What changed in the "Definitive Edition"?

Hey gang,

So, I tried this game, back in 2018. It was weird. Looking back on my thread on these forums at the time, I enjoyed it, but found some bits kinda strange, especially the music choice

Is the DE a worthwhile expansion? Has enough changed?

With the Definitive Edition, you can choose between the original MIDI and an Orchestrated version of the soundtrack. You can also use overworld music from VIII. Seems like this is a full list of changes.

You can't mess with all of the changes (I remember specifically the 2D mode is locked away) but there's a 10-hour (yes, hour) demo out on PSN if you want to compare it against your memory.

I only played a bit over an hour (finished the mountain, left the town) and am not sure I'll get back to it (though I feel like I owe it to Tim Rogers to try sometime) and I was kind of charmed by the ridiculous music style of the orchestral remixes. It felt like playing an epic old Warner Bros. cartoon.

I think it depends on what you thought was weird about it outside of the music. If something in the gameplay was off-putting to you, the DE probably doesn't change that. It's mostly just QoL changes/stuff that people who are fans of the Series as a whole might get a kick out of.

Basically it makes it less tedious and introduces some modern conveniences while not compromising the base JRPG mechanics. If you like JRPGs, it's definitely worth playing. But I don't think it's worth playing through if you've already beaten DQXI. The additions aren't worth a full replay.

The game was remade not ported to Switch to fit its specs and a newer version of UE4. They orchestrated the music and can use the DQ8 overworld theme. You can play the whole game in 16-bit mode or modern mode. Switch at a church. Entire sections of the game have new character stories. Also some costumes.

The music is basically the same, in my opinion. I hated both versions.

After the update, I found the choice of music in the game strange. I would have changed it a bit.

You will still suffer death due to horns. God the fucking trumpets in that music.

I assume you mean 11S? If so, it sadly has downgraded graphics from the original PS4 release because everything subsequent that is based on the Switch version. But as a trade you get greatly sped up battles, extra costumes, soundtrack changes, a bunch of new dungeons + quests, a (not great) 2D mode and various other quality of life stuff.

The graphical downgrade is sad as that PS4 version is beautiful and will be forever lost to time, but the faster battles alone are worth it imo and you get used to the downgrade eventually (game still looks great, but man that PS4 version...).