Former rottontails whose study of the dark arts has stained their bodies black. They are utterly without mercy, and widely feared for their ferocity.
Bad hares aren't actually masters of dark magic. Hailing from DQ10, these guys have Multifists for a barrage of strikes and a much stronger drop kick, and... not much else.
Succubats who've dedicated themselves so single-mindedly to sultry sauciness that their physical forms have changed.
Vampire succubats, new to DQ11, actually have a look that can mesmirise you, as well as the traditional Puff Puff, Hip Drop and Zammle.
We're going to start off looking around outside Octagonia, and where else to start than by riding a demonrider skeleton?
There's a few of these to run around and find for sparkly spots and treasures.
Like these. The Titan Belt is a new advancement along the lines of the Atk Up accessories. Not quite the strongest of the bunch yet, though.
South of Octagonia, in the big lake that was there before,there's now a bunch of rubble from... something, clearly.
Hendrik, despite not having been in our party when "last we visited", points out that it's definitely new. Although how "ruins" can be new is another matter.
Hendrik: There is much to be done. The Spectral Sentinels must be defeated, and your lost friends must be found. Now that the powers of the Luminary have been restored to you, I feel certain we can succeed in our quest and bring peace to the world once more.
Rab: Let's not start moping, laddie, else we'll never get anything done. We need to keep moving. Now, I reckon Octagonia'd be a good place to visit next. It's not too far from Dundrasil, and there's plenty of folks there for us to have a wee chat with.
Sylvando: Honey, I've got to say- that little encounter down in the dungeon brought a tear to my eye. Your mami and papi must have been so happy to see how you turned out. But we don't have time to dwell on it. We've got things to do, so let's get moving!
Erik: I guess it must be because you've got your Luminary powers back- you're looking a lot sharper than you were. I won't pretend to know exactly what those powers are, but I've already got a good feeling about them.
I thought there'd be Party Chat about it, but no, we just have some new Chat after getting the power of the Luminary back.
WE ARE WATCHERS. THIS IS LEGEND OF WATCHERS. LEGEND OF LAW OF TIME.
SPIRITS WEAVE TIME. SPIRITS BORN FROM ERDREA. SPIRITS OF LOST TIME.
LIGHT GOVERNS TIME. HOLY LIGHT. SPIRITS OF LOST TIME GUARD HOLY LIGHT.
LIGHT GLOWS BRIGHT. BURNS. EXPLODES. WHEN IT DOES, LOST THINGS RETURN. ETERNITY IS UNDONE.
I never liked listening to these guys, and their books are even worse. This book is going into detail about something we're not going to have to worry about for a while...
Something here is clearly missing, I can tell that much.
At any rate, we'd best head to Octagonia, putting that place far out of our mind.
...So what's this about Octagonia being a home of R'n'R? The place still looks as forbidding as ever, although the inside could certainly change.
Well, I guess one could do that with a martial arts... ah, who am I kidding, this place isn't martial arts anymore. What it is, though...
...Jade, dressed all funny? I'll admit her particular kind of robe isn't one I've seen on anyone else, but surely it's not that peculiar.
Yeah, I quite think it is, Sylv.
This guy was just waiting on a friend, though.
You get the unpleasant feeling those guys won't be coming back?
Hendrik remembers having been to Octagonia. He did come by the place when pursuing us, but clearly he's thinking more about, maybe, the Arachtagon business that earned him a statue.
Hendrik: Princess Jade is in Octagonia? I confess, the thought of seeing her again makes me uneasy. Mordegon may have deceived me, but it still does not excuse my conduct the last time we met...
Rab: If the martial artist that lad was chatting about isn't our Jade, I'll eat my hat. Chances are she's still in Octagonia, laddie. Let's head over there and find out, eh?
Sylvando: Those men we spoke to made it sound like things are getting a bit wild over in Octagonia. Just promise me you won't go too far off the rails, okay, honey?
Erik: Octagonia, huh? Have I been there before? Man, I just can't remember...
You guys figured out it was Jade real quick.
Up here, one can find another kind of gem, the equable emerald. We've already seen its ilk before, but now we prepare to find them in numbers.
...Octagonia doesn't look that different, does it...
Never mind.
A hyperanemon! This is an enemy we won't find for a good long while, but I don't think it's that bad for us to fight it now. Might take a bit of a beating, though.
Fortunately for us, this guy has no interest in fighting us.
Unfortunately for us, this isn't good news.
Booga... took out the Arena... and added... a CASINO?
I guess Limboo wasn't his type.
Fishy doesn't even begin to describe it, Rab.
New Casino marker, infested with monsters, but all in all, could be a lot worse.
Hendrik: I cannot bear the thought of the Princess of Heliodor alone in a place like this... It is my duty to find her and rescue her from this den of iniquity without delay.
Rab: Can Jade really be here? What can she be thinking, eh? This place is crawling with monsters! We need to find her, laddie, and fast. Until we do that, we'll be none the wiser about what's going on here.
Sylvando: Well, well! What do you know, honey? The new-look Octagonia's all about gambling! Now, what was the name of the monster who turned the fighting arena into a casino? Booga, was it? Well, I don't much care for his style, but he sure does have ambition!
Erik: So this is Octagonia, huh? I get this feeling I might have been here before... But I'm sure I'd remember a town that had monsters wandering the streets, though, right?
I almost feel bad for these guys.
...OK, obviously the casino's crooked. The only question is how can monsters make a place more dangerous than Las Vegas?
Amidst all of what's gone down in Act 2 so far, Mordegon still believes the Luminary is dead. Jasper saw us in Heliodor, even. I guess soon enough we'll have to disabuse him of that notion.
There are still humans hanging around, but good luck finding them.
The inn and Bank still work as intended, despite being staffed by monsters.
That green label means that is the highest that achievement goes. Clearly I've not got enough to buy.
I check my pockets for how many Casino Tokens I came in with. Not shown on this screen, but I also took the liberty of running around the overworld south of Octagonia until all my party members have "0 EXP to next level"- if I get into one fight, everyone will level up. Depending on how convenient this is for you, I would recommend doing the same.
...Unfortunately, the first line of this dialogue is not on the datamine site, if it's there at all. That elevator is going to stay out of order while the casino's around, though.
Even in the monster world, there are lecherous old men preying on working women.
At least it's possible to win.
The church's holy powers repel all monsters. For the most part. I can't imagine Arachtagon much appreciates being on the wrong side of this place.
Whambelina's still safe! Hanging around in a monster-proof location is good for managing that.
Now, can Whamby fight back here? She's tough, but so are the other monsters. Remember, we blocked her ultimate attack- and she doesn't have Sinderella at hand.
Whambelina is safe herself, but she has no plans or tools to extend that to others.
One of the kids has managed to seal something in Vince's old room.
Unfortunately, all she caught was the Abominable Showman. Whether this man looks more like a man or a monster is a question the Showman is in no hurry to answer, preferring to allow the kids to work without being scared of him. Considering he's probably less tough than Whambelina, he's got a point, even if two MMA fighters are better than one.
This old lady brings up the point most RPGs seem to skim over when it comes to siege situations- the holy powers of the church repel evil, but they do not provide sustenance. Any siege situation will end as soon as one party runs out of food, and it's usually not the party with freedom of movement.
Our old friend Jimmy the Scumbag has decided that now's not the time for that and turns over a new leaf.
...I'm not 100% certain, but I feel like this man has learned the wrong lesson from this encounter and I genuinely can't tell what he learned instead.
Unfortunately, nothing can save Gulliver over here from his own naivete. Well, except us.
...Maybe if I had my camera in a better position.
The kids and the dracky are getting along, although now of all times seems like the worst possible time for that sort of thing. Yes, I believe this dracky, but we're surrounded by friendly monsters.
And the worst part is, the monsters want us to go gambling too. This is not the right thing to say to seem less suspicious.
Barf. Jade would Harvest Moon you to high heaven.
His drackmage friend has gotten so scared by his intentions that he forgets he's evil and goes to act in her benefit. If you do something so despicable other evil people are turning against you, you may want to reconsider your life choices.
I mean, obviously not, but are we really calling a guy who swooped in to a random town and turned it into a casino by force a good guy?
...Oh, right.
Oh, great, he's vain, too.
Nods politely.
Well, doesn't that sound delightful?
I heard. I feel less sure about taking a peek.
...That's not how gambling works... is it? I don't gamble in real life.
The Casino Vending area is of the same mind- give out free tokens, get 'em hooked.
Just like a nromal casino, except I'm not seeing where the money comes from.
We don't get any more than we happen to have, since the succubat sees we have plenty.
There's two moosifers over here getting into a good biffing. For some reason, they seem to remember each other. Who am I to judge monsters' pasts?
...A Tockle was gambling?
...How did it climb high enough to gamble?
Rodrigo Briscoletti is a wealthy magnate, and the proud owner of one Zenithian Shield. When the main hero of DQV comes by to visit, he finds out that if he wants the Shield, he will have to complete a dangerous engagement challenge to take the hand of his lovely daughter Nera.
This is a Dragon Quest game, the "dangerous" part wasn't a problem. Although the Magmen in Mt. Magmageddon are unironically one of the harder bosses in the game...
You heard wrong.
...Got any advice on how not to have that for next time?
This drunken monster (monsters can get drunk?) is introducing us to a new monster family to DQXI, the penny pinchers. These monsters can occasionally be found masquerading as slot machines, but other times appear as normal enemies, unlike canniboxes.
It turns out that, if you're really drunk, the monster pretending to be a trap gets too scared to trigger the trap.
This is interesting lore, because yes, we do get back the Six Orbs for defeating each Sentinel. Other than opening the path to Yggdrasil, though, we didn't get much indication of what the Orbs did before being handed to the Sentinels, nor does recovering them seem to benefit us in any way. I'm waiting to find out they're actually Badge Boosts, like in early Pokemon.
To be really explicit, I don't think the orb Jasper used on us in the World Tree was one of the Six Orbs. I'm not sure where the Dark Orb came from, but Mordegon took that back for himself once Jasper was done with it. Jasper wields one of the Six Orbs now.
This magic marionette doesn't seem to be entirely impressed with Booga as a member of the Sentinels. We don't learn much about how good of a boss Tyriant is, but even in the vanilla game, Alizarin, Indignus and Jasper are all so much more intimidating and results-oriented. The sixth, currently unmet, Sentinel lies somewhere in between Booga's quirkiness and the effectiveness of a good Sentinel, but I lean closer to the latter.
We can't all serve Jasper.
Do all the monsters have crushes on Jade?
A vampire succubat that doesn't understand how to flirt with humans. I never thought I'd see the day.
Love Potions seem to be the drink of choice around here. Not sure how that works, and frankly, I hope it blows up in their faces.
A grey gordon insisting on being the centre of attention. Hey, I wonder if this guy's the same one as a later boss... ah, who am I kidding?
Anyway, let's give this whole "casino" thing a try.
...
...
...
Gesundheit?
Now what?
...That's it... keep it coming...
...Must've been a fluke. Never mind, I suppose-
...I've heard of the wheels fudging results in/out of our favour, but that 7 was way too far down for the machine to give it to me.
...I'm getting the hell away from this machine.
Now then, let's see what prizes we can exchange them for. Those are some pretty hefty costs, but we won big, I can afford it. The prizes listed in ??? will get revealed as you purchase them, but since I'm in no hurry to gamble more than I already have, I'll tell you now that they are Medicinal Herbs, Cypress Sticks, Horse Manures, Boxer Shorts and Magic Waters.
Love Potions, on the other hand, are valuable alchemic ingredients that can only be won at casinos, even if they are available at normal casinos later. Now seems as good a time as any to stock up on as many as we might need.
(You can also Use a Love Potion to try charming an enemy. I guess it's... there?)
Seems as good a time as any to forge Sylv's next costume- this is the one we got from Madame Labouche.
...Oh, I'm poor. Too poor for Lambswool? I really should've stocked up.
At any rate, once I got some money out, I grabbed this. I never liked this costume- felt a little too tacky, even for Sylv- but I can see where it came from and I can't say it was badly designed in any way. I'll just stick with the Parade Master.
Glad Rags, as armour, are pretty good for Evasion, but we're getting to the point where Evasion isn't going to win you many fights. At the cost of that much Charm, this is a sidegrade I'm not interested in.
An incoming boss means it's time to show off my builds. Protective Pendants (and Gemma's Charm) all around, because the boss we're coming on has a reputation for being tough- and fittingly enough, just like Dora-in-Grey, the ability to mesmerise plays a part. And here we are without Snap, Crackle, Poof! Everything else seems largely by the book. The Token of Fealty, of course, isn't actually a valid choice, just a sentimental one.
...It's a drackmage. The passage is five Hendriks wide. Why are we entertaining this guy?
This is the thing that makes it necessary to engage with the monsters' slot machines and see how blatantly rigged they are. I didn't even show off their fondness for Metal Mode.
Speaking of things I don't show in the slots, the other kind of slot machine- Slime Quest- actually has music from the DQ Rocket Slime games. I'll freely admit I only know the tracks from Rocket Slime 2- the one that made it out of Japan- but I quite like them: Oh No, It's The Boss" and "Slival Battle". I've played Slime Quest enough to have heard the former in-game, but not the latter yet. I doubt Slival made it in, though.
Maybe this is a test. Probably not, though, just a selfish drackmage. I imagine something's supposed to funnel unsuspecting humans over to the roulettes...
Hendrik: There appears to be no sign of Princess Jade anywhere. Where could she be? If these monsters have harmed her in any way, they shall answer to me!
Rab: If I know Jade, she'll have hatched some madcap plan to try and save this place from the monsters... She's never been the type to ignore injustice- no, she has to get involved. Not that that's a bad thing, ye understand...
Sylvando: You know, darling, I've never been able to resist a VIP area, and all that talk of special roulette tables really got my heart racing. It didn't take much for them to let us in there, though did it? In fact, it was suspiciously easy...
Erik: You know, seeing monsters gambling and having fun in a casino makes me feel like they might not be that bad after all. ...Erm, maybe that's a bit weird. Ignore me.
There's a cutscene. Of course there's a cutscene.
...On the other hand, apparently humans up here aren't the norm? I know something happens to the humans who get caught in this trap, but I'm not sure where.
Suffice it to say we are very caught in the trap right now.
Oh yeah, that voice was very recognisable.
Remember the hare-raising suit filling Jade with dark magic just as she was about to save Octagonia single-handedly? Yeah, uh, she comes into Act 2 brainwashed.
(...OK, the game is going to pretend she isn't, but I don't think it takes a genius to see through it.)
Hendrik has every right to be here. ...Although yeah, I think out of all of us, he's the least interested in casinos.
Hendrik, of course, is a closert pervert, and his base instincts are in conflict with his instinct to be the Perfect Knight to his liege- the woman currently planning to do something to him as soon as she figured out what.
She's certainly got no shortage of ideas.
Perhaps we should get Hendrik out of this conversation before he actually agrees to this.
Rab tries appealing to Jade's better nature. Not the worst idea in the world, but it does kind of feed into the idea that these guys are completely unaware Jade is currently not in control of her actions.
By the way, Jade actually does put on a mock accent to mimic Rab here. Somehow I can't see the real Jade doing that to mock him.
So yeah. Remember how I said Jade's Side Story was the game toning down Booga? Jade is brainwashed, in a bunny suit, and is running around saying lines like this about the guy in charge. The Side Story colouring Booga as a monster who took hand-holding as a ten year commitment is the game trying to slowly pull away from the implications of this line, but considering the vanilla sequence is still intact, it doesn't do it well.
I'm of two minds on this line. I feel the real Jade would acknowledge her toddler years and the time spent in Act 1 as times of happiness, but I also see how one might think otherwise. Jade's life was pretty miserable, what with her father being possessed and the apocalypse and all.
There is no way in hell the real Jade would find happiness here, though.
Hendrik decides this is a productive direction of conversation.
Even if this was the real Jade, talking to her like that would still probably end like this.
Silver linings, Booga lets her defend herself from other leches. I'd say he's monogamous, but there he was basically claiming Jade while he was still married to Boodica. Or possibly engaged.
Who's ready for a boss fight?
Corrupted by Booga, she became a self styled queen of darkness whose stated aim was to make the men of the world pay for being so pitiful.
??? family
1800 HP
40 MP
Jinxed Jade represents the second game in a row one of the boss fights involves fighting an evil version of the sexy female party member, after Evil Jessica from 8 (9 and 10 didn't have conventional party members, which is where "in a row" comes from). Jade has mastered skills almost exclusively from her Allure tree, throwing out Puff Puff, Hip Drop, Sexy Beam and one of her expanded skills called Femme Fatale. She also has Party Pooper from Spears.
Some of the 2D mode sprites for the human characters turn out interesting, but I've gotta say I think I might like Jinxed Jade's the most.
Jade's a kinda tough boss, and I don't entirely feel comfortable that this party is one fully prepared to take her. She's kinda dodgy on top of everything, and Hendrik likes to miss.
At least I got the Sap off.
Erdward missed twice.
I'm still buffing his attack, though.
Hendrik misses once, he doesn't do damage for the whole turn.
Goddammit, Hendrik.
I thought you were resistant to that crap, Sylv!
Rab goes for a Blunt spell, to lower her attack. It's Jade, that seems like a common sense plan, especially when she's robbing me of my actions.
Fortunately for Erdward, Sword Dance is a group-targeting spell, and he won't be hitting Hendrik- wait, what did you just say, Sylv? He's camp, and almost certainly queer, but I hesitate to call him gay sometimes. He's clearly enjoying Jade's attire as much as anyone else.
Landing anything's better than nothing.
55? That's not so bad. I guess he's not Oomphed.
Rab lands the final hit with this Hardclaw. I'd show her defeated here, but it turns out something weird happened as she hit the ground- she twitched, and not in the "you didn't actually killa a brainwashed enemy" way, but in the weird glitchy video game way.
Getting this clip into a shareable form was a process unto its own.
I was saying about making sure everyone was one fight away from levelling up? This is my ace in the hole.
The abilities I learned weren't horrible either. Axes of Evil is the big one here.
Well... we got her to stop attacking us, at least.
Rab, I think it's going to take a little more than that. Especially if she wasn't brainwashed to begin with.
Well, that's gone and angered the head honcho.
I've met more impressive Spectral Sentinels. I've only killed one, but you know, you strike me as perfect material for the second.
The cajones on this guy. Just out and out telling the guy he's got no sense of taste or decorum to his face.
...Well, at least his sickeningly sweet antics came from the vanilla game, too.
Yeah, that's in the cards. No offense, she's just our friend, see?
And here we have the strangest leap of logic in the game. The phrasing of Booga's expression for brainwashing Jade gets Sylvando to suspect that all the monsters running around Octagonia are also brainwashed humans.
And, of all things, he's right about it.
You can understand the hustle here. I'm just not sure at what point we were "supposed" to be brainwashed had we actually fallen for the trap too. Booga's last mistake was not doing so quicker.
Again, I'm not 100% certain what the difference is between Booga and a normal pit boss.
A Spectral Sentinel and casino magnate whose monstrous dedication to his own desires caused him to corrupt Jade.
Demon family
3200 HP
470 MP
If you're struggling with him, I'd consider the Demonsbane Greatsword you can get through Forging/Phnom Nonh's shop. I didn't realise it was an option at all- I thought I'd be relying on the Banishing Blade.
Fortunately for us, I planned ahead. That level up I queued up to go off once we beat Jinxed Jade fully healed us for Booga.
...Not that it helped Hendrik much.
Yowch, Kafrizz is nothing to sneeze at.
My plan is to ignore Hendrik until the problem goes away. Erdward needs to be outputting damage, but once he is, I can deal with Hendrik once I have the spare turns.
Also got that off.
57? I'd rather Erdward not, he's the one who already took a Kafrizz, but I can deal with this.
Hm... the Tornado wasn't that bad.
Neener neener.
Rab lays down Right as Rain. Seemed prudent.
And Sylvando keeps up the Oomphle, letting Rab get in his own strikes. It was this or Slap and then Oomphle Hendrik.
Plus, now I've got this.
Go Erdward!
Oh. Neat. I don't have a plan for this- while there is an Erdward/Sylvando/Rab Pep Power, it requires Pink Pirouette. Rab has a few options with Erdward, but most of them are AoE spells and Hendrik would be a target.
...With that said, Dirge of Dundrasil might not have been the worst option, with that in mind.
Rab went in for the strike.
Erdward paired with Sylvando instead. There's a lot of Pep Powers out there, and I don't fully know which ones have which targeting schemes, but I decided against Fight Fantastic- probably because Erdward and Rab already have Oomph up- and went with... Hit Parade.
On the plus side, I get to show this off in action?
Another benefit seems to be that Hendrik has shaken himself out of his mesmerise and is ready to throw Parallaxes.
And then he immediately breaks out into dance.
Sylvando dodged, somehow.
Erdward lands the final hit.
...He, er... didn't use his Orb magic this fight? Huh. He unleashes a powerful spell called Giga Drain Magic that drains MP from all four party members multiple times. This thing seems to have been built around the fact he's the second of two bosses in a rush.
Booga drops to his knees, weakened, but he's not yet defeated, actually. Well, OK, he's defeated, but he's not dead.
Defeated enough for everyone to turn back to normal.
Even Jade.
And while Jade might be a little dazed and confused, she has an idea of where she is.
And who Booga is.
I think we all know who really deserves to get to finish Booga off.
...Although is that a red glow-
...Jade?
Whatever it is, the game doesn't think it's something we should be seeing.
The party wish they were in the same boat.
And that's our Green Orb of Galloplis back. Funny that the monster holding this one has some of the same decadence issues as the current Sultan.
Whatever came over Jade, it looks like it's over now.
Mostly. Jade's the boss of her body once again, but her brainwashing was a little more permanent than it seems.
She got the awesome boss powers and none of the evil sex bunny characterisation. Re-Vamp is a self-buffing attack that raises her Atk, Def and Agi one stage each and gives her some resistance to status ailments. It also recolours her into her Jinxed Jade set (and specifically Jinxed Jade, not her normal bunnygirl outfit), which sucks if you're fond of some of her cooler cosmetic armours later on.
This is also an Ability- it's the only time Jade learns something outside of her Skill Tree, but they kept her to knowing zero spells and continuing to be completely unaffected by Fizzle.
Hey, we were worried about the lot of you. You're not the only one who bit off more than she could chew. Looks vaguely at Erik.
Rab says as much, although not in as many words. I hope he means as much.
Hendrik is talking about having served Mordegon in Act 1. We're long past that, but every new party member represents someone new who has to go over this. Jade is the last one that really has an extended scene on the topic.
Jade goes right in...
For the flirt?
Once again, Hendrik is confused about whether or not he should be turned on here. Although this time, it's because Jade's telling him off for "knightly nonsense".
Jade reassures him before he gets too lost.
Well... I guess the Luminary power came back stronger than it was when we were robbed of it?
Of all the key items to be separated from Erdward after the Fall, it was the Lorelei's Harp. This is quite possibly the most blatant case of the game railroading the party members (and exploration of the game world) into a set order. There is absolutely no way to get to Arboria, or acquire Erik and the twins, without rescuing Jade first and getting the Harp back.
...OK, that's not quite true. Speedrunners have a way to clip out of bounds in the Arborian Highlands, and using this clip, it is possible to complete Act 1 as soon as you get out into the open ocean. As a result, they pull a clever trick where they get the Bride's Veil (the key item we give to Michelle to get Lorelei's Harp), go into Act 2, and complete the Lonalulu Town Story in Act 2, getting the Harp from Michelle and bypassing Jade (and also the Restless Knight) entirely. I just love how every step in this plan somehow works- my favourite kind of speedrunning trick is the kind that shows off how robust the game is for not crashing or no-selling these shenanigans.
With the barrier of gold around Sniflheim, we'd be completely stuck getting to that port... if it wasn't for the fact there's inexplicably a Lorelei's Harp point that leads from outside the ring inside. This point actually does exist during Act 1, but it is, of course, completely pointless there.
And Jade's back with her own Tree expansion. Now I think of it, I think her and Rab are the only two characters that get new Panels as an innate quality of re-joining in Act 2.
Everything wound up cleaning itself out, off-screen but no less effectively. We can just get on our way and-
Oh no. Whatever am I going to do. I figured they were fake, but I wonder how much effort goes into making them tangible- and how many tokens I'd have to win before whatever monster who's conjuring them "runs out".
This is another one I feel like's worth titling the post after.
Hendrik: It is a relief indeed to know that Princess Jade is alive and well. If some misfortune had befallen her, it would have been my responsibility. I had already prepared myself for a life of solitude and self-flagellation on Mount Pang Lai. It- Wait! Might this be another example of the ‘knightly nonsense’ that Her Highness was mocking? But it is not nonsense- I mean every word of it...
Rab: That Lorelei's harp thing Jade gave ye should let us travel to places we've not been before. But before we seek out pastures new, perhaps we should investigate this giant lump of gold that's blocking the way to Sniflheim... It cannae be easy for them up there, being cut off from the world. Let's head north to see what we can find!
Sylvando: Have you noticed something... different about Jade, since all that monster stuff back at the casino? I don't know if her personality's changed, but she seems like a much tougher cookie now than when we first met her.
Jade: If we see a column of light on the ocean's surface, we should try using Lorelei's harp. If we're lucky, that should let us visit places we couldn't get to before. We may even find our missing friends there. We need to- we won't have a hope of defeating the Lord of Shadows without them. Now, let's get moving. We've let Mordegon's reign of terror go on long enough. It's time to put him in his place.
Erik: So Jade can turn into a monster whenever she feels like it? That's kind of... scary, don't you think? Um, are you sure it's okay to have someone like that hanging round with us?
Thankfully, the game has given us back the number of Tokens we came in with.
I'm sure you just thought of a work-around, but the devs thought of that one: Puerto Valor's Casino inexplicably closes as soon as you enter Octagonia and won't reopen until Booga is defeated. You want real Casino prizes, you're going to have to use real Casino tokens.
The Octagonians looked at the Casino and went "...sure, why not?". I wonder if they ever recovered from Vince being a cheater before the Fall.
There's a lot of general "relief to be alive" feelings.
Unfortunately, this guy is never to be deterred. Anyway, we're at the goddess statue, time to look at Jade's Skill Tree expansion.
Claws:
- Attack +35 (1 panel)- +55 total
- HP Absorption +20% (1 panel)- 30% total
- Air Raiser: Deals 90-435 damage to a single enemy, scaled to Str and Level. Much better on Jade than on Rab, but still something that's probably no comparison to a good solid Hardclaw.
Spears:
- Attack +30 (1 panel)- +45 total
- Crushed Ice: A stroner Multithrust (each bow does 0.9x damage instead of 0.75x), but carrying an Ice element. This can really help against the right opponent, but it might also backfire against the wrong one. If you know which is which, this can really help out at the right time.
- Lightning Storm: Deals 160-300 lightning damage to an enemy group, and has a chance to inflict either an increased weakness to Zap or paralysis. Very costly and not very damage-effective, but it's a way for Jade to fight machines and it might just be the ticket in a dangerous situation.
- Flashback: Applies a two turn buff that lowers her defence to 1 while increasing her evasion to 100%, counter-attacking for 1.5x damage. Remember how I said evasion was starting to lose its power? Yeah, the worse that gets, the worse this gets.
Fisticuffs:
- Maximum HP +30 (1 panel)- +40 total
- Miracle Moon: Deals five hits dealing 0.5x damage to random enemies, and recovers HP equal to the first hit landed. Not the worst option, but usually outclassed by better ones.
- Multifeet: Deals seven hits of 0.5x damage in an enemy group. This thing, strictly speaking, is often, if not entirely, better than Multithrust. It's got a higher damage output, for less MP, and has a higher chance of landing a critical hit on one of its hits. Sometimes Multithrust feels more sensible, especially against more bulky opponents, but this is what you really should be using.
Allure:
- Charm +40 (1 panel)- +75 total
- Pink Typhoon: Deals 100-160 wind damage to all enemies, 10% chance of beguiling hit enemies. This thing is good. It's also Jade's main way of attacking All enemies.
- Femme Fatale: Deals 160-370 damage to all enemies with a 10% chance of sleeping enemies. Also heals Jade for the damage it does to the left-most enemy. This is good for enemies resistant to Wind damage, but the higher MP cost encourages me to recommnd Pink Tornado instead.
- Pink Tornado: Deals 160-400 wind damage to all enemies, 10% chance of beguilement. This also costs only 2 more MP than than Typhoon does. This thing should be Jade's main objective- although it's the skill that requires investing in both Allure and Fisticuffs.
At this point, I'd almost recommend dropping out of Spears almost entirely- staying mostly for Multithrust, if that- and focusing on going up into Fisticuffs for Multifeet and then Allure for Pink Tornado. You can pick up the damage up afterwards.
Jade's going back in the party, of course. Any accusations of favouritism aside, she's just better at dealing with random encounters than Sylvando is.
Oh yeah, here's her new outfit from Angri-La. Like the Grand Master's Garb, I feel like this should be a reference, but I don't know to who. Maybe that means it's a DQ10 reference. One of the costumes later on is a DQ10 reference, but that's a little more signposted.
The dress gives an Atk buff, and also allows Jade to sometimes spawn in battle with an Oomph buff already active. I think I usually prefer the Uniforme de L'Academie, though. That's definitely outclassed, but the bonus effect is just that good.
I also considered giving her this, since she's fallen behind, but I never noticed that little "max of 75" before. Yeah, uh, never mind.
Back to the Octagonians. Yeah, if I was as confused as this man, I'd just let the casino stay there too.
Well, this can only end badly. Or at least in a comical bar brawl.
Now that all the monsters are gone, the Showman is back to being good with kids... which includes being chased around by them when they come at him with imaginary weapons still.
Liu Za's here, although whatever happened has taken a toll on him. I think he was a monster, although maybe he was in here.
...Never mind. Imagine that.
...Do monsters even have parents, actually? On second thought, that conjures up questions I'd rather not answer.
I can't escape the feeling this dracky is being dishonest, but he doesn't seem interested in actually doing any damage.
Oh dear, what's happened now? This kid's never going to learn life's harsh lessons if he keeps pulling the lucky break cord.
...Can I blame him? It's the people who are buying from him that are demanding the transaction occur.
Dear Yggdrasil above...
Then again, it seems like there are other fools soon to be parted from their money.
...Isn't this the mayor's house?
You can't see it from this angle, but it is still Booga being depicted.
OK, to be fair, a) you can barely see either head from this angle and b) this woman appears to be identifying Hendrik exclusively by muscle.
...Hey, does she recognise our Hendrik?
Here's a better shot of the statue, still with Booga on it. It seems they just switched the heads rather than make a new statue.
Over here, we have a... more interesting Quest.
Our objective is to acquire a present for Vince.
Wow, this man is an asshole.
That much, I can do.
Yes, she even covers the cost. Although maybe I should've let her keep that...
You may have noticed the lack of a Quest pop up. I didn't miss it- this isn't technically the Quest. This is the setup for the Quest. But we'll cover that in the casino itself.
Rab: I'll be honest with ye, laddie, I thought that Jade was lost to us forever. I cannae begin to explain how relieved I was when she came to her senses! Now, how about we try using Lorelei's harp to visit some areas we've not been to before, eh?
Sylvando: Can you imagine if Jade was still a monster? That would be terrible! Awful! Honestly, I was SO relieved to see her return to her old self! I did kind of like that look she had going on, though... I wouldn't say it to her face, but that outfit really suited her!
Jade: I am grateful to you, Erdward. If you had not come to my rescue, I fear I may have remained a monster forever. The thought of being controlled by that, that thing... It's shameful. I will never allow anything like that to happen again! Still, every cloud has a silver lining. I did learn something new- something that I'm sure will prove useful to us.
Those two moosifers bashing each other in the halls? Vince and the Underdigger. It seems Vince won, although as monsters, I'm not sure that's indicative of which is stronger.
The Underdigger certainly seems to favour that interpretation.
Four arms and no head (but one eye), actually. Also bulging muscles you could bounce a weapon off.
...Oh yeah, Jade too. Was Booga attracted to Boodica? I think we only really got her side of the story in the Side Story, maybe?
The Golden Boy has taken to the stage, following in Sylvando's footsteps. This animation he's performing as a dancer takes cues from Michael Jackson's moves- yes, the moonwalk in particular- and is the dance Erik performs when compelled to dance. Because it wasn't enough he's an Erik knock-off on the battlefield.
Sinderella doesn't remember much either. Although there was that whole "calling us Darkspawn" thing...
No? Damn Side Stories.
Whambelina's happy to have her girlfriend back.
Although she hasn't figured out whether or not to tell her what came afterwards. I suspect you should probably do that sooner rather than later.
Oh, these guys are back. I wonder what Angri-La thinks happened to them.
...Perhaps it's best if they think he's dead.
Yep. He's definitely dead. I saw nothing.
Well... if you feel it's healthy.
Oh, you must've been the succubat learning to flirt.
...Ten gold says the housewife jumps her before she gets back home.
Now this is the man we got sent to meet about Vince's statue.
...I am shocked, appalled, and several flavours of confused.
This Quest is, without question, the hardest Quest to complete. I'd claim one of the endgame ones has it beat, but that's really not true. This one is worse, hands down. Although a lot of the Quests that could probably beat it are the ones that don't tell you what you're looking for, like "A Right Riddle".
On one hand, he's telling the truth. All we have to do is get the jackpot in roulette. That's it. No ifs, and or buts. Just get a jackpot.
On the other hand, "just get a jackpot". There's no known RNG manipulation, there's no shortcut, there's nothing for it but to keep spinning.
The game encourages you to spend the 3000 gold the orphan gave you on Tokens to get started (3000 gold will get you 150 tokens, which isn't even enough for one bet at the table Richie is sitting at), and as far as I know, you can't pay the girl back, which is just kinda weird.
Before I tackle the roulette, the addition of this area adds another Puff-Puff.
This girl is a trumpeter. I quite like this version of the Puff Puff. I just wish there were actual trumpet puffs.
At any rate, the reason I wanted to finish my business in the VIP Area was that I wanted to leave and re-enter the room. That Autosave is our best friend.
As someone who doesn't gamble, I don't fully know how it works, but I assume it's pretty much how it works here. You place your bets on a square on the board, the roulette is spun, and if your bet matches the result, you win. To score a Jackpot, your bet must be a winning bet and the ball must stop in the square next to the "Jackpot" tick at the top of the board.
At this board where Richie is, a single bet costs 200 tokens- the other boards cost less. You can also bet on edges and corners, getting more squares for less bonus if you win. Some edges and corners don't work, though.
I've been a little intermittent on how I handled the casino in my time playing DQ11. I've only won the jackpot once before, and in other playthroughs, I didn't bother trying to win enough tokens to walk home with any Casino prizes. I decide, however, to take a cue from the DQ8 way of winning tokens, and prepare to focus on that. At this point, a Jackpot is just a bonus.
This is why we Autosave.
There we go.
You can bet a maximum of 10 times on a single point. You can make more than 10 bets on a single spin, but not on the same point.
What do I mean by that? You can bet 10 times on edges and corners and win all those bets.
We're making some real tosh in time.
This is, more or less, the bet I learned to get the most out of the DQ8 roulette tables. Finagle your way to this many tokens (as tedious as it is to set up this bet every time) and if the ball lands on any of the spaces in that middle area, we win some serious dough. I'm not sure how much more or less effective the strategy is on DQ11 tables- setting aside the question of programming, the DQ8 tables only go up to 27- but I don't really feel like there's any reason it shouldn't work.
24 is one of the lower payouts.
The game can be so cruel about the Jackpot.
I make my own luck.
Anyway, if you're serious about jackpot hunting, this bunnygirl is your new best friend.
I didn't get it here, but, if after listening to her spiel, she says "I get the feeling someone's going to win the jackpot real soon", your odds of getting a jackpot are higher. Allegedly. Usually it works.
One pretty easy way to fish for Jackpots is to just do this.
The game may or may not have ways of expecting you're trying this.
At any rate, it's time to look at our prize pack.
- Love Potion: Same one as in the monster casino. It is possible to acquire these through Half-Inch later on, so if you want them for alchemy and didn't get them while the monsters were in charge, I'd probably recommend that method, as cheap as they are.
- Sage's Elixir: Eh, 90 MP is nice, but that nice?
- Bow Tie: 2 Def and 25 Charm. More than the Bling-Bling Belt, but not worth it.
- Your Very Own Aegis of Illusions: A recipe book for the Ethereal Sheild, a shield with just a little bit less defence than the Metal Slime Shield, but with 10% elemental resist instead of 5%. I may just say this one might be worth it.
- Molten Globules: You're going to wind up with plenty through enemy drops.
- Cheat Sheet: ...I'm still not sure how this works. I'm fairly sure it's for Slime Quest.
- Mardi Garb: This apparently wasn't in here in the vanilla game. I'm not sure why you'd want more.
- Imp Knife: This dagger has an 8% chance of landing Dazzle on whatever it hits. It's only sold here, of all the things to be exclusive to the Casino.
- Scandalous Swimsuit: An outfit for Jade that has very little in the way of Defence, but a great deal in the way of Charm. It's possible to get one from an enemy drop, which is good, because it's also a cosmetic armour.
- Fire Ball: This is a very rare Alchemy ingredient- the only enemy that drops one is a Rarefied monster. And yet somehow, I've never had problems with having enough of them for all the Alchemy I want to do. I suppose it makes sense: As far as I can tell, you only ever need seven of them, maximum, and I doubt you'd even go that far, considering the alternatives.
- Peerless Parade Costume: If you didn't get it from the Side Story, this is the only way you will.
- Baumren's Bell: This is new to the Definitive Editio. This was the equivalent to the Horse Hailer in DQ8, and has been translated to DQ11's mechanics with quite the buff. It's not really worth the price, but I'm way too biased to suggest you turn it down.
- Twinkling Tuxedo/Shimmering Dress: These are the same armours, for men and women respectively. They have the same stats (75 Def, 71 Charm) and have a 20% chance to reflect enemy spells back at the caster. Again, Bounce has been buffed so friendly spells don't get reflected, but lingering bad memories and the preference for damage mitigation over a chance of negation mean I prefer stuff like the Queen's Robe.
- Happy Hat: We've seen it before. Definitely go for the drops over the Casino.
- Gringham Whip: This is the Ultimate Whip, or at least its baby form. We'll need to perform multiple sessions in the Fun-Size Forge before it truly becomes the best Whip in the game. At all stages, it is a whip that deals normal damage to all enemies in the enemy group- most whips deal less damage as the attack moves along the line. In some DQ games, this whip broke the rules and attacked all enemies, regardless of group. That is not the case in this game.
Nyargle blargle...
I buy the "Aegis of Illusions" recipe book, the Baumren's Bell and the Gringham Whip.
Also wound up nabbing this, for Jade.
At last, I'm finally replacing the Platinum Lance.
These are the ingredients you need for an Ethereal Shield. And, ideally, you get two or three to go around.
At the very least, one will do, since Serena can steal Sylvando's, in all likelihood.
At any rate, the Octagonia story. I think, right off the bat, we can start with a "dear Yggdrasil, did they have to go there?" with Jade. Thanks to Erik, at least, we know Jade's not the only one who lost after the Fall, but still, having the main woman be the one to get herself brainwashed and used as a pet by a decadent creeper that's barely worthy of the title of Spectral Sentinel is... not a comfortable look. The twins getting pushed into the background with Definitive not giving them a Side Story doesn't help, even though the vanilla game did not leave room for one.
Jade herself also doesn't really... benefit here. She's a character guided by a guilt complex, working hard to overcome familial bonds to do the right thing, and the after-effects of being brainwashed... don't get any attention? She's like "cool, I can turn into a sexy monster now" and just walks off the powerlessness to forgive Hendrik just because he's there- he said he's innocent, but at no point has he explained why he's a good guy now and his behaviour towards Jinxed Jade wasn't exactly helping. Jade is a fan-favourite character because of the Two Big Reasons, but it's easy to tell that of all the party members, she might just have been the least well-cooked of them all. At least she's more well-defined as her own woman than Serena.
As a story itself, though, Octagonia is... competent. A little short- we just walked in, gambled a bit, and suddenly we're fighting Jinxed Jade- but they knew exactly the tone they wanted for the place and managed to hit it. The mixture of hopelessness from the few surviving humans and the confused normalcy of the monsters works well together, almost against all odds. The line between "invading monsters" and "humans turned into monsters" is rather blurry, and only the recognisable characters are explicitly placed one way or the other- and even then, I don't think we ever did figure out which one Sinderella was. It would've been nice to know for sure if there were actual monsters who were managing to pass as friendly and not just humans fuelling the cogs.
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