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[Ōkami]

We're under 3 months from the Japanese release of Dragon Quest XI on PS4 and 3DS, so for the past few days I've been looking at some of the trailers in detail and see if I find something interesting, originally I was going to make a thread about my findings but turns out I'm not GameExplain and just thought making a general thread might be more fun. Not sure how this stands with the mods but still.

I did found and thought of some interesting things regarding the game as I watched the trailers, so here they are:

The trailers really like to show that birthmark the hero has on his hands, its seems like it'll be important to the story of the game, not just the birthmark but the symbol its shaped after.

Also that baby indeed is the hero, from the first we saw the baby I thought that might be baby Martina as Rou is usually seen with her, but nope, that's the hero.

The scene of Rou holding the baby like that is usually how trailers end, with a nice view of a waterfall, with the Yggdrasil in the background.

From the new PS4 trailer it seems like the hero is decendant of some sort of royalty as who seems to be his mom is shown wearing all kinds of jewelry, its also shown at parts of the trailer showing other kings, with Rou among them.

That trailer also shows a castle getting attacked by monsters and one of the kings seen in the trailer is to be the villain for at least the beggining of the game, what seems to be a young Martina is also shown escaping with a baby hero before being attacked by a monster.

So it seems like the Hero is special from the offset and there are people after him; on an Obi Wan like move Rou might put him in hiding in some small village for some time and all mentioned before the game begins. That waterfall is apparently close to the village at the start of the game as it was one of the first areas of the game shown.

As far as the rest of the plot I can't really guess, maybe the birthmark is the mark of the chosen one that will ultimately defeat the lord of the underworld but the king is friends with him so he wants to kill the hero so the demon lord takes over the world, that's a very Dragon Quest type story, though some fans theorize that the Hero might be the son or reincarnation of the demon lord himself, which is why there are people after him.

On another note, this game will have the largest party since Dragon Quest IV which is really cool, they haven't said anything about a wagon but maybe campfires will replace that, characters from left to right are: Rou, Martina, Silvia, Hero, Cadums, Veronica and Senya. From what has been shown so far it doesn't seem like there will be character clases this time around, but rather each character already has a class, this is how Dragon Quest IV and VIII work so makes sense here, if I were to guess their classes based on footage then, Rou & Martina: Fighters, Hero: Warriors, Silvia: Jester, Cadmus: Thief, Veronica: Mage and Martina: Cleric. That covers all the classes introduced in Dragon Quest III, with the exception of Mercharts.

There might be some sort of time traveling mechanic in the game as on the opening cinematic we see a Veronica all grown up, even when her sister looks the same as she does everywhere else (though this may be due to anime) it might also be the first story since Dragon Quest V that characters age, either way, interesting.

This final point is the most interesting bit, that is, all the connections the're making with the Loto trilogy.

If you're not familiar, the Loto trilogy is the given name of the original 3 games in the series, they're the only games that are story connected and all somehow feature the legendary hero, or heroine, Loto, the series' most popular character, after the regular slimes.

The cinematic shows the hero wearing the sword of Loto, which is the screenshot up there, apart from the Loto games the sword only appears in bonuses in all the others but in XI is shown prominently, even as far as clearly showing it on the PS4 theme.

The 3DS trailer further shows the party making some kind of super Loto sword (which in turn, kind of looks like the Zenithian sword too)

If the sword is in the game chances are that the armor, helm and shield are too, maybe at some point you can make the Hero look like this.

The Loto references don't stop there as the game's world is called Lotozetacia and the PS4 bundle is a purple-ish PS4 with the emblem of Loto on it.

The most obvious reference to the original game is the logo as its the reverse of it, but with a pink dragon.

That's all I got, hopefully worth starting some kind of discussion.

Trailers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXlbhVVB7BU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdHYS2OWYW0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drpI5EFCRbc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pY5lVpi4U0

 

[Arkeband]

Pretty good rundown and analysis, I'm personally looking forward to seeing how they tie it back into the original trilogy.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Nice post. I think it's being set up as a sequel to DQ2 (so, the furthest game in the Loto timeline). But we'll see.

I love the hero and villain designs. I wonder how they're going to deliver on the hero being a reincarnated demon lord, if that is the case... it gives me Soma Cruz/reincarnated Dracula from Castlevania vibes. It could just as easily be the king spouting nonsense because of evil scheming reasons or something like that though.

 

[The n00b Avenger]

Rou's stats and skills actually indicate that he's a magic oriented class. Though he also uses claws as weapons which is pretty unusual for a mage. Definitely the weirdest class of the bunch.

I'd assume the hero's probably more of a Hero class than a Warrior class, granted a heavily sword-oriented hero. Sylvia is technically referred to as a Minstrel which fits.

 

[Qvoth]

i just want a confirmation whether or not dynamic camera mode (free movement mode) actually can avoid enemy attacks and stuff
if not, then what's the point?

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

Importing JP 2ds with DQ11 JP, waiting for DQ11 ps4 in English for ps4 version.

 

[Magicpaint]

The Hero being of Royal lineage is basically a DQ cliché at this point

And yeah I'm very curious about potential time travelling elements.

There is no doubt at this point that the game is connected to the Loto trilogy with so many obvious references, and I can't wait to see how that aspect unfolds.

 

[Cindi Mayweather]

The Hero being of Royal lineage is basically a DQ cliché at this point

And yeah I'm very curious about potential time travelling elements.

There is no doubt at this point that the game is connected to the Loto trilogy with so many obvious references, and I can't wait to see how that aspect unfolds.

Here's hoping this leads to the original trilogy finally getting new remakes. I was shocked when they never released I-III for the DS.

 

[Ōkami]

if not, then what's the point?

To look cool more than anything.

 

[watershed]

Am I crazy or are the legs on the main character way too long for the rest of his body? I'm watching some PS4 gameplay footage of the player running around a town and his legs look laughably disproportioned. Anyone else notice the same thing?

 

[extralite]

i just want a confirmation whether or not dynamic camera mode (free movement mode) actually can avoid enemy attacks and stuff
if not, then what's the point?

Since the battles are seamless and you could move freely before the battle, why disallow it once it starts? I still think this prepares for actual utilization of free movement for gameplay (in future DQ games) but for now it's just not taking away control from players for no good reason.

Edit: Maybe you can escape by leaving the battle area. Escaping was in DQ since the beginning, and it would make sense to do it by movement.