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Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
PC (Steam)
Thank You, Square-Enix!
4.5/5 stars
It has been nearly a decade since Square Enix disappointed me with the sub-par and inauthentic release of “Dragon Quest 9” in 2009 for the Nintendo DS. I didn’t have many, if any, kind things to say about that entry in the world’s first and most consistently good console RPG franchise. However, I was willing to give Square Enix the benefit of the doubt and hoped that the sequel would, once again, be on a real console instead of a handheld and, naturally, not suck quite so much. That sequel, “Dragon Quest 10,” turned out to be a Japan-only subscription-based MMORPG. Had it merely been Japan-only, someone would have made a fanslation, and I could have checked it out via unofficial channels, but with an MMO subscription tied to it as well, it automatically fell to the bottom of the list of all things ‘Dragon Quest’ (yes, right down there with the Roguelike spinoffs starring “Dragon Quest 4’s” arms merchant, Taloon). I was nearly convinced that Square Enix was as intent on ruining ‘Dragon Quest’ as they have been on (successfully) ruining ‘Final Fantasy,’ so with a heavy heart, I wrote off the primordial console RPG franchise as a lost cause. More spinoffs titles, this time based on Tecmo-Koei’s mind-numbing Musou formula only cemented my opinion.
But then word of “Dragon Quest 11” (“DQ11”) began to hit some of my favorite gaming news outlets. It looked to cleave much closer to the series high points on the SNES and PS2 than it diverged from them. Even better, the game’s director stated flat out that they were done experimenting with DLC, microtransaction, and online features in ‘Dragon Quest,’ and that “DQ11” would be a complete, traditional game in every way shape and form. Even better, as a franchise that only hits the strongest and most popular platforms of the time (hence the misbegotten notion of releasing the 9th entry exclusively on the DS), “DQ11” would be hitting several platforms on various sides of the Pacific Ocean, with a 3DS version remaining solely in Japan, while the West would receive a PlayStation 4 version, a Nintendo Switch version (eventually), and – for the first time ever – a PC version.
With no platform favoritism roadblocks between myself and this latest sequel in one of my favorite RPG franchises, as well as promises of good corporate behavior on the part of Square Enix, I found myself willing to spring for a game at launch for the first time in over a decade. But was it worth it? Damn right, it was worth it!
Presentation
“DQ11’s” presentation is ultimately its low point for a variety of reasons. “DQ11” is a ‘modern’ Square Enix game, and thus was developed using modern techniques. It’s not built on an in-house, proprietary engine like most of its predecessors, but is instead built on the Unreal Engine like most Western PC games. As a result, it clearly didn’t take as much of the development time or budget to put together the game world from a visual perspective, while allowing the Unreal Engine’s shortcomings to shine through. Like “Dragon Quest 8,” “DQ11” strives to authentically replicate the iconic anime/manga style of Japanese comic icon, Akira Toriyama (of ‘Dragon Ball’ fame). Where “Dragon Quest 8” employed cell shading to magnificent effect, “DQ11” goes for a more realistic look, with volumetrics, bump mapping, detailed textures, and all that. It looks very good for what it tries to do, but I fear that these realistic textures will age with less grace than cell shading. Thanks to the Unreal Engine, “DQ11” employs a Level of Detail (LoD) system, which replaces 3D environmental objects with higher resolution versions as the player moves their point of view closer to them. As a result, objects have a tendency to twitch and jitter around as they’re replaced on the fly, and there’s occasionally noticeable texture pop-in and jaggies. While the programmers at Square Enix did a fine job of minimizing these downsides, they are present nonetheless.
The fact that “Dragon Quest 11” runs with max settings on a gaming PC built mostly in 2012 with midrange hardware is a great accomplishment. The framerates are incredibly solid, and I only noticed drops during certain combat animations, which have been confirmed to be 30fps animations on everyone’s hardware – even high-enders.
The audio in “DQ11” is a rather mixed bag, and contributes the most penalties to the game’s presentation score. The voiceacting is excellent almost entirely across the board, as one would expect after the excellence of “Dragon Quest 8,” (though I couldn’t help but be annoyed by the one supporting character whose voice sounds like Yakko from the Animaniacs trying to do a Christopher Walken impersonation). The music, however, was phoned in something awful.
‘Dragon Quest’s’ composer from the very beginning has been one Koichi Sugiyama. He’s responsible for numerous iconic tunes from the series’ 30-year run. And in “DQ11,” the good portions of the soundtrack are almost entirely remixes of iconic tunes from the series’ 30-year run! The handful of original tunes aren’t nearly as catchy as the remixes. However, the biggest disappointment regarding “DQ11’s” soundtrack is the fact that Square Enix took the lazy, cheap route, and instead of including a full-blown orchestral soundtrack like they did in “Dragon Quest 8” (a PlayStation 2 game released in 2004 on one DVD, I must point out), they only included orchestral music during a handful of pre-rendered cutscenes and the title screen, with the rest of the soundtrack presented in MIDI format. Yes, the artificial musical instruments that first graced videogame soundtracks during the 16-bit era provide the bulk of the soundtrack in Square Enix’s most recent entry in their most-respected flagship series. Modders have already come up with a way to inject the orchestral soundtrack into the PC version (because every ‘Dragon Quest’ game gets an orchestral performance due to the series’ overwhelming popularity and relevance in Japan), but this mod wouldn’t be necessary if Square Enix hadn’t overlooked such a simple, yet important, aspect of the game in the first place.
Technically, “DQ11” is pretty damned good. I’ve read reports of people having their Steam Cloud saves corrupted and needing to jump through a bunch of hoops to avoid losing progress, but I never experienced anything like that. The worst technical fault I ran into was a single crash-to-desktop for unknown reasons. “DQ11” naturally supports Xinput controllers out of the box (any PC game with a console version that doesn’t support Xinput natively is pathetically lazy). The only real downside of the PC version of “DQ11” is that is employs Denuvo anti-tamper. Some Japanese companies have been known to remove Denuvo after the launch window’s sales have been protected and/or the Denuvo gets cracked (as has “DQ11’s”), so it’s possible it will go away at some point, but for now, we’re stuck with it, even though the only thing it’s doing is making modding (slightly) more difficult.
Story
When I first started playing “DQ11,” I thought to myself, ‘Oh, no. Not again.’ The weak initial threads of the storyline, involving an orphaned prince who floats down a river – baby Moses style – only to be adopted by a kindly old man from a backwater village seemed trite. The flash-forward to said orphaned prince’s coming of age ceremony in Cobblestone Village, where he was required to climb to the top of a local mountain with the only other same-aged person in town, who just happened to be a girl and who served as a love-interest-of convenience, really didn’t spark my interest or my imagination. Even the unsurprising revelation that our mute, nameless orphan was some sort of destined reincarnation of a great hero failed to break away from tired storytelling tropes and formulaic structures in the way ‘Dragon Quest’ does when it’s at its best.
An early plot twist came as a much-needed dose of refreshment when our hero attempted to make contact with the local ruler, only to be branded a criminal. Setting off on the run with a new friend in tow for the flimsiest of reasons, our hero then spent the next 20 hours or so traveling from town to town, solving minor local dilemmas, and picking up a handful of the most annoying characters I’ve ever seen in the series, including a thief with the aforementioned annoying voice; a pair of female twin magicians, one of whom is bossy and uses offensive magic, the other of whom is passive and uses defensive magic – and one of whom is conveniently de-aged into a loli for incredibly weak plot reasons; and a flaming homosexual Latino circus clown. At this point in the game, I was detecting the unpleasant odor of “Dragon Quest 9’s” NPC-of-the-day plot structure along with the vile stench of modern anime tropes. While I’ll fully acknowledge that the old NES ‘Dragon Warrior’ games received a fair dose of localization during their trip West, I was shocked to see ‘Dragon Quest’ dragging itself through the character muck with the likes of ‘Hyperdimension Neptunia.’ I was fairly disengaged and prepared to sit through a boring, tropey story with annoying, tropey characters; give the game a mediocre to poor rating, and move on.
But then the plot twists started coming. And then some engaging, likeable characters joined-up who actually had a stronger connection to the threadbare early weavings of the plot. Sometime after the 20-hour mark “DQ11” grabbed my full attention and refused to let go. Even the annoying characters began to receive some development and ties back into the core of the game’s story tapestry. Then, just when I thought the game was about to end on a mediocre and limp-noodled note, all sorts of plot happened, an actual villain became apparent, and the whole game opened up into a semi-non-linear second Act, reminiscent of the second Act of “Final Fantasy 6.” Even better, the “Dragon Quest 9”-style story structure of one-and-done locations was merely an illusion, as the hero ended up revisiting nearly ever location in the game world multiple times.
After thoroughly enjoying the second Act of the game and feeling like the script writers had completely redeemed themselves, I was even more pleased to note that “DQ11” features a robust third Act in the form of a post-game epilogue. Unlike so many previous ‘Dragon Quest’ post-games (which have been a thing since “Dragon Quest 6”), this one ties directly into the core narrative of the game and ultimately reveals that “DQ11” is the FIRST ‘Dragon Quest’ game, serving as a prequel to the entire rest of the series. When the game’s director mentioned in an interview that he wanted “DQ11” to be a fresh start for the series, he really wasn’t kidding!
With the main game clocking in at roughly 70 hours and the epilogue adding another 50 or so onto that, “DQ11” is a lot of game in one package. All without DLC, add-ons, or other nonsense! I was also impressed with just how thoroughly the script filled in all of the plot holes and tied things together that initially appeared to have nothing to do with each other.
Aside from the glacially slow pacing of Act 1, it also bears mentioning that “DQ11” might turn-off players with its translation. While there is nothing inherently wrong or flawed with it, we need to keep in mind the fact that there are pre-“Dragon Quest 9” localizations and post-“Dragon Quest 9” localizations. Early on in the series’ life, Western localization teams went through great pains to make ‘Dragon Quest’ a ‘serious’ RPG to compete with the likes of ‘Ultima’ and ‘Wizardry.’ All of Toriyama’s goofy artwork was removed from the manuals and box art, while the scripts and spell names were rendered into functional, comprehensible English. This take on translation and localization remained in-force all the way through “Dragon Quest 8,” which made changes to spell names to be more faithful to the nonsense words in the original Japanese, but otherwise remained straight-laced and dramatic. Starting with “Dragon Quest 9,” however, which was released during a time of increasing pressure by self-proclaimed Western Otaku demanding that anime localizers stop Bowdlerizing their dubs, Square Enix has bent over backwards to keep the original ‘feel’ of ‘Dragon Quest’ intact: And that means puns, puns, puns, and more puns, along with abusive, all-consuming alliteration. Everywhere. Literally everything in the game, be it towns, weapons, or monsters has a silly name that is either a pun or excessively alliterative. This rubbed me the wrong way in “Dragon Quest 9” and I’m still not overly fond of it here… however, it does start to fade into the background as the game progresses and the plot picks up, so by the end I had mostly stopped noticing it. Mostly.
Gameplay
After Square Enix dabbled in both unpleasant Roguelike mechanics in “Dragon Quest 9” and made MMORPG “Dragon Quest 10” a full-blown Action/RPG, I was concerned that they would do something equally stupid to “DQ11.” Fortunately my fears were quickly alleviated, as not only does “DQ11” cleave incredibly closely to traditional series/genre gameplay mechanics and systems, but it even discards some of the less desirable baggage that has been with the series forever.
“DQ11” is 100% turn-based. Like previous games in the series, it’s possible to set AI Tactics for all of the characters or command them each turn. What’s interesting is that, unlike every other turn-based ‘Dragon Quest,’ “DQ11” doesn’t have the player issue commands to every one of their 4 team members at the beginning of the turn, but instead when their action comes up in the turn queue (which can be kind of random due to hidden dice rolls, but is largely based on Agility). Once each character and enemy has had a chance to do their thing, everyone gets dumped back in the initiative queue to go again. ‘Dragon Quest’ is a very old-school series, so more advanced aspects of RPG combat, such as spacing and facing, are completely hand-waved in favor of a D&D 1st Edition level of abstraction where characters and enemies stand on opposite sides of the battlefield and take turns beating on each other. It’s about as pure and streamlined as an RPG can get, and Square Enix managed to NOT screw it up. Instead, they managed to improve on it by allowing the player to swap-in or swap-out benched party members at any time during battle. Need a specific spell or ability? Swap-in the person who has it! Someone died and you can’t take the turn to revive them? Swap their corpse with someone who’s still kicking! I didn’t realize this was possible until the post-game when an optional superboss killed my front-row, and the benchwarmers automatically leapt into the fray (and won the day). It’s a great system that adds plenty of tactical options to combat, while also granting full XP rewards even to the benchwarmers, ensuring that nobody is lagging behind.
I have, however, heard tons of pissing and moaning from tryhards who insist that “DQ11” is somehow ‘TWO EEEZAY!!!!’ While I will agree that Act one doesn’t present any tangible threats to the player’s party’s life and limb, Acts 2 and 3 feel perfectly balanced along the lines that ‘Dragon Quest’ has striven for since the SNES era (i.e., after the developers discovered that grinding for 1 XP and 1 Gold per enemy for 20+ hours wasn’t good or enjoyable). Unfortunately, in order to appease these hard-heads, Square Enix introduced a Draconian Mode that can be chosen from the New Game screen. This mode features a number of unpleasant gameplay options, such as stronger monsters, that makes normal encounters tough and boss encounters rage inducing; less XP, which drops XP gains down to ‘Dragon Quest 1’ NES version levels; no armor, which prevents the party from equipping armor; no shops, which prevents the player from buying any items with Gold; and no running; which prevents the player from fleeing battle. I really don’t understand the appeal to these options as, outside of the less XP option, none of them really reflect any kind of nostalgia-blinded ‘old school’ take on the franchise, and none of them sound like any fun. Thankfully, unlike Obsidian Entertainment, Square Enix didn’t tie any Steam Achievements or PSN Trophies to these pestilent, self-abusive activities.
“DQ11” is, however, technically easier than most previous entries in the series... But it has nothing to do with combat balance! Instead, “DQ11” features tons of nice Quality of Life (QoL) improvements that make playing it a breeze. Instead of needing to save in town at a church, the game auto-saves every time the player transitions between two areas, plus there are often save idols inside dungeons. Instead of needing to spend hours gambling at the casino to get enough tokens to buy a Magic Potion or Prayer Ring (which will break the first time you use it thanks to RNG), the player can simply buy MP restoring items at most shops. Instead of tediously healing everyone after each battle, auto-healing the party with the most efficient use of MP possible is a one-click affair. Instead of wandering aimlessly, “DQ11” always has a map at the player’s fingertips. Instead of wondering where to find specific monsters (for their loot drops) or specific items (for crafting), there’s a huge, comprehensive Info sheet that auto-populates with this information as the player discovers things in the game. Instead of spending 20+ hours in the epilogue hunting for metal slimes and cussing when they run away, it’s entirely possible to grind up to level 99 with only about 5 extra hours of effort thanks to generous XP gains from normal enemies and the fact that certain party members can employ a special ability that summons metal slimes every once in a while. Also, like “Dragon Quest 9,” enemies are always visible, and can be avoided or engaged at the player’s discretion. Thanks to these QoL improvements, “DQ11” is a slick, smooth joy to play.
In addition to the numerous QoL improvements, “DQ11” is also much more pleasant to play than numerous other entries in the series due to the fact that it DOES NOT have a vocation/class/job system of any stripe. Instead, each character that eventually joins the hero’s cause fits into a traditional ‘Dragon Quest’ vocation archetype, and learns specific abilities and/or spells at specific levels. In addition to their static traits, each character has a skill board that is very reminiscent of the License Boards from “Final Fantasy 12,” where the player is free to customize what additional skills/spells/passives they learn by spending the skill points characters accrue as they gain levels. These skill points can also be freely redistributed by visiting any church and spending a nominal amount of Gold, meaning that choices that didn’t quite pan out can be redone. Personally, I think this is the best character development system to grace the series. The loss of the vocation system simply means the loss of tedious, repetitive grinding and the ability to become excessively overpowered via min/maxing, neither of which is really a ‘loss.’
The Alchemy Pot, which made its debut in “Dragon Quest 8” and appeared again in “Dragon Quest 9”… is gone! But it has been replaced with the Fun-Sized Forge (alliteration!), which serves the same basic function of allowing the player to craft weapons, armor, and accessories from bits of junk they find on the ground or that drop from monsters. Very few of these recipes are particularly onerous to craft, giving the player the option to either buy gear from shops (which is fine, since monsters always drop a sane amount of Gold compared to the costs of items) or make it themselves. Crafting with the Fun-Sized Forge is actually a simple mini-game in which the player strives to align a number of meters with a ‘sweet spot’ in order to improve the resultant item’s quality. It is impossible to lose materials and get nothing in return when crafting at the Fun-Sized Forge, because even a ‘Failure’ result still produces the basic version of the item. The main reason to craft throughout the game, however, is the fact that by performing well at the crafting mini-game, the player can acquire equipment with +1, +2, or +3 enhancements, which can improve their stats greatly. The Fun-Sized Forge is also the only way to get the best gear to take-on the final foes of Acts 2 and 3. Unlike the Alchemy Pot, however, the player can’t experiment with various materials in order to stumble upon recipes. Instead, all recipes are found in chests, bookshelves, or given as rewards for completing side-quests, and without a recipe, nobody’s crafting squat.
Really, the only clunker gameplay element that found its way into “DQ11” after flopping the first time around is the Limit Break-inspired Pep System, which is just a modified version of the Coup de Grace system found in “Dragon Quest 9.” As characters take and deal damage, they fill a completely hidden Pep meter. Once filled, the character gets ‘Pepped-up’ and gains a blue aura for somewhere between 5 and 10 turns (this carries over between battles). While Pepped, a character gets a modest stat bump and can perform a handful of Pep Powers based on which skills they have unlocked on their board (and doing so immediately ends their Pep). But wait! That’s not all! Seemingly inspired by “Chrono Trigger,” multiple Pepped-up characters can combine their powers to unleash combination Pep-Powers, some of which offer incredibly compelling effects, like temporary invincibility, transforming all monsters into metal slimes, or doubling all XP and Gold gains while guaranteeing rare drops from all enemies. Unfortunately, for the most part, Pep-Powers are just attack moves that deal roughly the same amount of damage as characters’ end-game abilities and spells. Controlling Pep is also rather like herding cats, as the only items that grant instant Pep are stupidly rare, stupidly expensive, and stupidly one-shot consumables (though the hero does gain the ability to Pep himself whenever he wants for 25 MP… I was really hoping everyone would learn an ability like this).
Overall
“Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age” is a glorious and way-past-due return to form from Square Enix. Not only did they do right by their customers by cutting out all the money-grubbing trappings of modern “AAA” gaming, they managed to right their last remaining flagship series after a pair of crushing disappointments. While the story does start off a bit weak and slow, for those who stick with it, “DQ11” eventually and suddenly blossoms into exactly the type of world-spanning classic RPG that is oh-so rare nowadays. Despite the Unreal Engine, MIDI soundtrack, and Denuvo, “DQ11” ranks right up there at the top of the franchise, and is a wonderful series debut on the PC platform.
Presentation: 3.5/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4.5/5
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