Ah, I disagree. A fun experience is definitely worth the money. It’s sort of like how people will pay lots of money to do something really cool but quick - like riding a go-kart, skydiving, etc. A good game can be worth $60 even if it’s only 6-10 hours long IF the game is good enough.

Also, this one is more Souls-lite…

There was one slide on Zeffo where you start down the slide, take a hard turn then jump and catch a dangling vine before wall running to another safe ledge. I think I actually failed this about 12 times the first time I did it, and it doesn’t help that the vine swinging doesn’t feel right to me either and I’d miss the…

I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s FAR more forgiving.

The combat does involve careful timing, but on Normal mode standard monsters might be able to wing you but most of them aren’t going to a kill-level threat. With some exceptions, like getting chain-bitten by a bunch of wolves. It’s been semi-common for me to be in a…

It really does depend on how much you want to do. I took about 30 hours. A couple of reviewers spent 60. The average appears to be 20-25.

“Balance. In all things.”

My favorite RPG ever. What I wouldn’t give for a even a half-assed remake and putting at a level of FF8's artwork.

Seriously though, it did a LOT of stuff very right. Fun, good story, and handled a lot of mature themes like suicide, failure, parenthood and depression. And also had a kickass soundtrack. 

As always, I love your Dragon Quest reviews. I’d already bought this, but your previous Dragon Quest XI review convinced a few of my friends to buy the game.

Continue rocking on, good sir.

Not “first”, I don’t think. It was a simultaneous release, or within a few months. And only in Japan.

Of course, the dumb thing is that this guy is RICH and he should have gone forward with the donation to the ADL and to whatever his preferred charity was.

Of course, he should also have contacted the ADL first and worked with them. Maybe he could do some in-kind advertising for them, or something. It’s not like he…

Hm. I wonder if that’s somewhat intentional, at least for the beginning of the game (I would doubt you would make major faction decisions before 10 hours in).

But maybe the game is actually commenting on why these sorts of situations endure. Because there IS no mechanical benefit for the person who’s end the tragedy.…

A remaster or remake of F-Zero GX would be worth all the dollars. It’s bar-none my favorite racer of the era, and probably of the following eras as well. 

I was actually really happy with today’s Direct, though most of the really exciting things won’t do it for me.

As an aside, I always love these articles even when I disagree with them. We get some of our best discussions out of the Game Diaries.

Heh, I do get where you’re coming from. I think part of it may be that DQ is actively trying to capture some of that “campy” feeling that you mention from older action serials.

I mean, this is a game series where sometimes the monsters will do things like waste turns so they can... do something cute. Like the cat…

I actually liked the DQXI overworld music a lot. Though I have to say that I really love the DQ8 music more and I’m glad that the Switch version lets you just toggle over to those. Especially the DQ8 overworld and town music:

Overworld:

DQ11 doesn’t actually use much new music. They recycled existing music from previous entries in the series deliberately, so you’re correct in that the music was not actually written for the scenes they’re paired with.

Exceptions include the overworld and battle music, which WERE designed for this game.

Just curious- how do you feel about Dragon Quest 8's battle music? Same general thoughts?

For comparison purposes, I think this is the Orchestral version on the Switch:

It’s not a sinister monopolistic decision.

You might be right, but “Steam can’t change” doesn’t mean that the EGS model still isn’t better for overall development.

Realistically, if EGS fails it won’t be able to support the exclusivity model anyway and the whole thing will disappear. But right now, that exclusivity and better developer treatment are what give…