Dragon Warrior VII

[Spawn of Sephiroth]

So, with in the course of the next two weeks, I will be ordering me a copy of this game. But my question is to those that have played it, how good is it. It seems to be good and obviously pretty pricey, similar in price for used copies like FF7. So, how would you guys rate it?

[Flying Mullet]

It's pretty fun. Just like other Dragon Warriors/Quests, you'll be doing a lot of grinding to gain levels and advance your jobs (this game has jobs). There are some tedious parts, such as having to talk to all townsfolk 2-3 times over the course of the game. Overall I would give it a 7 or 8 out of 10.

[Wolf Kanno]

Its got some annoying back tracking issues and grinding but overall its a fun little gem of a game. The world is fun and rich with imaginative places and scenarios. I especially love the island that's royally cursed as you have to go back and save it like 3-4 times.

[Yar]

It'll take about an hour or two before you actually do some fighting.

[Lawr]

It'll take about an hour or two before you actually do some fighting.

Or anything, really.


I played this game like a while back, but let me reminisce. . .


The game was fun & exciting getting to know the townsfolk, until you have to talk to EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM about 7 or 8 times in between story events. It gets kind of boring at times, then you fight a boss, then it gets boring again. Oh hey! You learned a new skill! Then you lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I don't remember grinding as much in this game as I did in Dragon Quest VIII however, so that's a plus from me.

My Rating: 4/10

[,,,]

I liked it, but then again I played it on an emulator where I could turn the frames per second way up, making the grinding problem not so much of a problem at all.

If you're a completist, one of those people who feels the need to acquire every class and beat every extra dungeon, then I strongly advise getting over that little fetish now before the game consumes the next 10 years of your life.

[Spawn of Sephiroth]

I liked it, but then again I played it on an emulator where I could turn the frames per second way up, making the grinding problem not so much of a problem at all.

If you're a completist, one of those people who feels the need to acquire every class and beat every extra dungeon, then I strongly advise getting over that little fetish now before the game consumes the next 10 years of your life.

Oh heck no. I don't care to get everything done. In fact, FF7 and 9 were the only two games that I even did most of the extra missions. And plus, ain't no game worthy of 200 hours of my life.

[Bolivar]

And plus, ain't no game worthy of 200 hours of my life.

My Dragon Quest VIII (story-completed) file clocks in at 130 hours.

[BG-57]

I have a love-hate relationship with this game. If you don't want to be bored by the details I give it a 7.5 out of 10.

Boring details:

On the plus side I love the world and dungeon designs with the 3D rotation. The plot involving unsealing worlds and time-traveling is also great. The music is fine without being outstanding. I like having flexible jobs and the monsters jobs are especially fun. Some of the minigames, like Lucky Panel and Immigrant Town are really fun and addictive.

On the minus side there is an awful lot of level grinding to advance in classes (it's based not only on number of enemies defeated, but they have to be commensurate with your party's levels). The battle screen seems almost retro with an invisible party swiping at flat graphics of enemies.

All this pales in comparison with the inherent randomness built into the game. Whoever thought of random monster drops needs to spend time in purgatory. You can spend hours trying win a monster heart from a monster or from Lucky Panel and get nothing, or it could take you ten minutes. At least skill is involved with the latter, but the former sucks up vast amounts of time.

If you're a completist, one of those people who feels the need to acquire every class and beat every extra dungeon, then I strongly advise getting over that little fetish now before the game consumes the next 10 years of your life.

Amen! Unfortunately I am, so I've played through the game twice and made three copies of each save file in order to exchange enough Immigrants between saves to open a Grand Slum. My completionist impulses have led me to spend well over 360+ hours in this game.

I got so disgusted with the amount of wasted time that I quit playing the game a few years ago. Now I went back to my old save and I'm having much better luck. I've got a party of three Platkings and I'm trying for a fourth.

My advice if you want to master this game:

1) Play through the game once but don't spend a lot of time with sidequests except for Immigrant Town. The second playthrough is where you'll reap the benefits of mastery. If you have a friend to trade with, use them instead.

2) Monster hearts are much easier to win in the casinos than on the battlefield. The best casino is in the Grand Slum.

3) The Lucky Panel game is expensive but you get great stuff. Unless you have a great memory, write down the panels you uncover during each game. I've been able to consistently win most of the time.

4) I found the slot machines the best way to build up your token supply. Unlike Vegas, you can reset if you lose.

So has anybody ever mastered this game?

[,,,]

^^ Dang. So, did you get to the second bonus dungeon? I'm somewhat of a completist-- I don't need to max out my characters or anything, but I do insist that I go through every dungeon and sidequest. Usually. In this game I finally built my characters up to the point of being able to beat the boss of that first bonus dungeon, which is necessary to get to the second. It took me over 200 turns and I cheated like hell with savestates, but I did it. Then I found out that you don't get your reward unless you beat him in like 10 turns or something ridiculous. That was when I finally decided that I just didn't care about the second dungeon that much. I'm not sure how it's ever even possible to get there, and if I found out somebody had I'm not sure if I'd admire or pity the person.

[Flying Mullet]

I unlocked both dungeons but I remember power-leveling like crazy to get there. (SPOILER)Did anyone else defeat God? My biggest gripe with the job system comes from the fact that when you master a job you gain a stat bonus. But you only gain that stat bonus when you keep that job, not when you change to a different job. I wish the stat bonus were permanent. It would add more incentive to mastering multiple jobs as you could gain multiple stat bonuses.

[BG-57]

^^ Dang. So, did you get to the second bonus dungeon? I'm somewhat of a completist-- I don't need to max out my characters or anything, but I do insist that I go through every dungeon and sidequest. Usually. In this game I finally built my characters up to the point of being able to beat the boss of that first bonus dungeon, which is necessary to get to the second. It took me over 200 turns and I cheated like hell with savestates, but I did it. Then I found out that you don't get your reward unless you beat him in like 10 turns or something ridiculous. That was when I finally decided that I just didn't care about the second dungeon that much. I'm not sure how it's ever even possible to get there, and if I found out somebody had I'm not sure if I'd admire or pity the person.

Yes, I got to the second bonus dungeon, and I'd prefer admiration. The secret for me was at least three Platkings (who are almost invincible in defense) and judicious use of EDIT: Ultrahit. Took a lot of experimenting to figure that out.

EDIT:

Damage done by various abilities to (SPOILER)God:

Ultrahit: 476
Gigaslash: 420
Bigbang: 342
Hellblast: 285
Multicut: 205
Hellflame: 205
Thordain: 193
Blazemost: 180
Explodet: 139
Whirlpool: 138
Infermost: 128
Firebolt: 95
Blizzard: 92
Firebolt: 78
Boom: 59
Infermore: 49
Snowstorm: 46
Firebane: 38
Coralrain: 33
Zap: 28
Blazemore: 20
Blaze: 19

Alldain does 606 damage, but that's one strike from the entire party, so Ultrahit is more cost-effective.

I unlocked both dungeons but I remember power-leveling like crazy to get there. (SPOILER)Did anyone else defeat God? My biggest gripe with the job system comes from the fact that when you master a job you gain a stat bonus. But you only gain that stat bonus when you keep that job, not when you change to a different job. I wish the stat bonus were permanent. It would add more incentive to mastering multiple jobs as you could gain multiple stat bonuses.

Yes I did. Can I call myself the (SPOILER)Godslayer of Hit Points?

EDIT: And I know what you mean about mastery bonuses. Something like the Bare class in FFV (after mastering a bunch of other classes) would have been nice.