Author Topic: Dragon Quest VII  (Read 15434 times)

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Offline Oedo

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Dragon Quest VII
« on: September 18, 2016, 12:06:22 AM »
I'm a little surprised to see that there isn't already a thread for Dragon Quest VII. I figured since it seems like a lot of people here are planning to play this game, it would be nice to have a place where everyone can post their thoughts on it (especially since it is such a long game). I picked up my copy today, a little later than I expected, so hopefully I'll have some of my own to share by the time the weekend is over. Hope everyone is having fun with it so far!





Offline ClexYoshi

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2016, 04:36:22 AM »
I don't know why, but i find the entirety of this series the equivalent of eating white bread. no butter, nothing to drink with it, not even toasted. just... bread.

My cousin had me play his copy of Dragon Warrior and I got very bored, DQ8 made me take a double take in that i felt like I was playing an NES RPG and I stopped because I got bored and couldn't remember a single thing about it, and I had more recently picked up Dragon Quest 9, played it for a bit, got something else that was far more interesting, and never ever came back to it.

This series is BLAND and I loathe when a game even friggin' looks like Dragon Quest. My greatest criticism of Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound is that they are eerily similar to Dragon Quest, but at least there there's some flavor. there's some peanut butter and jelly spread onto the bread.

When I first saw screenshots of Undertale, I was like, "Oh **** it looks like Dragon Quest" and then it turned out to be really pretentious Dragon Questy fun.

I don't know why I have an aversion to Dragon Quest. I LOVE Final Fantasy and Pokemon and a bunch of other JRPGs that are really rudimentary... I love Chrono Trigger and I've been playing Dragon Ball Xenoverse, so it's not Toriyama's art style that's turning me off...


I always need SOMETHING to wash the small, bite-sized samplings I take of Dragon Quest's several day old bread, and then I end up liking how that tastes better and just never look back. I let Dragon Quest get Moldy.



I really need to stop using food analogies on this forum.

Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #2 on: September 19, 2016, 03:12:24 PM »
I haven't played a lot of DQ games, even though I absolutely adored 9. I picked this one up on Friday and I'm loving it. It's so damn charming.

Offline Mop it up

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2016, 04:32:53 PM »
Since the holiday sales season is so close, I figured I'd wait for that. Plus, I still gotta sell my PSX copy.

I really need to stop using food analogies on this forum.
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Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2016, 07:25:31 PM »
I’ve put a fair bit of time into this game and opened the path to the fourth new island now. It’s been a lot of fun so far and the game is immensely charming right from the start. The visuals are the first thing that stand out and they’re astounding for a 3DS game. I don’t know quite what I was expecting, but this is undoubtedly one of the best looking games on the system. The towns and the villages and the character designs in particular are beautiful, and the overworld feels nice too. There are some framerate drops and I hope there’s more detail in the overworld locations as the game progresses, but overall the presentation is lavish. Square Enix and ArtePiazza didn’t have to go this far to make it an upgrade over the original, but I’m glad that they did. I also really like the characters and the dialogue in the game so far. Taken together with the great visuals and the fantastic music, it all makes for a quaint world that I’ve very much enjoyed exploring for the most part.

One other thing that stands out is how much exposition there is in the beginning. It took me right around two hours to get into my first battle; everything before that is travelling between different locations, introducing different characters, and setting up the story. Part of this is my own fault as I go out of my way to talk to every NPC and explore every part of the villages I come across in JRPGs, especially in the beginning, and other people will probably get through this part sooner (I think Shaymin mentioned on NNR that it took him an hour and a half). Like I said though, the game is very charming right from the start, so I didn’t mind this too much.

On the story side, the premise of restoring these lost islands is really cool. I think part of that comes from tapping into the appeal of RPGs in general; piece by piece you’re building the world back up and there’s a constant sense of making progress. But it’s intriguing in a story sense too and it’s cool (and sometimes sad) to see how the islands appear in the present day world after you’ve “saved” them and they’ve been restored. It’s a clever way to make the world feel bigger too.

A very long way to go yet, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far.


It feels like they the combat in this series, at least in what I've played of it so far, is kinda constrained. The number of viable strategies for approaching battles is limited, so there's less room for creativity. There's a "right" way to go about things in the combat more than there is in many other RPGs, especially modern ones, and that makes it less exciting. Add a heavy grinding element to the mix and I sort of understand where you're coming from. A good class system with a lot of depth should go a long way towards fixing this problem (which is why I was so excited to start playing VII), but if the game can't hold your interest long enough for you to really get into that aspect of the game, it obviously won't help much.

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2016, 11:35:47 AM »
It also took me about 1.5 to 2 hours to get into my first battles, which were surprisingly more challenging than I expected. Not by much but it did take a few whacks to dispatch those slimes and other minor baddies, and one of my party even suffered a status effect. This was in about the second or third battle. So, good sign for things to come.
I have really enjoyed all the exploration so far and have, like Oedo, delved into every nook and cranny even when I know the game is pointing me to some other task. I found the hermit guy way before the prince told me to, as an example. I love that kind of thing.
So I am still very early in to the game, just out of the first world basically, but loving it so far. Lots of parts are familiar but there's still plenty of variety. I'm a big DQ fan and I have not played this entry before.
My one very minor gripe so far is the camera is a little wonky when you're running across the overworlds. Easily adjustable., though, with shoulder buttons.
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Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2016, 03:57:48 PM »
Yeah, the camera (and some of the perspective shifts in general) are a bit... "inelegant." Not a huge deal, but I do wish they found a better way of handling this part of the gameplay.

I played some more of this game and restored the fifth and sixth islands now, and boy does this game start laying it on with story here. I think the entirety of the fifth island (both past and present) took two to three hours and maybe 30 minutes of that actually involved combat. The present day gameplay didn't involve any combat at all. The story is somewhat interesting on this island, but that's much too long for a narrative that isn't really compelling. The sixth island is a bit better in terms of its pace, has a larger dungeon, and learning about the island's history when you travel back there in the present is more interesting, but it was still a bit out of balance in terms of story vs. gameplay. I'm still enjoying the game, but I hope there's a greater focus on exploring dungeons going forward.

I've also started helping out with "The Haven" and doing some of the dungeons here. Finding the people , or rather the "reformed monsters," to open up new dungeons is easy enough with the hints that are provided and I like the fact that it's just dungeon traversal with a boss at the end. For anyone who's not at this part yet (or plans on picking up the game later), it's probably best to continue unlocking and completing these dungeons as soon as you're able to. I left them off to the side a bit at first and continued with the main story, and the items you find in the earlier dungeons in this part of the game become much less useful to you if you get too far ahead in the main game. More than that, if you leave them off to the side the earlier dungeons are just less fun because you're overleveled for them. The items received from the final bosses are going to be very useful no matter what part of the game you're at though and some of the areas in these dungeons are among the nicest looking I've seen in the game so far, so they're still worth going through at any point.

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2016, 03:40:30 PM »
You're way ahead of me :-)
I just got to The Tower and beat the Golem
I've only been playing in fits and starts but it's a blast. I did some grinding for a bit before I did the first dungeon, didn't take long, and upgraded equipment, also messed around with seeing how different tactics orders played out. Good times.
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Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2016, 08:41:43 PM »
A word of caution about grinding: be careful once you hit the class system. Class advancement in this game is based on the number of battles you finish, not experience points, and the enemies you face have to be at a certain level relative to yours in order for the battles to count towards advancing in your current class. I got a little carried away once I ran into an area with a lot of metal slimes and a couple of my party members stopped advancing in their classes because apparently I became overleveled. The game doesn't tell you once you've hit that point either; you only realize it once you go through a lot of battles and notice that you haven't gotten any new skills for those characters. It's a really a poor way to implement it and has made the class system (and the game in general, sadly) somewhat disappointing for me, but I'll expound on that after I finish the game. You also might want to map out which advanced class you want each of your characters to achieve by the end of the game right from the beginning, since you have to master specific beginner and intermediate classes to get there (sort of like a skill tree). That's one aspect of the class system that I do really like.
« Last Edit: September 27, 2016, 08:43:21 PM by Oedo »

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #9 on: September 28, 2016, 10:11:18 AM »
Duly noted! Thanks for the tip!
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Offline rygar

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #10 on: September 28, 2016, 04:42:27 PM »
I'm enjoying your posts Oedo, thanks. I'm looking forward to your final thoughts. I didn't pick this up yet despite planning to, but I eventually will, and your perspective is helpful. I don't have any expectations since I've never played a DQ game before.

Edit: Actually, now that I remember it, I did play a small amount of Dragon Warrior on the NES.
« Last Edit: September 28, 2016, 05:03:38 PM by rygar »

Offline Phil

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2016, 10:31:51 PM »
My brother bought this, and I'm excited to play it. However, I fear I'll play a good portion of it and stop since it's so long.
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Offline Mop it up

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #12 on: September 29, 2016, 07:07:35 PM »
Class advancement in this game is based on the number of battles you finish, not experience points, and the enemies you face have to be at a certain level relative to yours in order for the battles to count towards advancing in your current class. I got a little carried away once I ran into an area with a lot of metal slimes and a couple of my party members stopped advancing in their classes because apparently I became overleveled. The game doesn't tell you once you've hit that point either; you only realize it once you go through a lot of battles and notice that you haven't gotten any new skills for those characters. It's a really poor way to implement it
Dragon Quest VI is like this too. It's a shame they still haven't fixed it.

Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2016, 04:53:26 AM »
My brother bought this, and I'm excited to play it. However, I fear I'll play a good portion of it and stop since it's so long.
I'm usually like that with JRPGs but the structure of DQ7 makes it somewhat easy to come back to and/or to play in specific, small-ish chuncks.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #14 on: October 02, 2016, 12:59:32 AM »
I'm enjoying your posts Oedo, thanks. I'm looking forward to your final thoughts. I didn't pick this up yet despite planning to, but I eventually will, and your perspective is helpful. I don't have any expectations since I've never played a DQ game before.

Edit: Actually, now that I remember it, I did play a small amount of Dragon Warrior on the NES.

Glad I can be of some help! My save file's crossed the 60 hour mark and I want to say I'm nearing the end of the game now, but I've still probably got a fair bit of game to go.

Dragon Quest VI is like this too. It's a shame they still haven't fixed it.

Have you played Dragon Quest VIII by any chance? I was doing a bit of reading on it to see what changes they made in that game and it sounds like they moved away from a class system altogether. The skills system they replaced it with sounds like an improvement simply by virtue of skill points being awarded based on character levels increasing (and, by extension, experience points as opposed to a pre-determined number of battles against a certain level of enemy). As conflicted as I may be on some aspects of VII, that's getting me excited for VIII.

Offline Mop it up

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #15 on: October 04, 2016, 07:20:16 PM »
Have you played Dragon Quest VIII by any chance?
Yes, in fact it's probably my fave of the series, though coincidentally I haven't played VII (the only one released here I haven't). Earning skill points is definitely better than the way vocations were leveled, however the system also means there is far less customisation as each character has just five skills to level and there are just the four party members. I'm okay with that though because it makes the characters more unique than if they could learn everything. Even if you reach lvl 99, you still don't get enough points to max every skill line, so you've really got to think about what you want. I would recommend using a skill guide to decide where to put the points, as I don't recall there being a way to redistribute them (though there may be one added to the 3DS game).

It sounds like VIII is very different from VII so I wouldn't let any negative in VII necessarily stop someone from trying VIII.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #16 on: October 06, 2016, 02:23:18 PM »
Are you guys that are currently playing the game downloading the bonus content that Nintendo has released over the past month? I totally overlooked these tablets, but apparently some of them are really useful (for stuff like class grinding, for example). The distribution for three of the tablets ends on Friday, so if you guys have reached the part of the game where you have access to the Download Bar (you'll need to recruit three people for The Haven for it to appear), you might want to check them out today if you get the chance.

Have you played Dragon Quest VIII by any chance?
Yes, in fact it's probably my fave of the series, though coincidentally I haven't played VII (the only one released here I haven't). Earning skill points is definitely better than the way vocations were leveled, however the system also means there is far less customisation as each character has just five skills to level and there are just the four party members. I'm okay with that though because it makes the characters more unique than if they could learn everything. Even if you reach lvl 99, you still don't get enough points to max every skill line, so you've really got to think about what you want. I would recommend using a skill guide to decide where to put the points, as I don't recall there being a way to redistribute them (though there may be one added to the 3DS game).

It sounds like VIII is very different from VII so I wouldn't let any negative in VII necessarily stop someone from trying VIII.

That sounds great to me. I tend to overthink where to distribute points in systems like this at times (even if I were to use a guide), but in general what you're describing sounds like it's going to add more to my enjoyment of Dragon Quest VIII than the class system did for a good deal of Dragon Quest VII. I've noticed that a lot of people say VIII is their favourite and I'm really enjoying VII again at the end (though I think you're probably right about the two games being very different), so I'm really eager to play VIII next year.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #17 on: October 12, 2016, 09:55:51 PM »
So I finally reached the end of the main story. I’m happy to report that this remake of Dragon Quest VII delivered on its promise of a main campaign that doesn’t take over 100 hours to complete like the original version. This time, the quest to restore the world and defeat the great evil is a nice little 90 hour jaunt. I have some reservations about this game, as I’ve alluded to earlier, but the long journey was largely worth it in the end.

With such a long game you’re no doubt going to be in for a lot of story. Fortunately, I found the way that this game uses its overarching premise of travelling to the past to save islands and restore them to the present day world as a form of storytelling to be outstanding. Connections between seemingly isolated islands start to appear part way through the game and eventually a deeper history between several territories is often revealed. Many of these connections unfold in unexpected ways and the narrative isn’t always linear. Rather than the game simply trying to push the narrative forward in a calculated manner, the stories and legends in the game are often subtle enough that it felt like natural storytelling to me. Through speaking to villagers, exploring the islands, and finding new locations, the subtle hints and small pieces of information began to come converge and bring the narrative of the game’s world closer together. All of it served to make the main story a very engaging one.

What was more hit or miss for me were the stories on some of the specific islands. Many of the stories are genuinely interesting and well paced, but some of them dragged on much longer than they should have. In the most egregious cases, I was running back and forth between a handful of locations, talking to key NPCs to trigger events, and shuffling messages or items back and forth between them for well over an hour. The story has to be very engaging in these parts if the game is going to force the player into gameplay like this, but, unfortunately, on some of these islands it wasn’t up to the task.

The characters, on the other hand, were a constant source of enjoyment for me from start to finish. Maribel is one of my new favourite characters in any game, ever. She should be the new standard for characters that exude vanity while still being funny and likable; there are few (if any) characters I’ve seen pull this off as well as she does. The rotation of characters in your main party are all endearing in their own way and I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed reading the party chat in an JRPG this much (and there is a ton of it). There are plenty of memorable key characters outside of the main party as well, from the Hero’s mother and father to my personal favourite Captain Sharkeye, who seriously needs to star in a Dragon Quest spin-off game. Hats off to folks at Nintendo Treehouse; this is some of the best writing and localization I’ve ever seen.

The first thing that drew me in with Dragon Quest VII wasn’t the story though; it was the gorgeous visuals. The overworld is one of the most vibrant and colorful I’ve seen in a 3DS game. Once the world starts becoming populated with the islands you’ve restored, you’ll start to see mountains and forests off into the distance where only an endless ocean could be seen before. Beyond those landscapes you’ll see clouds moving across the horizon and it all serves to give the large, open world more depth and feel even more vast. From a gameplay sense there isn’t much to explore in the overworld; at most I found a treasure chest or two on each island and most of the time there wasn’t anything particularly useful in them. However, everything is so well presented that I wanted to run around and explore every inch of the islands anyway. There is a lot of pop-in and noticeable textures on the islands, but in the second half of the game there are several locations which look so amazing that you would think you were no longer playing a 3DS game.

Where the game shines even more brightly, however, is in the battle backgrounds. I don’t need to attach any qualifiers to this statement: the battle backgrounds are some of the best I’ve seen in a video game. They’re exquisitely detailed and capture the essence of wherever you might find yourself in the world. My favourite instance of this is one area of the game where the heroes are traversing a mountainside at the break of dawn, next to a waterfall that they had trouble crossing the day before. Rather than displaying the usual backgrounds for mountainous or hilly regions when I was drawn into battle here, these two key elements in the story were incorporated. The backdrop now showed the rising sun over the ocean in the far background, with the mountain landscape and waterfall falling over the side of the cliff bathed in sunlight. Often times, the backgrounds will even reflect less obvious environmental conditions. When I fought an enemy in a tower close to a section where part of the tower was destroyed, the left side of the wall had light pouring into the dark dungeon and clouds beneath the wall to reflect the fact I had reached the upper levels of the tower. There are numerous examples I could share beyond these ones. I was continually impressed by the detail and effort that went into this part of the game, especially in the second half.

The visuals are well complemented by the music, which itself is superb. It’s as epic as the series’ music is reputed to be and although the number of pieces is on the smaller side, I never stopped enjoying the music during my long journey with this game. I should note that this not the orchestral music from the Japanese version, but even after listening to the soundtrack for the Japanese version I still found the music in the North American version to be just as enjoyable.

While the visuals got a complete overhaul, one place where this game hews much closer to tradition is in its gameplay. I played Dragon Quest IV (DS) earlier this year and the straightforward battle system remains largely unchanged here. The crux of normal enemy encounters is really just how quickly you can end them, since there are a lot of them, and the only difference in boss battles is that the small handful of basic buff and debuff spells come into play. The battles are still somewhat satisfying in the way that battles in traditional JRPGs usually are, but they’re nowhere near as engaging as as the battles in games like 7th Dragon III: Code VFD or even Bravely Second (which serves as something of a contemporary to this game), where the systems are more complex.

Many other antiquated gameplay elements from older Dragon Quest games return in Dragon Quest VII as well; anything stored in your party’s bag cannot be used during battles, equipped items take up part of these inventory slots, items are transferred between party members or the party’s bag one item at a time, and on goes the list. To top it all off, the plethora of menu screens that you must navigate are also quite slow. It’s clear that these are all intentional decisions from the developers and have nothing to do with hardware limitations, so I have to assume that this is how the core Dragon Quest fanbase wants the game to play. The charm is somewhat lost on me as someone who doesn’t have much nostalgia for the series, but these were mostly minor annoyances and something I was able to get over pretty quickly.

What isn’t simply a minor annoyance is the class system. This is where the majority of the party’s skills are obtained, so making good use of it is important both in terms of being able to do well in combat and making combat itself more fun. Unfortunately, one major flaw serves to undermine what would have otherwise been a very effective and engaging class system: advancement within classes is based on a predetermined number of battles, not on accumulating experience points, and the battles must be fought against enemies of a certain strength relative to the level of your party members. This is a misstep on a fundamental level given the nature of the Dragon Quest series.

In a series that unabashedly emphasizes grinding, this class system actively penalizes players for finding ways to level up their party in an efficient manner. If this were done in an effort to shift the series away from being so focused on grinding I would find this admirable, but given how many battles it takes to master vocations it’s clear that this wasn’t the intent. Instead, because it takes so long to master the most powerful classes (upwards of 250-260 battles) this effectively adds another layer of grinding on top of everything else. You’ll have to seek out the enemies which give you the lowest experience points while still meeting the threshold for class advancement if you want to master classes quickly. In other words, I found myself actively avoiding enemies which I knew would give me a lot of experience points, even if I could make quick work of them. Your highest level party member will become overleveled if you engage these enemies too often and if you don’t notice this soon enough, those party members can go several hours without learning any new skills (until you reach a part of the game with stronger enemies).

To make matters worse, the only way to tell if you’re advancing in your class in this game is to talk to a specific NPC in a specific location (Alltrades Abbey). There’s no way to use fast-travel spells in the past, so you’ll have to journey all the way back to the teleportal, exit the Shrine of Mysteries, warp to Alltrades Abbey, and then retrace your steps just to talk to this NPC. The game obviously keeps track of how many battles you’ve fought in your current class, otherwise the class system wouldn’t function at all, so to give the player no option to check their progress in the menu is baffling to me. The only explanation I’m left with, again, is that this is the game being old-school for the sake of being old-school, but it’s hard to get away with that when you’re dealing a system that already has the potential to be frustrating.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad and the class system does have its fair share of redeeming qualities. I’m a big fan of the the fact that there are tiers within this system. You’ll have to master multiple beginner classes to gain access to intermediate classes, and master some combination of beginner and intermediate classes to gain access to the most advanced classes. For example, the Martial Artist and Priest classes must be mastered before a party member can access the Paladin class. From there, Paladin and Gladiator (which is unlocked after mastering the Warrior and Martial Artist classes) must be mastered in order to unlock the Champion class. This necessitates planning beforehand and gives some direction to the player, rather than having them aimlessly mastering random classes, and gave me more satisfaction to mastering a class beyond attaining the most powerful abilities.

Another plus for the class system is that the skills for the advanced classes feel appropriately powerful and worth the effort. Hundreds of battles must be fought to eventually attain the final skills of the Champion class, Gigaslash and Blade of Ultimate Power, but they’re so powerful and badass that it all feels worth it in the end. I wasn’t able to fully master the most powerful magic-based class before I got to the final boss, but I’d imagine the final skills obtained in this class are also game changers. Though the path to get there can become more arduous than it should be, the class system does ultimately succeed in giving you a wide array of worthwhile skills that make the combat more enjoyable.

Around these myriad of old-school elements, there is one significant modernization to the gameplay that was a pleasant surprise: the guidance features. If you’re wondering where you ought to be headed next, you can receive general hints from the caretaker of the Shrine of Mysteries and another set of hints from the menu system for tablet fragment locations. Between these features and the tried and true method of speaking to characters and NPCs, I almost never found myself wandering aimlessly or at a loss for what to do next. At the same time, I usually didn’t feel like the game was simply giving me the whole answer when I used these features either. You’re given a general direction to travel in, but it’s up you to put several pieces of information together to arrive at the final conclusion or to navigate an obstacle to reach your goal once it’s in sight. For such a long game, with such a large world, to strike this kind of balance is a tremendous achievement.

Another pleasant surprise for me was that, despite being over a 90 hour journey, there was enough new content being introduced throughout the game to keep it feeling fresh (most of the time). While I did take issue with how long I was saddled with story in certain locations, I was impressed with how many different locations and dungeons there are and how rich they were in content. There is naturally a lot of backtracking given the premise of the game, but I often found that the islands or villages had changed in significant ways once they were restored. There are often new dungeons to explore in the present day world and entirely new villages can be found on some of the islands as well. Even towards the end of the game, where many JRPGs will have players retracing their steps, I was continually surprised by how many new dungeons or areas were being introduced.

It’s hard to talk about the ending more specifically without getting into spoiler territory, so I’ll just say that I really enjoyed it. It’s hard for any ending to be worth a 90 hour journey on its own, but the ending of Dragon Quest VII certainly left me feeling happy with the time I had put into the game (which is no easy feat for such a long game either).

After playing through this game, I'm even more elated that Nintendo put in the work to bring this game to the West than I was at the time of the initial announcement. While there are elements in this game that keep me from wholeheartedly loving it like I do like many other JRPGs on the 3DS, this was still a great game for me in the end. In terms of presentation value, breadth of content, attention to detail, scale, and the overall level of care that went into it, this is one of the most impressive games I’ve played on the system. There was seemingly no expense spared when this game was made for Japan and the fantastic localization lives up to the standard of the overall product. I don’t think I’ll ever like Dragon Quest as much as its most ardent fans, but Dragon Quest VII has definitely given me a new appreciation for the series and I’m glad I got to play through this game.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #18 on: October 12, 2016, 09:57:45 PM »
Whoa, that turned out to be much longer than I expected. I knew it would be kinda long but... oh boy. My apologies.

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #19 on: October 13, 2016, 04:47:50 PM »
Great rundown, Oedo. I am nowhere near even the halfway point. I play when I can which is not often. I don't even have the class system yet.

Speaking of that, one of my regrets with DQIX (my first DQ) was that I got to the end boss with the "wrong" party set-up and got my ass handed to me. Multiple times. I then checked some FAQs and found out the "optimum" party to take with you. Basically, I lacked a good healer (I think that was my problem). So after 100+ hours, I never did "finish" that game as it would have required some very arduous backtracking and grinding. Maybe I will get around to that one day ...

So my question for you, what are some good party/class options to focus on that will help me actually complete this game? I don't want to make the same mistakes I did on DQIX, which I otherwise adored start to finish.
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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #20 on: October 13, 2016, 07:40:18 PM »
I don't want to seem unappreciative of such posts, but I know very little about this game and so I don't want to risk seeing spoilers before playing it.

Speaking of that, one of my regrets with DQIX (my first DQ) was that I got to the end boss with the "wrong" party set-up and got my ass handed to me. Multiple times. I then checked some FAQs and found out the "optimum" party to take with you. Basically, I lacked a good healer (I think that was my problem).
Honestly, I'm impressed you made it that far without a good healer.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #21 on: October 13, 2016, 10:23:33 PM »
I don't want to seem unappreciative of such posts, but I know very little about this game and so I don't want to risk seeing spoilers before playing it.

Yeah, I'm sorry, Mop it up. I intentionally avoided talking about story specifics too much because a lot of people haven't gotten to the ending of the main campaign yet, but I know some people don't like to hear about gameplay details in too much detail prior to playing a game either. It would be nice if there were a way to put an entire post behind a gate that would make it so that you would have to click "show post" or something to see it, but if there is such a feature on the NWR forums I haven't found it, unfortunately.

Great rundown, Oedo. I am nowhere near even the halfway point. I play when I can which is not often. I don't even have the class system yet.

Speaking of that, one of my regrets with DQIX (my first DQ) was that I got to the end boss with the "wrong" party set-up and got my ass handed to me. Multiple times. I then checked some FAQs and found out the "optimum" party to take with you. Basically, I lacked a good healer (I think that was my problem). So after 100+ hours, I never did "finish" that game as it would have required some very arduous backtracking and grinding. Maybe I will get around to that one day ...

So my question for you, what are some good party/class options to focus on that will help me actually complete this game? I don't want to make the same mistakes I did on DQIX, which I otherwise adored start to finish.

Thanks! I actually thought the final boss battle in this game was relatively straightforward, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. There are three advanced classes in the game, Hero, Druid, and Champion, and as long as you work towards each of your characters mastering one of those classes, it'll give you a good mix of healing, defensive abilities, and offense. One of those advanced classes, Druid, isn't as good for healing, so coincidentally I opted for one of the intermediate classes, Sage, which is very good at healing and casting defensive spells instead; however, you'll need to master Sage to unlock Druid anyway so if you aim for that advanced class you can always switch back to the intermediate one. For the full crew I went with Hero, Sage, Champion, and another Champion in the final battle and didn't have too much trouble with it. I saved most of the seeds I found in the game for before this battle and had most of the Magic Water and Yggdrasil Dew I found throughout the game saved too, and that really helped. Like I said though, I don't think you have too much to worry about!
« Last Edit: October 13, 2016, 10:28:30 PM by Oedo »

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2016, 02:41:54 PM »
Thanks again Oedo. Very helpful.

Interesting comment about saving seeds. I usually use them almost immediately based on what the party members could most use at the time.

Actually that's not quite true. I usually default to using seeds on the "main" character (the player's avatar) and occasionally use them on others that look like they need the buff more at the time. I never thought of saving them. I figured they probably help you keep your stats where they basically need to be at any given time in the campaign. I also sometimes hesitate to build up characters, with seeds or equipment, because sometimes (in other DQ games) they don't stay with you! Nothing like spending a bundle kitting-out a party member that then leaves a short while later.

You've given me some things to think about now. Thanks!
Oui, Mon Gars!

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #23 on: October 20, 2016, 02:45:07 PM »
No problem! I should be thanking you for warning me about the final boss in Dragon Quest IX too. I've had that game for a while and want to play through it at some point given all the praise it receives, and I wasn't aware that the party setup was so important for that final battle before seeing your post.

Offline rygar

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #24 on: October 20, 2016, 10:09:18 PM »
That's a great write up, thanks. I'll definitely come back to this thread when I eventually play the game.

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #25 on: October 21, 2016, 04:59:04 PM »
Beat the boss of island 2 and text is telling me I am having a wonderful celebration, lol
slowly, slowly
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Offline sudoshuff

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #26 on: December 03, 2016, 09:40:25 AM »
Well, I picked up this game a couple of weeks ago on a whim (never having played a game in the series before).  I'll confess that I didn't really like it at first--mostly because the battles seemed too easy and repeated character models/terrain textures seemed pretty boring.  However, the game has picked up significantly and revealed a lot more depth after my third or fourth island.  I'm really enjoying it now!

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #27 on: January 16, 2017, 10:54:24 AM »
Did some concentrated playing over the past few days and I have finally reached Alltrades Abbey!!
I have now reviewed Oedo's earlier advice and am ready to dive into my first vocation switches. So excited.

I wonder, is there any room to have a laugh and go for some of the goofier vocations early on, just for fun, or should I stick to clearly mapped paths to final boss victory?

Keep in mind I haven't actually tried to speak to the vocation-change guy yet so I am not totally clear about what I am asking. I just noticed from other players' comments that you can be, like, a dancer or jester or, i dunno, YouTube make-up artist or something. (I may have invented that last one.) Those sound like potential for laughs and funny costume changes.
Oui, Mon Gars!

Offline sudoshuff

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #28 on: January 16, 2017, 12:11:13 PM »
Did some concentrated playing over the past few days and I have finally reached Alltrades Abbey!!


How long after the Roamers section is this?  I just made it past that.

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #29 on: January 16, 2017, 12:15:36 PM »
Did some concentrated playing over the past few days and I have finally reached Alltrades Abbey!!


How long after the Roamers section is this?  I just made it past that.
Directly after. You're almost there. Go talk to the King, lay the fragments you've found, and you're there!

**EDIT**: Hmmm, I may have spoken a little too soon. You'll see.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2017, 02:01:43 PM by Fatty_The_Hutt »
Oui, Mon Gars!

Offline sudoshuff

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #30 on: January 18, 2017, 06:11:14 PM »
Did some concentrated playing over the past few days and I have finally reached Alltrades Abbey!!


How long after the Roamers section is this?  I just made it past that.
Directly after. You're almost there. Go talk to the King, lay the fragments you've found, and you're there!

**EDIT**: Hmmm, I may have spoken a little too soon. You'll see.


Thanks, I made it there!  Glad you told me because I had planned on setting the game aside for a while after the Roamers section.

Offline Oedo

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #31 on: January 18, 2017, 09:58:59 PM »
Did some concentrated playing over the past few days and I have finally reached Alltrades Abbey!!
I have now reviewed Oedo's earlier advice and am ready to dive into my first vocation switches. So excited.

I wonder, is there any room to have a laugh and go for some of the goofier vocations early on, just for fun, or should I stick to clearly mapped paths to final boss victory?

Keep in mind I haven't actually tried to speak to the vocation-change guy yet so I am not totally clear about what I am asking. I just noticed from other players' comments that you can be, like, a dancer or jester or, i dunno, YouTube make-up artist or something. (I may have invented that last one.) Those sound like potential for laughs and funny costume changes.

I decided early on which advanced classes I wanted to pursue with each of my party members and mostly stuck to reaching those as quickly as I could. However, I mastered them a good while before the final boss, so there should definitely be some room to try out the other classes early on if you want (just make sure you avoid fighting enemies that give you a ton of exp and make you level up really quickly, like metal slimes). In the case of Dancer and Jester specifically, they're actually useful classes because:

Mastering the Jester, Dancer, and Troubadour classes opens the path to the Luminary class, and mastering the Luminary and Sage classes (the latter of which is opened after you master the Priest and Mage classes) leads to the Druid class. Druid is the most powerful magic-using class in the game, so if you plan on leading one of your party members down that path, you'll have to master those two classes with that party member anyway.

Beyond that, the other early classes can still be somewhat useful because all the abilities you learn in the beginner classes are retained (even after you switch to another class). There's really no penalty for switching classes most of the time, so you can even try them out for a few battles and then switch to something else if you want.

By the way, you guys are at what I thought was the hardest part of the game. Once you push through this part and really open up the class system, it should be smoother sailing from there.

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #32 on: January 19, 2017, 12:03:44 PM »
Thanks, Oedo!
Yeah a really interesting curve-ball just got thrown our way, not sure where it's going to go.
Just got my ass kicked in a fight that I could see the game obviously meant me to lose, so I didn't bother trying to use up healing items or anything, just let it happen. At least my money was retained.

On the subject of money, I decided to deposit about 2/3 of my considerable accumulated cash before that fight, even though it didn't matter in the end. I didn't know an un-winnable fight was coming I just did it out of caution seeing as my party was in a new, unusual position where anything could happen. It was the first time I used a bank in this game and I wonder if it is really needed? I can see it being useful if you do die, then half your cash won't be wiped out. But I can also see it becoming a pain if you want to purchase new items but don't have access to your cash and then you have to backtrack all the way to some bank and I don't have their locations memorized or anything (it's like life!)

So, banks or no banks? Whaddya all think?
Oui, Mon Gars!

Offline sudoshuff

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #33 on: January 20, 2017, 07:49:09 AM »
Interesting, I'm also curious about banks.  Every time I accumulate a lot of money I'm able to find some piece of gear or two that enhances a party member's stats.  I've never lost money because I almost always spend it as soon as I find a new weapons/armor/item shop. 

Offline Fatty The Hutt

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #34 on: February 12, 2019, 12:45:43 PM »
**Minor Spoilers Ahead**


Well, I'm over 140 hours into this game now and almost ready to move to what I assume will be the end game.
I have of late spent a lot of time (obviously) grinding vocations. I made a conscious decision to do this for fun and as an experiment. It's been quite fun and I have no regrets but I recognize this is a crazy way to play. I have achieved the grinding by using traveller's tablets since they have no level cap on accumulating battles that count toward vocation levelling. I am fairly close to having all my chosen party members masters of *all* advanced vocations, and then some. I have found a few tablets that I typically return to because they have a nice mix of gold and experience that they hand out for battles. But yeah, I'm probably way over-levelled for whatever may come next. I also have a huge bank account at Alltrades Abbey. But like I said, no regrets.

I don't actually know where I am in the game. I seemingly have all the "regular" coloured tablets completed. Now there are "grey" special tablets to deal with (I think?) and you have to go to a special place for that. I'll figure it out when I'm ready to move the story along but so far I've enjoyed messing around with vocations and tablets. I've tried some of the download tablets too and some of them are just brutal. Fun, but brutal. Oh, also I haven't reached the point where Maribel could come back but I already know I'll let her go since Aishe and Mervyn have mastered so many vocations.

Great game. I love returning to it in spurts when I feel like it and messing around with the systems. Truly an epic adventure. Wonder how much more of it here is?
Oui, Mon Gars!

Offline pokepal148

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Re: Dragon Quest VII
« Reply #35 on: February 13, 2019, 04:45:03 PM »
I need to get this game.