8 Hours to get Co-op / Multiplayer @ 60.00 == Game Flop

[Sweet Briana 💋™]

I was going to buy the game, 4 copies for us to play with our kid until I learned it takes going through hours of content to unlock that.

$59.99 for a game that I only want to build and do some fun stuff in with my family is pretty much a game killing decision.

This is not a game where you can:

#1 - Buy multiple copies
#2 - Give them to your friends and family
#3 - And next All login and play together near instantly or shortly thereafter.

You have to instead do 2 islands of content to unlock multiplayer.. LOL!

$240.00 turned away by a really really poor decision in game design.

Oh yeah, and there are only 493 people online this game, with an all time peak of 3400, and a daily peak of less than 800.

I am near positive the horrid co-op and multiplayer decision to require an 8 hour barrier to entry is part of those low numbers for an RPG CO-OP game.

Dang you guys killed it on arrival.

Fix the game by making co-op instant on login or shortly thereafter finding one another.

ALSO:

- Mandatory Tutorial == HAS TO GO
- No Skipping of Cut Scenes = HAS TO GO

...Way too many poor decisions in the final production.

[TJ the HedgeScout]

I dont think they killed it, but unskippable cutscenes and not allowing co-op until later does hurt it sadly :(

[Kyllarie]

Originally posted by TJ the HedgeScout:

I dont think they killed it, but unskippable cutscenes and not allowing co-op until later does hurt it sadly :(

It is a $60 game with an active player base of roughly 800 people.....you see more people playing the open world MMO RPG and RPG CO-OP games that allow multiplayer right within a short period after starting the game. You also see them in games with bugs because they can skip cut scenes and join their friends easily. I agree with the OP that not being able to skip cut scenes and having to do hours and hours of solo game-play to be able to play with friends has effectively killed the game. It definitely isn't worth paying $60 for.

[Willa Grey]

If it helps, you get get it on sale right now for $35:

https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/dragon-quest-builders-2-pc/
It will be a steam key.

[lilisaur]

Originally posted by Sweet Briana 💋™:

Oh yeah, and there are only 493 people online this game, with an all time peak of 3400, and a daily peak of less than 800.

These numbers are for PC/Steam only, which makes up a tiny percentage of the player base compared to the much more popular PS4 and Switch versions.

But the game really isn't that strong on multiplayer on consoles either - requires PS Plus or Switch Online so adoption isn't widespread. Most "sharing" is happening through the Noticeboard in an offline/non-coop mode because its free. Given the major importance of party makeup in Dragon Quest 3, a DQB3 that is presumably to be based on DQ3 would need to solve this problem and make multiplayer more accessible, much cheaper (if not free), and activated earlier in the game.

As far as the eight hour investment, a save game to the point Multiplayer becomes available can be moved from one player to another. So co-op can be accessed "near instantly" for all but one of the players if you do this trick. And at least one player needs to know how things like the Bottomless Pot, crops, and blueprints work anyway so I don't see that being a problem. If every player was thrown that far into the game with no background instruction, then the NPCs would need to explain how this stuff works and there's enough complaints about how they overexplain things already. (DQB3 might fix this by having a single repository for NPCs to give advice, in the form of the Quester's Rest inn. The near-deserted islands encountered in DQB2 don't really allow for learning except through NPC encounters.)

Other complaints are valid though. It is much too expensive for a 'friends-and-family mode', the slave ship tutorial (and possibly IOA as well) should be optional after being done at least once, and cut-scenes should allow skipping.

[TJ the HedgeScout]

Yeah if we got builders 3, for console it should allow free online to encourage people to play together.

[lilisaur]

Not just free co-op, but cross-platform co-op, too.

That's definitely a strength of Minecraft that is a weakness of DQB. It doesn't do me any good to be on PS4, and most of the people I discuss the game with are on PC (here) or Switch (the dominant platform at GameFaqs) - couldn't play with you guys even if I wanted to without rebuying it (and investing the time to play through it to unlock the feature, since PS4 save games are encrypted and can't be migrated.)

[TJ the HedgeScout]

Sony is VERY strict with allowing Co-op cross platform, but i heard they recently started to be more open minded to the idea.

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

Demanding money for being able to play with others is stupid anyways. Not that I play MP at all, but it's not worth paying that much money just so you can play with others if you can do it for free on another console. I get that not everyone has a PC (or vice versa), which makes it even worse.

[Hatchero]

I loved Dragon Warrior/Quest 3, when they make Dragon quest builders 3 I hope they add the key features of DW3 like creating new characters and jobs as well as job changed for your characters. Hopefully DQB3 will solve some of the weaker points the DQB series has.

[TJ the HedgeScout]

yeah i'd like that.
Players have to be a builder, but they can have a subclass like the classes in DQ3 IE warrior, fighter, thief, mage, cleric merchant, etc. NPCs would just have Classes
And also, you have access to co-op as soon as you start the game and it's story compatible
Like warrior sub you have more HP and do more melee damage, thief moves faster and can hide from enemies to lose agro, mage can cast offense spells and some support spells, clerics cast defense spells and some support spells, merchant can probably craft resources for cheaper (unless a currency is added which then they can get better deals), fighter would probably either like do more damage with unarmed style combat or attack faster (trade damage for DPS) Also maybe add the ability to block attacks? Damage reduction depends on what you block with, unarmed blocking would be the weakest unless you are a fighter, shields do it best and parrying can vary on the weapon.