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Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Review


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521794628_DragonQuestXISboxart.png.02230cc38d5f394ac643394cc6dd2acd.pngWhy is it that Dragon Quest has never reached quite the same popularity in the West as it has in Japan? For over thirty years the franchise has been a titan in the gaming industry, though the vast majority of that influence and importance comes from Japanese sales. Perhaps it's because the series has never been one to stray too far from its classic RPG roots. The mainline games have always had a unifying similarity, one that harkens back to more text-based RPG adventures. Like its predecessors, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age doesn't try to reinvent itself, instead relying on familiar design elements and classic gameplay. And the result is one of the best experiences you can have on the Switch.
 
In XI S you play as the Luminary, a hero marked from birth, destined to defeat the Dark One and save the world. Upon setting out on your adventure you encounter all manner of hardship as every town you visit seems to be suffering from some problem that you'll need to help fix, and of course you'll find plenty of allies on the journey as well. The story in XI S doesn't try to be anything too fancy, and it really doesn't need to. Even across the long play time of the game the adventure never really flags thanks to the wide assortment of side characters you meet and help. More importantly, you can't help but be charmed by the playable characters. The main hero might be a typical silent protagonist, but getting to know the other characters and helping them on their personal journeys more than makes up for a few clichés along the way.
 
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XI S is all about classic DQ action. Familiar weapon/item names, memorable monster designs from over the years, and classic turn-based battles make the gameplay instantly familiar to anyone that has played a DQ title before. There are a few minor new frills, such as the pep system that gives a character a temporary power boost and access to special combo abilities with teammates currently in the battle. For the most part though, XI S follows the formula set by past games in the series, and it works beautifully. It may not be particularly new, but there's something to be said for just doing the classic formula so well. This is quintessential RPG action, and fans of the genre will love seeing the familiar mechanics at play in a game that is so vast and engaging.
 
Because even if the basic gameplay feels standard, it is no less enthralling than any other modern RPG. XI S pulls you into the adventure with not just charming characters but a richly customizable combat experience that allows you to customize your characters' skills as they level up. Every character has an elaborate skill tree that allows you to build them as you like. Each character can use a couple of different weapons, but in the interest of using your skill points wisely you'll probably focus on one weapon for each character so you can reach the highest skills. It's a simple bit of customization but highly addictive, especially when you see a particularly powerful skill just out of reach, pushing you to level grind a little. And don't worry, you can easily reset you skill points at any save point/priest, so the game doesn't punish you for experimenting a little before finding the ideal set-up.
 
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It also helps that, on the game's standard difficulty setting, XI S is never very challenging. That doesn't mean you can totally drop your guard while playing, but this isn't the kind of RPG that requires heavy level grinding or sticking to one specific strategy to overcome bosses. You're pretty free to cook up whatever party composition or strategy you want, even swapping characters in battle at will. The overarching format of the game is classic linear RPG, but it has none of the rigidity that characterizes those games—you even recover all HP and MP every time you level up! Ultimately it feels like the best of both worlds.
 
One final note on the game's customization options and ease of difficulty: early in the adventure you pick up an item called the Fun-Sized Forge, which allows you to craft weapons and armor with materials collected from monsters or found while exploring. Unlike games with similar crafting mechanics, this one is incredibly convenient and easy to use. For one thing, you can use the forge anywhere. Whether you're at a campsite or standing in the middle of a monster-infested dungeon, you can whip out the forge and craft new equipment, which is almost ridiculously convenient. You're also able to re-forge almost any of the equipment you already have, so even if you find a better sword than the one you've crafted previously, you can still spruce it up a little. Finally, if you're missing an ingredient you can purchase it right there in the forging menu—no need to find the right merchant who carries that specific item. Some materials can't be bought like this—generally the most rare materials in the game—but still, it's incredibly handy, especially since spending some gold on materials is pretty much always cheaper than buying new equipment outright. The forging process is also a mini-game where you try to temper the item to just the right quality which is actually pretty fun. And, perhaps not surprisingly, there's very little penalty for failing—you still get the item and can just re-forge it to try again. The Fun-Sized Forge is perhaps the best encapsulation of the game's sense of difficulty: incredibly lenient on the player, yet still charming and engaging.
 
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And it's particularly impressive that XI S maintains that charm and engagement throughout the entirety of its length. At minimum you can expect around sixty hours of play time out of this game, not to mention the various side quests you can tackle, including the Tickington quests that allow you to revisit the previous ten DQ games, which is a particularly fun feature for fans of the series that can recognize the key characters and locations of past adventures. On top of all of this, XI S also has a fairly extensive post-game with additional tasks for your party to accomplish. Suffice it to say you're getting your money's worth with this one.
 
Another aspect of DQ that has never wavered over the years is the delightful artwork of Akira Toriyama. His style is so distinctly recognizable: it's always bright, colorful, and elegantly simple—even the monster designs have a goofy charm to them, notably the iconic Slime mascot. The recognizable artwork helps drive home the sense of DQ as an enduring, familiar pillar of gaming, a dependable friend for hours of classic RPG fun. And Toriyama's art style manages to stay just as charming with 3D character designs, though one of the coolest features in XI S is the ability to swap to 2D graphics, in case you want to really capture that classic RPG vibe. The best part is that every aspect of the game has a more traditional style as well while in 2D mode, e.g. battles play out more like old school RPGs where you select every character's action first then they play out depending on each character's speed. However, swapping between 3D and 2D can be a little inconvenient since you have to start from the beginning of a chapter/checkpoint, which means that if you decide to swap while in the middle of a chapter you'll lose all of your progress up to that point. It would have been great to be able to swap without that restriction in place.
 
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Like the visuals, the music also has plenty of familiar beats to it—longtime fans will no doubt feel a swell of nostalgia when the series fanfare first kicks in. There are plenty of great songs to enjoy in XI S, and like swapping between 3D and 2D you have two options at play. The original game was released with MIDI audio, which is one option here, or you can opt for the full orchestral arrangement for every song in the game, which is simply fantastic. This version of the game is also fully voiced, which adds a fun layer of personality to all of the silly dialogue found throughout the adventure. Plus you're able to choose between English and Japanese voices if you're the type to stick to the original audio as closely as possible.
 
Dragon Quest has never been as flashy as other RPGs, but at this point I doubt fans would have it any other way. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age has the same sense of heartwarming charm, classic battle system, and sprawling amount of content as past games, making it an old school RPG fan's dream. There's something to be said for taking a classic formula and executing it so perfectly, and that's really the best description of Dragon Quest XI S that there is. It may not have wild surprises for longtime RPG or Dragon Quest aficionados, but it's hard to worry about that while enjoying a sprawling, beautifully designed adventure.
 
Rating: 9 out of 10 Slimes
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I thought this review was up already but then again this is a lengthy RPG.

 

I've bought the game but haven't played it yet because I transferred  my 10 demo adventure to the full game so I feel like I got a good taste the game. I made it to the city to get me to the tree right after getting the twin mage sisters. So I can't wait to play this game. I would of already but I must finish the last 2 stories in FH: TH before I tackle another RPG. I'm like in the last 4 chapters of the BL. I already finished the GD 2 months ago. Just need to do BE.

 

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16 hours ago, DLurkster said:

I thought this review was up already but then again this is a lengthy RPG.

 

I've bought the game but haven't played it yet because I transferred  my 10 demo adventure to the full game so I feel like I got a good taste the game. I made it to the city to get me to the tree right after getting the twin mage sisters. So I can't wait to play this game. I would of already but I must finish the last 2 stories in FH: TH before I tackle another RPG. I'm like in the last 4 chapters of the BL. I already finished the GD 2 months ago. Just need to do BE.

 

 

Yeah I decided to wait until I finished the main story before writing the review, so it was almost an entire month of playing before I started writing!

 

I really need to get back to Three Houses as well. I'm in the middle of a Blue Lions playthrough, but put it on hold while playing Dragon Quest. As soon as I finish the post-game content though I'll be right back to the academy!

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Yeah I am almost 70 hours in, in the “post-game”, and I love every minute of it.


Although the difficulty does spike in the post-game (or what I prefer to call Act 3 due to its size and breadth), in my opinion. I was perfectly fine all game without grinding, but about halfway into the post-game I am finding it much more challenging all of a sudden. Which is fine, I mean this is a traditional JRPG, but the sudden change was a little jarring. 
 

Still a fantastic game though and I really can’t recommend it enough. Especially the Switch version, which appears to ironically be the superior one with how much extra love it got, some of which you mentioned above. From what I can tell as well the graphics hold up fairly well when compared to other versions, so that alone wouldn’t be much of a reason to choose any other system over Switch if one had the choice.

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The difficulty definitely spikes in the post-game, that surprised me. But it's not too bad for me so far, just means I have to play thoughtfully instead of breezing through a lot of the game's boss fights like in the main adventure. And more than ever it's worth pursuing every side quest to earn bonuses/powerful equipment.

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