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Dragon Quest 9 |OT| Last chance* to shine

Duelist

Member
I finally beat the game a couple of days ago. I also did the quest to get
access to the Starlight Express
. Did a few grottos and sidequests. I also noticed the
Tower of Nod
, but it didn't seem like there was much to do there until a certain DLC quest was released.

So besides grinding, is there much to do post-game or am I better served starting on Persona 3 Portable?
 

turnbuckle

Member
In the final dungeon (or, at least I believe it's the final dungeon) and about to get the sage quest completed. I don't want to finish this game :(

There seems to be a TON of unaccessible stuff on the map still at this point. If that all is post game content that's both kinda cool and kinda disappointing. I've been playing the game hoping to find a way to fly around to those spots, but to require beating the main story first before being able to do so just doesn't feel right. Unless I missed something big and could've gotten to those places earlier...
 

Link Man

Banned
turnbuckle said:
In the final dungeon (or, at least I believe it's the final dungeon) and about to get the sage quest completed. I don't want to finish this game :(

There seems to be a TON of unaccessible stuff on the map still at this point. If that all is post game content that's both kinda cool and kinda disappointing. I've been playing the game hoping to find a way to fly around to those spots, but to require beating the main story first before being able to do so just doesn't feel right. Unless I missed something big and could've gotten to those places earlier...
There's not much there, except
Liquid Metal Slime heaven
.
 

Shoogoo

Member
rpmurphy said:
It is pretty good early on, but the attack power gets outdone by later weapons. Works pretty well on classes with high strength, and it is by default omnivocational. Wind Sickles will come in handy.

Thanks. What would you pick for a MA then?
 

Yaweee

Member
Duelist said:
So besides grinding, is there much to do post-game or am I better served starting on Persona 3 Portable?

P3P is awesome. DQ9 generally has a lot of longevity because online stuff gets unlocked over time (new quests, guests at the inn, updates to the store).
 

Oli

Registered User
Koomaster said:
If you plan to have your main character's weapon be a sword, it's great to put points into swords. If you aren't sure what you want your main guy to do yet, you can save the skill points till later.

As for upgrading equipment, unless it's a huge upgrade, I didn't even bother. Often I would run across a chest in a dungeon that had upgraded armor/weapon that was being sold in the shop in town.

Just explore as much as you're able and don't be afraid of death.

Cool, I'll keep that in mind in the future. Though I just spent a bunch of money on armor for my new crew. D:

I just couldn't help myself...
 

Shoogoo

Member
Yaweee said:
It can be a bit iffy. Wind Sickles is fantastic (0MP group attacks as strong as physical attacks and +damage to elemetals), Multifist does basically double damage (4 half-damage attacks) and the alter +ATK skills seem nice. However, the +ATK skills are spread out much more than how often you can buy new weapons for the other trees.

I don't understand the bolded part, can you explain?
 
My 2 and a half hour grinding session paid off! All my party at level 29 and close to level 30, defeated
Dreadmaster
and now, after some interesting developments, I'm at
Woodworm Creek
. 26 hours in and I'm still loving this :)
 

farnham

Banned
so has anyone tried to play multiplayer with one japanese version and another version

i bought the japanese version but would buy another one if multiplayer is possible
 

turnbuckle

Member
Link Man said:
There's not much there, except
Liquid Metal Slime heaven
.

There's a good 4 or 5 places on the map I can't get access to without flying. If what's in your spoiler is all I have to look forward to, I'll be truly disappoint.

Near the end and haven't encountered any Metal Kings yet. I'm sure they're in the game, but if it's only in the post game content I'll be disappointed yet again. Man, I talk more shit about this game than I praise it. I love it. If you combined the best of this with the best of VIII you'd have the best DQ game released. But there are so many little things I find myself unhappy with that I'm already yearning for a re-release on the 3DS. I don't want the next DQ on a home console anymore. DQ X needs to be moved to the 3DS :(
 

Yaweee

Member
Shoogoo said:
I don't understand the bolded part, can you explain?

There's a +10 early on, a +30 at around 60 skill points, and +60 for 100 skill points. With regards to how many levels that is, it's kind of a long time between getting those upgrades. Other than that, you're basically relying on your strength stat from leveling.

On the other hand, if you have a weapon, you can replace your weapon every 2 dungeons or so.
 

Aponi

Member
Ok, so how good is the multi-player stuff?

My husband and I can never find good multi-player single-console games to play. He's planning to play through DQIX after I finish it, but I'm considering just getting a second copy so we could play together some if we want.

Does it matter if you're around the same level or not? I'm around 19-20, though I just finished Alltrades Abby so I could just change everyone's classes and be back to more or less level 1.

Right now he's busy playing Red Dead Redemption, but I thought I might be able to lure him away from it.
 

ataboada

Member
This has been bugging me for a while, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere: when do I unlock the virtual shop for the extra content? I'm about done with Coffinwell.
 

Link Man

Banned
turnbuckle said:
There's a good 4 or 5 places on the map I can't get access to without flying. If what's in your spoiler is all I have to look forward to, I'll be truly disappoint.

Near the end and haven't encountered any Metal Kings yet. I'm sure they're in the game, but if it's only in the post game content I'll be disappointed yet again. Man, I talk more shit about this game than I praise it. I love it. If you combined the best of this with the best of VIII you'd have the best DQ game released. But there are so many little things I find myself unhappy with that I'm already yearning for a re-release on the 3DS. I don't want the next DQ on a home console anymore. DQ X needs to be moved to the 3DS :(
Well, there are some quests and a few more alchemy recipes, but the meat of the post-game seems to be exploring grottoes.

Also, there are
multiple bosses from previous games, which I hear pose quite a challenge.
 

Shoogoo

Member
Yaweee said:
There's a +10 early on, a +30 at around 60 skill points, and +60 for 100 skill points. With regards to how many levels that is, it's kind of a long time between getting those upgrades. Other than that, you're basically relying on your strength stat from leveling.

On the other hand, if you have a weapon, you can replace your weapon every 2 dungeons or so.

Ok got it :) thanks for being so clear on this. I still like the Fisticuff tree more than say the claws one. But I didn't try any of those skills so it's pretty hard to judge.
 

aidan

Hugo Award Winning Author and Editor
ataboada said:
This has been bugging me for a while, but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere: when do I unlock the virtual shop for the extra content? I'm about done with Coffinwell.

You can't yet. Once you get the 'Zoom' spell, go back to the inn in Stornwall.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Man not having the ablility to change your main characters appearance later in the game is kind of a major oversight in my opinion. I can't believe no one on the team thought of adding that.

Just got to the inn where I can start recruiting characters. I'm guessing Minstrel, Warrior, Priest, and Mage is a good place to start.

I already had the bad guy spoiled for me
Corvus, Aquila's mentor who was the one mentioned in the observatory for leaving mysteriously. It was pretty obvious that would be the bad guy or at least the "disc one" bad guy but I still feel like I spoiled something I should have waited for. The wiki even says "and the hero beats him" as its ending explanation.
 

Yaweee

Member
Shoogoo said:
Ok got it :) thanks for being so clear on this. I still like the Fisticuff tree more than say the claws one. But I didn't try any of those skills so it's pretty hard to judge.

The Fisticuff skills are generally great, as it feels like they outright replace your regular attacks to something much more useful due to them being free. Either 2x total damage spread across random enemies, or full damage to each enemy in a group? Both are awesome and constantly useful. It's just that against boss enemies, my way under-leveled gladiator was doing more damage because I could just slap an up to date weapon on him.
 

BooJoh

Member
Oli said:
My game finally arrived! And I have a few questions after starting out:
First off, I just came back from examining the landslide. I just got some skills points, and I put all three into sword skills. Is that advisable? And should I continue to dump them into one catagory, or spread them out? Also, how skimpy should I be about upgrading equipment? I have enough for the better sword in town, should I just go for it when I have the cash?

Really loving the game so far.
I really had no intention of making my main character a Minstrel, so I put his first points into Swords. What I found after making my other characters and getting them some class skills was that basically weapon skills account for a far greater DPS increase than class skills. I'd wager it's best to max out any given character's weapon of choice before maxing out their class tree. The exception of course being casters who get some much-needed MP and Magical Might/Mending from their respective trees.
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
Ok, the boss in the Bloomingdale mission. The
Giant Spider
is seriously grossing me out. :\
 

Fantastical

Death Prophet
BitchTits said:
I think maybe I've over-grinded as so far the game has been a breeze. Even bosses are posing no trouble at all, but I am still early in the game
Just fought the pink boss who is sealed back in a jar
.
I've been grinding pretty frequently and I think it's pretty easy too. I haven't completely died in the game once. The only time I've really had trouble is the last boss I played because he took out my party member that I rely on to heal everybody. Still beat him though.

Also, I thought
the way the guy made the entire town out of stone after his girlfriend married someone else was a good story element. Pretty sad, really. He was so lonely. :(
 

DarkKyo

Member
Jtwo said:
Ok, the boss in the Bloomingdale mission. The
Giant Spider
is seriously grossing me out. :\
Aw come on it's not that bad.. so pixely!
(and I fucking hate
giant spiders
)
 

steveovig

Member
I got this game around a week ago using Gamestop credit after I traded in my old PS3 and I love this game. I was already a fan of DQ before but this might be my favorite. I must be leveling up my guys pretty well because the last two bosses have been quite easy. However, I can only seem to get past one treasure map without being obliterated. I've got around 40 hours now!
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
That's odd. A friend and I were trying to canvass tag with each other but none of our DS's would connect to each other. I have a DSi XL and he has a DS Lite.
 

Fantastical

Death Prophet
I took my DS all around Florida today in tag mode and no connections. :(

I guess I'll be super nerdy and go to Gamestop on Saturday. I'll need to take a friend, though. :lol
 

Forkball

Member
Ok maybe I'm not understanding treasure hunting. I get a map, go into the dungeon, fight the boss, and get another map. Is this it? I'm not finding any actual treasure here.
 

Owzers

Member
I"m not entirely sure what is going on with this game now. I'm just starting and have to fight Wight. No one is in my party and i got demolished....what am i supposed to do? How do i get party members? Do i have to play this onilne?
 
sillymonkey321 said:
I"m not entirely sure what is going on with this game now. I'm just starting and have to fight Wight. No one is in my party and i got demolished....what am i supposed to do? How do i get party members? Do i have to play this onilne?
Go to the Inn in Stornway, talk to Patty, get party members. Lots of people miss this because the game doesn't force it on you.
 
Forkball said:
Ok maybe I'm not understanding treasure hunting. I get a map, go into the dungeon, fight the boss, and get another map. Is this it? I'm not finding any actual treasure here.

Chests generally start appearing on floor 3 of the treasure dungeons. Low-level maps won't contain many more floors than that, so you may not find much treasure.
 

rpmurphy

Member
Forkball said:
Ok maybe I'm not understanding treasure hunting. I get a map, go into the dungeon, fight the boss, and get another map. Is this it? I'm not finding any actual treasure here.
The Grotto Bosses have rare 2% drops. Plus if you get a good map, you can get rare alchemy items from blue chests and good monsters for leveling.
 

Owzers

Member
Segata Sanshiro said:
Go to the Inn in Stornway, talk to Patty, get party members. Lots of people miss this because the game doesn't force it on you.

That's weird, i was waiting for the characters who i've met in the game to join my party. When they didn't join me in the fight i frowned and went on my way :(
 
sillymonkey321 said:
That's weird, i was waiting for the characters who i've met in the game to join my party. When they didn't join me in the fight i frowned and went on my way :(
No story characters are going to join your party in the main quest. Go recruit some peons, stat!
 

Koomaster

Member
My friend is a min/maxer and was hoping Gaffers could help with his questions...

Does gaf know how worth the ax helm spliter skill is vs the sword skills. Does the debuff work on post main quest bosses or am I better off with swords for my gladiator?

Basically Pros/Cons on Ax vs Sword for Gladiator.

Also Pros/Cons on Hammers vs Spears for a Paladin.
 

Aeana

Member
Koomaster said:
My friend is a min/maxer and was hoping Gaffers could help with his questions...

Does gaf know how worth the ax helm spliter skill is vs the sword skills. Does the debuff work on post main quest bosses or am I better off with swords for my gladiator?

Basically Pros/Cons on Ax vs Sword for Gladiator.

Also Pros/Cons on Hammers vs Spears for a Paladin.
Helm splitter is a great skill, since it's a free sap. It works on anything sap works on, and sometimes with a better success rate. Axes are better than swords because of their group skill, axes of evil, and crit skill, hatchet man, in my opinion, but swords do have metal slash and falcon slash (which is great especially if you get a falcon sword so you can do 4 hits instead of 2). Spears are amazing for bosses because of multithrust, and it also has good skills for fighting metals in careful aim and lightning thrust. Hammers kind of suck.
 

Aeana

Member
Gunloc said:
I'm using Hammers. :(

My MC is a Hammer wielding Gladiator and I've had success with him so far, so I think I'm going to stick with it. Why don't you like them Aeana?
I just don't feel like its available skills are as good as what you get for other weapons.
 

BooJoh

Member
Koomaster said:
My friend is a min/maxer and was hoping Gaffers could help with his questions...

Does gaf know how worth the ax helm spliter skill is vs the sword skills. Does the debuff work on post main quest bosses or am I better off with swords for my gladiator?

Basically Pros/Cons on Ax vs Sword for Gladiator.

Also Pros/Cons on Hammers vs Spears for a Paladin.
It might be worth considering that you can get one of the best swords in the game quite a while before you'll likely find any other weapon that can outperform it.
 
Aeana said:
I just don't feel like its available skills are as good as what you get for other weapons.
The early skills aren't that great, but some of the later skills sound promising.

Would you say it's your least favorite weapon of all in DQIX?
 

Koomaster

Member
Regulus Tera said:
Thank the Almighty for Sages and the ability to change vocations on the road. LMS-genocide is twice the fun now.
Here here!

I also discovered the Ranger's Vanish Me skill today. Makes sneaking up on them a breeze. Used to irritate me when I heard the '!' sound from off screen as I was walking, then see one scurrying away.

Thanks everyone for opinions on my friend's questions, he's really obsessed with the perfect build. He has already played a bunch of hours, then deleted his save to start over because he felt he messed up. :p

Also, I will be hitting 100 hours tomorrow! :O
 

Aeana

Member
Gunloc said:
The early skills aren't that great, but some of the later skills sound promising.

Would you say it's your least favorite weapon of all in DQIX?
Knives or hammers are probably my least favorite, yeah.
 

Grampasso

Member
So, just formed my party and kicked Wight Knight's ass. I'm still in doubt if I should buy an action replay (to reduce the number of visible party members and instant text) playing it on its original cartridge or use my backup card (which also supports cheat codes) and being able to manage multiple saves.
From what I read I assume the paladin isn't able to wield swords, so if I want it to I should max swords with the other vocation points when I'll be able to switch vocation? Or maybe the paladin isn't a great DD after all? It seems to me more like a pumped priest :D
 
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