I think the general method used to get drops (without resorting to certain methods that game the system) is to make sure everyone in your party has the Thief skill "Half-inch" (one of very many fantastic bits of localization), which should one of the earliest skills you can learn. Then, if you're looking for a specific drop from a specific monster, just enter a battle with it and have everyone spam the move.
Fake edit: Oh, now that I'm rereading your comment, are you referring to the drops that appear on the world map? Thankfully, those are much less of a pain to deal with than monster drops. Use one of the many maps that show the locations of materials (this is a good one but all the text makes it a bit messy, this one is cleaner). The materials appear on the map after a random amount of time after you boot the game, and reappear after another random amount of time has passed. So if you load up your save file, it's possible that there could be shiny spots on the ground the moment you arrive at the spawning location. It's also possible, though not very likely, that it will take several hours for items to spawn. The amount of time it takes for items to appear changes; if you found items 30 minutes after you started the game, it doesn't mean it will always take 30 minutes for the items there to appear again.
Sorry for the rambling, but the general rule of thumb is that if you're waiting for a specific item spot to spawn, just play the game for a while and return. I usually explore grottoes while I'm waiting for items.
Thanks for the tip for Half-inch, I will keep that in mind. But yes, I was referring to alchemy drops on the world map. I guess I wasn't so much concerned with increasing how often they would drop, but increase the actual amount. Not that it's a problem now, but I have a feeling it will be a problem later when making the high end alchemy items. I am guessing a lot of these locations are going to be in areas a pain to get to and if I get there, I want to make sure I get a good amount of the item I am looking for. But if there isn't any skill that increases it, then that's how it is.
Thanks. Especially for the maps!
Edit: This is to all (playing DQ IX), will you be at Gen Con? I will be heading off there this next week/weekend and if anyone wants to get together to canvass, let me know (here or PM), and we can arrange a meeting place and time.
Thanks for the tip for Half-inch, I will keep that in mind. But yes, I was referring to alchemy drops on the world map. I guess I wasn't so much concerned with increasing how often they would drop, but increase the actual amount. Not that it's a problem now, but I have a feeling it will be a problem later when making the high end alchemy items. I am guessing a lot of these locations are going to be in areas a pain to get to and if I get there, I want to make sure I get a good amount of the item I am looking for. But if there isn't any skill that increases it, then that's how it is.
Thanks. Especially for the maps!
Edit: This is to all (playing DQ IX), will you be at Gen Con? I will be heading off there this next week/weekend and if anyone wants to get together to canvass, let me know (here or PM), and we can arrange a meeting place and time.
If you're not done with the main game, there shouldn't be any major problems with getting enough alchemy items to make what you need. And hopefully I'm not spoiling much, but once you beat the game accessing the various spawning points will be much, much easier.
Okay I beat the game finally. Third times the charm.
Corvus wasn't too hard this time, I had all my party members alive but 2 were asleep when I dealt the final blow
I won with a level 31 warrior, and lvl 45ish mage, priest, and martial artist. The trick was to have my priest set on "focus on healing" instead of controlling him manually. The computer is able to respond to the boss's last move whereas you can't do that manually controlling your whole party. This was the first dragon quest game I ever played (aside from lik 5 minutes of 8) and its a great game, one of my favorites of this gen.
Love all the post game content that I'm just starting now, especially like that there's still story quests to do and not just a bunch of collecting and leveling. Sooooo much content on that tiny cartridge!
All of this makes me really hyped for DQ X though I wish it were on the 3ds instead of the wii, I would never have been able to sit down in front of my tv to play this game for as long as I did.
Okay I beat the game finally. Third times the charm.
Corvus wasn't too hard this time, I had all my party members alive but 2 were asleep when I dealt the final blow
I won with a level 31 warrior, and lvl 45ish mage, priest, and martial artist. The trick was to have my priest set on "focus on healing" instead of controlling him manually. The computer is able to respond to the boss's last move whereas you can't do that manually controlling your whole party. This was the first dragon quest game I ever played (aside from lik 5 minutes of 8) and its a great game, one of my favorites of this gen.
Love all the post game content that I'm just starting now, especially like that there's still story quests to do and not just a bunch of collecting and leveling. Sooooo much content on that tiny cartridge!
All of this makes me really hyped for DQ X though I wish it were on the 3ds instead of the wii, I would never have been able to sit down in front of my tv to play this game for as long as I did.
Yeah, his 'last gasp' attack is kind of cheap. Okay, it's really cheap.
I think you're starting to see the reason everyone spends so much time playing the game after they beat it.
The story quests go on for a while, and some of them are pretty interesting.
. Now you can try maxing your vocation skills for every one of your characters, go treasure hunting, and explore at your own leisure. If you can, try and find someone in your area with one of the 'legendary' treasure maps. It makes level grinding and gold farming considerably easier.
And give other Dragon Quests a try! DQV is a fan favorite because of its story, and it plays great on the DS. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 is coming out soon, and I will go nuts once I finally see screens for DQX.
One more thing to keep in mind for alchemy drops around the world map (if it hasn't been mentioned again recently): because it's time-based, an easy way to make the respawns happen is to just put your system in canvass mode before you go to bed (or when you're going to be away from your DS for a while), close your system and come back later. The in-game timer keeps going when you're doing this, so usually by the time you come back, the entire world is restocked. Very handy!
Yeah, his 'last gasp' attack is kind of cheap. Okay, it's really cheap.
I think you're starting to see the reason everyone spends so much time playing the game after they beat it.
The story quests go on for a while, and some of them are pretty interesting.
. Now you can try maxing your vocation skills for every one of your characters, go treasure hunting, and explore at your own leisure. If you can, try and find someone in your area with one of the 'legendary' treasure maps. It makes level grinding and gold farming considerably easier.
And give other Dragon Quests a try! DQV is a fan favorite because of its story, and it plays great on the DS. Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 is coming out soon, and I will go nuts once I finally see screens for DQX.
Thanks, unfortunately I didn't get the game when it first came out so I missed out on a lot of canvasing opportunities. I really liked the ending and the game world as a whole. I don't have much experience with dragon quest games but now I totally understand the charm of the world and its characters.
Thanks, unfortunately I didn't get the game when it first came out so I missed out on a lot of canvasing opportunities. I really liked the ending and the game world as a whole. I don't have much experience with dragon quest games but now I totally understand the charm of the world and its characters.
If you live in an urban area, or live within a reasonable distance to one, there are definitely people in your area who have the famous maps and there are probably people who would be willing to spend 5 minutes giving you them. Dragon's Den, a popular Dragon Quest fansite, has a forum specific to DQIX that gets several new posts per day. And I'm not sure if it's a banned site here, so apologies in advance if it is, but GameFAQs still has an active forum for DQIX players.
Though they aren't strictly necessary (of course), they do help quite a bit if you're looking to level up some characters or farm for money or alchemy items. It can turn an hours-long process into a minutes-long one.
If I recall correctly, I was in my early 40s when I took on the final boss. The final bosses in most Dragon Quest games are quite difficult, especially compared to earlier bosses which track pretty closely to your current levels. I died the first two times I faced it.
So don't feel ashamed for grinding. It is Dragon Quest, after all. You should also stock up on healing/restorative items and spread them around between the characters, and try alchemizing good weapons and armor at Stornway Inn if you're just using items that you've purchased at the in-game shops.
And you made the right decision to ditch the Minstrel. It's only useful insofar as you can use its skill points.
Minstrel isn't terrible, but yeah if you have a balanced party then switching to warrior or gladiator can be better. I beat it in the early 40s with Minstrel, Priest, Mage, Warrior, but what I found that helped the most was changing my equipment around. Life Bracers give +25 HP every turn, which really adds up fast, and when you're up against the magic-using bosses it really helps to have reflect gear on (it's not 100% like Bounce, but it procs enough to make a difference).
When it comes to farming the world map, don't log off for a long time using quicksave. Quicksave is convenient, but stuff doesn't repop when you're out of the game unless you did normal save. Sometimes just hitting an inn is all it takes to make stuff reappear.
Another way to get more items passively, without Half-Inch, is to get Thief to 40 and do the class quest, then put the book on whoever has the highest deftness. Every time you defeat an enemy, you get a small chance of stealing an item, even if you already stole an item, on top of the regular drops. It's fantastic when you're fighting legacy bosses and walk away with two orbs.
Another way to get more items passively, without Half-Inch, is to get Thief to 40 and do the class quest, then put the book on whoever has the highest deftness. Every time you defeat an enemy, you get a small chance of stealing an item, even if you already stole an item, on top of the regular drops. It's fantastic when you're fighting legacy bosses and walk away with two orbs.
When it comes to farming the world map, don't log off for a long time using quicksave. Quicksave is convenient, but stuff doesn't repop when you're out of the game unless you did normal save. Sometimes just hitting an inn is all it takes to make stuff reappear.
Another way to get more items passively, without Half-Inch, is to get Thief to 40 and do the class quest, then put the book on whoever has the highest deftness. Every time you defeat an enemy, you get a small chance of stealing an item, even if you already stole an item, on top of the regular drops. It's fantastic when you're fighting legacy bosses and walk away with two orbs.
I've never actually used quicksave. If I am just quitting, I have always just gone to the church and done a hard save and quit the game. I know quicksave is well, quicker, but maybe it's the old habits of doing so with the other Dragon Quests.
It's weird, I can't figure out the respawn time for items on the world map. Last night I was doing some grinding for levels and I had not visited a location (for items ) for quite awhile, at least a good hour and a half, and they still had not respawned. Then there have been times it's been a half hour. *shrugs*
Ok, to clarify, this book (for reaching Thief 40) allows you to take an item again from a monster, even if you already stole it? Is it always the same item you may have stolen using Half-inch? Or is it a chance again of being the more common or rare drop?
I've never actually used quicksave. If I am just quitting, I have always just gone to the church and done a hard save and quit the game. I know quicksave is well, quicker, but maybe it's the old habits of doing so with the other Dragon Quests.
It's weird, I can't figure out the respawn time for items on the world map. Last night I was doing some grinding for levels and I had not visited a location (for items ) for quite awhile, at least a good hour and a half, and they still had not respawned. Then there have been times it's been a half hour. *shrugs*
Ok, to clarify, this book (for reaching Thief 40) allows you to take an item again from a monster, even if you already stole it? Is it always the same item you may have stolen using Half-inch? Or is it a chance again of being the more common or rare drop?
Yeah, it's a good habit to not overuse quicksave. I didn't start using it until I was done playing the game; I would quicksave in Stornway Inn and just load and connect to DQVC to check the daily shop items (which forces a hard save anyway). There are just so many stories of people forgetting that they used a quicksave, grinding for hours, and then losing their progress because they didn't do frequent hard saves.
And regarding the item for Thieves, because it's a quest reward I'm going to put it in spoiler tags:
every vocation has a scroll, that unlike weapons can be used by characters regardless of vocation. The Thief scroll, called "Thief's Theory", is a reward for doing quest 100. There are some requirements for the quest, one of which is having a Thief in your party of at least level 40. The way the scroll works is simple: it adds another drop check at the end of battle. So while you normally may "find a treasure chest" with an item at the end of a battle, having Thief's Theory on a character pings the random number generator again. This means you can theoretically get more than one drop per monster. It's unrelated to Half-inch, but it is obviously directly related to the drop rate, which is affected by your character's level. So putting the scroll on your highest-leveled character will maximize your potential for getting another chance at getting a drop. Sorry if that sounds confusing... I can try and clarify if you're still unsure.
Because it adds another drop check, it's certainly possible to get both the common and rare drop from a single monster at the end of a battle with Thief's Theory on one of your characters. Then again, it's also no guarantee. The game can run both drop checks and come up empty.
Yeah, it's a good habit to not overuse quicksave. I didn't start using it until I was done playing the game; I would quicksave in Stornway Inn and just load and connect to DQVC to check the daily shop items (which forces a hard save anyway). There are just so many stories of people forgetting that they used a quicksave, grinding for hours, and then losing their progress because they didn't do frequent hard saves.
DQVC may be out of reach for me, unfortunately. I know we talked about turning off the security for the router earlier in the thread, and this will sound silly, but not even sure how to do that. I am not all that computer savvy and a friend of mine had set up my router connection. I will have to contact him on that, hopefully there isn't a lot involved.
Just annoys me to no end that DQ IX uses a WEP connection. I can understand for older games like Final Fantasy III, but DQ IX came out only like 2 years ago or so in Japan, which by that time, WPA was full in effect.
SecretMoblin said:
And regarding the item for Thieves, because it's a quest reward I'm going to put it in spoiler tags:
every vocation has a scroll, that unlike weapons can be used by characters regardless of vocation. The Thief scroll, called "Thief's Theory", is a reward for doing quest 100. There are some requirements for the quest, one of which is having a Thief in your party of at least level 40. The way the scroll works is simple: it adds another drop check at the end of battle. So while you normally may "find a treasure chest" with an item at the end of a battle, having Thief's Theory on a character pings the random number generator again. This means you can theoretically get more than one drop per monster. It's unrelated to Half-inch, but it is obviously directly related to the drop rate, which is affected by your character's level. So putting the scroll on your highest-leveled character will maximize your potential for getting another chance at getting a drop. Sorry if that sounds confusing... I can try and clarify if you're still unsure.
Because it adds another drop check, it's certainly possible to get both the common and rare drop from a single monster at the end of a battle with Thief's Theory on one of your characters. Then again, it's also no guarantee. The game can run both drop checks and come up empty.
DQVC may be out of reach for me, unfortunately. I know we talked about turning off the security for the router earlier in the thread, and this will sound silly, but not even sure how to do that. I am not all that computer savvy and a friend of mine had set up my router connection. I will have to contact him on that, hopefully there isn't a lot involved.
Just annoys me to no end that DQ IX uses a WEP connection. I can understand for older games like Final Fantasy III, but DQ IX came out only like 2 years ago or so in Japan, which by that time, WPA was full in effect.
No need to keep apologizing for rambling, you've actually been a lot of help. And yes, that made it clear enough for me. The
Thief's Theory sounds pretty nice. Any idea on the percentage rate for that second drop?
I actually picked up my first grotto map last night and will give that a shot today.
As much as it sounds odd for me to say it, since I'm always on the other end of techy questions, dealing with the router's security is thankfully very, very easy. It's a matter of opening a web browser, typing in the IP address of your router to access its settings, and selecting the security type from a drop-down list. It's about the same level of tech difficulty as uploading an avatar. I've been able to do it on a Belkin and a LinkSys without any trouble. But I totally understand not wanting to mess with that stuff on your own. If you don't feel embarrassed, you could also just try and find an unencrypted Wi-Fi signal at a McDonald's or Starbucks or something. All you really need is a minute.
And yeah, it is annoying that the WEP thing is a 'feature' of the software and not the hardware. The DSi units can connect with WPA, but DQIX still uses outdated technology for whatever reason.
Regarding
Thief's Theory, the rate for the second drop should be the same as the first. If the normal way a battle ends is:
1. Battle ends
2. Game runs a drop check
2a. If no, you don't get a drop
2b. If yes, you get a drop; the game decides via random number generator whether to give you the common or the rare drop
Then all Thief's Theory does is repeat the process in step 2. It just gives you another chance for a drop.
Because drop rate is partially dependent on your character's level, the best way to improve the rate of drops generally is to raise your characters' levels. Though I think the mechanics are a little wonky, if I recall correctly. I think the impact is very small until you hit level 99, when the drop rate suddenly improves dramatically.
I hate that, my game type is usually the stealth approach but also some who can deal some good crits. So, I see the Thief, so I could be that, then theirs martial artist, which would just have some similarities. This is the Devs way to say "Hay!, we have 6+ classes to choose from, but they are all similar to each other...Have fun!"
As much as it sounds odd for me to say it, since I'm always on the other end of techy questions, dealing with the router's security is thankfully very, very easy. It's a matter of opening a web browser, typing in the IP address of your router to access its settings, and selecting the security type from a drop-down list. It's about the same level of tech difficulty as uploading an avatar. I've been able to do it on a Belkin and a LinkSys without any trouble. But I totally understand not wanting to mess with that stuff on your own. If you don't feel embarrassed, you could also just try and find an unencrypted Wi-Fi signal at a McDonald's or Starbucks or something. All you really need is a minute.
And yeah, it is annoying that the WEP thing is a 'feature' of the software and not the hardware. The DSi units can connect with WPA, but DQIX still uses outdated technology for whatever reason.
So if I went to my routers website, it would be as simple as clicking the pull-down and switching my WPA to WEP? And I could switch it back just as easily? There is no rebooting of the computer or setting up new passwords?
I tried the McDonalds bit. Just did that yesterday, to be honest. A friend of mine and I went to a local McDonalds and our DS units (I have a DSi XL, he has a DSLite) were able to find the access point and set it up just fine, but when it tried to test our connection, we received a message of unable to obtain IP address-error code 52000 (mine said 52200 or 52300, but I was told by Nintendo it all meant pretty much the same).
As I indicated I spoke with Nintendo, and what she said from our error message, she feels the router McDonalds has is too fast for the transfer rate for our DS. That, or we were getting too much interference, the thing is when speaking with a manager at McDonalds, he said where we were at was the best location to access the router. So I am guessing its the transfer speed of their modem screwing us up.
Of course this is only one McDonalds I tried, but I am anticipating they are all going to have the same kind of router.
SecretMoblin said:
Because drop rate is partially dependent on your character's level, the best way to improve the rate of drops generally is to raise your characters' levels. Though I think the mechanics are a little wonky, if I recall correctly. I think the impact is very small until you hit level 99, when the drop rate suddenly improves dramatically.
So the characters level affecting the drop rate doesnt come into effect until you are max level? Thats a bit disappointing. Maybe SE had done that to reward those who max their vocations levels.
I plan to max more than one vocation, and even revocate multiple times, but was hoping to get better drop rates before level 99. I hope stealing doesnt work like that, as well. I have a 23 Thief (and I believe my Deftness is around 200), and it takes way too long for Half-inch to be successful.
I guess I was lucky that it's super-simple to switch between WEP/WPA with an AirPort router. It's not really worth jumping through all those hoops just for the chance at getting something useful on the DQVC. The Inn guests and the quests are worth a squirt, though.
Decided to continue playing this. My save says I've played the game for 31 hours but looking back on it I don't think I've done much in the game. Looking at the "Story so far" screen I have about about 5 fyggs. Any idea of how far I have until the end of the main story?
I see yellow dots flashing on the world map. What do those mean again?
The additional quests is the main reason why I want to get connected online. And from my understanding, you dont need to connect truly online to get additional guests. Just put your game in canvas mode and it looks for local connections.
Effect said:
Decided to continue playing this. My save says I've played the game for 31 hours but looking back on it I don't think I've done much in the game. Looking at the "Story so far" screen I have about about 5 fyggs. Any idea of how far I have until the end of the main story?
I see yellow dots flashing on the world map. What do those mean again?
8 fyggs by the end of the game. However, and I hope this isnt too much of a spoiler for you, but my friend (who has beaten the game already) says there is more to the story part of the game after getting all the fyggs.
And Im not really sure what the flashing yellow dots represent. Sorry.
And from my understanding, you dont need to connect truly online to get additional guests. Just put your game in canvas mode and it looks for local connections.
Ah right. Yeah you get special guests from previous DQ games via Wifi, thats what the others have been telling you about in relation to the DQVC. You can also canvass for other guests (up to thirty) but that is, as you said, through the DS local tag mode. Its something you will never get any joy from unless you attend a nerd convention.
Ah right. Yeah you get special guests from previous DQ games via Wifi, thats what the others have been telling you about in relation to the DQVC. You can also canvass for other guests (up to thirty) but that is, as you said, through the DS local tag mode. Its something you will never get any joy from unless you attend a nerd convention.
So if I went to my routers website, it would be as simple as clicking the pull-down and switching my WPA to WEP? And I could switch it back just as easily? There is no rebooting of the computer or setting up new passwords?
I tried the McDonalds bit. Just did that yesterday, to be honest. A friend of mine and I went to a local McDonalds and our DS units (I have a DSi XL, he has a DSLite) were able to find the access point and set it up just fine, but when it tried to test our connection, we received a message of unable to obtain IP address-error code 52000 (mine said 52200 or 52300, but I was told by Nintendo it all meant pretty much the same).
As I indicated I spoke with Nintendo, and what she said from our error message, she feels the router McDonalds has is too fast for the transfer rate for our DS. That, or we were getting too much interference, the thing is when speaking with a manager at McDonalds, he said where we were at was the best location to access the router. So I am guessing its the transfer speed of their modem screwing us up.
Of course this is only one McDonalds I tried, but I am anticipating they are all going to have the same kind of router.
So the characters level affecting the drop rate doesnt come into effect until you are max level? Thats a bit disappointing. Maybe SE had done that to reward those who max their vocations levels.
I plan to max more than one vocation, and even revocate multiple times, but was hoping to get better drop rates before level 99. I hope stealing doesnt work like that, as well. I have a 23 Thief (and I believe my Deftness is around 200), and it takes way too long for Half-inch to be successful.
Yes, it really is that simple, though if you change it from WPA to WEP you may need to set a new password for the WEP. I just set it to "Disabled" for a few minutes, it doesn't reset any of my passwords or affect any firewalls/antivirus stuff. Here's a picture of my router's security settings; I have a cheap Belkin router:
All I do when I want to connect is the following, which takes a lot less time to do than to type out:
1. Go into my router's settings. This is usually an IP address, and the address is usually brand-wide. So I enter 192.168.2.1 in the address bar, which is how to access a Belkin router's settings.
2. I get a "home page", with some basic information about the router. I click on "Security" on the left (which you can see in the picture).
3. It asks me for a password. You can leave this blank and just click accept.
4. I get the page you see in the picture. I click the drop-down menu, click "disabled", and click "apply changes" below (which you can see underneath the settings).
5. The router may or may not reboot; this should take less than a minute. Don't close your web browser, leave the settings page up. If you do close it, you can get back just by reentering the IP address.
6. At this point, you may need to set up wireless settings on your game cart. On the main menu of the game there should be a "configure Wi-Fi settings". Go there and search for an access point, and it should recognize your router. It will do a connection test, and if it's successful (and it should be), you're golden!
7. Go into the game, go to Stornway Inn, talk to Sellma and connect to the DQVC. You'll see some slimes as it connects, then it will say "downloading" for a few seconds and promptly disconnect.
8. FINALLY, all you need to do is go back into the security settings and reselect WPA and click "apply changes" or your router's equivalent. You shouldn't need to type in your password again or anything like that, but your router may reboot.
So now that I've written that, I suppose it does seem a bit more complicated than I let on. But it's still not exceptionally difficult - you don't need to know tech jargon to navigate the router's settings. It's basically access your router's settings -> disable the security -> reenable the security. Your computer will definitely not need to reboot, as you're not tinkering with any of your computer's settings. I've done this process on both a Belkin and a LinkSys and they were exactly the same. Though again, if you're uncomfortable trying this out then I would call your friend or find an unencrypted hotspot around town. Sorry to hear about your McDonald's excursion. :-(
And I'm not entirely certain about the drop rates thing. I remember reading somewhere that it didn't improve dramatically until level 99, but I could be wrong. But Half-inch is not related to level; it's only affected by deftness. Sadly, folks who have delved into the game's code have found that deftness does not have a very noticeable impact unless you're dealing with huge differences in numbers, like a character with 600 deftness and one with 12. So putting crappy armor on your characters or forcing them all to be Thieves won't really have a significant impact on your Half-inch success rate. The good thing about Half-inch, though, is that unlike drops you can just sit in battle and have your characters spam it until you get an item. It may take a while, but in a sense Half-inch has a 100% success rate, assuming the enemy doesn't run or kill you.
Sorry, I thought I'd add a picture of security settings for a LinkSys router, just so you can see how similar they are. The only real difference is that the links to the various settings have been moved from the left-hand side to the top:
Effect said:
Any idea of how far I have until the end of the main story?
You have a ways to go, several hours at least. And then there's a TON of postgame content. And I'm not sure what you mean by flashing yellow dots; could you elaborate? Is this on the map as you're walking around or on the zoomed-out world map you access by pressing Y?
Darksnowman said:
Does canvas mode get you the special guests? Did not know that. I thought it was just for nabbing some random gamers data in passing.
There are two kinds of guests for Stornway Inn; one is the folks you tag in canvass mode, who show up in the room to the left. You see their character and when you "talk" to them, you get their greeting and a treasure map, if they chose to carry one. Then there are "special guests" that show up in your inn after you connect online once:
characters from previous Dragon Quest games occupy executive suites in your inn. You can access their rooms in the back of the first floor of the inn. You should see a butler next to an elevator - talking to him allows you to visit their rooms.
These guests 'arrived' one at a time over many months, just like the extra quests, but they have all 'arrived' by now, just like all of the quests. This means connecting to the DQVC one time will permanently unlock all of these guests and all of the quests on your cart. The inn gets upgraded when you tag fellow players in canvass mode; the maximum upgrade comes when you tag 30 different people.
FreeMufasa said:
I've paused my DQ8 playthrough. What's the feeling on playing 2 DQ games at one time?
I played 7 and 3 at the same time, though 7 takes forever and it was my second playthrough of 3. You definitely won't run into any story spoilers, if that's what you're concerned about.
You have a ways to go, several hours at least. And then there's a TON of postgame content. And I'm not sure what you mean by flashing yellow dots; could you elaborate? Is this on the map as you're walking around or on the zoomed-out world map you access by pressing Y?
Oh! Ok, I just turned on my game to check it out. The yellow dots are towns and places to visit, and the red triangles are dungeons. I forget if they are all visible at the start of the game or become visible once you visit the locations. I think - though I'm not entirely sure - that you can also Zoom to all of the places that have yellow dots.
Thanks for the really helpful information. My router is a Linksys, so your second example screen is very useful. I can switch over on my as it seems pretty simple, but I probably will call my friend up anyways to get his take on the matter.
Thats a shame in regards to how high of a Deftness is needed to make any noticeable difference. Almost want to ask what the point is with Deftness armor. I think I am going to avoid stealing (using Half-inch) unless I absolutely have to. Yes, you can spam the monsters, but it is just so annoying how many times you need to spam them. It is taking on average of 6-7 times (rounds) for it to succeed. Thats way too long.
Thanks for the really helpful information. My router is a Linksys, so your second example screen is very useful. I can switch over on my as it seems pretty simple, but I probably will call my friend up anyways to get his take on the matter.
Thats a shame in regards to how high of a Deftness is needed to make any noticeable difference. Almost want to ask what the point is with Deftness armor. I think I am going to avoid stealing (using Half-inch) unless I absolutely have to. Yes, you can spam the monsters, but it is just so annoying how many times you need to spam them. It is taking on average of 6-7 times (rounds) for it to succeed. Thats way too long.
Yep, it's very annoying. But not nearly as annoying as several of the quest requirements, which are sadly on the wrong side of the challenging/fun seesaw. Seriously, some of the requirements are just insane, and not in a good way. I haven't done about half the quests just because so many are mind-numbingly boring and needlessly challenging.
Yep, it's very annoying. But not nearly as annoying as several of the quest requirements, which are sadly on the wrong side of the challenging/fun seesaw. Seriously, some of the requirements are just insane, and not in a good way. I haven't done about half the quests just because so many are mind-numbingly boring and needlessly challenging.
Yes, Ive run into a few annoying quests already. I would say the one Ive had the most issue with so far is the one where
you need to use War Cry to scare a Scarewulf, and then kill him before his turn happens. I finally figured out how to work it, but it got annoying sometimes as the person I chose to finish off the Scarewulf sometimes went before my hero and killed him before I could get the War Cry off.
And then another annoying quest was the one where I had to steal (use Half-inch) back the treasure trove from a Hunter Mech. This is what really got me annoyed about Half-inch.
But overall, I am still loving the game. It is very addictive and look forward to getting some more of the grotto maps. Only have one right now (and the boss is kicking my butt).
Yes, Ive run into a few annoying quests already. I would say the one Ive had the most issue with so far is the one where
you need to use War Cry to scare a Scarewulf, and then kill him before his turn happens. I finally figured out how to work it, but it got annoying sometimes as the person I chose to finish off the Scarewulf sometimes went before my hero and killed him before I could get the War Cry off.
And then another annoying quest was the one where I had to steal (use Half-inch) back the treasure trove from a Hunter Mech. This is what really got me annoyed about Half-inch.
But overall, I am still loving the game. It is very addictive and look forward to getting some more of the grotto maps. Only have one right now (and the boss is kicking my butt).
Ugh, those quests. But trust me, they get much worse. It's part of why I'm so in awe of the guy who 100%ed it. I spent about 300 hours on it before I let it go, and I didn't come anywhere near getting all the items or finishing all the quests. And I had the benefit of those amazing Japanese treasure maps that made grinding and gold- and item-farming a breeze.
But one of the things I'm surprised about that almost no reviewers seemed to mention is the absolutely brilliant localization. I think it's the best localized RPG on the DS (and perhaps the best localized game overall). The town names, the character names, the names of skills (like Half-inch), so many pieces of armor, nearly everything is a pun or a slangy term. It's one of those things that makes you roll your eyes or chuckle when you catch it.
I gave this game my best shot, I honestly did but it's just not clicking with me. Charming, for sure, but I've had alot more fun with Heroes of Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes lately.
After DQ8 I felt compelled to buy a DS for this game and man was I disappointed.
It's not a bad game, but it threw out a lot of core RPG elements just to focus on the multiplayer. Seems like nobody but me plays DQ in America, so I didn't really get to explore that aspect of the game. Not to mention it was considerably technically downgraded from the PS2 on the DS...
Eh, well here's hoping DQX sticks closer to what the series is about.
After DQ8 I felt compelled to buy a DS for this game and man was I disappointed.
It's not a bad game, but it threw out a lot of core RPG elements just to focus on the multiplayer. Seems like nobody but me plays DQ in America, so I didn't really get to explore that aspect of the game. Not to mention it was considerably technically downgraded from the PS2 on the DS...
Eh, well here's hoping DQX sticks closer to what the series is about.
I thought the multiplayer elements were both minor and actually integrated pretty well into the game. The multiplayer gameplay is a lot of fun for turn-based RPG action, and tag mode isn't as bad as it could be. Plus, there is almost nothing that actually requires multiplayer for you to have access to; the only thing you won't see if you don't play multiplayer is an upgraded inn, and that isn't important at all. The single-player game still has everything that the earlier DQs had (except perhaps a better umbrella story), plus oodles of post-game stuff to do. And the amount of customization you can do with all of the armor and all of the vocations is fantastic.
I do wish that they didn't require players to connect to the internet to unlock content that's already on the cart, though. One of the things I loved about the days of cartridges was that the games were self-contained; everything you could possibly see or do was inside that plastic case, and it didn't require anything extra. Plus, the limit on 3 people for a single tag mode session gets pretty frustrating when you're in an area with lots of different people.
I'm really looking forward to DQX. It'll be nice to sit in front of the TV and play a nice, long Dragon Quest again.
I do wish that they didn't require players to connect to the internet to unlock content that's already on the cart, though. One of the things I loved about the days of cartridges was that the games were self-contained; everything you could possibly see or do was inside that plastic case, and it didn't require anything extra. Plus, the limit on 3 people for a single tag mode session gets pretty frustrating when you're in an area with lots of different people.
I'm really looking forward to DQX. It'll be nice to sit in front of the TV and play a nice, long Dragon Quest again.
I agree completely with your assessments of the game, with the exception of the postgame content as I have not gotten that far and cant comment on it.
But your words rang very true for me in regards to the forced nature of having to go online to unlock a portion of the content. would just prefer all the content would accessible within the single player game. Final Fantasy III (DS) did the same thing in trying to attain the
Onion Knight class.
But as I said, Ive still really enjoyed DQ IX. However, I also look forward to sitting in front of the tv and enjoying a traditional Dragon Quest (X). I actually heard that DQ X is going to be a lot more like VIII in that respect than trying to focus on the multi-player as IX did.
The DQVC's already looped back to the beginning, whereas in Japan, they continued to receive new weekly lists of increasingly rare stuff, only just having had their final blowout, which is on repeat.
Their second to last feature was a revocation medal special.
I emailed Square Enix after Nintendo told me the former were still in charge of DQVC in the West, and they told me that in general, promotions are handled with respect to fan interest. Which I guess means that since the series isn't as big a draw over here, no soup, ahem, medals for us.
Personally, I preferred the portability of DQIX. Made it much easier to marathon.
Yep, as someone who had played every Dragon Quest except for VI before IX came out (though I remedied that when VI came out a few months ago), I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed the first game designed for a portable. There are obviously limitations with the technology. The framerate gets very sluggish when your party is running around, the enemy animations aren't as full as in VIII, NPCs frequently turn into sprites, etc. But the charm and fun of the previous games was there, in my opinion. And the ports of IV, V, and VI for the DS are just wonderful.
In truth, I'll be happy with DQX returning to a console. But DQIX surprised me frequently along the way, and I'm really glad it seemed to get something of a foothold in the West. You know that feeling when people start getting interested in something you love, like a band or a film, and you get so excited that all you want to do is unload a lifetime's worth of info on them? Yeah. That's how I feel about Dragon Quest. It was extremely heartening to go to the meetups after the game was released and meet young kids (some under 10) who decided to take a chance on DQIX and loved it. And it was also amazing to see how many older DQIX players there are -- many of the folks I met were over 50.
Does anyone know what the sale figures have been for DQ IX in NA?
I guess the real heart of my question is with Nintendo publishing the game for NA, and giving the big marketing push for it, did that make the difference sales-wise compared to previous DQ games published in NA?
Does anyone know what the sale figures have been for DQ IX in NA?
I guess the real heart of my question is with Nintendo publishing the game for NA, and giving the big marketing push for it, did that make the difference sales-wise compared to previous DQ games published in NA?
I haven't ever seen numbers specific to NA, but Nintendo revealed sales of the game for part of its 2010 earnings report, and they said that it sold 1.02 million "in the West": source
Those obviously aren't Pokémon numbers, but the game was successful. And I think you're right about the marketing. NCL wants Dragon Quest to be a Nintendo-exclusive series, and they're mandating that NoA and NoE push the franchise hard. I think they're still feeling like they let something great get away from them when FFVII and subsequent Final Fantasy games were released on Sony systems. They've been marketing the DQ franchise very, very aggressively in the West, even taking a loss on some of the games on the chance that the franchise will take off here. I mean, we're getting Itadaki Street and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2. Those games won't sell very well even with aggressive marketing. And even though DQX will almost certainly be released after the Wii U is out, I would be shocked if it didn't come here as well, even though NoA hasn't localized other RPGs for the system.
Played alil bit today for the first time since like december probably. Cleared a grotto, did a couple quests, fun stuffs. Had to resort to guides since quest info is sometimes vague and the world map sucks for not telling ya what places are where which is bad after you've been away from the game for soooo long. I'll prolly never see super good items of nothing but for a quick dungeon crawl its a good game to come back to now and then.
What defines a good world map for you guys? I'm just glad that the series still has them.
Now I remember why I stopped playing: I'm currently in the 070-080 range of quests (the weapon-specific ones from Swinedimples). Some of these are so ridiculous. I'm determined, though. LOL
Sinoox said:
It's not a bad game, but it threw out a lot of core RPG elements just to focus on the multiplayer.
People have poured hundreds of hours into this game and have 00:00 logged on MP. After everything was said and done, MP was a pretty minor (but extremely fun) part of the game.
The main thing it ditched was pre-baked characters for a more western approach to RPGs (where you create everyone to your liking). I would agree that I would prefer distinct characters to latch onto, but over time, I came to really care for my band of randomly generated members anyway, mainly because of all the hours I put into building them.
The main thing it ditched was pre-baked characters for a more western approach to RPGs (where you create everyone to your liking). I would agree that I would prefer distinct characters to latch onto, but over time, I came to really care for my band of randomly generated members anyway, mainly because of all the hours I put into building them.
Yeah, I definitely understand why some Dragon Quest fans weren't happy with entirely user-created characters and the poor shell story. But I generally don't care about the story or characters in RPGs anyways; it's all about the mechanics, the style, and the game world for me. So I was pretty pleased with the massive amount of customization you could put into every character. I'm all in favor of unshackling the predefined character classes in favor of a more open, freestyle approach.
The main thing it ditched was pre-baked characters for a more western approach to RPGs (where you create everyone to your liking). I would agree that I would prefer distinct characters to latch onto, but over time, I came to really care for my band of randomly generated members anyway, mainly because of all the hours I put into building them.
This is a main sticking point for me. I hate the silent protagonists masquerading as "me the player". I also hate generic random characters. VIII still had the best characters of all which mostly was due to stellar voice acting and likeable personalities. I felt disconnected from this game for the more than 40 hours I put into it because of my general lack of feeling for the one note characters.
I think it's safe to say that most RPGs don't have that good of stories. At least if you are expecting an actual well written story. There are of course exceptions.
Not that I don't enjoy the stories of RPGs, it's just my expectations are not that high and therefore if the story does turn out to be actually quite good, then the game is all the better for me.
With DQ IX, I really feel that having the cookie cutter characters has definitely been even more of a drain on the story, but going back to expectations, I had already heard this was the case before playing the game, so I knew this was coming and adjusted my expectations.
The story is ok, and I do miss the more personalized characters, but I am having so much fun with the game pimping my characters out it really isn't mattering right now.
This is a main sticking point for me. I hate the silent protagonists masquerading as "me the player". I also hate generic random characters. VIII still had the best characters of all which mostly was due to stellar voice acting and likeable personalities. I felt disconnected from this game for the more than 40 hours I put into it because of my general lack of feeling for the one note characters.
this was my biggest issue with DQ9, and ultimately why i fell off the wagon. it's not so much the characters specifically, but rather the lack of character not only in the protagonist + party members but in a lot of the quests too. it felt like it was removing some of the life out of the game in order to inject some social features, and it just 'didn't agree with me' i guess you could say.
DQ8 continues to be my favorite, so it's hard not to compare the two when expressing my feelings about 9:
-8 had lots of charm and character, 9 feels flat and stale
-8 had lots and lots of stuff to do and felt like it really fleshed out the world, 9 felt like it had tons of sidequests thrown in for the sake of adding more sidequests and stuff to do instead of allowing everything to mesh well together
-8 had characters as my party members, 9 had random 'mercs' i could hire like in diablo 2
i would go into the presentation and the game engine but that's unfair to the DS, because it's not really capable of that scale. i will say that 9 looks fantastic for what it is though, and im SO glad they didn't go with a 'fancy 2D' engine.
i will eventually finish this game, but not before i FINALLY complete 8 (currently at 111 hours of play trying to get all items/alchemy/monsters) and then 4 on DS...... and THEN 9. i also want 5 on DS, but the game guide (leave me alone) is going for a fortune on amazon. did they print only 5 copies or something?
i will eventually finish this game, but not before i FINALLY complete 8 (currently at 111 hours of play trying to get all items/alchemy/monsters) and then 4 on DS...... and THEN 9. i also want 5 on DS, but the game guide (leave me alone) is going for a fortune on amazon. did they print only 5 copies or something?
They did produce few copies of V since DQ IV and Chrono Trigger were overproduced by orders of magnitude (there is a reason Chrono Trigger is easily found below $20).
Also, (assuming US) you missed the reprint that happened a few months ago (well Amazon got a huge amount of stock in and even Gold Boxed it at $20). Sorry (Europe never got any such reprint, we also got hardly any copies of Chrono Trigger as well).
