SPOILER WARNING : Why should I play Act 3?

[Teodor]

THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS

I've got this game during the steam sale and enjoyed the first 2 acts quite a lot. I've played at my own pace, not looking it up online or anything and got really attached to the characters, especially in act 2 (pretty much everyone except Jade had a lot of character progression in my oppinion).

I finished the game and went to the time travel tower thingy and it told my progress would be deleted.
I was confused, so looked it up and apparently since you go back in time, pretty much the entire story / character progression of act 2 is just erased, and based on my research the new story is pretty bad, with rushed character stories.

The story is the thing I cared the most while playing this game. It was good, bittersweet.
And I honestly was really annoyed by Veronica, so I am not that fussed about resurecting her, especially since it would erase all the progress made for the other characters (not talking skills, except Serena, since I know you re-level them). And that feel really cheap.

I don't know, I'm just really conflicted and pretty sad you can't do post-game content without pretty much making my last 30 hours of game time feel irrelevant. And gameplay wise, I honestly was quite happy to farm to 99 after act 2 ended and before going to the new tower (am about 53 atm)

So I ask you, why do you think it's worth playing act 3 , maybe you can change my mind.

[Koby]

Spoilers, but your levels, etc... eventually return.

[rad_knight]

You shouldn’t, at least if you played the game for the story and characters.
Gameplay wise, go for it, you’re levels and gear come back eventually but god the story...

[Teodor]

Messaggio originale di Koby:

Spoilers, but your levels, etc... eventually return.

I know, that

[Teodor]

Messaggio originale di rad_knight:

You shouldn’t, at least if you played the game for the story and characters.
Gameplay wise, go for it, you’re levels and gear come back eventually but god the story...

Yeah I know they come back, but I didn't play this on draconian, I just had a lot of fun with the story. Thanks think I might stop here (maybe sometime down the road I'll try it, but the whole timetravel stuff does feel sooo stupid)

[Ryan]

Maybe because I played the Definitive Edition on the Switch, i liked Veronica with her Japanese Voice. She sounds so much more endearing compared to her English-voiced version.

[Teodor]

Messaggio originale di Ryan:

Maybe because I played the Definitive Edition on the Switch, i liked Veronica with her Japanese Voice. She sounds so much more endearing compared to her English-voiced version.

Maybe yeah, in english she sounds like a female Cartman

[Koby]

Eh, imo you should play it all. It is part of the story after all.. Why play the game at all if you're not going to finish it?

[Villain]

I'm against killing off a character and then bringing it back to life but in this game, Veronica in your main game's timeline is dead. when you go back in time, characters you meet aren't the same ones from your main game. I thought it was a great way to handle the post game content.

and besides, why wouldn't you want to resurrect her? she died while saving everyone. she is the reason why your party is alive in the first place. 

[Illusion of Progress]

Messaggio originale di Teodor:

THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
I was confused, so looked it up and apparently since you go back in time, pretty much the entire story / character progression of act 2 is just erased, and based on my research the new story is pretty bad, with rushed character stories.

You ruined it by looking it up IMO. Why did you abstain from spoiling things before, but then decide it was okay?

As for the third act, I'll just link to this, as a very good thread was done on it before. Below is my own quoted opinions but the whole thread is good and worth the read if you have time (and needless to say, spoiler warning in case you want to limit further damage and finish it first, but you've sort of already spoiled it).

https://steamcommunity.com/app/742120/discussions/0/2143091644400617561/

I, personally, don't see the third act happening as an undo of the second act, so to speak. Yeah, you get your ultimate happy ending, yay, but the second act still happened. That's how I take it.

At first I thought the second act was sort of undone, given the game follows the hero's point of view, and it wasn't even clear to me if he remembered the undone past. He had a vision warning him of the incoming attack at the tree, but even if he's mute, he does nothing to tell anyone of what happened, and only has the vision right before it occurred. He also seemed to look at his party funny when he first reunited with them, especially Veronica, so... it was apparent he felt something but it wasn't entirely clear to me if he retained all his knowledge or not?

In any case... (end of game spoiler so warning) When Serenica has her own go around at breaking the orb of time to return to before the point Erdwin was betrayed, the "present" for the Hero and his friends isn't suddenly vanished or erased as far as it is shown like I was almost expecting it to be, so now I'm not even sure if it actually returns you to the past as was said, or splits into its own new timeline, but if it's the latter, this REALLY means the third act doesn't diminish the second act, but even if we presume it did return you to the past and undo everything after that point, I'd still say the third act doesn't diminish the second as it's entirely WHY the Hero goes back in the first place, and you don't get any more meaning than that

[Teodor]

Messaggio originale di Villain:

I'm against killing off a character and then bringing it back to life but in this game, Veronica in your main game's timeline is dead. when you go back in time, characters you meet aren't the same ones from your main game. I thought it was a great way to handle the post game content.

and besides, why wouldn't you want to resurrect her? she died while saving everyone. she is the reason why your party is alive in the first place.

Can't I just not like her character? I found her annoying and she was useless in combat, at least in act 1. And Serena getting her powers in act 2 and having some good character progression, made me use her way more. But now she will lose all those powers and character progression meh....

Her sacrifice was noble and all that ♥♥♥♥, but I just didn't really care about that party member. At the end of act 1 I didn't care about Serena either, but her progression made me care.

Messaggio originale di Illusion of Progress:

Messaggio originale di Teodor:

THIS POST CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS
I was confused, so looked it up and apparently since you go back in time, pretty much the entire story / character progression of act 2 is just erased, and based on my research the new story is pretty bad, with rushed character stories.

You ruined it by looking it up IMO. Why did you abstain from spoiling things before, but then decide it was okay?

As for the third act, I'll just link to this, as a very good thread was done on it before. Below is my own quoted opinions but the whole thread is good and worth the read if you have time (and needless to say, spoiler warning in case you want to limit further damage and finish it first, but you've sort of already spoiled it).

All the warnings I was given in game, and the fact that I farmed XP/Casino stuff beforehand got me worried I'll lose my skills / not have access to certain quests anymore, so just looked that up. In responses to that there were some story spoilers, but I don't really know the details cuz I skipped most of it.

I think it is just really cheap to build all the character progression for some peeps like Erik and Hendrik and Raab and Serena and Silvanus (sorry Jade, love you but your story in act 2 is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥), and then just erase all that and replace it with the MC handwaving all the problems through the power of jebus to get a perfect ending where everyone is super mega happy.

[[NGNS-SWE] ⚡ Quezkatolen ⚡]

its explained that time travel in this world isnt like a multiverse, it changes EVERYTHING into a new settings.
thats why people get deja vu in the story.
And no, I dont think Erdwin and Serenica just went back to the past, I think they created a whole new timeline instead- which starts when they touch each others luminarys hands.
Remember how in the end a purple haired woman puts up two books on the shelf, with the luminary symbols- I suspect that is the adventure of DQ 11 from the luminary and her own with Erdwin, what does she do later? she visit the room of her son, a black spikey haired kid- same haircut as Erdwin and wakes him up- which is the start of DQ 3 which is a prequel to DQ 1 which the dragon at the end of DQ 11 warns about- sure they could be reincarnations of them but I suspect its indeed serenica and erdwin who created a new timeline and a "new life" remember they never got to have a real life because of calosmos but now they get to live that "happily ever after" which I suspect ended with a child
ps! I almost forgot, japanese ps4 owners got a PSN code to dl and play DQ 1 over their ps4 so the ending def makes sense- even better for switch owners they got DQ 1-3 in a bundle, well they have to pay for it, but its out to get and makes the DQ 11>3>1>2 adventure become legendary

to sum it up; act 3 ties everything up, explains a lot of unanswered questions and ties DQ 11 with DQ 1-3 (probably because of the 30 year anniversary)

[@R+5]

Messaggio originale di rad_knight:

You shouldn’t, at least if you played the game for the story and characters.
Gameplay wise, go for it, you’re levels and gear come back eventually but god the story...

lol. the extra story isnt worse than what happened in the first 2 acts, its additional content. its "new game +", but rather than restarting the game from zero to find the alternative ending and additional stories, you start from the middle.

I also like more serena at the end of act 2 because of her powers; imo all characters in this dq are kind of boring. i would not recommend this dq for the story. DQ7, for example, had a more complex story and was deeper, but it was also harder and closer to classic DQ games, so not a great option for impatient or new rpg players. DQ 8 (ps2 version) is more balanced, and even if the story is as simple as in this one, the characters feel less flat. i dont have an opinion about dq9 and dq10 since i havent played them.

[rad_knight]

Messaggio originale di @R+5:

Messaggio originale di rad_knight:

You shouldn’t, at least if you played the game for the story and characters.
Gameplay wise, go for it, you’re levels and gear come back eventually but god the story...

*redacted*. the extra story isnt worse than what happened in the first 2 acts, its additional content. its "new game +", but rather than restarting the game from zero to find the alternative ending and additional stories, you start from the middle.

I also like more serena at the end of act 2 because of her powers; imo all characters in this dq are kind of boring. i would not recommend this dq for the story. DQ7, for example, had a more complex story and was deeper, but it was also harder and closer to classic DQ games, so not a great option for impatient or new rpg players. DQ 8 (ps2 version) is more balanced, and even if the story is as simple as in this one, the characters feel less flat. i dont have an opinion about dq9 and dq10 since i havent played them.

It’s not that the story is worse (I personally think it is, but that’s just me) and more so that it removes the second act from... well existence. Everything that happened got retconned, including the only thing that made me like Veronica, Hendrick’s redemption, Erik reuniting with his sister in a meaningful way (in act 3 it’s just “hey I have a sister. She’s made of gold. Oh you made her not good? Cool.”) and for some reason there’s still a casino in octogonia (no I will not let this go.)

[@R+5]

imo we should take it as "alternative story" since the characters cant know what happened in the other timeline. I agree that some points were more clever in the original story, but not by much.

i have to end the act 3, and i think its a bit worse, but i didnt enjoyed a lot the original story. It has some nice moments, but imo is not as good as they sold it and other dragon quests have better moments. The sister turned into gold was a insteresting moment, but if i remember well, in DQ7 theres a story about a village where everyone was turned into stone, which is a bit similar to what they did here. I also agree that if some of the special locations are removed in the act 3, then that sucks too.

There are a lot of things that anoy me a bit about this DQ, because they said they wanted to improve sales and make this the best DQ yet, and it lacks a lot of things that made the original DQ great. Its not bad, but it could have been a lot better if they actually cared a little more to include all the minigames, and extras they have offered for replaying other games.

[MoldyMarshmello]

How much do you like the first three Dragon Quest games?