DRAGON QUEST III HD-2D Remake

[Jaymann]

This is out today and the reviews are positive. Graphics look like Octopath Traveler. Full price is ouch at $59.99. I never played the original so will give it a spin.

[Skinypupy]

It’s on my “someday, but not at full price” list.

[Jaymann]

So far I am loving it. I started a fighter then picked up a mage, a priest, and a thief (upstairs) to round out my party. Thieves don't pick locks (you need certain keys), but they do filch random items during combat. Unfortunately you can only save and rez in town so I had to drag a coffin back to the church.

For combat you can set each character on how you want them to focus. You can go to "Follow Orders" mode for turn based, but so far haven't needed it.

I leveled way up near town before going to the first dungeon. By the time I got to the top I was pwning the mobs. Loot chests come at a reasonable rate, gold is fairly scarce. The graphics are gorgeous.

[YellowKing]

I really don't want to pay full price for it, but I probably will. I just love the Dragon Quest series so much, and this is sooo up my alley. I was almost ready to pull the trigger on Metaphor: ReFantazio anyway, so I'll just toss that money towards this instead.

[Skinypupy]

I always love the old-school vibe of Dragon Quest games, but I don't think I've ever actually finished one. The constant grind always causes me to wander off before the end. Hence why I won't go full price on this one.

[stessier]

Where can you buy this? Is it on Steam?

Edit: Oh, it's Nintendo.

[Jaymann]

Where can you buy this? Is it on Steam?

Edit: Oh, it's Nintendo.

I got it on Steam.

[Skinypupy]

Where can you buy this? Is it on Steam?

Edit: Oh, it's Nintendo.

I got it on Steam.

It’s on PS5 and Xbox too.

Think the only platform it’s not in is mobile.

[Baroquen]

I had just finished DQ3 via emulator before this got announced. I loved the game and I think this new version looks amazing. I would be so all over this if not having just (relatively) beat it. And that price tag is pretty crazy too. I hardly ever pay $60 for a new game, nonetheless one that is effectively over 30 years old. (And yeah, I know the cost of new video games have unusually stagnated/plateaued compared to everything else in the economy).

Anyway - it looks fantastic. It's always been a great game. Might have to line up DQ5 as my next game in the backlist (after Eiyuden - 100 Heroes... about 1/2 through). But skipping this Remake.

P.S. - Whoever gave the ok for "Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake" as the title should be given the boot. Bleh.

[Max Peck]

Maybe it sounds cooler in the original Japanese.

[Jaymann]

Well I had my first boss fight (playing on normal):

Spoiler:

Absolutely destroyed Robbin 'Ood in a few rounds at levels 14, 15, and 16, where my priest healed himself once for good measure. As usual I am extremely OP, and still have only one character with a death. Now that I have rez and zoom (teleport to any previously visited town or dungeon) even that prospect poses no threat.

[YellowKing]

Green Man has it on sale for $48 (price in cart). I usually play JRPGs on PS5, but I think I'll Steam this one for the cheaper price.

[Edit] I pulled the trigger on it and am enjoying it a great deal. Graphics are wonderful, and as a really old-school gamer the simple retro combat is my bread and butter. I will say that you'll likely want to go into settings and change the standard combat speed to Fast or Ultra-fast. The default setting is painfully slow.

[Jaymann]

I changed the class of one of my characters:

Spoiler:

When you get to the Alltrade's Abbey, you can change but you start over at level 1 (but you keep the spells you have learned). I changed my Priest to a Sage who can cast Mage and Priest spells. Though for that you must get the Words of Wisdom from the Tower of Transcendence. That was not too difficult at level 24. After the change I returned to the tower to level him back up, and got back to level 14 in about 30 minutes.

I thought I screwed up big time. I got my ship and zoomed off of it while in the Ocean. It did not return to the dock. Then I checked a guide and found if I zoomed to Olivia's Promontory the ship would show up. Whew.

[YellowKing]

Just for fun I tried to go as far as I could with no grinding for levels or gear. I made it all the way to the location of the first boss before getting my butt kicked. Went back to town, grinded some gear, made another run, got almost there and got half-wiped. Chamera winged it back to town and now going for my second run.

So yeah, the old Dragon Quest grind is still there, especially since gold is incredibly hard to come by. I don't mind it though - I remember spending hours grinding gear in Dragon Warrior for the NES. It's like stress relief gaming for me.

[Jaymann]

I now have over $20k and am finding little to spend it on. With the ship I finally found some decent loot, but some weapons no one can equip. I don't mind the grind since I can do it while watching foosball, and commercials don't bother me.

[Jaymann]

Here is an initial review from Mortismal:



My only minor quibble so far is you only have two accessory slots per character so you can't equip many things you would like. I wish there was a quest or something to open more slots. You can customize for individual bosses, but I have only done this once with an asbestos ring.

[YellowKing]

Still going strong on this one. I just finished doing some profession changes so I now have Hero, Martial Artist, Sage, and a Thief. The Thief was my former Priest, though, so he has quite a few healing spells to supplement the Sage.

So far the game has been tough but fair, and the grind hasn't been as bad as I expected. It's still there (particularly when changing professions), but I haven't run into any instances where I had to do significant grinding in order to advance the story.

[Jaymann]

There are certain items only usable by female characters, so I changed Dorothy, my mage into a Warrior. Now she is a powerful battle mage. And I found a later game dungeon where you can beat some higher level mobs:

Spoiler:

Talontear Tunnel. Magic does not work in there, but that means the mobs can't cast either. So I run around just inside the entrance and use my best melee abilities. Step outside to full heal. Rinse and repeat.

[YellowKing]

I found another good leveling spot for the 20ish range. I did most of my profession reset grinding here:

Spoiler:

Cave east of Japang - it's filled with metal slimes which drop amazing XP if you can kill one or two.

[Skinypupy]

Does it offer any difficulty level options?

Guessing not, but figured I'd ask.

EDIT: nvm, just googled it. Looks like there are Easy, Normal, and Hard modes

[Jaymann]

Does it offer any difficulty level options?

Guessing not, but figured I'd ask.

EDIT: nvm, just googled it. Looks like there are Easy, Normal, and Hard modes

Yes, and you can change them any time. Which I did for a few boss fights.

[Jaymann]

I had an interesting battle with the post-credit boss:

Spoiler:

Xenlon. He was seemingly impossible as I used up all my mana and everyone was on 1 HP (from each having several Diamends). But apparently on EZ mode you do not use up your Diamend when employed. So I was at a standoff: He couldn't kill me and I only had normal attacks of about 40-50 damage per round. I ground him down for a couple hours (!), then discovered quite by accident I had two weapons that could do spell-like damage without using mana. The Sword of Kings (equipped on my main) and the Stormlord's Sword (from my warrior's inventory). The accident was I put everyone on Show No Mercy and they started using those two attacks. Still another 30 minutes of grinding before the cruel hoax:

Xenlon said beating him in 228 turns was not a true victory and I got no reward other than 10k experience. So now I know, and since there are no more bosses to fight I'm out.

[YellowKing]

I doubt I'm going to even try to do any post-credit stuff.

My wife was sick and didn't feel like running any errands so I binged the hell out of this all weekend. I'm getting fairly close to end game, maybe another 5 hours or so. I've enjoyed it a great deal and definitely got my (sale price) money's worth.