Dragon Quest XI is the eleventh entry in one of the longest-running JRPG series of the gaming industry, published by Square Enix and drawn and designed by the famous Akira Toriyama, responsible for the famed Dragon Ball Z.
The game starts off at the friendly village of Cobblestone, where our protagonist was sent as a baby, Moses style, down the river, after his kingdom is attacked by monsters.
The protagonist takes part in a traditional coming of age custom, where you go up a mountain, there they are attacked by a bird, and the protagonist defeats it using the power of the mysterious symbol on his hand. After returning to the village the protagonist is told the truth about his nature, and the fact that he is the Luminary, a hero that is born every generation to battle a mysterious, unknown and great evil. Upon hearing the truth you are instructed to go to the heliodor and meet the king, and there the plot thickens, and the game really gets going, plot-wise.
Dragon Quest XI is a great RPG with a great battle system the will keep you hooked, the monster design is just godly, Dragon Ball Z creator, Akira Toriyama’s designs of the heroes and especially the monsters are simply amazing and feel fresh when you encounter new types of creatures.
On the other hand, you will face so many reskins of enemies, this was actually one of the worst cases of reskins I have ever seen in a game, there have been times I’ve seen a monster at least four times, just in different colors, there have been times I would see a boss, just in a different color, at another point in the game, and seeing as the lead designer of the game is a fabled artist and creator, I would have liked to see some more variety other than a simple re-coloring of a monster.
The boss fights are pretty basic, but once again each boss battle you will find yourself fighting a beautifully crafted and designed enemy and depending on how you approach the game and your skill disposition you will have it easy or maybe hard.
One of the best feelings in the game is the epicness of it all, you don’t feel like hero number one vs evil guy number one, you are actually not introduced to the main antagonist of the game until around the halfway point.
It doesn’t sound like a good thing, but actually, just going around the land, helping people out and collecting new party members feels pretty good, and some of the story plots that don’t deal mainly with the villain actually had me moved and intrigued, from mermaids and juiced up brawlers, you will meet plenty of people that keep you interested and wanting more.
The side quests, on the other hand, is a whole different thing from the main plot, they feel totally uninspiring and unoriginal, go there, kill that, use that skill, nothing to write home about, and the rewards do not feel worthy of the grind that follows those tedious side quests.
A great feature that I truly appreciated is the experience from the battles is shared with all the party members and not only those that participated in the fight, it’s a great thing because all of the RPG’s that try to keep it real and make you actually play with party members you don’t necessarily want to play with are just burdening the players.
A thing that bugged me in the game is a weird logic in the skills, most of the AOE(area of effect)skills and spells that you will use, will be against groups of enemies, meaning if you fight a slime and a skeleton, your AOE won’t hit them both, but when a foe will use a similar spell, he will hit your whole party, weird, not critical, but just dumb logic.
At the end of it all, Dragon Quest XI is a great RPG, maybe it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and maybe there are some things that could have been made better and more interesting, but it’s a great experience with a big, lush, colorful world that will leave you hooked for hours and hours and therefore for me it’s totally a…
DEAL!
Dragon Quest XI is available on the PlayStation 4 and PC.