April 2019 Together Retro: Monster Raising (NOT POKEMON)

[BoneSnapDeez]

Actually no. I reserve that honor for the likes of Phantasy Star II.

Unfortunately, I've been laid up sick these last few days (caught some nasty kindergarten bug) and am dumping a ton of time into the game. Hence why I'm moving at Popo/Elkin speed as opposed to my usual crawl. Things should level off soon though.

Anyway, just reached a volcano dungeon, but can't proceed. Presumably, I must talk to some key NPC first.

Still rolling with Dave, the jaguar, and slime knight. Epic trio.

[noiseredux]

I'm about 7 hrs in and me and Harry are now ten years older. We recruited one of those little whack-a-mole dudes because he just happened to be the first we caught, and a slime because... this is DQ and I need a slime in my party. Grinding a bit to get them both leveled up a bit. Gave them some armor and weapons. I think Noise is level 14, Harry is 12 and the monsters are around 10. I also caught one of those little mushroom dudes, but haven't actually swapped him into the party yet.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I'm about 7 hrs in and me and Harry are now ten years older. We recruited one of those little whack-a-mole dudes because he just happened to be the first we caught, and a slime because... this is DQ and I need a slime in my party. Grinding a bit to get them both leveled up a bit. Gave them some armor and weapons. I think Noise is level 14, Harry is 12 and the monsters are around 10. I also caught one of those little mushroom dudes, but haven't actually swapped him into the party yet.

My man.

By "whack-a-mole dude" you mean Brownie, right?
https://dragonquest.fandom.com/wiki/Brownie

I ran with one of those dudes for a bit. He levels up slowly and never learns spells, but holds his own for several hours. Swapped him out eventually.

I kind of wrote off the slime earlier. But they do gain some support spells eventually.

I can't picture any mushroom enemies. Either my memory is poor (likely) or the DS has extra monsters.

[noiseredux]

yeah, Brownie. I'm terrible w/ names in games. I gave him a steel hammer and he's wrecking pretty good. Bummer on no magic. I'll prob swap him out when I find something cooler. My slime is pretty legit, though. He's got some fangs now and he's already learned a spell. I could see keeping him in for a while. I sort of like the idea of keeping him for the full game just because he's sort of the mascot of DQ. It's like keeping Pikachu around, y'know?

Googling says the mushroom is named Funghoul.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Oh yes, I know of this fungi now. Didn't have one join up, though.

And you can totally keep a slime the entire game. In fact, when I beat the DS version of the game I believe I still had a slime knight in my core party; you'll probs get him within the next few hours.

[noiseredux]

are those the little metallic slimes that usually run away before you can kill them? I killed one and got like 1,350 XP for it.

[BogusMeatFactory]

are those the little metallic slimes that usually run away before you can kill them? I killed one and got like 1,350 XP for it.

Nah slime knights are the slimes being ridden by a knight. The ones you are referring to are the metal slimes.

[MrPopo]

I played a bit of Revelations: The Demon Slayer last night. It uses the talk to monsters system to get your mons; unlike other games in the SMT series this game is extremely deterministic. Monsters fall into one of five classes for negotiation, and they start off with one of three statements; given a class and an opening statement you can pick a chain of responses that always gets them to join. The thing is, there's nothing obvious about what makes them join or not. The actual dialog tree is fixed for every starting statement; it's just whether or not a leaf node results in a join that varies. So you'll have one end with "You don't even know what you are yet" and one class will join, while another won't. So you really just have to use a guide to get monsters, as there's no real way for you to figure it out naturally due to how arbitrary it is.

I haven't unlocked fusion yet; you have to get your second human party member who has Combine as a spell. You get three human party members who can level up and wear gear and then can fill in another 2 or 3 monster slots in the active party (I'm not sure if it's 5 or 6 total party yet).

[pierrot]

Unfortunately, I've been laid up sick these last few days (caught some nasty kindergarten bug) and am dumping a ton of time into the game. Hence why I'm moving at Popo/Elkin speed as opposed to my usual crawl. Things should level off soon though.

Oh, gotcha. Hope you feel better soon. This year's round of illnesses have been pretty ridiculous. I was taken out by something a couple months ago, that stuck with me for three or four weeks, and I almost never get sick. The first real night I was dealing with it, my body ached so much, and my temperature seemed to be getting so high that I was a little concerned I might parish in my sleep. I recently saw an obituary for someone with my name, in this same area, four years younger than me, who passed away around that same day.

it's just whether or not a leaf node results in a join that varies. So you'll have one end with "You don't even know what you are yet" and one class will join, while another won't. So you really just have to use a guide to get monsters, as there's no real way for you to figure it out naturally due to how arbitrary it is.

That doesn't sound tremendously different than the early SMTs, to me. Dark types would often start conversations similar to other monster types, but could just never be recruited just because they're dark types. So you'd have to know that they're a dark type to know not to waste your time on them. Every conversation was a bit of a shot in the dark, too. You could get the same conversation pattern, with the same monster type as one you've already fused with something else, and it would react completely differently at the end of the conversation.

I haven't unlocked fusion yet; you have to get your second human party member who has Combine as a spell.

That sucks. I'm beginning to think I might not bother with any of the Persona games.

[MrPopo]

This isn't one of the Persona games; this is a retitled Demikids. And I feel like with other SMT games I the conversation options tended to at least make some sense with the disposition of a monster (granted, I've only played from Nocturne onward). Here I think the issue is that the technology limitations means they have a bunch more generic trees that monsters fall into for conversation. And there are monsters which are like the Dark monsters; ones you can never recruit through conversation.