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Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age   PC (Steam) 

An Echo of an Elusive Age of Good RPGs   

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age was released for Windows and the PS4 in 2018. This eleventh installment of the series comes at a time when many faithful fans of RPGs, or so I’m told, have begun to lose hope in the perennial publishers from the golden age of the genre. I have always enjoyed RPGs, spending most of my time in the Final Fantasy series. The only other Dragon Quest game that I have played was the first in the series, receiving it for free in the late 80s/early 90s from some type of giveaway (I think it was either Nintendo Power magazine or through a cereal company promotion). I am no expert, but am hopeful for the future of the series after playing this one. It seems that Square Enix hasn’t completely destroyed the IP, like it wants to with the Final Fantasy games.

Story

Dragon Quest XI’s is set in the fantastical world of Erdrea, and at its heart is Yggdrasil, the world tree. The story begins with you, the protagonist, completing your coming of age ceremony with your longtime childhood friend/lover(?), Gemma. During which, there is foreshadowing that the world is not as it seems, nor are you, the hero, what you thought you were. There is more to life, and your destiny. After this rite of passage, the story begins to unfold as you take off on an adventure from your lowly village of Cobblestone to the capital of Dundrasil, Heliodor. Through many twists and turns, it is revealed that the hero is the reincarnation of the famous Luminary, destined to bind the darkness, and bring back the world from the evil clutches of Mordegon, the Lord of Shadows, who has, once again, plotted the downfall of Erdrea.

The first half of the game involves the Luminary making his way, along with his party of friends, to the world tree, in order to reclaim the Sword of Light, and again banish Mordegon from Erdrea. However, things fall awry, and alas, fate prevents the hero from such a quick victory. Mordegon instead overcomes the Luminary and his adventuring friends, and throws the world into ruin. The second half of the game follows the protagonist regaining his friends and powers to deal with Mordegon once and for all.

Dragon Quest XI’s story is enjoyable. The narrative is engaging and effectively presents the a world beset with evil and darkness delivered by a party of adventurers, restoring life and light to the world. When ruin descends upon the world, I felt that the game was too closely imitating Final Fantasy VI, even to the fact that the hero has to revisit all parts of the world to regain his party. The game clearly gives nod to one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and the plot follows an all too familiar path. This imitation does limit the originality of the game, but it does not limit how fun the game is to play. Dragon Quest has its own twist on the story, and Mordegon is a very different antagonist compared to Kefka.

The brightest part of Dragon Quest XI’s plot are the characters. They add so much to the story and the plot, helping things to move forward and making things light and playful. They were my favorite part of the game. Their dialogue with one another and the side stories developing their histories were greatly entertaining. Each character had a distinct personality that brought a vividness to the game. And the path to recover each member of the party after Mordegon’s initial victory wove these stories into a cohesive narrative. Unrelated, I also appreciated the various dialects presented throughout the game. Each group of people had a distinct way of speaking and presenting the world.

Presentation

Square Enix did well designing Dragon Quest XI. The game is colorful and vibrant. It is a beautiful world, fun to look at. There are a limited number of monster designs, but there are plenty of variants. The world isn’t very large. The map was manageable to make it from one part to the next, and I never felt that I was endlessly running from one place to the next. Monsters are a part of the visual representation of the scenes, and the player can choose to interact with them or not.

I especially enjoyed the artistic style of the game. During my early college years, I watched countless hours of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, so the game felt familiar due to the signature style of legendary artist Akira Toriyama. The visual presentation evoked nostalgia, reminding me of the countless hours of watching Goku and friends achieve greater power levels. Thankfully, it didn’t take me so long to level up my adventuring party (more on this later). The character types, female and male, old and young, skinny and fat, in Dragon Quest XI looked very similar to other Toriyama creations, only set in a fantasy universe.

At first the, the music felt trite, not lining up with action of the scene. For example, early on I noticed that despite being in an intense battle the music at times was upbeat and energetic, not matching the tone. The music wasn’t aligning to the emotion of the moment. However, as I played the game, I grew to appreciate the musical interpretation of the world, and the repeated songs became more agreeable. This change in my opinion might be due to familiarity over hours of gameplay, or the purpose of the music finally clicked in my mind.

Gameplay

The gameplay was overall a good experience. Monsters spawn so that you can choose to engage with them since there are no random encounters. The combat system worked well, and there weren’t any deficiencies in my opinion. The game allows the user to decide the tactics that each member of the party should use when encountering an enemy. I made liberal use of this feature, allowing the game to decide my attacks when encountering monsters in the world or dungeons. I would set the tactics for the party to “Show no mercy” for three of my active members, and then my healer would be set to “Fight wisely.” This allowed me to quickly deal with trash monsters, quickly leveling up my characters and acquiring gold. The negative with this approach was that I used MP rapidly. I would offset this by spending nights at campsites or refreshing my MP/HP at statues of the goddess, which also were save points. I was able to balance quick conquest of enemies and refilling the tanks quite well. I chose to directly control my party during boss fights, which would require nuanced tactics.

It wasn’t until late in the game that I discovered the benefit of buffing spells to defeat bosses. Generally in RPGs, I ignore spells that buff the party’s defense or accelerate their speed. I also don’t spend time trying to reduce an enemy’s defense. However, it became clear, especially during the later part of the game, that I would need to adjust my normal habits for Dragon Quest XI. During two boss battles, my party was wiped out and I frustratingly had to make my way back to the encounter. I then changed my tactics, applying magic barrier and defense to the party. This led to a much easier boss fight, and from then on I made sure such spells were used for the hardest enemies.

A few odds and ends: my only complaint about the gameplay was that the beginning phase of the game was too linear, feeling like you are on a railroad for around ten hours. After that, things did open up allowing the user to choose where to adventure next. I did appreciate the character builder, which unlocks various abilities and class traits, was well implemented. It provided various paths for me to have characters specialize in different weapons. These abilities were key to successfully defeating most if not all bosses. The game was not too “grindy.” I never felt like I was under-leveled for any area that I explored. I would clear out the monsters in one area before moving to the next, and that leveled me up so that the final boss was a challenge, but not impossible to beat.

Overall

Dragon Quest XI was a joy to play. The story was well told, sprinkled with humor from likable characters. The presentation never was tired, but felt fresh, despite employing a well-established visual style. The gameplay maintained its place in the venerable RPG genre. The problems with story and gameplay didn’t detract to the overall quality of the game. They were minor imperfections for a great game.

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