Okay, one thing that raises my eyebrow... Skill Seed x 15(!)

[Ryan Fenton]

From playing all the mainline dragon quest games, especially the newer ones - that's a pretty huge break in game balance to just inject 15(!) extra skill points at the relative start of the game.

Keeping other recent games in mind, that's literally a game-changer in terms of strategies.

That said... let's lookup how skill points are used in this game, since it's been released in Japan for a while.

Looks like there's a hexagon-grid 'Skill Panel' system for classes/jobs/"heart" equivalent, but not enough skill points to get all skills by level 99 (kind of normal so far), Sort of like Final Fantasy X's sphere grid, except instead of getting points per fight, you get points per level.

Semi-mechanics spoilers:
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You can refund skill points for 20 gold per point (late middle) of the game.
In New Game+, you keep everything, but also get 50 bonus skill points. If skill seeds act like regular seeds, 15 skill seeds MIGHT be the same as starting in new game+!
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I'd say that in context 15 skill points is a pretty big shift in power in the early game towards the player.

You're literally buying power in the game ordering early, which always feels bad in terms of balanced strategy design.

Not the worst thing by any means - sort of a "you're going to save the world, we might as well give you SOMETHING to help" thing. But there's always something super-creepy about being given power for financial income in that kind of way. Power you didn't earn in-world, but because you paid off the referee.

[FreeWilly]

That's not even the worst part. Wallpapers and ingame items are nice, but 15 skill points isn't content.

Infinite skill points is standard for a trainer, and anyone can give themselves free skillpoints with a memory editor in an offline RPG. At least it doesn't cost extra.

[Ryan Fenton]

True - and I'm certainly not against cheating for players that seek that out, especially with more games adding mobile-phone style content wasting. I'm just against popping in extra of a crucially limited resource in the game, all for preordering - breaks the core game mechanic a little too much.

You're in effect getting a little less game, a little less value from your own gameplay efforts being able to pay off in the early game, compared to players that don't preorder.

Also true that you don't have to use those advantages... I'm just saying it's no the best 'gift' to the player, all things considered.

[Rogue]

15 sp is meaningless in the face of real PC cheaters who probably can max all level and all sp and have all skills right at the start.

Since it's a usable item and limited only to pre-orders bonus, you can just don't use it or sell them for money. It's a single player game after all. You are your own judge, not holy as thou nut job hypocrite to tell how other people how to play their private single player games.

[Arsene Lupin]

It's incentive *not* to pre-order for me. The whole "cheating" conversation is pretty pointless, IMHO. The problem here is that so many extra points will trivialize the difficulty of a game that *already* errs towards being too easy.

[Nuro]

LETS ALL BE HONEST...

most of us are going to make this game as difficult as humanly possible
im talking every single restricted mode option on

- no shops

- no defensive equipment

- embarrassing curse

- i forgot what the last one was right now.

I want this game to take a year to beat, because there wont be another game like this for a long long time i can bet.

[NeverSleeper]

Would you rather they cut out the post-game story and included it as a DLC chapter for pre-orders only?

[Ryan Fenton]

A more appropriate gift would be to commission a small crew of Youtube folks to make a 1-hour documentary on the history of Dragon Quest - it would be relatively cheap, MUCH cheaper than development/debug time. Make that the pre-order bonus.

Then, folks on PC that are worried they may be missing something can watch that with the preorder bonus. That would actually boost sales, and boost the Youtube community for the game.

After release, put the video up for sale also, then 8 months down the road, release it on video sites for free with a trailer for DQ11 attached - that way, you keep up the sales for the game with a longer tail end income.

That's how you multiply the effect of your bonuses, without shortening the game.

[Meso <3]

How about don't use it? that's what I've been thinking ever since I saw it.

[Enigmatistic]

I haven't played a proper DQ since 3 but isn't consuming the seeds actually detrimental? I think I remember them slowing your stat growth for a few levels or just reducing your maximum once you reach level cap?

[Ryan Fenton]

Strength seeds and the like you're kind of right for some games - the level up system can try to stick you to a range with the 'random' points per level. Skill seeds are a bit different - they're not randomized per level, and you use them to 'buy' skills in a hexagon table for each class. 15 of those seeds is enough to buy your way to some pretty powerful skills way earlier in the game, which in turn buys you some easy levels by spamming those skills, which buys you more skills.

[Enigmatistic]

Originally posted by Ryan Fenton:

Skill seeds are a bit different

Ah, I see. Thank you for the clarification. That is quite a shortcut.