Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (2010)

Beat the game, including all optional and secret content, and beating the super boss to get the secret ending. I found the mid game to be the most interesting as I was exploring the tactics for the many skills they were learning. The hero started on soldier and went to fighter and battle master before starting on magic and hybrid classes. Hassan did the same but started as fighter. Barbara and Chamoro were priest and wizard respectively and went for magic and then hybrid classes. I eventually dropped them in favor of Terry and Amos. I did not want to fool around with monster recruiting so I got a king slime specifically for the slime arena.

I did refer to a walkthrough to do everything optimally though I cannot remember how often or early I checked it. I usually do not want help with battles, tactics or where to go but I have little patience for obscure, tedious and missable content. Just before the final boss, I know I went full on to get everything. I save state scummed the casino and even that was far longer than I wanted to spend in hated gambling. I then used turbo mode and a cheat to cause battle rewards (main interest being job advancement) to repeat until turned off. So I would fight 1 end game random battle and repeat the rewards until everyone mastered their current job. This took hours, was mind numbingly tedious and was way longer than I wanted to spend on it. I can only imagine how bad it would be to grind normally on the actual cartridge.

Here are my end game stats:

Hero: level 70 with sword of ramias, armor of orgo, shield of sufida, helm of cevas and speed ring. All classes maxed except superstar and dragon (which are 1 star from max).

Hassan: level 70 with sword of miracles, giganto armor, shield of ende, helm of wisdom and ruby of power. All classes maxed except metal babble not unlocked.

Terry: level 69 with sword of thunder, giganto armor, shield of str, metal King helm and silver bracelet. All classes maxed except dragon and metal babble not unlocked.

Amos: level 67 with metal King sword, giganto armor, metal king shield, helm of wisdom and super necktie. All classes maxed except metal babble not unlocked.

Barbara: level 70 with gringham whip, princess robe, shield of reflection, hat of wind and silver bracelet. All classes maxed except dragon and metal babble not unlocked.

Chamoro: level 66 with flame sword, mystic armor, bronze shield, helm of wisdom and silver bracelet. All classes maxed except dragon and metal babble not unlocked.

Muriel: level 68 with falcon sword, dragon robe, metal king shield, golden tiara and meteorite armband. All classes maxed except dragon and metal babble not unlocked.

King the king slime: level 62 with demon claws, angel leotard, shield of reflection and slime earrings. All classes maxed except dragon and metal babble not unlocked.

I found swordline to be the overall most useful ability in the game, especially against a single target. I used many of the elemental strikes, multiple target moves, species killers and even periodically tried magiblade and spirit punch (with state loading if they missed). Buffs like bikill and increase along with healing, though not so much offensive magic. The end game was pretty much buff up, try magiblade, if it missed use gigaslash, meditate to heal, swordline when out of mana. So many of the abilities I never even used.

Overall good game but suffers from way too much bloat. I frequently had trouble keeping track of which world I was in, found there to be too many classes and abilities, and way too much grindiness to complete everything.

Oh, I had fun with a fun boss in this game today.

This is my second playthrough of DQVI (never finished the first). The first time, a certain boss fight (real Murdaw, part two) kicked my backside left right and center. This boss comes after a fairly strong boss fight, can attack twice a turn, has a lightning attack that hits the entire party for about 35 damage, has a cold breath attack that hits the entire party for about 55 damage, and—here's the fun part—can use both of his hit-all attacks in a single turn for about 90 damage. If you haven't been grinding ridiculously, two of your members have probably...10 more HP than that. If you haven't been grinding ridiculously, two of your members will be able to heal one person for about 75 HP each. (Note that, because of how the game's vocation system works, grinding early on makes it harder to level up vocations and get new abilities. Wouldn't it be nice if said vocation system wasn't unlocked after this boss fight?) If you don't plan in advance, you'll have maybe one member who can act before the boss. Long story short, if the boss dualcasts his hit-all attacks, everyone will be on the verge of death (at best)...and if he keeps using his hit-all attacks, there's no way you can recover from that.

So this time around, I prepared for this boss fight by buying a ton of amor seco essences way before the fight and cramming everyone's inventory (save for the dude with the infinite-use Midheal-stick—yes, an infinite-use healing item isn't enough for this battle) full of healing items. I managed to get through the preceding boss fight with my party in fairly good shape for the following boss fight.

And he didn't dualcast his lightning/breath attacks once. He used each of them once during the entire battle and kept spamming his dazzle attack (which didn't work once).

I'm not sure whether I should be relieved that an incredibly-hogwash boss fight turned out to be a complete cakewalk this time around or furious over all the preparation I made for an utter anti-climax.