[Swimmy]

I've got a booklet too. Yeah, it's nice.

I'm excited, picking this up tomorrow. Will probably have a gushy orgasm in this thread and will not be bothered at all by the sameness of this game.
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[Swimmy]

Thoughts within the first 20 minutes:

-No way to speed up text? Booooooooooo!
-There really ought to be a compromise with the graphical battle system. It wouldn't kill them to add a menu option that turns long battle animations off. It seems that DQ has permanently moved in a flashier direction, and I'm still not very happy with it.
-This game is pretty. By zooming out and lowering the attempted detail a smidge, it eliminates most of the pixelation that plagued DQM:J. I have yet to see how most of the world really looks.
-The Celestrians talk like stupid people think smart people talk. "The humans can't see we Celestrians," and us Celestrians can't speak English good, can us?
-I have a profile? And I can wave to people? I'm not sure if all this makes me happy or sad that I'll never find anyone to play it with.
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[Swimmy]

Nah, I'm more into complaining about the translation, which is OMG terrible.

The Wight Night does it too, the "subjective pronouns are formal" thing. He uses "I" as the object of a preposition. I don't think the translators realize how uneducated it makes all the nobility sound. Also, the instruction book fortells that Dharma Temple has been renamed to "Alltrades Abbey." Boo! The pun-centric nature of the modern DQ translations is simply awful. Although it will be difficult to top "Nun of the Above" from DQ5.

That said, I like going back to DQ3-style making my own party. Also, what I've gleaned of the class system online, it's a solid mix of DQ3's and DQ8's. Sounds great to me. I hope the ultimate strategy is still "Make everyone a sage." Superwes is spot on about visible battles. The game is much better. Combined with maps, it also reduces the pain of the "Oops I'm going the right way, better turn around for treasure!" design of jrpg dungeons.
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[Swimmy]

As far as I can tell, it's mostly the same as DQ4's and 5's. I'm not far in, though.
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[Swimmy]

I actually enjoy lots of the bad puns, but in moderation. I think DQ7's translation is good. Unfortunately most of the townspeople are bland, but when the game's trying to be funny, it is funny. DQ8's was good as well, and it had the kind option of skipping the voice acting.
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[Swimmy]

So I beat the snot out of this game, and the post-game stuff is, uh. Ok. They really want you to focus on the grottoes, and the grottoes are not actually very good. However, it is possible to randomly stumble upon a really great grotto. . . for instance, one that has an entire floor with nothing but Metal King Slime spawns. The only way to do this would be to beat grotto after grotto until you get very lucky, all the while having no better way to level up than hanging out on Slime Hill, or, god forbid, the Bowhole.

Or you could do it the cool kid way, which is what I'm working on now. The Treasure Maps for grottoes are exchangable between games, so I am downloading a ROM, editing a save game to have some great treasure maps, and as soon as the only other person I can find with a DS pops by, giving myself the reward.

Am I cheating? Hellz yeah. But as far as I can tell this is the only major benefit of multiplayer, and the game was originally intended in Japan to have these maps passed around all over the country after a few people discover them. Since that'll never happen here, I'm just, uh, replicating the experience.
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[Swimmy]

[Swimmy]

Not sure what you're doing against the last boss. A recommendation:

Thief or warrior (mine was a thief), falcon blade (get it on your ship). Use Falcon Slash.
Gladiator, any good axe. Use Helm Splitter. Helps to have a meteorite bracelet, but not necessary.
Priest, weapon irrelevant. Use Multiheal. Use Care Prayer at battle's start, if you have it.
Mage, weapon irrelevant, use acceleratle so the priest acts before the boss. Keep oomph on your thief and gladiator. Heal priest's MP if needed. Yggdrasil leaf if needed. Frizzle otherwise.

When Helm Splitter gets his defense down completely, and Oomph is on, you should do around 750-850 damage a turn (he has 4800 HP), and if your priest has Faith maxed you'll probably keep everyone fully healed. I beat him within a couple minutes, and I'm sure nobody was above level 45.

At this point in the game for grinding, you have access to Liquid Metal Slimes in The Bowhole B3, which can give everyone around 10,000 a pop. If you need more skill points, get them by level-busting a useless class.
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[Swimmy]

[Swimmy]

You don't have to sit around and wait in the Bowhole, it's just the option that forces you into the least number of non-LMS battles.

Balbanes: Not unless you are interested in Legacy bosses (see my spoiler text above).
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[Swimmy]

Yes, you really need to make a full team.
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[Swimmy]

You get a new map every time you beat a boss, unless you're fighting a legend boss, in which case you'll get a mini medal. The other percentages for treasures found are for items the boss drops while still in the battle screen, so on a few runs you will get a treasure map plus a weapon or item or whatever. (These are rarely as good as some of the treasures you can find just by scouring the dungeon itself.)

The grotto's level (and hence the levels of the enemies you'll fight) are determined by some complicated formula of what level your main character is at, how many times you've revoked classes, and some other stuff. Best I can tell only the legend bosses get stronger, and only if you choose for them to, but there are tiers for the grottoes such that you won't encounter the low-level bosses anymore after you hit a certain level dungeon map. (Until you hit a high enough level, at which point you can find any boss, any dungeon.)

And yeah, for a while the enemies will be easy. Get a map that's around level 60 or so and you'll change your tune. There are lots of monsters that are grotto-only, and they're almost all stronger than any of the monsters you can find in the rest of the game. To give you an idea, a lvl 60-ish dungeon I've been running around has Gigantes in the early floors, which can hit me for around 50-90 HP. By the time I reach floor 9 there are some unique grotto enemies, which can hit me for 200 HP.
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