Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age (Switch)
You were born with a mysterious birthmark and spirited away from a kingdom that was destroyed by monsters. You grew up in a simple little village and accidentally discover your destiny as the Luminary during a local coming-of-age ritual. So begins a world-spanning quest guided by the floating tree Yggdrasil to defeat an evil Dark Lord who has returned after centuries away.
One of the features of the Switch version of this game is the ability to switch between 3D and 2D mode (the latter previously only being available for a set of sidequests). The normal 3D version reminds me heavily of Dragon Quest 8 (which, admittedly, I haven’t played in over a decade). DQ9 was much more a single-character, low-personality, wandering hero sort of game. This goes back to the “party with actual personality” model. (I have no idea what DQ10 did; it wasn’t released in the US and I’ve never played it.) The skill system is similar to both of those games, where each character has a set list of “tracks” they can spend their skill points to move up; though with elements of the FF12 License Grid added. I appreciate the ability to customize, though most of the big options aren’t really choices: You can focus your few spellcasters into fighters, but there isn’t a lot of value to doing so.
The 2D version of the game is clearly an “abbreviated” version; you’re obviously supposed to play the full game first. Also, for all the “you can switch any time” commentary, you’re sent back to specific points in the story when you switch, so you’ll likely end up replaying a bunch of stuff. I actually used it as a “New Game Plus” mode, because ARR wanted to start playing after I’d already reached the late-game.
The plot is fairly linear, but opens up in a bunch of places and even when it doesn’t let you do events out of order (and several times it does!) it often lets you visit places out of order to access chests and shops early. In the second segment of the game, you have a huge range of time in which you can do several of the quests; and in the third segment you can do almost everything in whatever order you want.
I appreciate a lot of the convenience factors they’ve added, especially since recently playing DQ3. There’s a crafting system, and you can access it pretty much any time. There are lots of ways to save (and heal) including random world map campsites. You can change weapons in battle and there are plenty of autobattle options if you want them. You can also toggle the “wander around during combat” camera in favor of the classic style. You can summon a horse to speed around the world map, and there are visible encounters you can generally avoid rather than random battles. There’s a quest log with fairly thorough notes. And every time you load up the game, you get a recap of where you are and what you’re doing. Decades of experience and feedback went into this game, clearly.
Similarly, the grinding is both reduced and disguised. If you do sidequests when they become available, you’re almost always going to be strong enough to beat the plot quests. Despite the fact you can jump back to earlier in the game, most points where you can go in underpowered and get frustrated help you out with a guest character-and the guest characters have infinite HP, regularly use healing spells or items on you, and sometimes have an ability to take damage in your place.
The game is fairly neatly divided into thirds, each of with plenty of plot and exploration: There’s a climatic event when you reach Yggdrasil that marks the beginning of the second segment, and the game officially ends (and the credits roll) after the final dungeon of the second segment. The third segment-which continues the plot (and pays off several setups) and has a grand selection of new events, large and small-is technically the postgame. There’s also a post-post-game with a bunch of megabosses, but that’s just there for the hardcore crowd.
(While the game is generally very good about reminding you that you can use weapons as items in battle, the hint of how to make the true final boss beatable is really obscure: Use the Super Sword of Light as an item on him.)
Overall: I’m strongly reminded of Final Fantasy 9, in that this is full of series call-backs and references, and though it stands on its own with a new independent plot, many things are there specifically for the fans. And as I noted years ago when DQ9 did it, I love the fact they embraced “Erdrick” as the name of the legendary hero from the original trilogy, both for nostalgia and because “Loto” was stupid.
One of the features of the Switch version of this game is the ability to switch between 3D and 2D mode (the latter previously only being available for a set of sidequests). The normal 3D version reminds me heavily of Dragon Quest 8 (which, admittedly, I haven’t played in over a decade). DQ9 was much more a single-character, low-personality, wandering hero sort of game. This goes back to the “party with actual personality” model. (I have no idea what DQ10 did; it wasn’t released in the US and I’ve never played it.) The skill system is similar to both of those games, where each character has a set list of “tracks” they can spend their skill points to move up; though with elements of the FF12 License Grid added. I appreciate the ability to customize, though most of the big options aren’t really choices: You can focus your few spellcasters into fighters, but there isn’t a lot of value to doing so.
The 2D version of the game is clearly an “abbreviated” version; you’re obviously supposed to play the full game first. Also, for all the “you can switch any time” commentary, you’re sent back to specific points in the story when you switch, so you’ll likely end up replaying a bunch of stuff. I actually used it as a “New Game Plus” mode, because ARR wanted to start playing after I’d already reached the late-game.
The plot is fairly linear, but opens up in a bunch of places and even when it doesn’t let you do events out of order (and several times it does!) it often lets you visit places out of order to access chests and shops early. In the second segment of the game, you have a huge range of time in which you can do several of the quests; and in the third segment you can do almost everything in whatever order you want.
I appreciate a lot of the convenience factors they’ve added, especially since recently playing DQ3. There’s a crafting system, and you can access it pretty much any time. There are lots of ways to save (and heal) including random world map campsites. You can change weapons in battle and there are plenty of autobattle options if you want them. You can also toggle the “wander around during combat” camera in favor of the classic style. You can summon a horse to speed around the world map, and there are visible encounters you can generally avoid rather than random battles. There’s a quest log with fairly thorough notes. And every time you load up the game, you get a recap of where you are and what you’re doing. Decades of experience and feedback went into this game, clearly.
Similarly, the grinding is both reduced and disguised. If you do sidequests when they become available, you’re almost always going to be strong enough to beat the plot quests. Despite the fact you can jump back to earlier in the game, most points where you can go in underpowered and get frustrated help you out with a guest character-and the guest characters have infinite HP, regularly use healing spells or items on you, and sometimes have an ability to take damage in your place.
The game is fairly neatly divided into thirds, each of with plenty of plot and exploration: There’s a climatic event when you reach Yggdrasil that marks the beginning of the second segment, and the game officially ends (and the credits roll) after the final dungeon of the second segment. The third segment-which continues the plot (and pays off several setups) and has a grand selection of new events, large and small-is technically the postgame. There’s also a post-post-game with a bunch of megabosses, but that’s just there for the hardcore crowd.
(While the game is generally very good about reminding you that you can use weapons as items in battle, the hint of how to make the true final boss beatable is really obscure: Use the Super Sword of Light as an item on him.)
Overall: I’m strongly reminded of Final Fantasy 9, in that this is full of series call-backs and references, and though it stands on its own with a new independent plot, many things are there specifically for the fans. And as I noted years ago when DQ9 did it, I love the fact they embraced “Erdrick” as the name of the legendary hero from the original trilogy, both for nostalgia and because “Loto” was stupid.