But I came pretty close just now when I got wiped out by a boss named Gracos. I thought I might have to grind to get past him and right now I’m in the frame of mind where I’d rather drop a hundred games than grind for even an hour. Luckily it didn’t come to that because I beat him on my next try. It’s largely a matter of staying on top of healing and praying he doesn’t use that Jolly Rager + All attack too often.
What else can I say by way of update? I’m 33 hours into Dragon Quest VII, average party level of 23. Just got the flying carpet so I can go save the legendary hero, wherever he is. Right now I’m exploring modern-day Wetlock before heading back to the Shrine of Mysteries to raise a few more islands. Just received a monster-clearing quest from Professor Wade. Feels like a single stone fragment is a poor reward for the work I’m about to do, but JRPGs will be JRPGs. Time to head to Highendreigh Tower again.
Wait, before that. It has just occurred to me that I could use a smartphone or a notepad to cheat at that matching game in the casino… But surely I wouldn’t… Oh yes I would. The only thing is I don’t remember where any casinos can be found. Hmm, I think there was one near the inn before Alltrades Abbey? I owe it to science to find out if my little ploy would work. Lessee…
*15 minutes later*
Nah, I’m good.
*Huff, wheeze* I did it! I won! That was harder than I’d expected. I only won one out of three game and it was all because of that darned Shuffle card. No wonder Square-Enix didn’t bother adding a timer or any other anti-cheating device. You just have to hope you’re lucky enough to get the Shuffle card right at the start or really late. Still, winning 1/3 games is better than I’ve done to date. I’ve lost 800 coins and gained… lemme pop out to the conveniently-located item store real quick… Oops, ended up selling a lot of other stuff I didn’t need. But the war hammer alone was worth 6000 coins so I’m definitely ahead.
In retrospect, it’s good I waited so long to play DQVII. Now I’m really hungry for a regular, normal JRPG so I’m having a great time. It’s probably too early to do this, but if I were to add it to my ranking of other Dragon Quest games I’ve played, it would look like this: DQIV > DQVII > DQV >>>>>> DQVI >>>infinity>>DQIX. Though DQIX was my first so maybe if I gave it another chance its standing might improve. Not gonna happen though. It’s a really close toss-up between V and VII but I married this really horrible wom– female creature in DQV and I’ve been kicking myself ever since. As irritating as Maribel is, at least the main character is smart enough not to marry her (please don’t marry her in the ending, please don’t marry her in the ending).
All right then, next plan of action – abuse the heck out of the casino for the next hour. It’s not grinding if you’re cheating. Then Highendreigh Tower. Then the Shrine of Mysteries. Then more of the same stuff I’ve been doing so far. At some point I’ll need to track down the medal king and exchange all those medals, but that can wait till later. I should also try to fight some more so I can unlock job classes faster but I don’t wanna so I’m not gonna. I don’t really like job systems in RPGs, to be honest. It’s cool if everyone has a fixed path with little variation, but too much choice stresses me out.
I’ll be back for another update when I hit 50 hours or finish/drop Dragon Quest VII, whichever comes first.
If I remember correctly, there was some sort of trick I used for that casino game, too xD Like, yes, noting down your intital turns, but there is also some prefered order of how to turn the cards to make it more likely you’ll win.
I experimented a few more times and developed the following rules
– The shuffle card is more likely to be in the bottom two rows, so turn up the bottom row for your free turns.
– It’s rare for two of the same cards to be next to each other, so instead of turning them over like AA, leave a gap A – A.
– For that reason it’s also smarter to start opening the top row after your free bottom row turns.
– The rest is up to luck.
It was a fun diversion but now I’m back on the story track. Just got a new party member too.