Before I start this review, can I just say that I love it when games have demos? If it weren't for Dragon Quest Builders 2's (DQB2) aptly named XXL Demo I'm not sure I would've given this game a chance yet, as I never had any interest in Minecraft and this looking very much like that type of game… because it is, in a way. But there are several features that make it quite unique, such as it being a full fledged JRPG that incorpates the fact that you are playing as a genius builder that can use the sandbox in a million creative ways into its story and lore as opposed to the story just being tacked onto some Minecraft-clone.
I'm not super familiar with the Dragon Quest series, but having played DQXI I found many things that I loved also present in DQB2, such as the cute monster designs, the charming characters, the simple but endearing story that is often funny, playful, and - I don't know how to say this, maybe 'quietly emotional'? It never gets heavily dramatic, but the game being mostly light-hearted makes the emotional scenes have more depth than a more heavy-handed presentation during those moments would achieve, at least that's how I experienced it.
During the story you visit three big islands (there are two areas in the story that work a bit differently that I don't want to spoil) where you help the NPCs with their island-specific problems in the only way you know how - building! And fighting! Though the fighting is pretty simple and not too exciting, you can only attack and jump out of harm's way, and you only invest in stronger armour and weapons to get better. The boss fights with their own gimmicks are more fun.
Every island has one big goal you work towards to, but there are also smaller sidequests where NPCs want a certain type of room built, for example. 'Rooms' is where the fun begins: The game can recognize a variety of rooms, like a kitchen, a bedroom, a pool or a field, that NPCs will use accordingly; so cooking in the kitchen, sleeping in the bedroom etc. There are different types of NPCs that will do different tasks according to their job. So farmers will work on fields,playboy bunnies dancers will dance in a dance hall, soldiers will fight monsters. Everyone of them will use communal places, and you can also assign rooms to individual people. There are farm animals and many different crops, because you need food to function.
The tasks of what and where to build during the story don't leave much room for imagination, the main quest is essentially designed for you to learn what is possible to build in this game. In between chapters you return to your home island where you are free to build whatever. Though the game only really opens up after completing the story which took me (including side-questing and exploring) ca. 70 hours. In the late-/endgame you are encouraged to fulfill certain tasks to unlock better equipment that will really help with planning, building and terraforming.
There are several smaller islands on the world map that are randomly generated but always adhere to a special biome that has specific ressources you can collect. If you 'marked' every single ressource of an island once you unlock an infinite amount of the most commonly used ressources like wood and stone. You can also recruit new NPCs from these islands to come back home with you. In short, there's lots to do and to explore even late into the game and the game rewards you pretty much every time for it. And that's not even taking into account the things you build just for fun.
Regarding the Minecraft comparison, there were two big reasons I never tried it: I don't like the look, and I wouldn't know what to build anyway. DQB2 counters this on one hand with being a very pretty game that has more geometrical shapes than just blocks. Characters look like DQ characters, monsters like DQ monsters. There are of course many block shaped blocks to build structures and landscapes, but also a huge amount of normal looking stuff like furniture, plants and flowers, food and decorative food items, other decorative items etc. And on the other hand, the more restrictive nature during the main story and the NPC-usable rooms coupled with them having their own room preferences give an uncreative and not at all architecture-savvy person like me guidance enough for knowing what to build. It also gives my buildings purpose because they will actually get used by someone other than me. The world feels alive, and it's my mission to make it habitable. And pretty. And in a couple hundred hours I may actually achieve that… (No, you did not just see me building a mini Las Vegas-like entertainment paradise for 100 hours straight just to finish it and thinking, well, that was fun, let's bulldoze it all to the ground and build something new 🙃)
I'm not super familiar with the Dragon Quest series, but having played DQXI I found many things that I loved also present in DQB2, such as the cute monster designs, the charming characters, the simple but endearing story that is often funny, playful, and - I don't know how to say this, maybe 'quietly emotional'? It never gets heavily dramatic, but the game being mostly light-hearted makes the emotional scenes have more depth than a more heavy-handed presentation during those moments would achieve, at least that's how I experienced it.
During the story you visit three big islands (there are two areas in the story that work a bit differently that I don't want to spoil) where you help the NPCs with their island-specific problems in the only way you know how - building! And fighting! Though the fighting is pretty simple and not too exciting, you can only attack and jump out of harm's way, and you only invest in stronger armour and weapons to get better. The boss fights with their own gimmicks are more fun.
Every island has one big goal you work towards to, but there are also smaller sidequests where NPCs want a certain type of room built, for example. 'Rooms' is where the fun begins: The game can recognize a variety of rooms, like a kitchen, a bedroom, a pool or a field, that NPCs will use accordingly; so cooking in the kitchen, sleeping in the bedroom etc. There are different types of NPCs that will do different tasks according to their job. So farmers will work on fields,
The tasks of what and where to build during the story don't leave much room for imagination, the main quest is essentially designed for you to learn what is possible to build in this game. In between chapters you return to your home island where you are free to build whatever. Though the game only really opens up after completing the story which took me (including side-questing and exploring) ca. 70 hours. In the late-/endgame you are encouraged to fulfill certain tasks to unlock better equipment that will really help with planning, building and terraforming.
There are several smaller islands on the world map that are randomly generated but always adhere to a special biome that has specific ressources you can collect. If you 'marked' every single ressource of an island once you unlock an infinite amount of the most commonly used ressources like wood and stone. You can also recruit new NPCs from these islands to come back home with you. In short, there's lots to do and to explore even late into the game and the game rewards you pretty much every time for it. And that's not even taking into account the things you build just for fun.
Regarding the Minecraft comparison, there were two big reasons I never tried it: I don't like the look, and I wouldn't know what to build anyway. DQB2 counters this on one hand with being a very pretty game that has more geometrical shapes than just blocks. Characters look like DQ characters, monsters like DQ monsters. There are of course many block shaped blocks to build structures and landscapes, but also a huge amount of normal looking stuff like furniture, plants and flowers, food and decorative food items, other decorative items etc. And on the other hand, the more restrictive nature during the main story and the NPC-usable rooms coupled with them having their own room preferences give an uncreative and not at all architecture-savvy person like me guidance enough for knowing what to build. It also gives my buildings purpose because they will actually get used by someone other than me. The world feels alive, and it's my mission to make it habitable. And pretty. And in a couple hundred hours I may actually achieve that… (No, you did not just see me building a mini Las Vegas-like entertainment paradise for 100 hours straight just to finish it and thinking, well, that was fun, let's bulldoze it all to the ground and build something new 🙃)
I love this > I like this > I hate this > I kill this > I like this
That's how it went. A weird beast for sure. In regards to the first game which was great but very much felt like they were finding their feet, this one does little to change that feeling. For every step forward, it often took two back. Systems which were once instantaneous now have a timer attached. Moments of unskippable text on screen that stay there for easily 30 seconds as if you can't read a sentence. Enemy attacks on towns feel much more frequent, and trying to get anything done during this is exhausting.
While streaming the game, the word I kept coming out with was "Relentless". It feels relentless. Like it doesn't want you to breathe. Always be moving and building and cooking and smelting and crafting and defending your base. It can be overwhelming, and The Power of Friendship can only assuage that so much.
Despite all this, I can't say I hated it. Streaming likely helped, as the game must be a good double the length it needed to be. Having live chat there kept the patter flowing, and everybody leaning into the dogshit segments made it all more comedic than actually annoying. Getting waylaid several times during big moments because chat demanded I build another pub was always a good laugh.
We built that bitch. Bigger than before.
That's how it went. A weird beast for sure. In regards to the first game which was great but very much felt like they were finding their feet, this one does little to change that feeling. For every step forward, it often took two back. Systems which were once instantaneous now have a timer attached. Moments of unskippable text on screen that stay there for easily 30 seconds as if you can't read a sentence. Enemy attacks on towns feel much more frequent, and trying to get anything done during this is exhausting.
While streaming the game, the word I kept coming out with was "Relentless". It feels relentless. Like it doesn't want you to breathe. Always be moving and building and cooking and smelting and crafting and defending your base. It can be overwhelming, and The Power of Friendship can only assuage that so much.
Despite all this, I can't say I hated it. Streaming likely helped, as the game must be a good double the length it needed to be. Having live chat there kept the patter flowing, and everybody leaning into the dogshit segments made it all more comedic than actually annoying. Getting waylaid several times during big moments because chat demanded I build another pub was always a good laugh.
We built that bitch. Bigger than before.
I usually prefer to write reviews when I'm one hundred percent finished with a game, but I think I'm going to be spending a heck of a lot of time just getting creative with this one! I loved the first game, but this one is... well. I wouldn't say it's better than the first in every conceivable way, because there are a few nitpicks I have and a few individual things I liked more in the first game, but overall this game is just incredible as opposed to incredible with some caveats and I wanna spend a lot of time just messing around in the postgame.
First off, I'm one of the weirdos who actually kinda liked Dragon Quest II, and much like how the first DQB looks at the first game and decides to play around with its setting and plot, DQB2 takes a look at Dragon Quest II and does some absolutely wild stuff with it. It's definitely a great story even if you haven't played DQ2, but if you're familiar with the events of that game there's a lot of points where it'll enhance the experience and actually deepen the mysteries the game presents to you. Especially, you know, with Malroth.
One of the biggest bonuses of this game is that it gives you a nigh-permanent party member in the form of a free feral himbo boyfriend, and the other NPCs have considerably better AI and more involvement than those of the first game. They'll cook food and such like they did in the first game, but if you give them a blueprint and materials, they'll also help you build stuff once you've hit a certain level of resident satisfaction. This kind of results in the game having something of a very mild city management sim feel to me rather than just a game where you build stuff, which is interesting! I wasn't too sure about the game automatically building stuff for you at first, but given the scale of what the game wants you to build, it ends up feeling very welcome.
The characters are also very charming, as one would expect from Dragon Quest. The aforementioned mysterious feral himbo, Malroth, is a great character with a really fun character arc that definitely made me cry. I think the fact that he essentially serves as the main character makes the actual player character fade into the background in comparison, which is kind of a shame given how strong the first game's protagonist was for, well, a silent protagonist. They're still pretty good, though, and you can actually draw comparisons and contrasts between DQB and DQB2's silent protagonists and their reactions to things. It's pretty interesting, honestly; I'd say they're less of a blank slate and more of a character delivered through a second person point of view. The various story islands' characters are also pretty good, and their individual stories are great, too. I'll admit I wasn't too hot on chapter 2's pacing and... much of the cast, but on the other hand, the payoff is kind of fantastic. I'm sad I was spoiled about it, but it still socked me in the jaw regardless. The antagonists are universally pretty fun, and as someone who loves the concept of friendly (and, well, unfriendly) monsters in games, this game does a lot of heavy lifting in that department.
The actual building is very fun and has some really good upgrades over the first game, with linked blocks making considerably more sense than having a bajillion different blocks for the same approximate thing. I think pretty much everything in this area is an improvement over the first game, so I'll discuss the few issues I do have. I don't really like the changes to cooking, for one; I get the theory behind giving you room to experiment with a bunch of different combinations, but it does lead to a lot of tedious trial and error whenever you end up getting the option to combine things. I guess I would've preferred more recipes to discover, honestly, because I found a lot of combinations that I thought might make something interesting just didn't work. Maybe it would've been fun just to have a failed dish for invalid recipes.
The other issue is that the water (and other liquids) mechanics are janky as fuck. I don't know if it's this bad in Minecraft because I haven't played vanilla Minecraft, but it's weirdly difficult to fill up a significant area of water more than a block high. Maybe I'm not doing it right? I don't know. The problem is definitely highlighted with the fishing DLC where making aquariums feels... bad, perhaps. It's not the biggest issue but I wish it was a little more user-friendly.
I also kind of feel like, with the scope of what you have to work with, the game limits you a bit in some ways that I think are engine-related more than anything. It kind of blew my mind in a bad way that you have this massive island to play around with and you can only make 100 rooms and have 60 residents on there, with the residents comprising humans, animals, and monsters. The endgame does offer you a bit more flexibility in giving you multiple islands to build on, but I don't know, I wanted to make my home island a set of thriving metropolises with rooms for everyone! Speaking of monsters, it kind of sucks that you just make them use the same beds as animals. I guess they're the ones that pick those beds, but I kind of wish there were monster-specific bedrooms and beds instead.
Oh well. Maybe they'll do it in Dragon Quest Builders 3? Oh, wait... the director left to make his own company... oh no... well, maybe it'll happen anyway. I hope it does, because these games are good as hell and they represent the ideal way to play around with retro nostalgia for me. It's not just throwing a bunch of references at you and hoping you'll be charmed by the nostalgia, it's a thorough reimagining that breathes more life into old games that didn't have all that much story or characterization and uses your nostalgia to play around with your expectations. I'd really love to see what Square Enix would do with the world of Dragon Quest 3 through this particular ethos, so here's hoping!
First off, I'm one of the weirdos who actually kinda liked Dragon Quest II, and much like how the first DQB looks at the first game and decides to play around with its setting and plot, DQB2 takes a look at Dragon Quest II and does some absolutely wild stuff with it. It's definitely a great story even if you haven't played DQ2, but if you're familiar with the events of that game there's a lot of points where it'll enhance the experience and actually deepen the mysteries the game presents to you. Especially, you know, with Malroth.
One of the biggest bonuses of this game is that it gives you a nigh-permanent party member in the form of a free feral himbo boyfriend, and the other NPCs have considerably better AI and more involvement than those of the first game. They'll cook food and such like they did in the first game, but if you give them a blueprint and materials, they'll also help you build stuff once you've hit a certain level of resident satisfaction. This kind of results in the game having something of a very mild city management sim feel to me rather than just a game where you build stuff, which is interesting! I wasn't too sure about the game automatically building stuff for you at first, but given the scale of what the game wants you to build, it ends up feeling very welcome.
The characters are also very charming, as one would expect from Dragon Quest. The aforementioned mysterious feral himbo, Malroth, is a great character with a really fun character arc that definitely made me cry. I think the fact that he essentially serves as the main character makes the actual player character fade into the background in comparison, which is kind of a shame given how strong the first game's protagonist was for, well, a silent protagonist. They're still pretty good, though, and you can actually draw comparisons and contrasts between DQB and DQB2's silent protagonists and their reactions to things. It's pretty interesting, honestly; I'd say they're less of a blank slate and more of a character delivered through a second person point of view. The various story islands' characters are also pretty good, and their individual stories are great, too. I'll admit I wasn't too hot on chapter 2's pacing and... much of the cast, but on the other hand, the payoff is kind of fantastic. I'm sad I was spoiled about it, but it still socked me in the jaw regardless. The antagonists are universally pretty fun, and as someone who loves the concept of friendly (and, well, unfriendly) monsters in games, this game does a lot of heavy lifting in that department.
The actual building is very fun and has some really good upgrades over the first game, with linked blocks making considerably more sense than having a bajillion different blocks for the same approximate thing. I think pretty much everything in this area is an improvement over the first game, so I'll discuss the few issues I do have. I don't really like the changes to cooking, for one; I get the theory behind giving you room to experiment with a bunch of different combinations, but it does lead to a lot of tedious trial and error whenever you end up getting the option to combine things. I guess I would've preferred more recipes to discover, honestly, because I found a lot of combinations that I thought might make something interesting just didn't work. Maybe it would've been fun just to have a failed dish for invalid recipes.
The other issue is that the water (and other liquids) mechanics are janky as fuck. I don't know if it's this bad in Minecraft because I haven't played vanilla Minecraft, but it's weirdly difficult to fill up a significant area of water more than a block high. Maybe I'm not doing it right? I don't know. The problem is definitely highlighted with the fishing DLC where making aquariums feels... bad, perhaps. It's not the biggest issue but I wish it was a little more user-friendly.
I also kind of feel like, with the scope of what you have to work with, the game limits you a bit in some ways that I think are engine-related more than anything. It kind of blew my mind in a bad way that you have this massive island to play around with and you can only make 100 rooms and have 60 residents on there, with the residents comprising humans, animals, and monsters. The endgame does offer you a bit more flexibility in giving you multiple islands to build on, but I don't know, I wanted to make my home island a set of thriving metropolises with rooms for everyone! Speaking of monsters, it kind of sucks that you just make them use the same beds as animals. I guess they're the ones that pick those beds, but I kind of wish there were monster-specific bedrooms and beds instead.
Oh well. Maybe they'll do it in Dragon Quest Builders 3? Oh, wait... the director left to make his own company... oh no... well, maybe it'll happen anyway. I hope it does, because these games are good as hell and they represent the ideal way to play around with retro nostalgia for me. It's not just throwing a bunch of references at you and hoping you'll be charmed by the nostalgia, it's a thorough reimagining that breathes more life into old games that didn't have all that much story or characterization and uses your nostalgia to play around with your expectations. I'd really love to see what Square Enix would do with the world of Dragon Quest 3 through this particular ethos, so here's hoping!
Putting a four-man see-through shower in my house as we speak. For me this was huge creative fun but ran out of steam by the time we get to the castle; too many boss fights, not enough building. But still charming and homo-friendly enough to run through twice.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a fun time that's easy to sink an entire night in without even noticing. However, the game has a surprisingly lack of freedom with some storyline building stuff, some quality of life issues and a length that is way too long and holds it back just enough.
It's really good except for the absolute torture that is 30 straight men ogling the lone woman for 5 hours in chapter 2
As a person without creativeness in her body, I was surprised to immediately click with this game. I guess the only downside or suggestion is that perhaps the devs came up with quests or something even after end game. For me, once you finished everything to do here, it became soulless. Unless of course, it is your passion to build castles and everything, then this is for you. For me, I would still like to have dailies even post-game instead of just trying out building new stuff.
WHY IS THIS GAME SO GOOD. Also the dark magic this game pulls of giving you a best friend who can't help with building but defends you in battle and when you start gathering materials helps you out, that's a GENIUS piece of game design. I played literally hundreds of hours of modded mincraft in its renaissance and this is the only game to ever give me That Feeling again.
Took everything I loved about the first game and fixed almost all of the minor issues I had with it. One of my favorite spin-off titles in the series.
Before I begin with this review, there are a few things of note that I think you as a reader deserve to know about me. My first note is that Dragon Quest is my all time favorite video game franchise by a margin of about a million miles. I love Dragon Quest. I eat, sleep, and breathe Dragon Quest. And because I love this series on such a pure, spiritual level- I want you to note that I write this review with passion pounding through my veins as I get the opportunity to gladly gaggle about this gorgeous game. I also want to specifically note that I consider “Dragon Quest Builders”, the first game, to be one of the best, most innovative, and fun games I have played up until this point in my life. My love of Dragon Quest does not stop at the mainline titles. I have the context of that video game under my belt, and as someone who does consider themself a Dragon Quest Builders enthusiast.
Now, with all that considered, there are certainly some big shoes for this game to fill. A sequel to Dragon Quest Builders? How could they possibly even attempt such a feat? Will they stick the landing? And when this question comes to the limelight I would like to remind you of the series we are talking about here. Perhaps controversial, but “Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line” is one of my very favorite entries in this long running franchise. I have considered it as high as a contender for my favorite video game of all time in the past, though I still can’t shake my leaning towards Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King or Dragon Quest IV Chapters of the Chosen. Even then, If the mainline games aren’t your cup of tea, consider Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime for the DS, another second entry in Dragon Quest- and another instance of a perfect sequel AND one of the best games ever crafted. All to say that Dragon Quest doesn’t just make “good” or “worthy” sequels, they make sequels that leave your jaw agape and eyes watering with joy at the very creative energy we as a species are able to demonstrate.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is another one of these experiences, and it is one that I will never forget.
Typically I play video games in a binge. When I played Dragon Quest 1-9 and Dragon Quest 11, I stuck exclusively to the games in question until I reached the credits whenever I had the opportunity to continue my game experience. Every time I play a JRPG I play it like this. I played every Final Fantasy game like this. Every Shin Megami Tensei game like this. And I will continue to do this for Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate and any other Japanese Role Playing Game I chip away at for the rest of my video gaming life. As Dragon Quest Builders 2 was not a JRPG in the way I define it, I decided to play it as I did the first entry, and use it as a sort of video game comfort food to return to every couple months when I need a reprieve. For the last one and a half years, Dragon Quest Builders 2 was my safe haven of video game perfection. I played this game for 128 hours, and on top of earning my platinum trophy on my Playstation, I went further to do as much as I could, including earning hidden recipes, finding items, cooking foods, doing side tasks, and collecting all 90 mini medals hidden throughout the world. I do not regret one minute of it. I still hunger for more.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 takes the world of Dragon Quest and all of its best qualities, but recontextualizes it into something new for even the longest time fans. I could fill 100 pages with things I love about Dragon Quest, but some things that I think every Dragon Quest fan can agree on is that they have and/or are
-Great characters
-Great storytelling
-Great monsters
-Great music
-Great art direction
-Iconic iconography
-A great sense of humor
-A feeling of adventure
-Fun
If you are me specifically, you might also add
-Prodding of imagination
-Vocabulary-redefining
-Spiritually beautiful in a way that fundamentally alters your perception on life
Among other things
If you look at this list and think to yourself that you would like to play a game with these qualities and have not played a Dragon Quest title- fix this immediately. Dragon Quest is an experience. a wonderful experience. Remember this. However, if you look at this list, agree with it, have played at least one mainline Dragon Quest title, and your reaction instead is to wonder why this one is different- let me explain. As much as I would like to not have to resort to comparisons, there are two titles that I feel best elaborate what this game is like to a newcomer without just playing it- those being Minecraft and Animal Crossing.
As someone who did own an Xbox 360 AND an iPod Touch in the early 2010’s- I played enough Minecraft back in the day to consider myself a former expert. Minecraft was a beautiful experience because it allowed a virtual expression of creativity in the same sense as building with Lego or sculpting, but instead of plastic bricks or globs of clay, it was a 7 dollar App Store purchase that fit in your pocket. There was a more involved video gamey, survival mode- though I firmly planted myself in its creative mode in my time with it. This allowed the game to effectively and exclusively be a tool to play with digital Lego with absolutely no restriction. I found the survival mode, even in the days of proudly wearing my Minecraft fan badge, boring, restrictive, and less fun than having the freedom. Minecraft was a tool. Remember this.
I also have invested a disgustingly high hour count in the Animal Crossing games. If you were one of the lucky people to have played “Animal Crossing New Leaf” on your 3DS as you grew through your early to middle teenage years as I did- never forget those memories as that feeling will never return. Animal Crossing was- and is- a lifestyle. You don’t “play” Animal Crossing- you live it. There is something beautiful about the comforting and chill feel of just catching bugs, spending money, and talking to dogs who can play guitars. You feel a part of the world, and it is a world of zen and the simple joy of life. Animal Crossing was a lifestyle. Remember this.
What does this have to do with Dragon Quest? Well, take that list of Dragon Quest qualities from a little while back. Take the tight, smart, engaging, and perfect game design experience of the mainline Dragon Quest series. Take the experience of playing Dragon Quest, and now see how they shook it up. Minecraft was a tool, one that was incredibly liberating and free. Minecraft lets you do whatever you want, limited only by creativity. Dragon Quest Builders 2 borrows this. Animal Crossing was a lifestyle, one that engaged you in a world, with characters, and with being a part of a community- destined to make a mark on the world, while still slowing down and just living. Dragon Quest Builders 2 borrows this. These three experiences come together to create something unlike anything else. You have the exploration, the adventurous growth of a hero, and the variety and creativity of a Dragon Quest game, but in this experience you are allowed full freedom to create whatever you want AND are provided with a world where you get to live and chill out in. It is the best of all these worlds, and it is glorious.
In my 128 hours of playing Dragon Quest Builders 2, I spent the majority of this game just doing whatever I wanted. If you played through the story and only the story, you have a meaty experience here- but you are missing out. You are missing out on seeing your communities grow, populate, and have your generosity as the builder reciprocated back to you with new toys to play with and points to fuel your gameplay loop. You will build houses, hotels, pools, bars, mines, kitchens, castles, farms, and so much more. And you will enjoy it, because you feel as internally rewarded by it as you tangibly receive. This game is full of love. I don’t just mean the heart shaped gratitude points you earn for doing things, but in the fact that this game simply exists to provide you with a fun experience. Do you like to build primarily? Go for it- the world is your oyster. Do you want to fight stuff? Find all the hidden, super strong monsters and go on a personal quest to find the best gear. Do you want to just farm vegetables and breed cats to get the rare calico? I sure spent many hours doing that! If you play this game and don’t feel liberated- you played this game wrong. Yet, you're still given enough linearity and tasks to still feel like everything you do matters.
Of the three main story islands, all of them give you new and creative tools to play with both to progress, and to play with however you’d like. You are given a hub world island with mini objectives to do- build x type or x quantity of a room or thing, for example- and you have full freedom to do them however you’d like (or skip over them entirely!). Even if you don’t consider yourself the creative type, as long as you can make a square with a door- you can make a room. If you can put a torch and a bed on the ground, you have made a bedroom. You can decorate it more if you want, but the fundamentals of this game are so easy to jump into that anyone of any mindset can enjoy it. I consider myself creative, and I loved bedazzling bedrooms and making kitchens I would put in my own, real house. But you don’t have to do any of that. It is all optional. And it is genius. If you play this game with zero creativity, this game is still a really fun and silly mainline-ish Dragon Quest experience, just shorter, with a pretty puddle deep action combat system and RPG mechanics, and the occasional need to build a room or two following blueprints given to you- and that’s great! But if you do decide to think artistically and with intent of creation and expression- this game's full potential is revealed. Live in the moment, talk to your NPC friends and see if you can do anything for them. Go explore and build and fight just because it is your tool, your life, and your experience.
There are a few qualities that I admittedly might find more charm from in the first game. I think its story setup, razor tight structure (akin to Dragon Quest VII Fragments of the Forgotten Past), and more arcadey feel give it some advantages to the sequel- and I think it is absolutely worth experiencing. I also think there are a handful of little nitpicks and inconveniences with this game, notably when the story takes away from some of the freedom on occasion. However, I think there is no denying that this game is one of the best sequels ever made. One that takes everything that worked about the original and meaningfully grows and expands its ideas to give one of the most rewarding, addictive, and captivating games of the last decade. I played this game slowly over a long period of time, but even without that specific perspective I still feel like if I could choose one game and one game only to play for an entire year, this is a solid contender.
My final point I want to write in this long review you most likely will not read is an anecdote that I find very personal, but emblematic of this game's wonder. When I played Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, I played it incapacitated and unable to walk as I fought a bone infection that caused the marrow inside my leg to swell. It was a miserable and incredibly painful period, and while I couldn’t walk for over a month- I think fondly of that time because I got to experience that beautiful game. While I played Dragon Quest Builders 2 over the course of a long period of time, I now played the last third of the story, nabbed my platinum trophy, and write this review fighting more health battles. This time it is a roundhouse kick of chronic Lyme disease and babesiosis that have caused immense physical pain every second of the last month and mental torment that is psychologically torturing my brain to a point I have never felt. I have suffered a lot because of this, and as I have been paralyzingly on edge, depressed, lonely, confused, and scared on top of having my entire body scream in agony- I don’t say all this for sympathy, but to say that Dragon Quest Builders 2 is so good, that I have been able to use it as a reprieve for even this. Every night I have decided to play some Dragon Quest Builders 2 instead of just laying on my bed, wide awake and full of dread. I still can’t sleep (thanks, insomnia), but at the very least I get to see some Drackies! And it has been incredibly comforting during what I would consider the darkest era I have felt in my life. It is so infectiously fun I can’t help but feel relaxed and warm playing this game, and I am very thankful for it. If my review itself didn’t sell you on it, I hope that anecdote fully expresses how much I love this game! It means a lot to me, it is not a game- but a friend, just as I felt about the mainline titles.
Smaller anecdote, but I bought this game for five US dollars back in Square Enix’s 2020 Black Friday sale. My money sure got its longevity out of this one! I just think this is funny.
I could talk about this game for as long as I played it myself. I didn’t mention the silly shoutouts to Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line, which if you have been attentive you remember was one of my favorite games of all time. I didn’t mention the explorer shores, mini sidequests islands to farm materials, play a scavenger hunt, fight new monsters and earn infinite resource rewards. I didn’t mention the incredibly fun and legitimately great story told and all the incredibly memorable characters. I didn’t mention the fact you unlock multiple other hub worlds purely with the intent of building whatever you want. The fact there is multiplayer. The.. well, just play the game. I leave it vague because this game deserves your time. It deserves your money. It deserves your love. I say this because I feel more people need to see just how great this game is- and because I selfishly want to inflate sales and help find fans for the off chance they make a third. I loved Dragon Quest Builders. I loved Dragon Quest Builders 2. And I hope you have too, or will eventually!
Thank you Dragon Quest for being so good!
Now, with all that considered, there are certainly some big shoes for this game to fill. A sequel to Dragon Quest Builders? How could they possibly even attempt such a feat? Will they stick the landing? And when this question comes to the limelight I would like to remind you of the series we are talking about here. Perhaps controversial, but “Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line” is one of my very favorite entries in this long running franchise. I have considered it as high as a contender for my favorite video game of all time in the past, though I still can’t shake my leaning towards Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King or Dragon Quest IV Chapters of the Chosen. Even then, If the mainline games aren’t your cup of tea, consider Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime for the DS, another second entry in Dragon Quest- and another instance of a perfect sequel AND one of the best games ever crafted. All to say that Dragon Quest doesn’t just make “good” or “worthy” sequels, they make sequels that leave your jaw agape and eyes watering with joy at the very creative energy we as a species are able to demonstrate.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is another one of these experiences, and it is one that I will never forget.
Typically I play video games in a binge. When I played Dragon Quest 1-9 and Dragon Quest 11, I stuck exclusively to the games in question until I reached the credits whenever I had the opportunity to continue my game experience. Every time I play a JRPG I play it like this. I played every Final Fantasy game like this. Every Shin Megami Tensei game like this. And I will continue to do this for Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate and any other Japanese Role Playing Game I chip away at for the rest of my video gaming life. As Dragon Quest Builders 2 was not a JRPG in the way I define it, I decided to play it as I did the first entry, and use it as a sort of video game comfort food to return to every couple months when I need a reprieve. For the last one and a half years, Dragon Quest Builders 2 was my safe haven of video game perfection. I played this game for 128 hours, and on top of earning my platinum trophy on my Playstation, I went further to do as much as I could, including earning hidden recipes, finding items, cooking foods, doing side tasks, and collecting all 90 mini medals hidden throughout the world. I do not regret one minute of it. I still hunger for more.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 takes the world of Dragon Quest and all of its best qualities, but recontextualizes it into something new for even the longest time fans. I could fill 100 pages with things I love about Dragon Quest, but some things that I think every Dragon Quest fan can agree on is that they have and/or are
-Great characters
-Great storytelling
-Great monsters
-Great music
-Great art direction
-Iconic iconography
-A great sense of humor
-A feeling of adventure
-Fun
If you are me specifically, you might also add
-Prodding of imagination
-Vocabulary-redefining
-Spiritually beautiful in a way that fundamentally alters your perception on life
Among other things
If you look at this list and think to yourself that you would like to play a game with these qualities and have not played a Dragon Quest title- fix this immediately. Dragon Quest is an experience. a wonderful experience. Remember this. However, if you look at this list, agree with it, have played at least one mainline Dragon Quest title, and your reaction instead is to wonder why this one is different- let me explain. As much as I would like to not have to resort to comparisons, there are two titles that I feel best elaborate what this game is like to a newcomer without just playing it- those being Minecraft and Animal Crossing.
As someone who did own an Xbox 360 AND an iPod Touch in the early 2010’s- I played enough Minecraft back in the day to consider myself a former expert. Minecraft was a beautiful experience because it allowed a virtual expression of creativity in the same sense as building with Lego or sculpting, but instead of plastic bricks or globs of clay, it was a 7 dollar App Store purchase that fit in your pocket. There was a more involved video gamey, survival mode- though I firmly planted myself in its creative mode in my time with it. This allowed the game to effectively and exclusively be a tool to play with digital Lego with absolutely no restriction. I found the survival mode, even in the days of proudly wearing my Minecraft fan badge, boring, restrictive, and less fun than having the freedom. Minecraft was a tool. Remember this.
I also have invested a disgustingly high hour count in the Animal Crossing games. If you were one of the lucky people to have played “Animal Crossing New Leaf” on your 3DS as you grew through your early to middle teenage years as I did- never forget those memories as that feeling will never return. Animal Crossing was- and is- a lifestyle. You don’t “play” Animal Crossing- you live it. There is something beautiful about the comforting and chill feel of just catching bugs, spending money, and talking to dogs who can play guitars. You feel a part of the world, and it is a world of zen and the simple joy of life. Animal Crossing was a lifestyle. Remember this.
What does this have to do with Dragon Quest? Well, take that list of Dragon Quest qualities from a little while back. Take the tight, smart, engaging, and perfect game design experience of the mainline Dragon Quest series. Take the experience of playing Dragon Quest, and now see how they shook it up. Minecraft was a tool, one that was incredibly liberating and free. Minecraft lets you do whatever you want, limited only by creativity. Dragon Quest Builders 2 borrows this. Animal Crossing was a lifestyle, one that engaged you in a world, with characters, and with being a part of a community- destined to make a mark on the world, while still slowing down and just living. Dragon Quest Builders 2 borrows this. These three experiences come together to create something unlike anything else. You have the exploration, the adventurous growth of a hero, and the variety and creativity of a Dragon Quest game, but in this experience you are allowed full freedom to create whatever you want AND are provided with a world where you get to live and chill out in. It is the best of all these worlds, and it is glorious.
In my 128 hours of playing Dragon Quest Builders 2, I spent the majority of this game just doing whatever I wanted. If you played through the story and only the story, you have a meaty experience here- but you are missing out. You are missing out on seeing your communities grow, populate, and have your generosity as the builder reciprocated back to you with new toys to play with and points to fuel your gameplay loop. You will build houses, hotels, pools, bars, mines, kitchens, castles, farms, and so much more. And you will enjoy it, because you feel as internally rewarded by it as you tangibly receive. This game is full of love. I don’t just mean the heart shaped gratitude points you earn for doing things, but in the fact that this game simply exists to provide you with a fun experience. Do you like to build primarily? Go for it- the world is your oyster. Do you want to fight stuff? Find all the hidden, super strong monsters and go on a personal quest to find the best gear. Do you want to just farm vegetables and breed cats to get the rare calico? I sure spent many hours doing that! If you play this game and don’t feel liberated- you played this game wrong. Yet, you're still given enough linearity and tasks to still feel like everything you do matters.
Of the three main story islands, all of them give you new and creative tools to play with both to progress, and to play with however you’d like. You are given a hub world island with mini objectives to do- build x type or x quantity of a room or thing, for example- and you have full freedom to do them however you’d like (or skip over them entirely!). Even if you don’t consider yourself the creative type, as long as you can make a square with a door- you can make a room. If you can put a torch and a bed on the ground, you have made a bedroom. You can decorate it more if you want, but the fundamentals of this game are so easy to jump into that anyone of any mindset can enjoy it. I consider myself creative, and I loved bedazzling bedrooms and making kitchens I would put in my own, real house. But you don’t have to do any of that. It is all optional. And it is genius. If you play this game with zero creativity, this game is still a really fun and silly mainline-ish Dragon Quest experience, just shorter, with a pretty puddle deep action combat system and RPG mechanics, and the occasional need to build a room or two following blueprints given to you- and that’s great! But if you do decide to think artistically and with intent of creation and expression- this game's full potential is revealed. Live in the moment, talk to your NPC friends and see if you can do anything for them. Go explore and build and fight just because it is your tool, your life, and your experience.
There are a few qualities that I admittedly might find more charm from in the first game. I think its story setup, razor tight structure (akin to Dragon Quest VII Fragments of the Forgotten Past), and more arcadey feel give it some advantages to the sequel- and I think it is absolutely worth experiencing. I also think there are a handful of little nitpicks and inconveniences with this game, notably when the story takes away from some of the freedom on occasion. However, I think there is no denying that this game is one of the best sequels ever made. One that takes everything that worked about the original and meaningfully grows and expands its ideas to give one of the most rewarding, addictive, and captivating games of the last decade. I played this game slowly over a long period of time, but even without that specific perspective I still feel like if I could choose one game and one game only to play for an entire year, this is a solid contender.
My final point I want to write in this long review you most likely will not read is an anecdote that I find very personal, but emblematic of this game's wonder. When I played Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, I played it incapacitated and unable to walk as I fought a bone infection that caused the marrow inside my leg to swell. It was a miserable and incredibly painful period, and while I couldn’t walk for over a month- I think fondly of that time because I got to experience that beautiful game. While I played Dragon Quest Builders 2 over the course of a long period of time, I now played the last third of the story, nabbed my platinum trophy, and write this review fighting more health battles. This time it is a roundhouse kick of chronic Lyme disease and babesiosis that have caused immense physical pain every second of the last month and mental torment that is psychologically torturing my brain to a point I have never felt. I have suffered a lot because of this, and as I have been paralyzingly on edge, depressed, lonely, confused, and scared on top of having my entire body scream in agony- I don’t say all this for sympathy, but to say that Dragon Quest Builders 2 is so good, that I have been able to use it as a reprieve for even this. Every night I have decided to play some Dragon Quest Builders 2 instead of just laying on my bed, wide awake and full of dread. I still can’t sleep (thanks, insomnia), but at the very least I get to see some Drackies! And it has been incredibly comforting during what I would consider the darkest era I have felt in my life. It is so infectiously fun I can’t help but feel relaxed and warm playing this game, and I am very thankful for it. If my review itself didn’t sell you on it, I hope that anecdote fully expresses how much I love this game! It means a lot to me, it is not a game- but a friend, just as I felt about the mainline titles.
Smaller anecdote, but I bought this game for five US dollars back in Square Enix’s 2020 Black Friday sale. My money sure got its longevity out of this one! I just think this is funny.
I could talk about this game for as long as I played it myself. I didn’t mention the silly shoutouts to Dragon Quest II Luminaries of the Legendary Line, which if you have been attentive you remember was one of my favorite games of all time. I didn’t mention the explorer shores, mini sidequests islands to farm materials, play a scavenger hunt, fight new monsters and earn infinite resource rewards. I didn’t mention the incredibly fun and legitimately great story told and all the incredibly memorable characters. I didn’t mention the fact you unlock multiple other hub worlds purely with the intent of building whatever you want. The fact there is multiplayer. The.. well, just play the game. I leave it vague because this game deserves your time. It deserves your money. It deserves your love. I say this because I feel more people need to see just how great this game is- and because I selfishly want to inflate sales and help find fans for the off chance they make a third. I loved Dragon Quest Builders. I loved Dragon Quest Builders 2. And I hope you have too, or will eventually!
Thank you Dragon Quest for being so good!
I love this game. It took me 3 damn years to beat the story because it's so long and I just needed breaks from it to not get overwhelmed.
I have not completed any post story stuff, but it's a cozy game with cute monsters and I am obsessed with DQ Slimes. This game actually got me into the franchise and I've gone on to purchase future titles.
I hope there is a third builders game, because this is so charming and I actually cried at the end.
I have not completed any post story stuff, but it's a cozy game with cute monsters and I am obsessed with DQ Slimes. This game actually got me into the franchise and I've gone on to purchase future titles.
I hope there is a third builders game, because this is so charming and I actually cried at the end.
I love Dragon Quest a lot and I do like building games like this from time to time but it's not always my kinda thing and I found it hard to get into this. New Malroth lore is cool tho.
Oh boy, this game was so much fun and had me shedding tears by the end of it.
Gameplay is amazing too, greatly improved from the first one.
Gameplay is amazing too, greatly improved from the first one.
It's good, but it runs a bit too long and gets fairly repetitive at points. I enjoy many of it's mechanics, such as being able to actually build functional towns, farms, defenses, mines, etc. It's cool and gives a function to the building mechanics, and the game does a good job at encouraging creativity. Sometimes. Other points it's oddly linear without any wiggle room, and those segments can get a bit dull. Also the game could easily be cut down by like 10 hours at least, which would really help out the pacing. Otherwise, it's fun. I just wish it leaned more into being a sandbox. It's a good twist on a voxel building game genre.
minecraft if it was awsome
Played with the Nintendo Switch Online trial.
So I played through the admittedly lengthy tutorial before deciding to end things for now. The game is pretty enjoyable, I havent played any Dragon Quests yet so im not really familiar with them but Im definitely more curious now. The game has a lot of charm to it that helps its stand out from the slew of buildy crafty games, and it seems to actually have a story too which im intrigued with. Only real complaint is that even docked some of the text is just way too small. Otherwise Its a good time if a bit slow, and I wouldn't mind purchasing it in the future when I actually have the time and smaller backlog to play something like this
So I played through the admittedly lengthy tutorial before deciding to end things for now. The game is pretty enjoyable, I havent played any Dragon Quests yet so im not really familiar with them but Im definitely more curious now. The game has a lot of charm to it that helps its stand out from the slew of buildy crafty games, and it seems to actually have a story too which im intrigued with. Only real complaint is that even docked some of the text is just way too small. Otherwise Its a good time if a bit slow, and I wouldn't mind purchasing it in the future when I actually have the time and smaller backlog to play something like this
Just a straight up joyous experience that kept introducing fun new ideas and mechanics until the very end. It simply made me happy :)
"What if we made a JRPG where instead of turn based combat you got to play Minecraft?"
- The Smartest Fucking Person At Square Enix
- The Smartest Fucking Person At Square Enix
The only game Ive seen actually innovate on the Minecraft genre since Minecraft came out - and it does so in a way that elevates almost everything. Superior version of Dragon Quest in general.
There's just enough little annoyances that keep me from giving this a perfect score (Room limits, villager limits, bad music, bad camera, Hargon's speech taking forever, accidentally talking to Malroth when I want to switch my tool, that one animal breeding achievement...) but this game hits that sweet spot of being a digital form of crack for me. I turn this game on and the hours melt away. I carefully place lily pads and flower petals into large bodies of water as I forget to eat. My character sleeps more than I do. I talk to Malroth more than my own mom. It's an endless cycle.
I got past the third island, and dropped it immediately. A wealth of frustration from all the little shit built up and just ruined what should have been a great game.
This game is crack.
This game is very interesting to me both gameplay wise and story wise. It's a pretty good mix of functional and modular building style, I rarely encountered bugs with the room detection system (aside from making fishing cages). Most of my troubles were with intentional features that are not communicated very well to the player, like how room height is determined by the door position and how wall hangings need to be on or below two blocks. My other big issue would be how difficult it is to figure out the settlement boundaries, especially on the isle of awakening. I can see some people getting fed up with basically going through the tutorial 4 times for each of the 4 major chapters, but I didn't mind it.
Aside from technical issues and some puzzling design choices, the building gameplay was very solid. It's a pretty good balance between modular and functional building. Some of the common issues I have with building and farming games were addressed pretty well here, even though not to the extent I would have liked. A lot of cool gameplay mechanics are introduced late in the game so you don't get a lot of time to mess with them until the post game. Probably for the same reason you're not really encouraged to build roofs.
I had never finished a Dragon Quest game before and never got close to the original trilogy, so I didn't catch on to most of the references until the very end. Without spoiling anything, I'd say this game messes with the source material (Dragon Quest 2) in a very interesting way. It's clearly a parody, but it doesn't make fun of the series in the way that feels cynical. It even uses some of the implications of a building game to make some interesting (but kinda shallow) points. If anything, it made me want to play actual Dragon Quest games so I can appreciate this game even more.
Aside from technical issues and some puzzling design choices, the building gameplay was very solid. It's a pretty good balance between modular and functional building. Some of the common issues I have with building and farming games were addressed pretty well here, even though not to the extent I would have liked. A lot of cool gameplay mechanics are introduced late in the game so you don't get a lot of time to mess with them until the post game. Probably for the same reason you're not really encouraged to build roofs.
I had never finished a Dragon Quest game before and never got close to the original trilogy, so I didn't catch on to most of the references until the very end. Without spoiling anything, I'd say this game messes with the source material (Dragon Quest 2) in a very interesting way. It's clearly a parody, but it doesn't make fun of the series in the way that feels cynical. It even uses some of the implications of a building game to make some interesting (but kinda shallow) points. If anything, it made me want to play actual Dragon Quest games so I can appreciate this game even more.
It’s like Dragon Quest Minecraft. Don’t beat around the bush about it. As much as I hate these surface-level comparisons, most of the thoughts I have about Dragon Quest Builders 2 can be sourced directly from what it does the same or differently from Minecraft. It’s unavoidable.
That being said, Dragon Quest Builders 2 does a lot of things I wish Minecraft would do! Its main focus is on town building, creating a cute connection to the mainline Dragon Quest games as the towns you build serve as being equivalent to the towns and castles you’d ordinarily find in those games. Building is essential throughout the game's runtime, cycling between fighting monsters and collecting materials in service of making more livable and workable spaces for your townspeople. It has a much more goal-oriented style of play, sprinkling new little objectives to occupy your time with so you always have something to do. It makes what you build not just there for the sake of looking nice, but to also serve various functional purposes! Town sizes start small and grow over time, so it’s almost like solving a puzzle trying to find how to neatly fit every building in your town together. It makes for an experience more linear than other Minecraft-likes but still asking a lot of creativity of the player if they so desire.
That is until you get to the blueprints, that is. Multiple points in the game ask you to create an exact version of a structure they planned out for you, turning the creative process of building and fitting your space into a chore where you find all the little blocks you need and arrange them just like the game wants you to. It’s an awful dampener on an otherwise great time, one that’s only made worse when certain blueprints have your townspeople just get all the materials and build the whole damn thing for you. What’s even the point by then? Back on my home island, I wanted to use the desert area to create a large western-style town, with minecart rails connecting the homes from the shops from the pubs. But when I got there, they grabbed my hand and told me I was gonna make a pyramid instead, and every single building I made in that area had to be inside it. What a load of bullshit.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 kept me engaged with its town building gameplay loop and mini-objectives always giving me something to do, but it always seemed a little too interested in what it wanted to see rather than what the player wanted. In a game with so much potential for creative ideas to flow freely, it feels like a massive waste to limit that creativity the way it does.
That being said, Dragon Quest Builders 2 does a lot of things I wish Minecraft would do! Its main focus is on town building, creating a cute connection to the mainline Dragon Quest games as the towns you build serve as being equivalent to the towns and castles you’d ordinarily find in those games. Building is essential throughout the game's runtime, cycling between fighting monsters and collecting materials in service of making more livable and workable spaces for your townspeople. It has a much more goal-oriented style of play, sprinkling new little objectives to occupy your time with so you always have something to do. It makes what you build not just there for the sake of looking nice, but to also serve various functional purposes! Town sizes start small and grow over time, so it’s almost like solving a puzzle trying to find how to neatly fit every building in your town together. It makes for an experience more linear than other Minecraft-likes but still asking a lot of creativity of the player if they so desire.
That is until you get to the blueprints, that is. Multiple points in the game ask you to create an exact version of a structure they planned out for you, turning the creative process of building and fitting your space into a chore where you find all the little blocks you need and arrange them just like the game wants you to. It’s an awful dampener on an otherwise great time, one that’s only made worse when certain blueprints have your townspeople just get all the materials and build the whole damn thing for you. What’s even the point by then? Back on my home island, I wanted to use the desert area to create a large western-style town, with minecart rails connecting the homes from the shops from the pubs. But when I got there, they grabbed my hand and told me I was gonna make a pyramid instead, and every single building I made in that area had to be inside it. What a load of bullshit.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 kept me engaged with its town building gameplay loop and mini-objectives always giving me something to do, but it always seemed a little too interested in what it wanted to see rather than what the player wanted. In a game with so much potential for creative ideas to flow freely, it feels like a massive waste to limit that creativity the way it does.
I like the concept of this game: it's like Minecraft but with that one aspect of Terraria where you make houses to recruit NPCs and they can do things with you. There's also more emphasis on farming and sort of creating a village, and RPG elements.
However, what ruined my enjoyment is... this isn't actually a sandbox. It's a super linear game, everything you do feels so linear that every single bit of progression feels cheap and unrewarding. I get a new weapon? Yeah well it was part of the story. I'm in a new area, I have multiple objectives: I can only accomplish them in order because that's how the story wants me to do it. There isn't much point to exploring because areas are locked into the main quest and aside from a few collectibles, it makes it pointless to go anywhere but where the story wants you to.
While the story is very funny and the writing isn't bad, the game being this linear just made me not want to keep playing. And it's so excruciatingly slow! And you don't get to choose your own pace either, because of how linear it is. Want to play more and do new things? You must sit through the story now and read for the next ten minutes before you can procede to do something.
Just imagine if Minecraft had a main story quest where you have to do things in order. It asks you to cut a tree, then make your first tools, then mine, then build your first house, then farm; every area would be explored in the order the game wants you to; you only discover new things by progressing the story. It would remove all the magic about the game! Sometimes the game will even go as far as telling you exactly what a building should look like and you have to follow a blueprint, can you imagine that in Minecraft instead of making your own wonderful structures? Well, it certainly didn't sit well with me.
However, what ruined my enjoyment is... this isn't actually a sandbox. It's a super linear game, everything you do feels so linear that every single bit of progression feels cheap and unrewarding. I get a new weapon? Yeah well it was part of the story. I'm in a new area, I have multiple objectives: I can only accomplish them in order because that's how the story wants me to do it. There isn't much point to exploring because areas are locked into the main quest and aside from a few collectibles, it makes it pointless to go anywhere but where the story wants you to.
While the story is very funny and the writing isn't bad, the game being this linear just made me not want to keep playing. And it's so excruciatingly slow! And you don't get to choose your own pace either, because of how linear it is. Want to play more and do new things? You must sit through the story now and read for the next ten minutes before you can procede to do something.
Just imagine if Minecraft had a main story quest where you have to do things in order. It asks you to cut a tree, then make your first tools, then mine, then build your first house, then farm; every area would be explored in the order the game wants you to; you only discover new things by progressing the story. It would remove all the magic about the game! Sometimes the game will even go as far as telling you exactly what a building should look like and you have to follow a blueprint, can you imagine that in Minecraft instead of making your own wonderful structures? Well, it certainly didn't sit well with me.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 is a great iteration on the formula set by the original Dragon Quest Builders. It's longer, more polished, with a lot more items to play around with, and a better written story and cast. Do I like it more than the original? ... Eh.
But I'm just being cheeky. It really is a better game! It's just that I feel the first one was funnier and more experimental. I do like a lot of the quality of life they added in (traversing the world in the first game did not feel great, it's much better in this one) and it's fun watching Malroth go through his growing pains. The new items are great, and swapping blocks around has never been faster and easier. That said, I'm not a fan of the changes made to cooking, and I do miss the points system when it comes to town-building. I feel like ultimately I didn't actually have to do much building to finish the game, especially since it has NPCs handle a lot of the structures for you. On one hand, I can understand why; the main blueprints are often massive, and would be slow and complex to build and gather for alone. On the other... well, maybe I did want to build more of the giant pyramid on my own, game. How about that!
Overall, though, this was a better experience than the first game, and I would love to see some version of this where it's possible to have more rooms and more little guys on your island. You have a great creative mode in there so it's sad that you can't do whatever you want with your main island.
But I'm just being cheeky. It really is a better game! It's just that I feel the first one was funnier and more experimental. I do like a lot of the quality of life they added in (traversing the world in the first game did not feel great, it's much better in this one) and it's fun watching Malroth go through his growing pains. The new items are great, and swapping blocks around has never been faster and easier. That said, I'm not a fan of the changes made to cooking, and I do miss the points system when it comes to town-building. I feel like ultimately I didn't actually have to do much building to finish the game, especially since it has NPCs handle a lot of the structures for you. On one hand, I can understand why; the main blueprints are often massive, and would be slow and complex to build and gather for alone. On the other... well, maybe I did want to build more of the giant pyramid on my own, game. How about that!
Overall, though, this was a better experience than the first game, and I would love to see some version of this where it's possible to have more rooms and more little guys on your island. You have a great creative mode in there so it's sad that you can't do whatever you want with your main island.
Improves upon the first game in every single way, giving us much better building, more variety, a better, more fleshed out story and plenty of content. I loved the story and building aspects, and I can't wait for a dragon quest builders 3
Play Dragon Quest IX
the story missions kept getting in the way of the fun building :(
actually unironically one of my favorite games for 2018. Malroth my beloved