Dragon Quest 11 Stronger Monsters Are to Easy

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I think the stronger monsters modifier in DQ11 is making the game worse by incentivizing bad play

• Thread starter Deleted member 2834
• Start date May 21, 2021

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• #2

Without the game is very easy until the post-end.

• #3

Iunno, that sounds more like you're optimising the fun out of it. I personally think it makes an already wonderful game even better / is a pleasing level of difficulty.

Went through the JP version without (because it didn't even exist lol) and then the English release with.

• #4

First half: draconian mode
Second half: normal mode

That's how I did it. The game became so unfair and required a lot of grinding on the second half.

• #5

even playing on standard there's no incentive to fight things in dungos other than to fill out the info roster. Bosses can be hard, anything else you can just 'Fight Wisely' while listening to a podcast.

• #6

Iunno, that sounds more like you're optimising the fun out of it.

That isn't wrong but I can't bring myself to play inefficiently

• #7

Loved the draconian mode, made battles strategic but never felt too unfair or unbeatable.

• #8

That sounds more like a you problem than anything else. You absolutely don't need to do that. Combats are incredibly boring without it.

• #9

That isn't wrong but I can't bring myself to play inefficiently

I can relate to the feeling, though it only really effects me when it's access to a broken standard move or something borking the balance in an action game.

• #10

Does DQ11 still have it so when you die you keep all your exp but end up at the last church?

I think that's the best feature ever in any JRPG as it means you don't ever die and have to re-grind lost exp, which actually gives the player incentive to run headfirst into a dungeon and if they die, they die, but by the time they get back they'll be stronger as they didn't need to grind back the exp they lost from reloading a save upon death

It means smart and careful play can get you through a dungeon in one go, but if you die 75% in, by the time you get back to the start again you're already 2 levels stronger from the first failed run, so you're better placed to get to the end

• #11

Does DQ11 still have it so when you die you keep all your exp but end up at the last church?

I think that's the best feature ever in any JRPG as it means you don't ever die and have to re-grind lost exp, which actually gives the player incentive to run headfirst into a dungeon and if they die, they die, but by the time they get back they'll be stronger as they didn't need to grind back the exp they lost from reloading a save upon death

It means smart and careful play can get you through a dungeon in one go, but if you die 75% in, by the time you get back to the start again you're already 2 levels stronger from the first failed run, so you're better placed to get to the end

Yes, but you lose half your money. That said, you can save it in a bank.

• #12

I would have liked the game less without those modifiers. I think the games battlesystem only shines (buffs, debuffs etc.) with those modifiers.

• #13

I just found that stronger monsters made every random battle take way longer than necessary and I don't have that kind of time in my life. I make my JRPGs slightly more difficult by avoiding random battles (unless I'm farming for something) as much as possible.

• #15

DQ11 is a great game but holy crap is the balance bad (in my opinion).

Combat in terms of its features is pretty engaging. The characters are diverse with detailed movesets and different ways to specialize each of them, and the combat itself is very appealing in its presentation...

But the balance. It's so braindead easy on normal that it feels pointless, but on hard monsters the difficulty spikes can feel otherworldy unfair, some of the bosses I found (ones that would be a breeze on normal) required either immense grinding, a SHIT TON of lucky RNG going your way in a huge way, or both.

There must be something in between braindead easy and immensely punishing. I always felt like classic DQ games, especially 8, had a reasonable balance out of the box.

• #16

I used stronger monsters for my first run and I can't imagine playing it any other way. Feels like the intended way to play, just right in terms of difficulty. Regular enemies require some tactics and (many) bosses require planning if you don't get lucky. Doesn't make it harder than SMT by any means, and the gameplay out of combat is much, much less tedious. Fights are snappy enough if you speed it up and you'll do some grinding for materials naturally anyway.

Not using it must make the game super easy and dull.

• #17

I can't even imagine playing this game without stronger monsters on. The game's already too easy as it is.

• #18

There are few things that bother me more than incentivizing bad play. Not in this game specifically but this happens all the time in a lot of games. This happens with daily quests. I hate when i go to play with my friends and the first few games are gonna be throws because of dailies.

sredgrin

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account

• #19

There is no version of the game with satisfying or interesting combat. It's either braindead, tedious, or just annoying.

The occassional boss battle is cool in stronger monsters, but that's about it. I would've liked a "stronger bosses" mode maybe.

• #20

Stronger monsters with no exp from weaker monsters is the ideal way to play honestly. Can't overgrind and the encounters are a decent challenge (and some bosses are evil). An RPG being braindead easy where I don't have to think is honestly my biggest turn off, I probably wouldn't love 11 as much as I do without draconian modifiers.

• #21

This reminds me a lot of Dark Souls. As I'd typically run through a level to get all the points and know the traps, and then I'd slowly go through after knowing what's ahead

• #22

In all honesty the lengthy battles put me to sleep before I even got this far

• #23

Yes, but you lose half your money. That said, you can save it in a bank.

Is THAT why there was a bank? Played the whole game and never figured out what the point of the bank was. Lol

• #24

Eh, I very much enjoyed playing it with zero draconian modifiers. The game to me is just a nice relaxing romp with the occasional difficult boss.

I'm JUST about done with it, as I have the final boss from act 3 to take care of. That shit is tough, lol, even with no modifiers. I'll beat it eventually and then I want to start a new game in 2D mode.

• #25

Yes, the game was not made with it in mind and it is in fact a much smoother experience without it. The bosses were clearly not balanced as it's just a straight percentage modifier. Instead you can just choose to fight or not as you see fit and if you don't fight stuff you'll just end up with a difficult boss all the same anyway.

• #26

That kinda sounds like how I played DQ11, even without the Draconian Quest modifiers. I think it's more a consequence of ditching random encounters, especially since the visible encounters are laughably easy to avoid. Get strong enough for the boss, make a beeline through the dungeon to the boss, rinse and repeat...

I'd love DQ12 to have Draconian Quest mods that either added random enounters or made visible encounters chase after you much more aggressively.

• #27

I'd love DQ12 to have Draconian Quest mods that either added random enounters or made visible encounters chase after you much more aggressively.

Frankly I feel like that should be baked into the game design. All enemies should be avoidable, but they should come after you at more than a leisurely pace.

• #28

I enjoyed most of the game in draconian mode, but it surely has some crazy difficulty spikes sprinkled here and there.

• #29

Draconian Mode is good most of the time.

Then it throws stuff like that Dora in Grey boss who has like 3 turns in a row with overpowered attacks.

I played the game on Steam, using mods to disable/reenable stronger monsters whenever cheap shit like that happened.

• #30

I'd love DQ12 to have Draconian Quest mods that either added random enounters or made visible encounters chase after you much more aggressively.

2D mode has random encounters baked in. (also turns the combat into full rounds vs. character turns)

People typically don't think of it as a mod, but it changes the gameplay in ways that interact nicely with the other ones.

I played DQ11 twice - vanilla on pS4, and 2D/Harder monsters on Switch. It was a pretty different experience.

The inability to run from encounters, plus the tougher monsters, really makes you rethink builds and makes dungeons themselves a great challenge. Bosses aren't uniquely challenging because there isn't a way around the work it takes to get there.

• #31

I wasn't a fan of the difficulty options in DQ11 biggest negative to the game. Hard mode was more annoying than hard and normal mode was wayyyyy too easy to be fun.

• #32

First half: draconian mode
Second half: normal mode

That's how I did it. The game became so unfair and required a lot of grinding on the second half.

100%, and I ruined my experience by leaving on Hard mode on the second act.

Being unable to reverse difficulty changes was a trash decision. I would have experimented and bounced around if I could.

• #33

I started actively hating the game with the stronger monsters.

I turned it off at the Squid boss and it was a far better experience. I could explore the map finding chests and ingredients without the fear of a random encounter using a critical and wiping my party.

• #34

So I turned the stronger monsters modifier off and played a handful of hours ever since and it's a much, much better experience. Stronger monsters slows the game down, forces you to grind before bosses and makes random encounters so resource intensive, you gotta be picky about which fights you take, thereby leading you to just grind around a camping spot. I love challenging JRPGs but this didn't work for me at all.

• #35

I loved the harder monsters/bosses mode. The game was super easy without it. I turned it off for fun right before a boss fight I was struggling with and it was laughably easy afterwards so I ended up reloading so it was back on. Different strokes and all but I preferred it as the game wasn't very challenging without it on

• #36

strongly disagree. without it i literally gave up on the game, since it was too easy and not fun to play at all. no need to use the forge, no need to manage my resources, just boring a pressing to get through encounters in ten seconds tops. good thing i restarted and picked it or i would never have finished the game

• #37

I didn't have that experience with stronger monsters for the most part. It definitely makes it more challenging in how you approach battles, but I didn't feel that way. The only issue I had was against the sand boss in an early section of the game because of the stupid rng in how much it would attack. That was a huge spike in difficulty, but I didn't face anything like that after.

I do wish they allowed you to turn it back on if you turned it off. That or they could just balance the game better. One thing I did notice is that Draconian mode did bring out flaws in the game design a little bit--the said RNG stuff makes it a bit like waiting for the game to give you a good hand when there is a difficulty spike. Overall though I enjoyed the experience on Draconian despite those few problems.

• #38

strongly disagree. without it i literally gave up on the game, since it was too easy and not fun to play at all. no need to use the forge, no need to manage my resources, just boring a pressing to get through encounters in ten seconds tops. good thing i restarted and picked it or i would never have finished the game

The game was designed without difficulty in mind, so the difficulty eventually evens out to being at a point where you are expected to use those tools.

The early part of the game is stupendously, brain-dead easy on normal. Around the 50%, it starts get to be like a normal videogame on normal, but on Stronger it goes way too slow.

The back half of the game is so reliant on retread content that doing anything to prolong battles makes it really tedious. That is the same problem that Trails SC has, where battles may be more interesting on Hard, but there's such an ungodly amount of retreading areas that doing so anything other than super fast sucks.

• #39

The game was designed without difficulty in mind, so the difficulty eventually evens out to being at a point where you are expected to use those tools.

The early part of the game is stupendously, brain-dead easy on normal. Around the 50%, it starts get to be like a normal videogame on normal

"The game was designed without difficulty in mind" and yet the first chance they have, they add several difficulty modifiers. It's almost like they knew it was an issue, one people complained and they wanted to fix.

Also to your "around the 50% game gets like a normal videogame on normal" for no modifiers, at least on my own experience it really doesn't. Only post game - act 3 had some sort of challenge on it, and i'm going by others words on this one, since i didnt do act 3 without modifiers. The final 50% being harder and slower with Stronger Modifier isn't an issue, most rpgs suffer from unbalanced difficulty curves where the first acts are hard - okay but the rest of the game is too easy cause you have too many tools - spells. The modifier only helps and you never get the issue on the post game which is tough as nails

I d

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Source: https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-think-the-stronger-monsters-modifier-in-dq11-is-making-the-game-worse-by-incentivizing-bad-play.429212/

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