Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is an RPG developed and published by Square Enix that came out on the Nintendo 3DS and PS4 in July 2017 in Japan and then worldwide for the PS4 and PC in September 2018. Then an enhanced version, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition, was released for the Nintendo Switch in September 2019. It also dropped on the PS4, PC, and Xbox One in December 2020 (and Google Stadia in March 2021).
The game follows the Luminary — the hero of the story as well as the chosen one who everyone is trying to kill, and his friends on an adventure. They journey across the kingdom of Erdrea to discover his true powers and protect the world from dark forces. The player explores many incredible areas and fights countless fearsome foes but there is much the game does not explicitly explain on their quest.
10 You Can Reset Your Skills
Shortly into the game, the player unlocks the ability to reset a character's skill points.
To reset skills, hit up a priest and request "Rectification."Â Each skill point costs 20 gold. That being said, the entire skill tree is wiped. They are unable to take away only the individual skills, the player must do the entire build over.
9 You Will Level Everyone In The PartyÂ
It is okay to use the strongest characters or the ones the player likes best.
In the game, experience points are given upon winning battles to each and every character in the party. This means those who were not in the fight but rather hanging back too. So, there is no need to worry about the characters in the reserve. All of the player's party members will level up at the same rate.
8 You Do Not Have To Move During Combat
When encountering enemies, the player can move the characters around in the little battle arena the game places them in.
In actuality, moving around during combat means nothing. The characters' attacks do the same amount of damage whether facing the character head-on or stabbing them in the black. And, the enemy will target the characters whether they are right next to them or on the opposite side of the ring. This feature is optional — just for fun — and can be disabled via the camera settings in the menu.
7 You Can Harvest Resources Over And Over
In the map, the player can view all of the areas in the Erdrea, nearby towns and NPCs, and lots of sparkly spots.
These sparkly spots are not just for show. If they visit the location, the player will come upon a gathering spot containing resources. There are many different kinds of resources and each spot yields a specific one. The best part is the resources respawn over time, so they can come back for more once that spot sparkles yet again.
6 You May Use The Fun-Size Forge At Campsites
Not too far into the game, the player unlocks the Fun-Size Forge, a handy little tool that allows them to craft and upgrade gear using materials and recipes.
Whenever the party rests at a campsite, the player can use the Fun-Size Forge. Seriously, there is no drawback to taking it out and crafting as well as upgrading equipment costs no gold. The only thing to be aware of, besides needing the necessary materials and recipes, is that a minigame must be completed. They just need to wack the item in question with a hammer until it is ready to go.
5 You Should Interact With Every Single Bookshelf
The bookshelves in the game can be interacted with by the player. If there is a red book lodged inside it, the player will find a goodie. Sometimes this is just interesting (unnecessary) lore, other times they get a recipe book.
These recipe books, some of which are only found through bookshelves, contain the blueprints for pieces of equipment that can be crafted.
4 You Can Learn More About The Party's Stats
If the player opens up the menu, they can find out amounts and numbers for each party member's stats. There are details regarding their spells, abilities, and skills too.
Regarding stats, Strength means physical damage, Magical Might means magic damage and status efficiency, Magical Mending means healing and revival efficiency, Deftness means critical rate chance for physical and magic attacks, Resilience means defense, Agility means evasion and turn order, and Charm means beguilement chance. There is fixed growth when it comes to improving stats upon leveling up (as opposed to randomization).
3 You Could Just Fight Wisely All The Time
Instead of controlling each character in the party manually during combat, the player has the option to automate team members through Tactics.
Perhaps the best choice is Fight Wisely, especially when it comes to random encounters. This is because the party will use whatever they got to mow down enemies as quickly as possible. That being said, this option may not prevail when it comes to boss battles. The player should Follow Orders when it comes to formidable opponents.
2 You Are Constantly Autosaving
When the player comes across a church or an angel statue, they are able to save the game (with the "Confession" option). There are churches in towns as well as the overworld. Statues are found at campsites.
However, the player autosaves without realizing it. There is a single autosave slot that is generated every time they enter or exit an area. In fact, if the player reloads the game from the autosave (instead of the save point) after dying, they do not lose gold.
1 You Can Go Back To Finish Missing Quests
To complete the main story in the game, and just the main story, players can expect to take almost 60 hours to do. If they want to finish it plus do all the sidequests, it will take around 90 hours. In fact, completionists will find the game takes roughly 130 hours to 100 percent.
But if players are afraid they missed a quest, fear not because everything is accessible in the post-game. They can finish the main story and then go back and knock out all the sidequests if they want. This includes filling out the bestiary and any other additional stuff in the game.