Dragon Quest XI Takes A More Final Fantasy Approach With Its “Skill Panel” System

There’s still a lot about Dragon Quest XI that we don’t know, but Square Enix gave us an idea how the game’s skill system works with an introduction of the “Skill Panel” system in this week’s issue of Jump magazine. [Thanks, GameKana.]

The “Skill Panel” is a new growth system introduced in Dragon Quest XI. Each time you level, you earn points which are then used to unlock panels to learn skills.

As you can see in the above part of the magazine scan, each character has their own shapes and patterns for Skill Panels. One of the examples shows how you can for example aim to learn the super useful Hustle Dance ability earlier with Sylvia by unlocking the right panels. You can also unlock panels marked with “?” by unlocking all the surrounding panels.

Here are some of the abilities that can be learned by characters with the Skill Panel system:

• Protagonist “Giga Slash” – Deals heavy damage with a blade of lightning.
• Camus “Steal” – Steal an item from the enemy.
• Veronica “Magic Awakening” – Increases spell power.
• Senya “Fire Melody” – Fire protection.
• Sylvia “Flute of Fascination” – Charms monsters with a flute.
• Martina “Vacuum Kick” – Powerful kick attack.
• Rou “Caster Surgar” – Enlightenment that brings a boost in spell effects.

Additionally, the magazine notes that another new system will be revealed in next week’s issue of Jump.

Dragon Quest XI releases in Japan on July 29 for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo 3DS. The game is also in development for Nintendo Switch.