Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Review
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
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By Jared Petty
Updated: Apr 21, 2020 1:24 am
Posted: Aug 28, 2018 12:58 pm
Dragon Quest XI is a distilled, energetic, mathematically elegant epic that takes what I love most about traditional dungeon crawlers and masterfully iterates on the formula. On the surface, Dragon Quest XI seems to be a simple return to the single-player RPG format, after deviating into MMO territory for Dragon Quest X. But that simplicity is a purposefully-crafted facade that melts away after a little time in the immense, complex world. Dragon Quest isn’t simple… it’s pure. I’ve been plugging away in Dragon Quest XI’s sprawling environments for well over 65 hours and I just want to keep going.LoadingCheck out a large chunk of the latest Dragon Quest XI footage from last week at Gamescom 2018 above.
Dragon Quest XI battles prove that turn-based battles can be absolutely nail-biting. Combat is snappy, tactically satisfying, and full of surprises. The vast menagerie of monsters presents unique challenges in every fight, and I found myself eagerly rushing toward new types of enemies just to see what new twists they threw my way. Boss battles get downright tense, and my entire party was wiped out more than once, though never often enough to feel frustrating.
With the exception of a few stints on the high seas, there are no random encounters in Dragon Quest XI. Every enemy is lavishly depicted in the open world, and the Akira Toriyama-designed monsters spring to life with gorgeously fluid animations on my stock PS4. The best parts of Dragon Quest are the moments where I’m battling the wonderful beasties. There are hundreds of the suckers, and while some are simple color variations, their abilities change up enough to keep things tense and surprising. It was also easy to evade foes I didn’t feel like fighting thanks to a visual indicator and alarm that sounded when I got too close.
Weaker groups of enemies fled when they saw me, which made me feel powerful and also kept me from stumbling into time-wasting encounters with monsters well below my level.
This monster was having a great day and then this happened.
I appreciated the return of the powerful Zoom spell which allowed me to move between locations at my leisure, but I often choose to ride my speedy horse, take in the scenery, fight some monsters, and hunt for crafting resources. I had a blast on horseback bowling over monsters who bounced of my thundering hooves like rubbery tennis balls. Less fun but more useful were monster mounts I captured after winning battles with riders which I could use to scale sheer walls, leap over obstacles, and fly through the air. None of these could be used outside of pre-defined areas, but I enjoyed using their special abilities to root out hidden treasures.
Dragon Quest XI is really just one vast, beautiful treasure-stuffed dungeon stretching off near-endlessly in every direction, all set against a stirring orchestral backdrop.
One of Dragon Quest XI’s true joys is the sheer magnitude of useful gear scattered around waiting to be discovered. Odds were that if I spotted an out-of-the-way corner, there was useful loot concealed nearby. My curiosity was generously and consistently rewarded.
There’s always something awesome behind a waterfall.
Many of these hidden items were rare crafting materials and recipes I could weave together into an array of powerful equipment. The crafting element of Dragon Quest XI starts out beguilingly simple, but as I leveled up, the forging minigames grew complex and engaging, yet crafting remained entirely optional. I could have just sold all my valuable crafting discoveries to purchase equipment in shops good enough to get the job done, but crafting was fun, and it allowed me to indulge my perfectionist personality, absolutely maximizing the stats of every character.
The voice work in Dragon Quest XI generally high quality, but I chose early on to mute character dialogue in favor of subtitles.
I prefer to speed through conversations in any RPG I play, but in this case, the liberal application of accents was distracting.
The text localization is excellent, with the most impressive collection of clever English puns I’ve ever encountered in a translated video game. A town where residents spoke in haiku was an especially impressive feat of creativity. But while townspeople have a lot to say, very little of it is vital, so I wasted little time getting back to stabbing and searching.
DQ11’s characters were designed by Akira Toriyama, creator of Dragon Ball.
For long-time Dragon Quest fans, there’s plenty to like, with nods and homages to past games scattered all over the landscape. Mini medals, familiar spells, metal slimes, and sprawling casinos are all back, as well as some other more spoilery winks. But I could have thoroughly enjoyed Dragon Quest without any context from previous games whatsoever. The mash-up of the symphonic instrumental score accompanied by subtle eight-bit sound effects works startlingly well, functioning as more than just a gimmick, but rather a thoughtful, resonant musical connection between past and present.
Dragon Quest XI is a throwback in at least one negative way: It’s uneven story simply isn’t a match for its mechanics. Some of the beats could have been far more engaging with just a little more refinement. I’d also be remiss not to mention some of the cringe-inducing sexualization present in Dragon Quest XI. What does a side quest tasking me to dress up female party members like fetishized bunny girls really add to the Dragon Quest experience?
Dragon Quest’s long tradition of “puff-puff,” a pseudo-sexual metaphor coined by Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama, also returns in Dragon Quest XI. Dragon Quest games have long included semi-lewd puff-puff references as a sort of Easter egg, and Echoes of an Elusive Age leans too heavily into that tradition. At times it’s played for laughs… a cliffside puff-puff turns out to be just some bungee jumping, and another proves nothing more than an innocent makeup application. But one optional encounter really put me off. I was invited into a girl’s dim bedroom where I received a puff-puff in a dim room, and when the lights came back on, her father was standing there.
She revealed that he’d delivered the puff-puff in the dark. The consent implications troubled me. I didn’t find it funny.
Dragon Quest XI’s party members are visually distinctive, but I wasn’t especially captivated by their personalities. The silent hero, The Luminary, is a deliberately blank slate. He’s the Chosen One destined to save the world, a fact which Dragon Quest reminded me of A LOT. The rest of the party all experience growth and change as the story progresses, but very little of what happens is a real surprise — though the rote narrative improves considerably in Dragon Quest XI’s second half.LoadingGet a glimpse of all of the characters (and hear their accents) in this new character-focused trailer.
Despite having their own rather bland story arcs, the other party characters become far more interesting when you focus on their stats. Every character’s skill tree advances meaningfully, and each character’s distinctive combat abilities complement the party.
And I could shuffle party members in and out mid-battle to adapt to any situation. When things went wrong in battle, I was confident that I could come back stronger or better prepared and try again with little penalty. Dragon Quest XI also nails accessibility by creating a challenging system that also makes allowances for players of any skill level.
Dragon Quest XI excels when it emphasizes fighting bad guys, exploring dungeons, and finding treasure. It’s a visual feast populated by a cast of colorful monsters more engrossing than its main characters. Uneven story beats and some icky bits sometimes slow Dragon Quest down, but superb mechanics remain the focus, making Echoes of an Elusive Age a top-tier JRPG for the modern age.
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age Review
great
A massive, masterful, «traditional» RPG that focuses more on combat mechanics, loot, and exploration than story.
Jared Petty
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Dragon Quest Treasures Review (Switch)
- Reviews
- Nintendo Switch
- Dragon Quest
- Square Enix
Taking the JRPG formula back to basics
Version Reviewed: European
- review by Trent Cannon
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The Dragon Quest series is a staple in the JRPG community, continually churning out games of varying quality for more than 35 years.
The latest entry in this seminal franchise is Dragon Quest Treasures, a spin-off from the mainline series, with many of the standard Dragon Quest tropes packaged into one of the most accessible JRPG experiences out there. While that translates into this game being a good starting point for fans new to the genre and the series, it won’t pose much of a challenge for seasoned treasure hunters.
Dragon Quest Treasures features a pair of familiar faces from the outset. Erik, who served as a party member in Dragon Quest XI, and his younger sister Mia toil away onboard a Viking ship searching for treasurers to plunder. Here is the first hint that this game is aimed at a younger audience, as the Vikings are presented as far more friendly and jolly than they were in Dragon Quest XI. Erik and Mia are aged down as well, with younger features and a more enthusiastic attitude befitting this cheerier adventure.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
The plot maintains this age-appropriate feeling throughout, along with a much shorter playtime.
Fans expecting to sink 100 hours into this game as they did with the mainline predecessors will find themselves disappointed. Of course, there is still a looming peril hanging over the world, but it doesn’t get the sense of grand scale that JRPG fans might expect. Even the last time we saw Erik and Mia, they were in the midst of a far more apocalyptic situation than they find themselves in here.
The first hour or so of this game is spent introducing the basics of gameplay, which focuses less on combat and more on seeking out and collecting treasures. You’ll even learn the mechanics for recruiting monsters and gathering treasure well before you swing your dagger. Increasing your treasure hoard’s size and value is one of the main ways that you’ll advance the plot; while you’ll do a fair bit of hacking and slashing on your way, combat feels decidedly secondary to the pursuit of valuables.
When you do need to get your dagger out, though, combat is very straightforward, particularly in the first several hours of the game.
It just requires players to bash the attack button to perform their main combo until the monster in question is vanquished. Occasionally, you’ll impress monsters so much with your skill that they’ll become available to recruit at your base, which will allow you to build a more powerful party to tackle bigger monsters and travel further into the unknown on your quest for the Dragon Stones. Honestly, the monsters in our party quickly became stronger than either Erik or Mia and could tackle the enemies on the field without our help unless we tried to take on something much higher level.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
Monster companions also become central to helping you travel across the world and the different terrains. Each one comes with a ‘Forte’, which is an ability that helps players reach new places on the map. It is a good touch that encourages players not to focus on a monster’s battle stats when deciding their party makeup. Having a wide range of Fortes in the party will allow you to leave no stone unturned in your quest for treasure.
Even though they are presented as dual protagonists in this game, you’ll seldom get to see both Erik and Mia in action together. Players can control the sibling of their choice, leaving the other behind to mind the home base and take the monsters not in the party on smaller errands to level them up. Both Erik and Mia play the exact same way, and the game even tells you it doesn’t matter which one you control. You can switch between them every time you head back to your base if you want, and progress with one is transferred to the other, resulting in the choice being a purely cosmetic one.
Erik and Mia both being playable feels like a missed opportunity to add a much-needed wrinkle to the gameplay. Because both the protagonists play the same and have nearly identical personalities, it made the dual protagonist feature feel unnecessary. Giving them different abilities would have at least opened up some additional puzzle-solving opportunities by switching between them.
Every mechanic in Dragon Quest Treasures is a good, if simplified, take on a JRPG mechanic, adding to the feeling that this game is for younger players.
Finding treasure is just a case of issuing a command and being pointed in the right direction by your magical dagger. When you get close enough, your monster companions will have a ‘vision’ of where it is, forcing you to check your surroundings until you spot it and dig it up. It is a fun mechanic, though it becomes repetitive after a few hours of doing it.Though there is a fun visual nod to how each monster sees things in a slightly different way. Dracky companions see the world in black and white and orcs have a kind of ultraviolet vision, for example. It is a small touch that makes the monster-vision moments feel like more than just getting a different snapshot to help you find the treasure.
Dragon Quest Treasures has some limited online functionality which consists of entering other players’ “worlds” and hiding a copy of your own treasure on one of the floating islands there. It wasn’t activated when we tried to test it ahead of release, but it seems intended to encourage players to help each other build their treasure hoards.
You can also send some of your monsters to other bases as part of their welcoming party, which is a purely cosmetic touch but could be an exciting way to see just what sort of monsters are out there to recruit.
The gameplay and plot might be more kid-friendly fare, but this is still a Dragon Quest game, which comes with certain expectations. The music sounds right at home in the series, hitting all the dramatic highs and sombre notes that you’d expect. The animation and character designs are colourful and full of personality and charm, from the massive boss battles to the small touches like how Erik and Mia put their daggers away with a dramatic flourish. It isn’t the best-looking Dragon Quest game out there but it is still beautiful to see and hear it all in action.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Dragon Quest Treasures plays like an introduction to JRPGs, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of fun to be had in it. The characters are simple but charming and the monsters all have the classic Dragon Quest designs that returning fans will expect, while the focus on exploration over combat makes this entry perfect for those who want a more relaxed gameplay experience.
If you’ve got a young person in your life that is curious about JRPGs, this is a great way to get them hooked on the genre.
If you go in expecting to sink 100 hours into Dragon Quest Treasures or think you’ll get the same kind of intricate plot that the series is known for, you’ll come away disappointed. However, if you are a younger gamer that is itching for a taste of what a JRPG is like or you just want something laid back to tackle, there is a lot of fun to be had here. Everything you’d expect in a JRPG is in this game, just stripped back to the basics, all adorned with that timeless Dragon Quest charm.
- A simplified JRPG experience for new players
- Charming characters and monsters
- Fun nods to the wider Dragon Quest series
- The treasure hunting focus makes game feel distinct
- Kid-friendly focus might not gel with seasoned fans
- Dual protagonists don’t add much
- Won’t pose much of a challenge
Great 8/10
Scoring Policy
Review copy provided by Square Enix
Description of the quest
WHITE DRAGON — This is a modern multi-stage mystical fantasy quest for children from 6 years old and teenagers up to 16 years old of a new format in the world.
Players will have the opportunity to choose their hero, visit the astrologer’s home, earn in-game money and crystals, level up, fight monsters, and even join their side. It’s not just a struggle to get out. This is an opportunity in real life, without glasses and gadgets, to find yourself a character of a legend here and now! Not in words and not in fantasies, but seeing with my own eyes, receiving rewards with my own efforts, feeling the battle with my own weapons. Face to face with the enemy. You haven’t tried this yet. nine0005
HOW THE GAME IS GOING ON
Before the team of players starts to complete the tasks, they are instructed and listen to a short introduction about the legend.
Next, each player chooses the role of one of the heroes: Angel, Elf/Nymph, Knight/Valkyrie and receives a card and game attributes of his hero.
Let’s start the tasks. We listen to a small part of the legend and get the task in the form of a question. Each answer reveals to us the secret of the legend.
For each completed task, players receive coins and crystals, for which they buy pumping for their heroes. That is, they take the hero to a new level and get an improvement in the attributes of their hero. Everything is like in a computer game. nine0005
At the end of the game time, the heroes can meet the monsters of the dark part of the quest and fight them.
At the end of the game, all stages and upgrades of heroes are saved and marked on the cards. The cards are handed over, and on the next visit, the heroes can continue the game in our quest, discovering more and more secrets.
Actors will be involved.
Groups of children from 6 to 9 years old must be accompanied by an administrator in the quest rooms — 300 UAH per group of up to 10 children. nine0004
Depending on the age and characteristics of the child, we recommend that parents choose the format of the quest. That is, the intensity of the use of frightening elements: visual, sound, tactile, animator.
The choice does not affect the cost. Below are our recommendations for the format depending on age:
6-8 years old — LIGHT (only animator) + adult must be accompanied
9-11 years old — MEDIUM (Animator + sound + visual). Can be accompanied by an adult for 9years
12-14 years old — HARD (Medium + blackout). Accompanying is not required
14-16 years old — EXTRA HARD (Medium + dimming + tactile). Escort is not required.
EXIT QUEST «ALTAR» is 2 hours of sports, team and logic tasks. We get magical artifacts, open chests, find surprises and rewards. And digging and breaking and cracking codes.
Description:
The quest will take place in the 411 Battery park or on the territory of your cafe / private house and is indirectly connected with the story of the White Dragon quest. nine0005
According to legend, the witch of the dragon valley performed a ritual of dividing the dark and light parts of the valley with a magical portal.
During one of the battles between dark and light entities, the Warlocks managed to capture the sword of the Dragons, and thereby deprive both the sword and the portal of their magical power. Since that day, CHAOS has descended on the Dragon Valley. And dark creatures could freely penetrate the territory of civilians.
In order to restore the balance of good and evil in the Dragon Valley, the children need to re-perform the rite by collecting magical artifacts and placing them on the altar. nine0005
The quest consists of sports, team and logic tasks.
Duration about 2 hours
Presenters and actors will be involved. And also during the game, children will find a surprise — a small treasure from the gnome, and at the end of the game they will receive gifts from the witch in the form of sweets, the birthday boy receives an additional small gift.
Save the Dragon
Game Description
- Reviews
Save the Dragon.
nine0078 Have you heard that terrible and terrible dragons always kidnap young princesses, and brave knights rush to the rescue and rescue captives from the clawed clutches of monsters? Forget! In fact, everything is exactly the opposite: princes and princesses go on an equal footing to save the unfortunate dragon, and it is guarded by insidious sorcerers throwing boulders from the highest towers of their fortress.
Fateful adventure. In the board game Save the Dragon, you take on the role of heirs to the throne, who know that the hero who manages to free the mythical lizard will save the whole kingdom! To do this, you just need to go up to the doors of the dungeon and be the first to get inside … The main thing is to dodge the rolling stones in time! Ready to start conquering the tower? Then roll the die to find out how many steps you can go this time. nine0005
Step by step… Oh! The figurines of princes and princesses start climbing from the lowest levels of a special ladder.
With the Move die, they make one to three moves per turn, but often an additional Action die roll is required, which forces the player to either move a door or shield, or roll a boulder down one of the open passages onto their opponents. You can hide from him behind a special shield, but be prepared for any surprises, as the trajectory of the fall is almost unpredictable. nine0005 Gameplay of Save the Dragon Board Game Components of the Save the Dragon Board Game
Go to battle with renewed vigor. If your figure is at the bottom again, take the bonus token. While moving, it can be dropped to take an extra step. One player can have up to three bonus tokens at the same time, but it makes no sense to accumulate them, because your task is to go through all nine steps of the ladder as quickly as possible and enter the dungeon in order to free the dragon and defeat the sorcerers. nine0005
For the whole family. The board game Save the Dragon is ideal for the youngest players, especially since, according to a special rule, they can not move the door and the shield.
