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Dragon Quest XI


DANGERMAN
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I was thinking of that guy the other day when I was playing because I had the distinct feeling XI would have been his last DQ game. Seems I was right on that one, though considering he was 90 years old it's probably not enough to get my crystal ball license just yet.

 

It's hard to defend him for what he said or his opinions on the whole DQ soundtrack but for an industry that relies so heavily on its pioneers to this day he's most certainly a big loss.

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Yeah, I just read that in the source (I always post before reading like you should). I thought soundtracks would be written more in tandem with development but I suppose if you have a general outline of themes and scenes you can be done early.

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Well the DQXI soundtrack aside (it felt like one song on loop for the entire game), his music for the Dragon Quest series in general is certainly timeless. I’m no expert on classical music but his soundtracks to me sound like the classical music of Haydn and Handel (and so on). I often listen to classical music and picture Dragon Quest in my head (Ghibli music can also remind me of Dragon Quest).

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I've now reached the second harbour town, I forget the name but it looks greek and everyone speaks spanish, so that makes total sense. I really enjoyed the arena town that came before that, very strong Dragonball vibes but not a carbon copy, nice little intrigue going on in the back and the NPCs had a bit more to them than usual as well. The following exposition dump felt a bit stretched but it was nicely done. Except of course for the part where the silent protagonist with the blank face standing around kind of ruins the moment a bit.

 

I've also realised that after just over 20 hours I've already visited more towns and cities than in the entirety of Bravely Default II. It's unfortunate barely any JRPGs these days have the budget of a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy anymore. It's a genre that can really benefit from it outside of just shinier graphics.

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Slowly moving forward with this, I'm now approaching what would be the end in a normal game but as this is a JRPG I'm sure it's just the halfway point. I wonder what happens after that though as I've basically been everywhere on the map.

 

It's a really enjoyable, comfortable game, so to speak. I just wish the bosses were a tad more challenging. I don't want my JRPGs super punishing but the last boss I fought had such a big build up with people saying she's now at her full strength etc. and then she dies in five or six turns. I'm okay with the normal enemies being pushovers because that gives you this feeling of empowerment with your party but the bosses should put up a bit of a fight. And it's not like I'm grinding like crazy or anything, the only optional thing I'm doing is crafting weapons and armour because I like the minigame.

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I have one theory about what will happen next.

 

Most likely something with time travel, considering the title of the game and also how quickly the game disposed of Cobblestone's inhabitants, including the lovable Gemma. That part of the narrative feels unfinished.

 

We'll see how far off I am and if I find out tomorrow already.

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Well, turns out I was wrong and this didn't go as crazy as I thought. It does however pull something off I strongly dislike in JRPGs, meaning my motivation to continue on is really low right now. Will leave this for a week or two and then get back, can't really be arsed right now to

run around with that annoying and utterly uninteresting Sylvando character, whom I never used in a fight and never levelled up to "look for happiness" after such an interesting story moment. Classic JRPG nonsense pacing right there.

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Haven't actually opened the map yet. Did the first side/story mission after that and then called it a day. It's just the setup here that I find extremely uninteresting and it completely deflates the story (though presumably only temporary).

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  • 4 weeks later...

Decided to go back to this and it turns out the little break was a good idea, I'm now fully motivated again. Which feels necessary as it seems like I'll have to basically

 

Spoiler

replay the first half again. At least it seems that way as I only have two party members now and just re-acquired one of the orbs.

 

I also found out that the little intermissions that felt so out of place are new additions in the Definitive Edition. I guess that explains why they really don't fit into the narrative at that point and feel tacked on. Less is more, as they say.

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