Finally finished the main story of this, and got round to my first grotto, I dunno if it's just burn out or what, but I am not motivated at all to keep on going to do more.
DQIX hasn't really grabbed me as much as I would've liked, this is the first DQ where I stopped reading the story parts pretty early on and just mashed 'A' through them - Not that I play DQ, or any JRPG, for the story, but going on to the next town or quest at the behest of the story is the main motivator. Now that's over, it feels like I'm just grinding for alchemy goods.
I'm disappointed because I was so hyped for the first DQ I was going to buy at launch, I love so much about IX, the visuals, the job system and equipment - but it's been my least favorite DQ title except for VII
I don't have an all MKS map, but there is one that is fairly good for getting one or two at a time. And there's enough room to run around and avoid all the regular enemies.
Isn't DQ's main draw supposed to be Hori's writing for the story and side-quests? If you pass up those parts, then it's not surprising that you didn't get as much out of it as previous games.
Isn't DQ's main draw supposed to be Hori's writing for the story and side-quests? If you pass up those parts, then it's not surprising that you didn't get as much out of it as previous games.
Should I have been so very much more literal in my post, so as to avoid misunderstandings?
I didn't pass them up from the very first to the last, but some way into the game (probably around Wormwood Creek or the academy or so) I realised I just wasn't interested in whatever story there was, so largely after that I just mashed A to get past them.
I enjoyed the game, but was disinterested in the story and felt no compulsion to continue the game after the main story ended because it felt like such a drag to get there. Never had that with a DQ game before. I still enjoyed the classic DQ gameplay and series traditions, but this has been my second least favorite DQ title unfortunately.
Yeah, one of the bigger critiques of the game is that it is more oldschool "western" RPG, where you create all your characters from scratch, instead of being forced to use certain ones. For this series, that's a pretty bold move since that hasn't happened since 3. I thought some of the supporting cast was strong, though, so that kept me compelled.
When I beat it, though (which took me about 40 hours, I think), I didn't feel all that compelled to do much post-game stuff. However, after being urged to give it another chance by one of my coworkers, I totally got into it. Now I'm like 160 hours in and loving the game way more than I did when I was just playing the main story. So much opens up to you and you are given so many different things to do - and do at your own pace - that it's just a joy to play for the most part. Some of the quests are tedious, but the game doesn't force you to do those. You could spend weeks just building up your characters, working on alchemy, finding all the monsters, etc. And beyond that, there's a lot of story-backing quests, both built into the game and via DLC.
I'd say that if you've made it through to the end and didn't flat-out hate the game, it's worth spending some time with the post-game. I've mentioned this before, but the game went from being a pretty good DQ game in my book to my GOTY.
As for why I'm sticking w/ Mage, I don't know... personal preference? I guess I could go w/ an Armamentalist so that I can keep Oomph, but honestly, once you've gotten as many skill points as I have, the major differences between each class begin to go away.
As for why I'm sticking w/ Mage, I don't know... personal preference? I guess I could go w/ an Armamentalist so that I can keep Oomph, but honestly, once you've gotten as many skill points as I have, the major differences between each class begin to go away.
Martial Artist, Gladiator, Sage (former Priest), and Mage has served me very well. People seem to forget about attack magic, but it has come in quite handy a number of times. Oomph and Acceleratle are also very useful.
I have also enjoyed the post-game much more than the main portion. I'm really glad I stuck with it. Despite that, the game does have problems, and it's in the lower tier of DQs for me.
I have also enjoyed the post-game much more than the main portion. I'm really glad I stuck with it. Despite that, the game does have problems, and it's in the lower tier of DQs for me.
Just out of curiosity, what are some of the problems you have with the game? I have my own list, but am curious to hear what others think... particularly those who have put a *lot* of time into it. Thanks!
As someone who has spent a great deal of time with IX, but not all that much time with the series as a whole, my frame of reference is Dragon Quest V. In that respect the main criticism I have of IX is the complete lack of emotion or significance to any of the characters.
Party chat was one of the reasons I enjoyed V so much more than IV. It elevated every line of dialogue from an NPC into a way to get fresh insight into your closest companions. In IX there are some interesting people you meet, but their relevance never goes beyond the boundaries of their towns.
Dragon Quest IX is a lonely game.
Plus the frame-rate in towns is diabolical, and while I don't hate the music, I like it less than previous games.
Just out of curiosity, what are some of the problems you have with the game? I have my own list, but am curious to hear what others think... particularly those who have put a *lot* of time into it. Thanks!
Sure. For context, I have played and enjoyed the series since it began in the U.S. with Dragon Warrior (NES).
Graphics/music: Not a fan of DS 3D. When the first shots of the game appeared, I more or less liked the way it looked, because they basically took VIII's style and redid it on the DS (with the camera behind the player), which naturally wouldn't look as pretty, but would work the same way. What doesn't quite sit right with me is how they took VIII's style and then basically applied the top-down camera from the old games. It makes the characters and their equipment look even rougher this way. I understand why they did it, it allowed them to show the whole party, which wouldn't have worked the way VIII did, but I'm mainly complaining here about the graphics on the whole. With the game harkening back to III the way it did, it would have been amazing to get a brand new 2D DQ. I know that will probably never happen again though.
I found the overall soundtrack to be very weak compared to all the other titles in the series, with a handful of tracks I just don't enjoy. This has never happened with any other DQ.
Pregame/Postgame divider: I like the idea of the postgame in DQ, as I mentioned before I've played loads of it. What I don't quite understand is why they made the main game end when they did. It felt really strange not being able to
obtain the method of flight
until after finishing the main game. I know it's ultimately up to the player to get as much out of the game as they wish, but I didn't have much satisfaction upon "finishing" the main game when so much content was still left undone.
Revocating: Defenders of the series can arguably no longer claim that grinding isn't required. I know it isn't in the strictest sense, but
if you can't obtain quality treasure maps from other players, and want to finish the highest level grottoes and get the best gear, revocating and continued leveling just for that reason is the only way to go. I can understand wanting to revocate a couple of times to accumulate skill points so you can make some interesting and varied class builds, but I spent untold hours killing Metal King Slimes for the sole reason of being able to get better grottoes
. (Spoilered to protect the innocent)
Uninteresting story/vignettes: Part of it is due to the fact that I've only played it through once, but for the life of me I can barely remember anything about the story in the main portion of the game. I do remember that I found very little of it compelling. I marathoned the whole series late last year/earlier this year and I always found myself interested in what was going on when in the older titles, namely VII. I will say that so far, the continuation of the story in the postgame has me really interested in where it is headed, so maybe it'll all balance out in the end.
In summary, I just expected quite a bit more quality out of this game. It feels extremely bloated due to the postgame design (VII and VIII were already getting too long), visually and aurally I find it lackluster, and the story is bland.
I don't find it to be a bad game, or I wouldn't have sunk 350+ hours into it. But I can safely say that there is very little or zero chance I will ever play all of this content again in the future. I love replaying DQs, but I just don't see it happening here. All the other games in the series just feel so much more tightly designed, even the longer ones like VII and VIII.
Oxx/Johnas: Thanks for your feedback. I've also now played the entire series (except for DQ6), so I have a good frame of reference to compare against DQ9. Like most RPG games, I feel like the best ones originated in the 16-bit era. Something about the early/mid-'90s just brought out the best, tightest, and most refreshing RPGs I've ever played. Whether it's this, FF, Phantasy Star, et al, they're the first ones that come to mind.
DQ is an interesting one... it's never a series that has taken itself all that seriously (which I love), and when I key into what I enjoy most about them, it comes down to the following:
Fun, fast combat
Good class/skill system
Sense of open exploration
Terrific monster design/animation
Entertaining NPCs
In that sense, DQ9 has delivered what I wanted. It doesn't have the core characters or an epic story like 3/5/7, so I agree that those things are lacking and could have/should have been better.
I also agree that it stinks to only get the SE post-game. They should have moved the last battle/epilogue to the point *after* that quest, blasting the game wide open for folks who want to do more prior to seeing the finale.
On the plus side, I'm glad the pacing has been sped up since DQ8, the world is tighter and less MMO-feeling, and I like that character building is so customizable and not as strict/punishing as DQ8's, which is just killing me right now.
I also like that recipes are recipes, and not just hints like they were in DQ8. Also, being able to see monsters on the map is *huge*. Whistling endlessly and hoping for LMS/MKS encounters would've been masochism at its finest. A lot of the annoyances from that game have been addressed in DQ9, so I'm thankful there.
I will say, though, that I'm relieved they changed their minds and went back to traditional turn-based combat instead of making it realtime/active. The day they do that to this series is probably the day I move on to something else.
I was a revocation juggernaut last night... I'm pretty tired today. Been getting really lucky with a good rate of MKS spawns, so things trucked along quickly.
My next +1 revocations will be Minstrel, Armamentalist, and Luminary (about halfway there). That'll leave Priest, Paladin, and Ranger for the remaining revocation medals. Most of the Luminary skills are pretty useless, but they're funny.
After that, I'll stick w/ my mains mentioned earlier for the remainder of the game (except for the class/level-specific quests). The drops have been good. Getting rare stuff that I've never heard of, so I guess that'll all go towards my item completion %. I'm excited to see what high-level grotto drops I get after the next few revocations. MKSs are dropping more and more orichalcum, which is never a bad thing.
I've just gotten past Gleeba. With minimal spoilers, is there going to be a way to trap enemies later on? I've been trying to do the one sidequest where you have to finish off 2 Metal Slimes after setting up a WizardWard and the damn things keep running away before I can deal the finishing blow. Just wondering if I should put that quest off until I get better tools to handle the fleeing slimes or if it's not going to get any better later on.
Fighting enough slimes to unlock the Gladiator vocation was tedious enough (things kept running from my level 20+ party members). Metal Slimes are worse since they're so much rarer.
I've just gotten past Gleeba. With minimal spoilers, is there going to be a way to trap enemies later on? I've been trying to do the one sidequest where you have to finish off 2 Metal Slimes after setting up a WizardWard and the damn things keep running away before I can deal the finishing blow. Just wondering if I should put that quest off until I get better tools to handle the fleeing slimes or if it's not going to get any better later on.
Fighting enough slimes to unlock the Gladiator vocation was tedious enough (things kept running from my level 20+ party members). Metal Slimes are worse since they're so much rarer.
Yeah, it's annoying because my mage's spells don't do any damage to the metal slimes and the wand sucks for damage. :lol
Speaking of scare/disabling tactics, does the game text differentiate between a disable move failing due to chance and failing because the enemy is immune? Whenever it says "_____ is not affected", I can never tell if I was just unlucky or if the move doesn't work on that particular enemy.
Yeah, it's annoying because my mage's spells don't do any damage to the metal slimes and the wand sucks for damage. :lol
Speaking of scare/disabling tactics, does the game text differentiate between a disable move failing due to chance and failing because the enemy is immune? Whenever it says "_____ is not affected", I can never tell if I was just unlucky or if the move doesn't work on that particular enemy.
You can only ever do 1-2 damage per hit to a metal slime anyway, so in that regard your mage isn't at any disadvantage (other than probably having a higher miss chance).
There are immunities, but as far as I know, only really on bosses (at least before beating the game). You can look it up resistances in the beastiary on GameFAQs. But basically, that "is not affected" message is just a resist.
I've just gotten past Gleeba. With minimal spoilers, is there going to be a way to trap enemies later on? I've been trying to do the one sidequest where you have to finish off 2 Metal Slimes after setting up a WizardWard and the damn things keep running away before I can deal the finishing blow. Just wondering if I should put that quest off until I get better tools to handle the fleeing slimes or if it's not going to get any better later on.
Fighting enough slimes to unlock the Gladiator vocation was tedious enough (things kept running from my level 20+ party members). Metal Slimes are worse since they're so much rarer.
One trick is to make a new level 1 character and kill them off so they don't nab any experience. Despite being dead the character will bring your level average down and so metal slimes will be less likely to run away.
I haven't played this game in awhile and never got to the point of downloading quests. Do you only want to download them once you have completed the game? And are all still available to DL (at least to what they have released)?
I believe once you get to Stornway inn, you can access DQVC. If you missed any week before, you will get all the previous download quests and inn guests at once. You won't be able to do a lot (any?) of the quests until you beat the game though.
I haven't played this game in awhile and never got to the point of downloading quests. Do you only want to download them once you have completed the game? And are all still available to DL (at least to what they have released)?
You can do many of the quests before completing the game. And all the downloadable ones are always available after they have been released - you only need to log on once to get all the quests that have been released so far. After doing that, there's one new quest every week until next summer or so.
Sweet! Awesome DQVC week. Got the Sollerets and upgraded those, and bought the Shield even thought I already have an MKS one. Getting more at this price is something I'm not passing up, though. Looking forward to getting the rest, but might have to gold farm to afford everything... I have about 300k, but that goes rather quickly w/ the store.
Almost all classes have been revocated once. From here, I'll focus on quests and grottoes. My friend just got a high level water grotto, so I'll finally be able to do the Bling Badger quest!
My friend and I just did a level 78 grotto. I finally got to fight some PKJs and other monsters I've never seen, which was great. The best part is that we got the high level (86) water grotto drop we need for the Bling Badger quest (the last one was a bust)! He's been trying for like 2 weeks to get one, and he finally got it today during our MP session. His excitement level was through the roof! Haha! Pretty cool... makes me wish there were more folks around here to play some MP with. Moments of euphoria like that are what have me completely addicted to this game.
Man I tried tackling Dhoulmagus at Lvl 99 and he whooped my ass every time. I don't even see how it's possible to beat him -- maybe it's cause I don't have the best equipment. Of the rare 2% drops I only have two of the immortal trousers, diana gauntlets, and master's gloves.
I'm going to wait till I get some brain drainers and better armor before even attempting this freak again.
Man I tried tackling Dhoulmagus at Lvl 99 and he whooped my ass every time. I don't even see how it's possible to beat him -- maybe it's cause I don't have the best equipment. Of the rare 2% drops I only have two of the immortal trousers, diana gauntlets, and master's gloves.
I'm going to wait till I get some brain drainers and better armor before even attempting this freak again.
Dammit, I think I just lost around three hours of play time. I was wandering around the corner of the map looking for some monster that had a quest item, and suddenly in the middle of a battle everything turns to gibberish. Rather concerned, I soon headed back to a town to save and see if restarting would fix things. Now I'm stuck in a church and can't save because the yes/no option never comes up, and hitting b to back out of the conversation just puts me in some infinite loop.
