[quote name='johnnypark']Ha, I remember doing battles for an hour just to save up for the Chain Mail, just to go into the cave to find Healy. By the time you get him you've spent 3 hours in Ragnar's quest alone![/quote]
Remember how they also did more normal damage and had far more critical hits? You remember how much of a pain that was? I think it was like 4-5 hours before you finished Ragnar's first area. Another huge change was having essentially infinite herbs in the bag. The nes one basically said Here's your equipment and a few herbs. THAT"S IT.
I rented this back when it first came out on the NES and made it nearly to the final boss before having to return it (back when 5-day rentals were unheard of). Unfortunately, the game was reserved (yeah, back when they did that too), so I was unable to check it out again. Of course when I picked it up 3 days later, all 3 game slots had been saved over.
I'm looking forward to finally beating it.
Oh, and I picked it up from CC. Not only did I get the $10 giftcard, but they gave me 20% off because I had been "inconvenienced" as staff was busy catching a shoplifter while I was in line (took all of 10 minutes). DQIV for $21.99.
Enjoying DRAGON QUEST IV: Chapters of the Chosen so far? Let the team know by sending them a message! The team is busy on their projects and cannot answer questions, but your supportive words will be delivered to the team.
So basically, everyone go sound off about Party Talk. Since the dev team isn't reading it, that basically ensures that marketing is reading it, which is who really needs to hear about it. This is really the only way that's going to make a difference.
It's alright to pretend you didn't know about it until you already bought the game. They do have 3 more DS DQ games coming out in the near future, after all.
Man. It took me a stupid amount of time to figure out how to progress in Ragnar's story. I knew something was up with the thief Angus, but I couldn't figure out how to progress the storyline to get the next clue what to do. Finally I got that bit about
the thief hanging around at night, and just by trying something that didn't look possible, I found the thief spying at the bathhouse. At least things are moving along, but damn.
[quote name='pete5883']I was really hoping they would do this. From the Square Enix Members blog:
So basically, everyone go sound off about Party Talk. Since the dev team isn't reading it, that basically ensures that marketing is reading it, which is who really needs to hear about it. This is really the only way that's going to make a difference.[/quote]
Cool, thanks!
I thanked them for removing useless crap from my game.
Almost done with Chapter 3. Loving it so far, but the pace is definitely more brisk than I recall it being. The item bag is both a welcome addition and something that kind of annoys me. Part of the challenge of the original game was managing a limited (and IMO more realistic) inventory per character, least until you get the full party and wagon. The endless item bag (which allows you to theoretically have 99 of any item) is a little too boundless in comparison.
Also, I think you have less enemy encounters in this game. I've traversed some good lengths on the map and not had any encounters before.
More than anything, though, the music really takes me back, I can't get enough of it.
[quote name='pete5883']I know the difference between DQM and DQV. But I haven't seen a single DQV screenshot that shows a human party member.[/quote]
There are a couple human party members (which is REALLY spoiler filled), but the revolutionary part of the game was that you can capture monsters and have them join your team, and for most of the game that's what you gotta do.
I'm enjoying the game more than I thought I would, but it's a little unexciting when you gain two party members in the second chapter whom you know essentially nothing about and who never speak.
[quote name='utopianmachine']I'm enjoying the game more than I thought I would, but it's a little unexciting when you gain two party members in the second chapter whom you know essentially nothing about and who never speak.[/quote]
I like it that way. Let the game gradually tell me characters backstory instead of one giant chunk at the start with no mystery. Just think about it. If you are on some quest, will someone who just joined your party tell you their entire life story? They'll want to see how you are first.
when i got the magic key, i got in a total of four encounters in the entire dungeon.
in the nes version i remember this being one of the major bridge points where the difficulty increases by a lot and the dungeon was crazy tough, but you got a bunch of levels and money doing it.
but i got outta there, still level 13, and the marquis beat me because i'm underleveled. ;
I picked this up from the Nintendo World Store and paid NY retarded sales tax for my wait in the airport. So worth every penny. If games were this good, I wouldn't mind paying $40 for them. I am kind of lost right now, but I will find my way or die trying. It is a blast.
[quote name='kainzero']what's up with the low encounter rate?
when i got the magic key, i got in a total of four encounters in the entire dungeon.
in the nes version i remember this being one of the major bridge points where the difficulty increases by a lot and the dungeon was crazy tough, but you got a bunch of levels and money doing it.
but i got outta there, still level 13, and the marquis beat me because i'm underleveled. ;[/quote]
This has me thrown for a loop as well. I was expecting something akin to FFIV DS where they made the game more difficult. I have always spent the first thirty minutes to an hour of every DragonQuest game walking in a circle around the town grinding for levels just so that I could make it to the next area.
[quote name='thelonepig']This has me thrown for a loop as well. I was expecting something akin to FFIV DS where they made the game more difficult. I have always spent the first thirty minutes to an hour of every DragonQuest game walking in a circle around the town grinding for levels just so that I could make it to the next area.[/quote]
Maybe people complained about FF3? It was old-school with high encounter rates, but I don't know how good or bad it did sales-wise.
But yeah, the sheer difficulty of DQ games is part of their appeal. I know 1-3 were adjusted for higher exp/gold per fight, but those games were a little too hard at times, and the remakes still did them justice. So far this game has been a little too easy, although if I hadn't beaten the NES version multiple times I probably wouldn't even notice.
[quote name='thelonepig']This has me thrown for a loop as well. I was expecting something akin to FFIV DS where they made the game more difficult. I have always spent the first thirty minutes to an hour of every DragonQuest game walking in a circle around the town grinding for levels just so that I could make it to the next area.[/quote]
I don't have any history in the series, but that's what I've been doing with this game at each town, just to be able to buy up the best weapons and armor before proceeding.
[quote name='laaj']I like it that way. Let the game gradually tell me characters backstory instead of one giant chunk at the start with no mystery. Just think about it. If you are on some quest, will someone who just joined your party tell you their entire life story? They'll want to see how you are first.[/quote]
Considering I'm four hours in to the second chapter and I still know nothing of my two companions other than that they're loyal to the Tsar -- I can say we can throw characterization out the window. Oh, some characters receive a little attention, but as far as active party members go, they're little more than walking weapons.
Don't get me wrong. I find myself wanting to play this game more than I ever thought I would. I like stumbling and bumbling around, trying to figure out where I need to go next. It's not so super obvious as more current games. Sometimes, the trigger you need is just to talk to an individual person, and it can be quite the task to figure out which one that is.
I have to think I'm getting somewhere towards the end of the 2nd chapter, as I'm at about 4 hours into it. Granted, I level grinded early on, and now battles are a breeze.
[quote name='botticus']I don't have any history in the series, but that's what I've been doing with this game at each town, just to be able to buy up the best weapons and armor before proceeding.[/quote]
The original NES games were pretty brutal. I have the clearest memory of the first game (aka Dragon Warrior) wherein you couldn't go longer than two random battles without having to go to the inn. It was nuts. I had to be at around level 5 or 6 just to make it to the next town.
Party talk lets you talk to your party members and develops their backstories supposedly, but no one knows if they're like Ragnar is thinking or "Maya: Let's have sex!". (Those complaining want the latter sort.) You should be upset about it because it was never in any US release, though it was in the Japanese DS release, and if you are really are upset about it, I will remove my tongue from cheek in an attempt to mollify you.
I'm not too concerned about that. I'll probably finish this 'un up (once I get my moxie back to finish it because I want that one sword from the Torneko sales mission, but I HATE that part of the game) and pick up the DS version in a year or so.
The did a pretty good review over at 61FPS of DQIV. I particularly liked this one quote:
...Chapters of the Chosen is never structured to serve the story. The story is developed just enough to encourage more play, more exploration, more fights, more collection. This is why Dragon Quest IV, and its parent series, is the model of Japanese role-playing. It is, first and foremost, a game, rather than an interactive anime or fantasy novel with a lot of fighting thrown on top of it.
This is why the party talk stuff doesn't concern me too much. Yeah, I love a good story with good characterizations in a RPG, but to me, if the gameplay is solid, then I'm more willing to overlook other things.
That being said, I'm loving DQIV. Still one of my top 10 RPGs of all time.
You keep saying it's half when the Japanese version had Japanese, English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian scripts, so it's obviously not half. The game's MSRP in Japan is $55 and it's the most popular franchise there - the game is $40 here and it was $30 if you bought it at Circuit City a week ago. What more do you want?
[quote name='thelonepig']The original NES games were pretty brutal. I have the clearest memory of the first game (aka Dragon Warrior) wherein you couldn't go longer than two random battles without having to go to the inn. It was nuts. I had to be at around level 5 or 6 just to make it to the next town.[/quote]
Really?
I just remember having to be level 3 to get to the next town.
But DW isn't really a fair comparison, and DW2 is even more brutal than DW (easily my least liked of the DW series, and a pretty terrible RPG overall).
I really don't remember DW4 being as hard as you guys say though. I remember playing it emulated and on high speed, and beating it in like 6 hours (before anyone asks, yes I have the original NES copy). If they brought the encounter rate back up I'm pretty sure it'd be the same.
[quote name='pete5883']You can talk to your party members, so they actually had personalities. Also if you didn't know where to go I guess they'd help out with that.[/quote]
Ah, that would have added a lot to my satisfaction of the game. Don't get me wrong. I'm really, really enjoying this game in a strange way. Perhaps it's because most games these days lay out everything so concisely, but I'm really enjoying how I just stumble about and poke here and there and see if this is the way I should be going.
[quote name='mykevermin']That's lame, since the NES version is not always clear where to go (at least with the start of Torneko's stupid retail job-mission).[/quote]
What I'm noticing is that unless you talk to EVERY SINGLE person in every town, you could miss a tiny pointer as to what to do next. I couldn't believe that the only clue I had as far as what I should be doing in Torneko's mission came from
the innkeeper in his town. I just happenned to go there early in the chapter, thinking I could heal there. But no, you can't, and oh, have you checked the cave to the north?
[quote name='whitereflection']You keep saying it's half when the Japanese version had Japanese, English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian scripts, so it's obviously not half. [/quote]
Wait...the Japanese version has multiple language options?
The multiple laguages were only obtainable thru Action Replay codes IIRC. The text was supposedly 95% complete (depending on who you believe). And just needed some line breaks, and chages to the English.
[quote name='mykevermin']
I'm not too concerned about that. I'll probably finish this 'un up (once I get my moxie back to finish it because I want that one sword from the Torneko sales mission, but I HATE that part of the game) and pick up the DS version in a year or so.[/quote]
I actually got that sword from like my 3rd customer. It took longer to earn the cash to buy it than it did for it to appear.
[quote name='Paco']I want the game to stop being a wuss and kick my ass like the old nes one.[/quote]
Seriously. It's easier to the point that I prefer the NES version, one of my favorite parts of DW4 was it struck a good balance between the tough-as-nails difficulty level of the previous games in the series and accessible, realistic gameplay. It seems strange to me that other remakes are about as hard (FF3) or even harder (FF4 DS), but then this one got watered down in terms of difficulty.
I know they did that with DQ 1-3 on GBC, but those games were also a lot more unforgiving, and still put up a decent challenge in their remakes.
Balzack
is the only fight that's given me any real trouble, but since it was all the way in Chapter 4 I'm hoping that's a sign of progressive difficulty as the game goes on.
[quote name='utopianmachine']Ah, that would have added a lot to my satisfaction of the game. Don't get me wrong. I'm really, really enjoying this game in a strange way. Perhaps it's because most games these days lay out everything so concisely, but I'm really enjoying how I just stumble about and poke here and there and see if this is the way I should be going.
What I'm noticing is that unless you talk to EVERY SINGLE person in every town, you could miss a tiny pointer as to what to do next. I couldn't believe that the only clue I had as far as what I should be doing in Torneko's mission came from
the innkeeper in his town. I just happenned to go there early in the chapter, thinking I could heal there. But no, you can't, and oh, have you checked the cave to the north?
[/quote]
That's just the old-school showing. Old RPGs made you talk to everyone, really explore places. Nowadays (FF7 and up) they often highlight key parts of the text to make sure you're listening, which is a little too much hand-holding for me.
Although, I did get extremely annoyed in Chapter 2 when
the bandits don't appear until you hear about the ransom note from the kid with his dog. I wandered around forever trying to get them to appear and had to look it up on Gamefaqs (and 2 of the FAQs didn't even mention talking to the kid!). To make it worse, you have to talk to him twice, because at 1st his dog is just missing. It's a problem when 98% of the villagers continue to say the same thing all the time, but HIS dialogue changes. Ugh!
These are the parts that should have been made a little easier, not the battles and actually gameplay. Oh well. I'm still in love with it, although you might not know it from all my bitching just now
I just remember having to be level 3 to get to the next town.
But DW isn't really a fair comparison, and DW2 is even more brutal than DW (easily my least liked of the DW series, and a pretty terrible RPG overall).
[/quote]
DW2 is one of my favorites and is only hard because you can raid the dungeons out of order. If dungeon you were on is brutal, then your next dungeon will be so easy.
[quote name='johnnypark']Although, I did get extremely annoyed in Chapter 2 when
the bandits don't appear until you hear about the ransom note from the kid with his dog. I wandered around forever trying to get them to appear and had to look it up on Gamefaqs (and 2 of the FAQs didn't even mention talking to the kid!). To make it worse, you have to talk to him twice, because at 1st his dog is just missing. It's a problem when 98% of the villagers continue to say the same thing all the time, but HIS dialogue changes. Ugh!
[/quote]
That one was easier for me. I had talked to him earlier about his
missing dog, and when I returned to the area later, I noticed that the boy had his dog near him now, so I assumed he would say something new. But yeah, generally, the game gives you little in the way of any indication you should talk to a specific person for any reason.
I listening to the DQ Retronauts today, and I heard that the localization team redid all the menus in DQVIII for the US version and that it was a vast improvement over the original. I guess when these localization teams fuddle around with these games, the results can often go either way. Especially with Square Enix (compare FFVII and KH, which had new content just for NA to what we have here).
I have to drive a couple hours today to visit friends and family. I'll listen to that Retronauts episode today. Now having finally played a Dragon Warrior/Quest game (besides Monsters), I can likely appreciate this episode more.
And speaking of that point, how did they just drop the name from Warrior to Quest? If I remember right, isn't the translation Quest in Japan, but somehow it became Warrior here back in the NES days? Maybe it's all answered in the podcast.
Dragon Quest was already trademarked by something else in America, IIRC. Then the trademark ran out or was abandoned or they paid them off or something.
Just finished Torneko's chapter. I was really surprised that once I had my own
shop that I never got to run it. I had this assumption I would get to run my own shop and maybe charge my own prices, but this was a grand delusion. Owning a shop was just a trigger to everything else, just a goal which meant now you could go fetch a bunch of armor back in the cave you've already been to. Hope you got enough the first time. No? Well, back you go! After getting the goddess statue the first time, it was little more than boring returning to that cave to keep battling until I had enough of the required weapons to satisfy the king, earn my reward, finish the cave excavation, piddle at the casino, and then, chapter over. I'm assuming riches can be won at the casino, but I suck there.
I'll start the new chapter tomorrow. Really, all in all, I really like this game. It's got this ridiculous charm I find hard to describe.
Oh, I listened to the Retronauts podcast. Made me laugh a couple times, made me want to play more DQ games. Not bad.
Digging into Chapter 5 and I'm happy to report the game is kicking my ass a little. I think they made the 1st 4 chapters way more of an intro to the game/plot overall, but once everything comes together they up their ante some. I've entered new areas and had party members die in 3 hits.
I really like how someone dying in your party is a big deal. You don't get the ability to revive until very, very late in the game, and it's very costly, if my memory serves me. Gives total incentive to keep people alive, no quick Life spells or phoenix downs here! I love it
, man?