5/5 ★ – jonospark's review of Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition.

I completed a fourth playthrough, but with full Draconian options. Full Draconian was both interesting and irritating: It was interesting because, since things are so against your favor, it is like playing a classic Dragon Quest game. I often compared my experience to Dragon Warrior II for the Game Boy Color. Because you can die very easily, you need to know when to do crowd control or just outright eliminate targets. Tanking, for the most part, is out of the window. The difficulty gives an extra layer of urgency that fits the narrative well. Finishing off bosses felt like achievements, even when overleveled. Moreover, I had to be more proactive in using skills that I haven't used before to help keep things manageable. Trying out evasion strategies was cool. I also liked how I got to see how useful Serena, Veronica, and Eight were on spears, whips, and greatswords, respectively. I haven't found a good use for Jade on claws, still. Claws are just unnecessary when you have spears for raw damage and fisticuffs and allure for everything else. There were also ways to get around the leveling restriction by finding the right zones to level up in. The game was designed well. It was irritating because, in the long run, the damage bosses were doing outpaced the leveling curve. I expected some grinding in the beginning of the game, before you get a full party, but I found that I was also grinding at the beginning of Act 2, and at the end of Act 2. The early fights in Act 2 were particularly infuriating because you really cannot get much momentum. If you get Shypox on a bad turn, the fight's basically over. So both the solo bosses in Act 2 were difficult for silly reasons. Some of the bosses were more irritating because there weren't any good checkpoints to avoid having to watch several minutes of exposition (e.g., Gloomivore). I was sweating bullets during the Booga fight because I didn't want to redo the preceding fight again. And like Dragon Warrior II, I ended up leveling at lot at the end. It helped. But overall, I had a good time. I probably won't do full Draconian again because it was more of a test of patience for me, especially later on. If I would to recommend a good hard mode play-through, I'd recommend: - Stronger Monsters - Reduced Experience - Shypox (turn off in Act 2, after Hero's grid opens up) - Super Shypox (turn off in Act 2) You can also replace Stronger Monsters with No Armor. Fights are fast and furious, although you lose defensive options. But enemy stats are lower, so you don't need to grind too much to compensate.