Dragon Quest Heroes

Bought the first one today after renting and really enjoying it.

Normally I'm not a huge fan of Musou games, but this one feels more like an action JRPG than a Musou in some ways.
You still fight large groups and there's the equivalent of 'officers' and 'gate captains', but you have a hub with shops and quests. The later DW games probably included this kind of stuff I assume.

The characters are really different from each other, rather than being a hundred characters with S,T variations.
There are still a few characters with this system which is fine, but I get bored of these types.

I mentioned Isla in the other topic. I have Bianca now who uses a bow and has better range so I've switched to her, but before I unlocked her I was using Isla all the time. She doesn't use the usual S,T strings.

Her mechanic is really interesting. She uses a sort of boomerang thing. S is a wide, horizontal arc, and T is straight ahead and arcs vertically a little. At first she felt a bit slow, and the boomerang moves a bit slowly as well, but then I realized if you press either of the attack buttons after throwing it, she calls it back earlier which alters its flight path.

The second aspect to her mechanics is when it returns to her hand, you'll see some purple energy appear on her hands. If you press an attack button during this, she'll immediately throw a powered up version of the normal two patterns. These can be called back earlier if you choose as well, and you can continuously link powered up throws.

The difference between letting it fly and calling it back early is range. The arcs will go wider and much further if left alone, normal or powered. Calling them back shortens the arcs and tightens there flight path. Both are good depending on the situation.

Like with an uncalled one, you have time to move around or dodge roll which lets you reposition in cases where enemies get pushed out of range or you need to avoid an attack. With the shortened one, you don't have as much time since the range is cut down to around mid. She can also use these throw mechanics in the air, but I find these far less useful.

As for her supers (these require MP) I mainly use her super throw, where her boomerang becomes huge and she throws it in a straight line. It travels absurdly far and is great for clusters or hallways full of enemies.

I'd say Isla is, so far, the hardest to use character due to the timing and spacing involved to use her effectively.

Bianca has much better range. Like Isla, she doesn't use the S,T variations. S repeatedly fires arrows, and holding it down does a charge shot that has up to three levels. It travels in a straight line, goes through enemies, and you can aim it yourself. She can also fire in the air which will slightly slow her descent.

Her triangle attack is a jump kick I think, but I don't get much use out of that.

Her specials are amazing through. Plasma Dome creates an electricity field. She fires an arrow upward in the air then drops on enemies like a mortar. It can be used to obstruct or just drop in a crowd. Fantastic for choke points. Her other one (forgot the name) lets you lock on to multiple targets and fire homing lasers. She almost feels like playing a ranger in Dragon's Dogma.

There are still more power ups I need to unlock for her so there might be more mechanics to add.

Got some more upgrades for these two. Notably fast boomerang for Isla which makes throwing faster, obviously.

Bianca's charge shot does something different per charge level.

1 - basic shot. 
2 - exploding shot.
3 - spread shot.
4 - piercing shot.

Exploding doesn't seem good. Only hits once and doesn't hit nearby enemies. Its range is bad too.

Spread sucks and she has a better super move for this. 

Piercing is fantastic. Super strong, goes through anything in its path, hitting the enemy multiple times.

While in aim mode she has a unique dodge to the left or right without breaking aim. The kick I mentioned before has a rapid fire arrow follow up.

Her basic arrow shot is really good, but also really wonky sometimes. It has great homing but can often lock on to an enemy to the side or around a corner that isn't even onscreen, but is closer than the group in front of you. You can solve this by facing more away from it but it's still annoying 

When firing you can't turn quickly. Usually this isn't a problem due to the homing but there are still times when I want to move and aim elsewhere. You can just dodge out and reposition though.

There are these knights with shield that can block most of my arrow attacks but this game has accessories so I'm working on getting the materials for one that says it 'ignores block'.

Isla's throw speed up is insanely fast. Her Boomerangs go through enemies which makes them, in their own way, better than Bianca's basic arrow shots.  

The accessory that ignores shields is fantastic. I've only encountered one enemy type that can block with a shield, but when this guy is in a group it can be annoying because barely anything outside of special moves can break through. Now my basic arrows knock aside the shield like it's nothing.

On to some non character specific mechanics, the stages mostly consist of either defeating all enemies, or protecting something. It's sort of a tower defense mechanic I guess. And what's cool is that defeated monsters usually drop their medals, which lets you summon them. You have a certain amount of slots (upgradable) and each monster takes up a certain amount. Some of the larger, stronger ones can take up 3 slots. You can also dismiss them, and either keep them sidelined, or delete them from your slots completely so you can pick up others.

They all fall into categories like support or attack, but some are instant use then they vanish like a CL assist. Others will stay on the field and have their own life bar. They will patrol a small area around where you summoned them, so you can set them up on entrances and stuff.

There are quests that are mostly kill X amount of something or gather materials. Some of these quests reward you with important upgrades like expanding your item bag which starts off criminally small.

Your party consists of 4 people. You can only change your party at the base. In battle you can freely switch between members. Their AI seems decent. Jessica has a healing spell that she uses when needed and Isla can remove status affliction. So far they've done it every time I needed it.

One thing I'm not a huge fan of is how the supers work. When you have full meter, you press circle to activate and enter a powered up state. You're completely invincible and can't be knocked back or anything. Completely untouchable. This lasts for I don't know exactly how long, maybe 20 seconds. You also get unlimited MP so you can spam specials. When the meter ends, they automatically do a big super move. You can actually do this at any time but it will cut short this state.

You have to be careful and keep an eye on the meter, because when it gets to super time, they will do it in the direction they're facing. Starting off, many was the time I wasted it due to be preoccupied attacking an enemy by a wall somewhere then the super would activate and fly harmlessly into the wall, when there was a huge group elsewhere.

I've just tried the demo of the second game. The party is pretty generic but a character does boomerang moves like those you described and she's definitely fun to use. Just a shame that demo doesn't have different difficulties so I could have tested more things. Enemies were super-passive, only the boss fight was a bit interesting.

different difficulties
I think I read somewhere that these games don't have difficulty levels, though in DHQ2 at least, there are 'super dungeons' that I've heard are best done in online co-op, though I've seen videos (not watched just seen the titles) of solo runs.

But this is pretty much an RPG now. You're going to overpower everything in the main game at least. You could choose to not level up skills and stats, but that means against later enemies you'll be doing 1 and 2 damage per hit. There are these super monsters wandering the map that lock you into battle. One stone golem killed my party in one hit and I was forced to dance around for like 10 mins doing 1 damage per hit until my tension meter was full, then I could do a super for 500+ damage. Had to repeat that cycle like 7 times. You can't actually stop level ups, but you can choose to not boost further with stat ups in the skill list, equip weak weapons, low level skills, etc.

Enemies were super-passive
I find most of them are, then some aren't and attack somewhat frequently. Nothing super aggressive outside of some bigger guys and bosses yet though. I don't think we can expect an particularly high level of aggression in a game like this.

Another thing that makes it a bit harder is the fact that a lot of main story battles are the tower defense/protection/escort type. If you let the horde get near the target you're in trouble. You might fail a few but once you know where everything is coming from it becomes easy.

And this is where not leveling would be a very bad idea because most large types don't take normal hit-stun so they'd kill the target before you could kill them.

a character does boomerang moves like those you described and she's definitely fun to use
That's Maribel. Her mechanics are slightly different from Isla's.

Like when Maribel throws, it's fast and there is no fast recall, because it's not needed. What she has instead is the ability to throw a second boomerang while the first is out. What this means is you can have one on the field at all times while throwing a second before the first gets back for a constant stream. You can even have a vertical and horizontal version going at pretty much the same time. This doesn't work with Isla because if you were to press attack to throw again, you'd get fast recall.

One thing with Maribel I don't like about her vertical version is that it moves her forward, meaning you end up closer per throw. Her horizontal version moves her (and Isla) forward a bit too but not as much. This means I'm often having to stop attacking and run back.

Isla's vertical is the opposite. She backflips every time she catches a throw putting her back a step, meaning I eventually get out of range, though it's not as much of an issue.

In both cases you can roll or run a little while the boomerang is out to reposition but with Maribel you'll only have one throw out because you'll be using that small gap to move instead of throwing a second one.

Maribel has a vertical throw in the air which Isla doesn't have. Isla pulls a gun and shoots the ground below her which I didn't find all that useful.

I'm playing DQH2 a bit more and put DQH1 on hold to see how different they are. DQH2's world is pretty much a JRPG type now. Instead of every mission being a small map, you actually move through the world from place to place with loading screens between regions. These are called Wild Zones, where you'll encounter enemies, find treasure chests, and come across obstructions that only certain characters can remove. For example, Maribel can burn tree roots, and I found a tree that's almost falling and could create a bridge, but I need to hit it with a 'knuckle sandwich' to knock it down.

There are also powerful versions of monsters that trap you in battle, and wandering NPCs under attack that you can rescue for rewards.

DQ1 is like old DW where you choose a mission and get put in a map with a goal and that's it. There is barely any exploration outside of some off to the side paths where you might find a treasure box. DQH2 still has these, but you have to move from area to area yourself, exploring along the way. It's just the story missions that limit you to an area, which makes sense.

DQ2 also has class changing, but only for the two main characters. You change your class at some guy, but progress for each is separate. I changed to thief class so I could use the bow. Each class has it's own skill tree and some are shared. Not sure what kind of depth we're looking at yet though.

Another major difference is how monster medals work. You still have the same types, but now you actually become certain monsters like the large golem. You get a timer and can go nuts with their special moves. This is ok, but I'd rather summon and leave them to do their thing and keep my character. You can't switch when you become a monster.

It seems interesting, but I don't really like the art style and other elements so I don't think it's a game for my tastes.

I love the art style. Toriyama's designs are my all time favorite.

I grew up with Dragonball/Z and in school I would draw me and my friends fighting the teachers in this character design.

Took a little break from MHW to play this. Currently using this exp farming trick.

Found a better way to get exp. Like other DQ titles, DQH has metal slimes and they are worth a ton of exp. They randomly appear in maps and move super fast. Most attacks will miss, and they only ever take 1 damage, though they only have a few HP.

I just finished Maya's full quest line, which had some tough battles, but it rewarded me with the magnetic necklace which makes it more likely metal slimes will appear, so I'm working on that now.

One thing that's really annoying me is when you go to the quest counter and accept or turn in a quest, you have to wait like 8 seconds for the tune to finish playing. Absolute nightmare when turning in multiple quests.

Even more annoying is filling healstones at the church. For the first one, you have to listen to the priestess talk, then an image of the stone filling up appears, accompanied by ANOTHER tune. Thankfully, subsequent refills are just a confirmation button input, but there's no option to refill more than one at a time.

What's worse, is that tune and image will always happen if you exit her menu. I can't understand what kind of person thought this was ok.

Got my main characters to level 99 by farming metal slimes.

This is how melding accessories works. Sadly, there's a random element, but it seems there's only a small pool of possible abilities to appear. You can carry over from the other you're melding with though, and just replace the skill you don't want. Trying to make some relevant ones to my characters.



For me, Bianca has the Dogged Collar which ignores enemy block. I think I talked about this ability before. There's only one enemy type with a shield; knights, who come in a few types. They're the same size, just different colors and abilities, but they can all block. They themselves aren't a huge threat, but when in a group they can really mess with Bianca's arrow shots and end up unintentionally covering other enemies. They can even block special moves.

With the Dogged Collar equipped, her first arrow guard breaks, then they're fully exposed for follow ups. Specials tear right through them.

I'm working on making a version of this accessory with useful abilities, but I'm not sure what it can possibly get and what could pop up is random, meaning there's no telling how many I'll have to meld before I get something useful.

What I need to do now is farm the items required for that accessory. I've found trading in mini medals, which are a rare drop, is faster and easier then farming the item from the actual enemy. I have an accessory that makes mini medals drop more, and can get 100 in less than an hour I'd say. You just go to an easy stage with tons of enemies and wipe them all out. Medals drop from any type so difficulty doesn't matter, and repeat stages (aside from trials and special fights) have unlimited respawning enemies.

What I'm doing now is making a few copies of an accessory for melding, seeing what random effects I get, then resetting. The best idea is to make like 10 copies to make it worth it, meld them all, then reset and repeat.

I can't find any info online about what possible effects each accessory can have, and I've seen others ask the question as well. Others believe there is a set pool of effects and it randomly cycles through them, which I'm starting to believe because on this one I'm working on, it has started to repeat effects.

For now, I'm only dealing with accessories that are useful to my character, but I want to get through them all eventually. I'll post a list on the one I'm working on sometimes this week once I can safely confirm it has nothing new to gain.

Ok, I've done multiple attempts and the list is repeating. I did get one effect that's the first I've seen on this one but it's just a higher version of one I already have.

Dogged Collar (Ignore enemy block)

*Deftness +3
*Deftness +4
*Defense Drain Resistance +10.0%
*Defense Drain Resistance +12.5%
*Defense Drain Resistance +15.0%
*Defense Drain Resistance +20.0%
*Attack +3
*Attack +4
*Attack +5
*Defence +4
*Defence +5
*Defence +7
*Max HP +4
*Max HP +5
*Max HP +6

I'm wondering if there's a deftness +5 and 7, or a defence +3 as there seems to be a pattern emerging, but they haven't shown up. I thought maybe some are rarer like +7 but I haven't received a +3 from defence, which you'd expect to pop up before anything else especially after multiple attempts.

Right now I've loaded up 3 slots with attack ups, but not all +5. I just wanted a guaranteed attack boost that's active at all times, though critical chance wouldn't be bad either since there are passive skills in the characters individual skill trees that activate effects on critical hits.

Found something interesting. You never know what's hiding in old Gamefaqs topics. Looks like this type of stuff won't come up in Google searches.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/835982-dragon-quest-heroes-the-world-trees-woe-and-the-blight-below/73222731

Someone confirmed 3 years ago that you CAN get 3 of those special effects, and the general pattern for a few others. We can assume these basic stat up effects are probably possible on all accessories but I'll keep an eye on them.

I just managed to create a Raging Ruby with 'lower damage, more criticals' on all three slots, so in addition to the 5% that it starts with, I have an extra 6% through effects. And I read these types of effect stack, so I could create two more like this and have three on a single character.

I don't view critical chance as something I'd want to boost that much to the point of losing all 3 accessory slots, but it would be very useful for metal slime farming, as a single critical will kill any metal slime type. Would be extremely good on Alena.

Got my three Raging Rubies and working on the Ace of Spoils accessory now. This one raises the chance of rare drops. That Gamefaqs post says it can possibly get a max of 3% but I keep getting 1%. The 3% must be extremely rare because I've done many melds and resets and there has been no sign of it.

I just want to see that effect once and then decide if I want to waste time trying to get 3 of that effect on 3 separate copies of this accessory.

The thing is, as I said in an earlier post, you can farm mini medals easier than fighting enemies for a rare drop, because mini medals can be traded in for any rare item. Some are worth 8 medals though so you'll have to do a few medal runs to get enough to make say, 20 of an accessory for melding. Once that's done you start the meld>reset cycle until you get what you want.

To mechanics, some more Bianca notes. I should probably record this stuff. I'll add to some older stuff too.

She can also fire in the air which will slightly slow her descent
Holding the button down makes her rapid fire until she touches the ground. Slightly slows her descent. You can't tap out anything more than two shots if you don't hold. Don't know why, but after two shots she just drops. Need to test this from higher places.

Her triangle attack is a jump kick I think, but I don't get much use out of that.
Been messing with this. It's a short range dive kick. Comes down on a slight angle. Could be useful for air mobility but need to look into it more.

Regarding charge shots

Basic
Just a more powerful normal shot as far as I can tell. Immediately available when going into charge but not something you'd ever set out to do because normal attack is much faster and you could have done way more damage by the time you fire a lv1 charge shot.

Exploding doesn't seem good.
I was so wrong about this shot. It does have far less range, but the explosion does hurt enemies if they're very close and it does a decent chunk of damage.

Spread sucking
More a case of far better options being available. It has no homing so enemies have to be on the level you're aiming. By the time you've charged this, you could have just fired her Rain of Pain special which fires multiple huge homing lasers that decimate crowds.

Piercing
Not bad but you have to charge through all the others to get here. Super long range and drills through enemies, and at such range you can shoot enemies without them noticing you. Good for softening them up I guess, but I get little use out of it.

While in aim mode she has a unique dodge to the left or right without breaking aim.
I found recently that when in this stance, the arrow charge won't change while you're dodging. So say you wanted to fire the explosive shot but weren't ready, you could keep hopping from side to side and the charge won't increase, which would normally change the type of shot.

I've never had to use this dodge at all though, but I can think of some situations where this would be somewhat useful.

For example, there are these robots that put a lock on you and fire 3 or so arrows from their arm cannon. If you were in aim mode, you could hop to the side and let off basic charge shots in between its arrows. Need to test that.

Normal attacks

She has two attacks on the triangle button on the ground. One I touched on earlier when I said this.

The kick I mentioned before has a rapid fire arrow follow up

Tapping T will have her do a back flip kick that sends her a decent distance back. If you press square, she'll fire a barrage of rapid fire arrows upon landing.

The arrows do less damage than others, but you might as well. I've been messing with using the back flip as an evade, and it works, but you can't cancel into this move. You have to be standing in neutral position to do it.

Her second T attack happens when you hold T instead of tapping it. She'll do a horizontal spin kick and move forward a little. Pressing S will make her do the rapid fire barrage on the spot. I never use this.

Magic special
When doing her fireball spell, which has three levels, when she throws it she jumps back at the same time. This actually counts as a normal jump and you can use both air attacks during this.

That's all for now.

Managed to get the attributes I wanted on an Ace Of Spoils. This accessory grants +10.0% spoils, and I got +3.0% on all three slots.

Makes me wonder; does Raging Ruby have 3% too? I've only seen 2%. There's no documentation to say otherwise anywhere online, but I only found out Spoils had a +3.0% from a single, ancient Gamefaqs post, so who knows.

Moving on to Garter next. This boosts stun and has a possible attribute to boost by +20.0%.

Ok got that. Moving on to Mirror Ring. This one is really good. Its attribute is 'chance to auto-bounce'. This means projectile type spells bounce off your character and go straight back to the sender.

It says it doesn't work on breath attacks, so that's like enemies with flame or frost breath as those come out in streams. I don't know if it works on status spells like sleep because these types appear completely differently. A ring or dome of some sort appears and if you stand in it when it goes off, you'll be inflicted.

I just remembered there are elemental spells like this too. I don't think these types can be 'bounced'.

Anyway this ring comes with +30.0%, and has the potential to get +20.0%. I'm going for that on all 3 slots for a total of 90%. I could then equip one more ring in its default state for 100% but I doubt that's necessary and would waste a slot.

Back to Garter for a second; I just want to talk about the stun state. This is basically an enemy getting dizzy and only applies to the large ones, who don't take knock-back. Small enemies get launched or go flying instead.

When stunned, these large enemies appear dizzy. Each has their own animation. In this state, EVERY hit you do is a guaranteed critical.

There's no visible indicator, so I guess they get stunned after taking a certain amount damage, BUT, I've noticed if I use Bianca's Plasma Dome (lightning element) on machine types, they get stunned instantly. It won't work if they've gone pink and are using their super. They'll do this immediately after recovering, I'm assuming to stop you from spamming stun.

I'll test lightning attacks with other characters to make sure the above is absolutely correct.

Still need to test some other characters' moves. I removed Jessica because I only included her for her healing spell early on. After unlocking heal stones which let you heal the whole party, I swapped her out. If you end up using all of them, you're probably doing something wrong.

Despite a lot of enemies being easy to deal with, they still have a lot of interesting states. I think I mentioned zombies before. When hitting these guys, their hit stun animation is they recoil back on one foot, then come back to standing. But after 3 or 4 hits, on the next recovery, they snap back with a vomit attack. Really cool.

When knocked down, they have this weird animation where they're reaching up with one hand. I'm wondering if they try something if you get close. I'd really like to document all this stuff someday.

Having a jam on DQH2 for a while. Might make a separate topic.

I finding this way too grindy.

The two main characters are the only ones who can switch classes, but if you change, your new class will be at level 1.

Weapons and accessories are different now. Accessories have a set upgrade path and you provide the materials for each stage. At some point it, as I understand it, it wants powder, which you get from grinding down accessories. You grind ones of the same type you're upgrading to get enough powder to upgrade your main one.

What this means is you have to go hunt down multiple of the same accessory. You don't craft them anymore, you have to go out and deal with RNG drops. I heard some of the better stuff is an absolute nightmare to obtain.

In DQH1, you just needed materials and crafted what you wanted, and yeah, it had its RNG with the random attributes, but not this bad. I don't actually like DQH2's accessory system at all really. Every accessory will end up the same, where in DQH1, you had some options in what attributes you wanted to keep. In 2, it seems more simplified, but more a pain in the ass to max out. I don't doubt it gets more advanced later though when you mix accessories with class abilities.

A lot of the mechanics are different and I like quite a few, but as it stands, the grind is putting me off. I'll go back to my accessory crafting in DQH1. I still need to do all the extra maps and super bosses.

Finally completed my Mirror Ring. The max total you can get on a single ring is 80% auto-bounce. I made a mistake earlier when I said the ring comes with 30%. It's actually 20%. I was thinking of another accessory I was looking at at the time.

Tested it out and it bounces almost every time. As I said earlier, it doesn't work on breath attacks, but I don't know where I read that. I thought it was in-game, but I can't find that info anywhere. Must have been online somewhere. I don't see why someone even mentioned this, because it assumes breath attacks are magic, rather than just shit an enemy can do.

Magic would be when you see an enemy casting, doing an animation and seeing a ring around them. Breath attacks just come out, like your classic dragon's breath.

Anyway, so far it seems status affecting spells can't be reflected. Anything else seems to be fair game. The explosion spell was one I didn't think would reflect, but it does.

What's really cool about auto-bounce, is that it requires nothing from the player and is entirely passive. It will activate no matter what you're doing, and any reflected spells technically becomes yours, affecting any enemies caught in them.

I can see some potential for cool stuff. Take these bird demons. They throw a large tornado your way. It's slow though, so what I do is run straight at it to reflect it earlier. I run along with it, and while it hits them I can be underneath them or jump attacking. Stuff like that. Too bad the enemies in this game aren't hard enough to warrant using cool setups like this.

I could be wrong, but it feels like weaker spells might be have a higher bounce chance. I've bounced back countless tornadoes, but something bigger like the arch demon's explosion spell, doesn't reflect every time.

I'll try equipping another Mirror Ring to get to 100%, but normally I probably wouldn't do this because that strikes me as a waste of an accessory slot and you only have 3.

I'm confused.

The Nacreous Necromonocle claims you will cast Kamikaze upon death, but it doesn't work.

There doesn't seem to be any special conditions. The accessory description doesn't have any percentage like other effects.

I equipped 3 just to be sure but the character still dies normally. Tried many different ways to die and nothing. It's all the same. No info online either.

Never figured out what it did. Oh well. I learned what its possible attributes are and none of them are useful. Just regular stats. That usually seems to be the case with accessories that do something not based on a percentage, while usually the percentage based ones have that percentage also possible as an attribute.

Right now I'm working on some sets for beating the fastest time against Atlas. Look at this.


So what's happening here is the player is using Terry who has a skill that makes clones of himself. This means tension builds super fast since it rises per hit. This allows him to use the super many times during this fight. Each time it causes Atlas to be stunned.

The tornado move is Gust Slash, hitting multiple times thanks to the clones, then normal sword slashes while dropping back to the ground. He repeats this until tension is full. Look at how fast it fills.

But there's a bit more going on here thanks to accessories. At the end of the video you'll get to briefly see what each character is equipped with.

Using hiragana and katakana charts, and an online Japanese dictionary, I've been able to figure out what these accessories are and have an idea on why they're being used. The Japanese names are slightly different and some wouldn't show up in the dictionary, but luckily parts of the names where the same as the English ones.

I know why I haven't been able to come close to this time, though I don't know if the accessories are optimized with attributes. I'll try the same setup with base ones and if I don't get a faster kill I will assume they have been melded to a degree and then look into that.

Aurora
*Tough Guy Tattoo x3
Damage up, MP reduced to zero

The purpose of having 3 of these is the attack boost, and the fact that you don't need her to have MP since you won't even be using her.


Terry
Strength Ring x2
Skill boost until damaged.
Stimulating Specs x1
Increase starting tension +30.0%

Not sure exactly how far skills can be pushed with Strength Ring, but it's extra damage as long as you don't get hit which I'm a strong supporter of.

The tension boost just gets you to the first super a little bit faster.


Doric
Strength Ring x3
Skill boost until damaged.

Not sure why he has these. The player switched to him to use his super but that was it. I've never used Doric before so I'm not too familiar with his skills. I mean, I've had him in my party, but never directly controlled him. The only skill I noticed in the video was the one where he summons meteors. I know he has one where he boosts everyone's tension so maybe the boost from the accessories also applies to non damaging stuff.


Psaro
Tough Guy Tattoo x3
Damage up, MP reduced to zero.

Same setup as Aurora.

I'm seriously pissed right now.

I've been customizing a Strength Ring with Skill Damage Up +4%. Been doing this for like 3 days for an hour or so per day and only got it twice. Then tonight, I get Skill Damage Up +5%!

4% is rare enough. This is going to take years, but it needs to be done and these possibilities need to be documented.

Got 3x Increase Starting Tension on Stimulating Specs. It barely gives you quarter of the tension meter when starting a level.

Will move on to the Strength Ring.

I was trying to get all the trophies and one requires you to use each character's super once, meaning I had to use characters I don't normally use or have never touched.

This led to me doing a quick test of each of their abilities and found some of them have weird mechanics or different ways to dodge.

When Yangus dodges, he doesn't roll; he does a short range dash that is also an attack. It might have super armor but I didn't test it further. Would make sense though since he's that type of brute.

Kiryl has this really weird step he can do after the last hit of his string, then if you press dodge it'll link from that last hit into a small step in a direction of your choosing followed by a spear thrust. Only seems to happen 3 times.

Maya and Psaro seem basic with the usual S>T strings but Maya is really floaty. Seems she can stay in the air after jumping or certain air attacks. From there you can make her float down slowly.

I messed with one more a little but forgot her name. She has a wand and can launch slow moving magic bubbles. Seemed really fun. Will look into the rest later.

This is why I love these spin off Musou games. They have far less characters but each is unique.

Back to accessory building.

I was looking for how to get recipes which are alternate ways to create an accessory. There is basic, classic and luxury. They require better materials and might create an accessory at +1, 2 or 3 from the start and may have an ability. This is useless because you get to +3 from combining anyway. I just want alternative recipes so I can make more without having to farm mini medals.

You get the other recipes from tough monsters as rare drops but I could find no trace of a list anywhere. Decide to try reddit so I got the app and made an account. Saw someone mention a Japanese site so I PMed them asking for it. I was surprised to get a reply within 10 minutes. Super friendly guy found the site and linked me. I'll be using reddit for info far more now.

The site translate badly into English but I can figure out what monsters its talking about. Also found an accessory list with all possible melding add ons. I didn't know a list existed. It certainly doesn't in the English speaking world. A lot of the names are impossible for me to identify so I'll keep making my list.

Kiryl's step.
The game doesn't explain this very well.

After every attack, including specials moves/spells, pressing dodge will step instead.

With no direction, he steps back. You can do this three times quickly. If you go left or right, he will automatically do the first attack of his string after the step. Again, three times.

So you can't do 3 steps in a row like the back step. He will always attack. You can go into his string, like say the second hit, then step from there.

I assume they wanted him to be able to keep attacking while maintaining close range. It's true that the regular dodge roll goes further and faces you the direction of the roll so you'll need to face the enemy again. Step let's you just keep going but I've found it's not really the best idea all the time.

It takes over the dodge roll too which I don't like. They should have made it a separate command.

He has a spell that shoots out a single, or if charged multiple orbs that have a chance to inflict instant death. It doesn't seem to trigger that much.

He also has a weapon with a 2% chance cause instant death. Good luck with that.

Pretty interesting character though. Yangus has a weird dodge mechanic too so I might look into that next.

Will be working on some character analysis videos. Found out some stuff I didn't know this week. Quite a bit of stuff isn't explained in the action list.

The characters I know well enough to make videos about are Bianca, Isla, and Kiryl. Could do Yangus but there's something about his mechanics I'm still figuring out. Currently playing as each character and making notes.

That recent glitch with Bianca's dive kick will be its own video. Need to check if others can do it too. I know at least one other character has a dive kick.

Really stuck into DQH2 now. There's so much more combat options.

The two main characters can switch classes. The new and returning characters can't but they still get tons of stuff.

You have your class skill panels and also weapon proficiency. Everytime you level up you need to go to town and talk to the martial arts guy and he'll unlock your stuff.

I was using Lazarel (male main) as a thief. Can use bows for my long range needs. Then I switched to Teresa with mage. Plays very similar to sorcerers in Dragon's Dogma. Ended up liking it more than the bow as it still has pretty long range.

Basic attack with heavy wand is a magic orb. Can fire continuously. Unlike arrows, these orbs pass through enemies letting them hit those behind. Orbs also have much larger hit boxes. Has decent homing. Need to be careful as you can't cancel out of these shots.

If you hold down attack you get multiple orbs that appear around the character one by one. I've counted around 10. Release and the all fly forward, homing in on anything in range. These don't cost MP. Sort reminds me of DD's focused bolt but massive difference being in DD you can move while charging/holding charge. In DQH2 you're stuck, though you can release early.

Triangle attack creates a movable area and you can absorb MP from any enemies in it but I don't find it useful. Barely gives you anything. Might improve later.

Jump attack is a diagonal downward spread shot. Not something I get much out of.

Magic is almost identical to DD. You hold R1 to bring up your spell panel and press the assigned button for your spell. Exactly how DD does it. Even charging spell levels is the same. Hold the button until the circle fills then release.

Frizz and its upgrades shoot fireballs at long range. Homes in.
Zap series is lightning which at its highest goes forward as lightning columns for insane crowd control.

Sizzle series shoots a zigzagging paths of fire along the ground and will pass through enemies. It doesn't home in and only goes forward but final level is pretty wide so it's unlikely you'll miss.

Sap lowers defense. Creates a dome and anything is it us affected.

What annoys me about mage is there are other spells but you can't use them unless you change weapon. Like Wonder Wall is incredible but you have to use the whip. Not saying the whip is bad but it don't want to play close range.

Wonder Wall creates this huge magic wall that reflects spells and enemies can't move through it. But you can still shoot stuff through.

Switched to priest a bit and will update later.

Still need to go through each weapon for max proficiency which adds tons of cool stuff.

Will do the other mage weapons later. On to Priest for now. Using the wand.

Priest has some support stuff, but still has offensive casting.
Multiheal is your standard heaĺ-all, and Kabuff gives everyone defense up. Boom series is an explosion that blows up a huge area in front of you in its final version, Kaboom. Extremely powerful too. Whirlpool creates a magical swirly that sucks in most enemies.

Will go over basic attacking. Light is a 3 hit. Simply swinging with the wand. Trash range and damage. NEVER worth using.

Strong attack is where it gets super interesting. It shoots out magic bubbles that travel slowly. As weapon proficiency goes up you get longer range and larger bubbles.

It's a 3 input set. First is a single bubble. Second is 3 horizontal bubbles. The middle one travels straight ahead and the ones on each side slowly move slightly diagonally outward. Final is a large bubble that travels straight.

They travel slowly, but they cover a large area and you can have two sets out at once. Trying for a third makes the oldest vanish. When they hit enemies, they keep gliding through so they can hit others. It's possible for them to hit an enemy, and then that enemy could wind up in their path again. This is often the case for large enemies.

You can detonate the bubble any time, and when they pop they'll do heavy damage. Hold triangle to pop them. The character will swing the wand which up close is also an attack. No reason you'd ever use it like this though.

Also, if they hit any obstruction that isn't an enemy, they pop. Even if it's just the right side one clipping a wall. This makes them hard to use in enclosed spaces like hallways. Uphill is bad too. Even slight slopes, because they travel straight no matter what.

Leveling up weapon proficiency gives you the ability to detonate bubbles with any Boom spell. This is just insane. Especially on large enemies. I flood the screen with bubbles then cast Kaboom and tear the screen apart.

You can combine bubbles with Whirlpool. It actually sucks the bubbles into it too. Whirlpool can be cancelled by pressing the same buttons that cast it, and it you do this as bubbles are on their way towards it, they'll completely stop. Normally you can't stop their movement. So you could purposely create a set of bubbles and cancel Whirlpool to have them hang in the air unmoving. You could potentially create a sort of trap. Not sure if this is really worth it but mechanically I find it highly interesting and unexpected.

Air strong attack shoots a small bubble diagonally downward. Too steep to be used from a distance. I throw it out here and there while jumping be cause why not? Same rules as the ground bubbles.

Air light is really interesting. Shoots a bubble toward the ground same as the strong attack but faster, and it creates a rectangular block of an energy wall. It's basically a lesser version of Wonder Wall. It doesn't reflect enemy magic but they themselves can't move through it. It does a little damage when it forms too.

You can move through it freely, but it blocks your bubbles which sucks. I was able to use Boom spells though.  It vanishes after a few seconds and you can only have one up at once.

Damn that was juicy. Going to work on weapon proficiency for each class to get all the tools. Priest can use a spear too. Leveling that up now.

The spear moveset is so much better in this. I've already done a brief explanation on Kiryl in DQH 1 so I'm going to quote some of that to explain the new stuff.

After every attack, including specials moves/spells, pressing dodge will step instead.
This is still the same.

With no direction, he steps back. You can do this three times quickly. If you go left or right, he will automatically do the first attack of his string after the step. Again, three times.
Still the same only now the back step range can be expanded hugely after leveling up weapon proficiency enough. When you back step, by holding down (or whatever is the character's back) on the left stick, you'll do the long one. So in the end you have access to 3 leaps backward. Enough to clear any attack that isn't a projectile or beam type. Could possibly be caught by enemies that dash forward and attack but if you know their animations this shouldn't be an issue.

I really like how this upgrade does not interfere with the lesser version. If you don't hold the stick you still get the short hops. I really wish something like this was the case for the move Despise in Chaos Legion which  takes over the jump button in the sword string. Or the base Multi-Punch versions in Knack 2.

So you can't do 3 steps in a row like the back step. He will always attack. You can go into his string, like say the second hit, then step from there.
No change. You'll always attack after the side steps.

I assume they wanted him to be able to keep attacking while maintaining close range.
Feels even more aggressive now because the basic light attack doesn't have an ender. The string is three thrusts that repeat with no pause and move the character forward.

It takes over the dodge roll too which I don't like. They should have made it a separate command.
Still the case. The side step is unsafe because after every hop you stop to attack. A lot of large enemies have sweeping beams or breath attacks, or spinning physicals. But with the backstep upgrade I don't bother with the side step much.

When I got this upgrade I was desperately hoping that at some point in proficiency I'd get the same upgrade for the side step. My hopes were dashed when I reached the max of level 15, but were renewed when I did a quest that raised the cap to level 20. I'm working on my bow and magic wand now but will do spears next.

While all the combat options are better, the grind is really getting to me.

There's no fast leveling exploits. Well, there are but you need to meet RNG conditions that will have you grinding just as much to even START leveling.

Weapon proficiency is shit. It takes too long to get a level up past 15. I haven't got a maxed weapon in the whole 60+ hours playing. Only just about to hit level 20 with the bow for 1 character. Awful.

Worse, there are ultimate weapons that are totally random drops. You might just get weapons for who you aren't even using. Then they might not even be the best versions. They go up to +3.

Might quit. It's actually kind of worse that NNK2.

Now you can't equip more than one of the same accessory. This seriously limits variety. In DQH1 you can.

There doesn't seem to be any boss time attack features. Really like this in DQH1. This really pissed me off in 2 because I spent a while upgrading one that ups your damage but lowers MP regeneration. Was going to have 3 to see how much it would boost normal arrow attack power, only to be told I can't.

Continuing this during lockdown.

>There's no fast leveling exploits.
Found some decent ones but still way slower than the Metal Slime method in DQH1.

There are these knights that give a lot of exp. They block almost everything. I have two characters that have something they can't block. One is the Sage class spell Kazzamle which is a huge dark explosion. At level 70 it takes two of these. Or one, then one of the lower tier to save MP. Critical spell will do enough damage to kill them instantly.

Before I had this class a high enough level I was using Meena. Her basic attack is throwing a set of cards. They fly out straight, about 5 in a horizontal formation. They then home in on whatever  is closest. The set can split off in different directions too. Anything the cards hit become 'marked'. They will have cards floating around them. You can have whole groups marked. This marks them as targets for her other spells. So you can hit them all at once. The Tower is lightning strikes. This is the one the knights can't block. It took 3 strikes even at level 99. Meena is slow too. She throws and recovers slowly.

These knights are nasty. Even at level 99 they do serious damage and their moves are extremely dangerous. One is where they go into what looks like a quickdraw stance briefly then vanish. Next second they're right in front of you and slash. Does insane damage. If you're casting they'll get you. They can teleport from quite a distance too.

Another is they dash at you in a straight line with their shield. Once they pass they immediately jump and slash down into the ground which sends out a vertical slash energy wave. The trick here is when they pass and jump, they turn in the air to face you you. I've been caught after dodging the dash. You need to wait a second then dodge. Really good enemy.

Quit this permanently a while ago. The grind becomes insane. Getting optimal equipment is the worst RNG grind I've ever experienced. It's far beyond what I wrote previously.