Shadownite

I actually thought the music was fine for the most part. I only really hated maybe one of the original tracks and the Overworld Theme did get a little irritating at a certain point but it's not really a bad song, it just wasn't one I wanted to listen to 800 times over. The rest of the original music sounded very Dragon Questy to me.

I think it's supposed to be implied that the timelines merge in some way based on party members frequently saying things along the line of "I feel like this has happened before." Exactly what and how they merge is the real question, and one that I don't think can be explained fully.

Of the four, I thought IX did it the best. My only real complaint is being able to use skill points from one class on another, I thought that was dumb but I did like that classes that shared weapons also shared already invested skill points in those weapons.

It's mostly been an improvement so far. I actually think the Synth/MIDI version of Sylvando's theme sounds better, it's faster and has a more whimsical punch to it over the orchestral version but the orchestral version of the overworld theme makes it much easier to listen to over and over!

Decided to start a second playthrough without Stronger Monsters enabled so I can see the difference first hand. Currently just finished the race at Gallopolis and about to go take on the Slayer of Sands, it's been noticeably easier so far. I had a handful of normal encounters by this point in my stronger monsters playthrough that I just BARELY got through alive, haven't really been in danger yet so far this time around while actively trying not to level too much.

I usually just end up naming the DQ3 Hero "Abel" after the protagonist of the Dragon Warrior cartoon that's based on DQ3. If I decide to play a female Hero instead I'll usually just use the name of another DQ lady.

I'm still a little salty about that. My favorite character in the series exclusive to the one platform the game is released on that I don't own and have no intention of getting any time soon. >_<

The mod is out now, installed earlier this morning. I might be crazy but I actually think the synth versions of some of the songs sounded better.

Congrats! But don't forget to play the post game, you're not done yet! XD As for myself, I finished the post game last night with Stronger Monsters enabled.

Just finished the main story yesterday after about 80 hours and got started on the post game content. What a game! I'm still honeymoon phasing with it so I can't definitively say but DQ11 might have finally overtaken DQ4 as my favorite game in the series after falling in love with Dragon Warrior 4 NES as a 5 year old boy back in the early 90's. While I do have some nitpicks (being thrown into the deep end with the story just a tad too quickly, original music mostly being bland, voice acting being spotty) this game has so much of the intangible that makes Dragon Quest what it is in it to me

You can. 75 hours here and I've never once noticed the second hit of dual wield waking an enemy up afterwards.

It's been pretty hit or miss for me. Some of the new music is alright (town theme, normal battle theme, overworld theme) but I'm really happy they decided to pepper in a lot of classic songs because a lot of the original compositions for the game are straight up AWFUL. It hasn't been bad enough to tarnish the absolutely wonderful experience I've had with my 45ish hours so far though, so that's good.

I did do that. He isn't there at night or in the day. You know I really don't remember if I went back before or after the next story event, maybe try doing the next event and going back afterwards.

Try waiting until you get the 5th party member, that's what I did after fiddling with it for an hour or two. When a character gets Pep and is put in the backline it stays until they actually take turns in battle, makes it much easier. Weird, he should still be at that checkpoint IIRC. Have you tried going at different times of day?

Fun fact, water actually does absolutely nothing to help with spicy food. The part of spicy food that actually contains the spicy part (capsaicin) is an oil and as we know, water and oil don't mix. A surprisingly effective (but gross) method of dealing with spicy food is swishing olive oil. Lemon and Lime juice both work pretty well also.