Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past

[Daydreamer]

Drink till you forget you're in Cleveland.

This is pretty much why I was glad I'll have dq7.

[Yuri-G]

ugh I forgot how much I love this game. I prefer the old translation and sprites for nostalgia's sake, but it's still DQVII and still one of my favorite RPGs of all-time. I hope they didn't dumb down the difficulty too much; there was something so satisfying about beating Gracos V by the skin of my teeth in the old days


seriously had chills within the first few seconds of booting it up <3

[Tyrath]

I never beat the PS1 version despite having over a 100 hours in it. Can't wait to get back into it!! Amazon says its been delivered for when I get home.

[Yuri-G]

haha me neither. I got all the way to the final dungeon but just couldn't muster up the drive to complete it. that shit was insane, even just the random encounters were more than I could handle

[Tyrath]

I don't think I ever made it that far. Was grinding jobs is the last thing I remember.

[Moridam]

picked this up on my lunch break but i've got a concert to go to pretty much straight after work, won't get to touch it until tomorrow

[Kirin]

Hearing reports that Amazon is sold out and wont be getting new stock in until next week.

Luckily my copy is in my mailbox.

Nintendo has also published a quick start guide for people who are either new to this game or decry the fact we don't seem to be getting a guide published. It covers up until Dharma Temple and being able to class change.

http://dragonquest7.nintendo.com/quick-start

[Tyrath]

Hearing reports that Amazon is sold out and wont be getting new stock in until next week.

Luckily my copy is in my mailbox.

Glad I pre-ordered. Playing already.

Amazon page currently says ships within 1-3 months. Ouch.

[Yuri-G]

damn, Gina. good to see this game is more popular than expected!

[Daydreamer]

I love how the Nintendo "starter guide" is almost 30 chapters.

[Kirin]

http://dragonquest7.nintendo.com/discover/#vocations

Nintendo also posted a very bare bones class guide. Some of the jobs have updated names when compared to the PSX version. In case you're using older guides like I am.

There also seem to be some jobs missing, like Sailor and Bard. Just be mindful of that is using older references.

[Julian]

The one (and probably one of the only) things I really hate about this game is that it just takes way too damn long until you finally unlock the job system.

Either that or 12 year old me (or however old I was) was really freaking slow. >_>

[Yuri-G]

No, it does take forever. I've heard estimates of ~20 hours on this version of the game; I think the PSX version was around that mark as well. And it doesn't help that the Dharma Temple past area was fucking brutal in the PSX version (not sure how hard it will be this time around). Er, I'm sorry, "Alltrades Abbey" (one of my least favorite new translations, honestly)


Slight spoilers (not really spoilers, just comments on how they updated the intro portion of the game)

Spoiler: show

I just got to the first island in the past, and honestly... I miss the old intro. Yeah, it was an unnecessarily tedious slog through a series of puzzles without any battles whatsoever, but I liked those puzzles. This time around you just pick up the four pieces of saint's armor and BOOM you're in. No puzzles, no dungeon at all. The shrine to the past feels so small and insignificant now :/ In the PSX version it felt truly monumental. On top of that the layout of the shrine is far more streamlined; you go into a room and select which pedestal you want to examine from a menu. That's it. Definitely an improvement, but I do miss wandering around and exploring the pedestal rooms one by one. Not really a complaint; just a bittersweet moment of nostalgia.


On another note, pieces of the pedestals now have a radar that shows you where they are - I'm undecided on how I feel about this because rummaging around for those shards was a lot of fun, but on the other hand let's be honest: you could miss one shard that happened to be in a nondescript pot laying around in a house somewhere and literally have to scour the entire fucking world to find it, unless you were tracking them and used a FAQ. So although I'll miss that challenge, it's probably for the best.

[Tyrath]

Conisdering 30 mins in I'm already feeling the lack of battles, I'm okay with that change. old game had too much shit to get through for the sake of getting through it.

[Yuri-G]

Yeah I'm ok with it too. And 100% props for making the battles fast-paced - I was afraid it would be like DQIX where characters are always moving around and wasting time. It seems like a small thing; but when you grind this much it makes a big difference.

[Daydreamer]

So how far is everyone? I

Spoiler: show

just got wolf boy

[Kirin]

So how far is everyone? I

Spoiler: show

just got wolf boy

I don't like that name change. The original felt a lot better.

Spoiler: show

I mean Gabo -> Ruff

I'm finishing up Frobisher present day right now. Level 15 with Gabo (refuse to call him Ruff) at 11. I'm not too far from job time. Around 15 hours in.

The changes are for the better, like the puzzles at the first temple and small QoL stuff. I miss it, but it certainly makes the early slog without battles to break stuff up much more manageable.

The one thing I do wish they did was incorporate "notorious monsters' like in DQ8 in the little nooks and crannies on the map. Nothing sucks more than some of these wide open areas and you running out to a remote little outcrop looking for a treasure chest or a monster to have literally NOTHING stare you right back in the face.

Also for those who haven't read about the changes to jobs, the combo skills are no longer there. So leveling Warrior and going directly to Dancer is not necessary for Sword Dance anymore. Everything that was a combo skill has been shifted and moved to one specific job. To my knowledge you still need to master certain job combos to unlock others.

Also, Monster Job skills carry over to human jobs but not vice versa. Good way to get everyone with HealUs.

Regarding early job mastery:

Spoiler: show

I'm reading people can easily cap every base job for the whole party once you unlock them using the Slime tablet. Basically, when you purge Regenstein of what ails it, returning to the area in present day opens up a monster recruiting minigame for 3DS exclusive tablets. These can be used to enter zones (specifically the slime one) where everything gives you piddly exp points but has a level cap of 19.

[Yuri-G]

oh god that name change is just fucking awful. like... so bad. not a fan.



anyway, I just finished the first island. making my way slowly...

also there's this to be aware of, just FYI:


https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonquest...ept_31st_2016/

[Ayn]

Oh crap, thanks. Guess I'll have to boot this up!

[Tyrath]

You guys are wrong. Ruff > Gabo. Gabo is a dumb name. Take your nostalgia goggles off