesn’t end up being the crystalized series experience I got stoked for.