Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (2017)

[2nd playthrough -- Definitive Edition this time]

I haven't had a lot of time to play this during the week, so I only just got to Puerto Valor last night. Casino time, baby!

I don't usually sink much time into casinos in RPGs, but I remember throwing a few hours at it the first time I played, and ended up with the jackpot. My friend and I were playing the game at the same time and were keeping a pretty even pace with each other progressing through it, so I remember we were sending pictures of our reels to each other, haha. I kept that going and was spamming him at like 2am with videos of me getting Metal Mode, then free spins (while in MM, which doesn't lower the MM spin count!), then MM again before the first ran out, and then more free spins. What a ride. Then I started falling asleep...

I started with around 200 tokens on the lower-bet reels, worked my way up to around 4k, and then moved over to the Big Bois. I was around 41k when I stopped last night (which only took maybe 45 minutes, with me also getting distracted by other stuff?), and then got to around 65k earlier today.

I had to take a break to do some work stuff, so I'll get back to it later and hopefully earn enough to snatch up all the prizes. I don't really want to be spending what little time I have to play this game on weeknights doing this, so I'm hoping to hit it big tonight.

[2nd playthrough -- Definitive Edition this time]

So last night I won the ol' Sand National. My Mario Kart skills served me well, because it sounds like the internet in general really struggles with it and I didn't find it difficult at all? I was searching up whether you get anything for winning [spoilers: you don't] because I didn't remember from the first time I played, and there were people complaining on message boards about it being impossible and ruining the game for them. The whooole game, really??? My MK/racing game skills are like the one thing I have some confidence in, though, so...

Also did the first Tickington quest yesterday. It's an interesting addition to the game. The battles inside the first portal/book were easy but maaaan, are they slowwwwww. Old DQ style, oof. I'm looking forward to seeing how the others play out.

Started up the Definitive edition last night. I only did the climbing-of-the-Tor because I didn't have much time, but, man, I missed this game.

Might get shit for this, but the only thing I'm not REALLY excited about is hearing the music again. I've never been a big fan of DQ music because it's ALL so brassy and gets really grating really quickly. I switched it back to the synthesized version from the symphonic almost immediately because it's a little smoother, but I'm gonna try to give both a listen in every area. (For those unfamiliar, take the loud organ music that plays at basically any castle in a JRPG and make that a game's entire soundtrack. That's always like my least favorite song from a game's OST, so having an entire soundtrack of it is just...ugh. I know I'm in the minority with this.)

8/10

I didn’t expect to like this game so much, it exceeded my expectations. It is still a very classical jrpg, but it’s very well done (story, structure, characters, gameplay,…). There are some arcs that are excellent, even if it’s deja vu. The only thing I didn’t like is the music. It isn’t bad but there are so few for so many hours of gameplay, the same music runs in a loop. I had to lower the volume of the music at some point because it gave me a headache.

I still have to do the post-game, but I will do it later. I want to do something else for now.

Oh my God! I thought it was over. I thought that was the final boss...

After an epic battle against Mordegon and his double ended skelton/Dragon form, which saw my last character standing (Jade) finish him off with her last 5 magic points remaining, I thought we were done!

But no. There's a whole post story, where the hero goes back in time to effectively try and get a better ending. Rewriting the mistakes he made that saw Mordegon nearly destroy the world and kill one of the heroes party members.

So I played on, defeated Mordegon before he could execute his plan... But I'm doing so, an even greater evil is unleashed instead!

This epic tale continues...