Dragon Quest 9 Official Thread

[Thief Silver]

Yeah that's what my problem was, I thought the monk had to do it hah.

[Anal Kaboom]

Yeah the wording's a little weird on that one.

[Compass]

My god, this game is good. The hours just melt away. Always another quest to finish, another ingredient to farm, another recipe to alchemize.

Text-wise, probably the single best localization I've ever seen. The year wait almost makes sense. The town mini-dramas are so incredibly charming. Much more than I remember any previous DQ's being. I'm at the point now where I don't want any more fygs. Keep 'em! There'll be plenty of game left when they're all collected, but each one brings me closer to the end of the story scenes.

Maybe my standards aren't realistic but hoo boy, despite all my praise, the game is still far from perfect. Tons of interface snags with easy fixes that, once again, have me questioning if certain developers play their games at all during development. Also, it's kind of an endemic JRPG problem, but certainly DQ is among the most egregious offenders in having just zero respect for the user's time. No, really, it's okay, I understand nostalgia, but I'd prefer not to sit through four boxes of craaaaaaawwwwling text that can't be sped up, every time I deposit some $ at the bank. Examples like this are all over the place.

Anyway, 44 hours in. Alchemenicon's at 24%. Wardrobe's at 22%. Still can't even kill the first Treasure Map boss. Itagaki said he spent 400 hours on the game and I believe it.

[Timber]

Still can't even kill the first Treasure Map boss.

Really? I was around 30 hours in when I took him out, he was harder than any of the story bosses up to that point (or even to where I am now 7 fygs in) but not that hard. I think at that point my crew was leveled up to around 25 or so.

My problem has been that I can't make myself go that far into the story without doing hours and hours of power leveling once I found a cave where Metal Slime Stacks pop up fairly frequently. At this point all 4 of my characters are at about level 37 in their original class and between 17-23 in about 3 other classes each.

[Compass]

Actually, I haven't tried in ten hours or so, but my team was so utterly annihilated the first time, I'm doubtful I've leveled enough in the meantime. You've inspired me to give it another shot.

I'm going in.

[Update]: Haha, nice. Everyone was dead but my Priest, who probably wouldn't last another round. I don't have Kazing and figured it wasn't worth casting Zing, which, even if it worked, would only revive someone with enough health to be immediately killed again. So I just said, fuck it, attack, maybe the boss is near death.

BAM. Critical hit. 150 damage. Boss dies. Great feeling.

That was a level 1 Treasure Map. The map he dropped is level 9...

[Thief Silver]

Yeah I beat this last night, definitely a fun addicting game. NOw to explore the wooorrlllddd.

[Timber]

So has anyone done much treasure hunting yet? I know each dungeon has 3 spots for treasure listed but is there something special you have to do in order to get the 2nd & 3rd spots? I've beaten the 1st map about 6 times now and every time I just get a new map, which isn't bad, but I want to fill those 2 empty spots!

[Thief Silver]

The bosses have two drops that's all. So when they drop an item that spot will fill. You still get a map.

[Anal Kaboom]

Anyone know if bookcases you've checked before you find out about alchemy and treasure maps will have stuff afterward?

[Thief Silver]

I don't think so, I am missing a bunch of recipes too. Also the endgame stuff is all very grindy, the alchemy stuff is like "Hey, you need to make 4 of this hard to make item, to get one component for a hard to make weapon! have fun!"