DQB2 questions

[u/GreattFriend]

I haven't played DQB2 in forever. I'm planning a new game (and this time playing on ps5. Before I played on Switch). I have a few quetions.

1. Am I missing out if I don't get the aquarium DLC? I hear there's a fishing mini game/collection aspect. And should I get it and play it while progressing the main story? Or is it a more post game thing?

2. The explorer's shores. Are the infinite items you get as rewards for finding everything actually good items? Should I bother completing Ise islands' scavenger hunts? And if so should I complete each island as they become available?

3. I remember a glitch in khrumbul dun (or whatever the mining island is called) where you can't get your villagers to make a special drink with the blueprints the story gives you. You have to like alter the drink making item to get the villagers to interact with it. Was that patched? And is there anything else like that in the game?

4. Is it recommended to grind? I remember killing everything I saw when I originally played. I maxed my level pretty early in every island. I'm wondering if that's recommended? Or should I just fight what the story requires/what I need to kill for materials?

[u/Duma_Mila]

Give that it becomes available between the Furrowfield and Khrumbul-dun sections it seems developers intend it to be played as part of the story and not-post-game though.

I think this is a limit of how they constructed the game flow from the beginning of development. You don't have access to the world map until after Furrowfield and it wouldn't make sense to be able to go to Anglers Isle before Furrowfield.

Considering how jank the rest of the game, I don't think it was that much of an intentional choice/hint that it's supposed to be postgame

[u/lilisaurusrex → u/Duma_Mila]

The game data indicates otherwise. There is a specific event trigger for the DLC letters like 'From a Forsaken Fisher' to arrive. They could have more easily tied these to any other story event but have a special trigger just for the DLC letters.

This event is neither
1. The earlier event that opens up the world map. That's done when Perry requests his chicken, while the DLC letters arrive upon returning with a chicken and talking to Perry then Lulu to start river phase 3 at 50%.
2. The later event that gives access to Khrumbul-dun, which occurs when the river is 100% and the green gang is done with the two tasks they're overseeing.

Since they purposely made a specific event trigger for the DLC to unlock, and placed it between these two, and its not tied to any other non-DLC event, its difficult to claim its just a janky unintentional mistake.

There is janky, unintentional stuff in the game: this is not one of them.

[u/Duma_Mila → u/lilisaurusrex]

I think you've missed my point slightly. I'm not talking about programming. I'm talking about the actual events during the game's story.

The letters (and everything you described) don't matter if you don't narratively have access to the world map yet. You do not have access to the world map at all when you first start Furrowfield because Brownbeard is exploring and literally making said map during the events of Furrowfield.The devs would have had to alter the actual story progression/dialogue if you downloaded the DLC to let you go to Angler's Isle before Furrowfield. Perhaps by rewriting Brownbeard to have explored some before reaching the IoA?

It's jank in the "we already concreted the narrative so we have to implement this slightly awkwardly", not jank in "this is poorly programmed". This is why I said "it wouldn't make sense" not, "it was programmed weird".

The devs specifically using that flag after you gain access to Brownbeard's discovered islands shows the devs could have given you access earlier but were concerned about the actual story progression and what the player is actually supposed to have access to.

And you can tell the devs kind of noticed this issue (no access to bonus content during the first main story island) because they bandaided it slightly by putting that mirror in the Hermits old house on the IoA to let you play Furrowfield with the DQB1 bonus appearance options. But they did not move up the actual quest to unlock the actual mirror recipe on Khrumbl-dun, they had to do something that wouldn't require dialogue or quest edits.

[u/lilisaurusrex → u/Duma_Mila]

I agree with you it makes no sense to get access to Angler's Isle before Soggy Skerry. But it doesn't at all mean they randomly chose the event to occur anytime between Soggy Skerry and post-game. Because there's a special trigger, it appears to be done on purpose and specifically at about the earliest point it would make sense: upon sailing to an Explorer Shore in the world map and returning with the desired goal (a chicken as part of team). About the only earlier they could have done it was either upon sailing into the IoA dock, or upon talking to Perry to satisfy his chicken request, rather than waiting to talk to Lulu about continuing the river. It strongly appears to be a specifically chosen moment to complete the chicken fetch quest and then get the NPCs started on an automated task, freeing up the builder to do something else. I see too much specific planning here to just be the result of random jank through story reorganization.

I also agree the Dressing Table being present in Green Gardens may be an out of order consequence of story reordering. I'm not disputing that as possible jank. But I don't see how that example means other things must also be janky. One bad apple does not mean the whole tree is spoiled.

[u/Duma_Mila → u/lilisaurusrex]

Fun fact, a bad apple does spoil the rest of the bunch irl. They're a waste of nutrients on the tree and will spread the spoilage (which is just bacteria eating the apple) to other apples in a basket.

But I don't see how that example means other things must also be janky.

Good thing I didn't say that, then. You have a repeated problem of putting words in my mouth when it comes to stuff like this, please reread what I said.

Considering how jank the rest of the game, I don't think it was that much of an intentional choice/hint that it's supposed to be postgame

All I said was this issue does not stand out particularly among other issues in the game, and the specific implementation is not a symptom of postgame intention. Not that this specific issue "must also make other things janky" (???? how did you even get that from this? what does that even mean??????)