DQXI Switch in the West

[Ljink96]

RolStoppable said:

Ljink96 said:

Huh...okay. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions I guess. I don't find a couple of the issues you've brought up as distractions or tedious... but to each his own. I've played the game 3 times so far and never felt the need to grind. DQXI for me was a lot like Chrono Trigger. If you grind in this game, you probably just need to change up your strategy. I mean, battles in XI are quick, in and out encounters for a traditional JRPG. They've added fast forward, auto battle, etc. I never really needed to grind Gold either as I just use the weapon crafting system to make all my armor, accessories, weapons, etc. I can't say that I visited shops often in either of my playthroughs. I think maybe we just play the games differently, I never played through the game anticipating my next level...they just happened as I played. In the final act, you will grind but it's for an extra final boss. 

I can see how maybe the skills are slow to come, that was an issue I had especially with spells but for some reason in the third act you get more spells and abilities quicker. Because the game takes place over 3 acts, they probably didn't skew the growth correctly. But things like battle comments, item menus...that's a bit nitpicky for me. 

But yeah to each his own, at least you found time to give the game a shot. 

I left the description for the Dragon Quest grind up there in the quote box, because your response to that point doesn't suggest that you read that part or maybe you didn't remember it by the time you started to type your response because my post was long.

And no, XI's battles aren't quick because other turn-based JRPGs move much faster; the Etrian Odyssey series and Atelier series are good examples. Dragon Quest should get rid of the tradition to have text to explain what the number pop-ups already clearly show. This, and the menu navigation outside of battles may not take THAT long, but these things add up over time and DQ are long games.

The developers still largely use the same EXP progression as 30 years ago, but nowadays it's very dated, especially in combination with the games being longer and featuring post-game content. Enemies have more multi-target spells later in the game, so battles take longer to finish while netting much lower rewards relative to what the player needs to make progress towards the next level up. When games begin to drag, that's when players consider to quit. When players don't finish the main story of a JRPG, they are unlikely to recommend the game to others. It wouldn't hurt DQ if the EXP progression for the main story scaled to get the player in the mid-70s; not only would that make the main story more enjoyable, but also reduce the post-game grind which is a grind in accordance to definition 1 of my previous post. But post-game hardly plays a role when it comes to the popularity of a JRPG, so that's rather unimportant in the big picture.

Nah, I play JRPGs...I have to read long paragraphs. Also a creative writer so reading doesn't bother me. I read your definition of grinding and gave my response as to how I didn't experience the grinding you explained. But yeah I'm done squabbling over what you find troubling or tedious and what I don't. It's no longer worth it. So I'll leave it there. 

Last edited by Ljink96 - on 01 October 2019