This is super solid comfort food JRPG goodness that is a chunk too long and we probably didn't need three endings but whatever keep 'em coming.
Living Legend 🏆 Lven
The most definitive Dragon Quest game out there that both old and new fans can enjoy.
It's such a complete experience, the combat is fun, the visuals are beautiful, the story is a bit predictable but still delivers, i can't recommend it enough
This game tries to be like Dragon quest VIII and it kinda succeeds but it's not as good. Overall it is a great game and of course it has much better graphics.
(BacklogBeat's Game Club - Q2 2024 nomination)
Still an absolutely quintessential JRPG experience and all of the QoL improvements make the game even better (I can't believe the orchestrated soundtrack wasn't in the original, Sugiyama was a clown). The game still has glaring issues like bland dungeon design among other things but man, what an adventure. I really miss the non-gimped visuals but this is still a fantastic way to experience the game.
Still an absolutely quintessential JRPG experience and all of the QoL improvements make the game even better (I can't believe the orchestrated soundtrack wasn't in the original, Sugiyama was a clown). The game still has glaring issues like bland dungeon design among other things but man, what an adventure. I really miss the non-gimped visuals but this is still a fantastic way to experience the game.
what even happened in this game
Dragon Quest XI is a game I have a little bit of a funny connection with. For years now, I’ve been wanting to get it, but fate just chose otherwise. It went on sale a month or two ago at this point, and right as I was about to buy it, I found out that I got robbed, and couldn’t buy it. Only thanks to a friend buying it for me was I able to get, and finally play Dragon Quest XI. I don’t have much experience with Dragon Quest, I’ve only beaten 8, and I’ve played a small bit of 9, so I don’t have much familiarity with the series. But I had a great time with Dragon Quest XI, though I know I haven’t seen all of it.
I have to say, first and foremost, having a game with simple turn-based combat like this is really nice. And I like how you’re able to walk around the little arena as well, it just adds a nice amount of juice into something that’s rather stagnant in other games. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if the position of your characters matter or impact things in some way, but even if they don’t its fun just to move them around. And I was able to try out each of the playable characters in this game, and honestly they’re all really good. I think the general structure of the game allows you to try out each character enough to get used to them. Especially for me, the characters you get first in Act 2 were the ones I passed on using in Act 1. It may have just been coincidence for me, but it was a really smart choice all things considered.
And I adore exploring the game’s world. The main overworld of Edrea is certainly massive, but it creates this wonderful sense of scale that makes me enjoy just walking through it. The dungeons are also really fun to explore. Since (outside of the sea) enemies aren’t random encounters, it makes exploration feel so good. Especially since you’re not interrupted by random encounters all the time. That was one of my biggest pet peeves with Dragon Quest 8, so I’m glad to see that not being an issue here.
As well, the level grind didn’t seem too bad. In fact I don’t think I level grinded at all during the game, though I don’t know if that’s for better or for worse. By the end of Act 2, I was level 53, with the other characters being between 49-51. I had some challenge with the end boss of Act 2, so it’s hard to say if I was underleveled or not. This is more a feel thing than anything, but it really feels like it takes a long time for a character to level up, oftentimes taking so many battles before even one character levels up. Yet again this isn’t a negative, as I said I never needed to grind in the first place. It’s just odd in a feel sort of sense.
One of my favorite little options in Dragon Quest XI is Tickington. Being able to explore locations from previous Dragon Quests is really cool, even though I’ve only played 2 of them. And since it incorporates the 2D Mode that you can switch to, it’s nice to see all of the spritework made for the game as well. It’ll be funny when I finally get to the other Dragon Quest titles, and recognize the locations I saw from this game.
I also really love the story of the game. I wont go into too much detail here, especially with what occurs during Act 2, but there’s a lot that I really love. I think the main playable cast of Dragon Quest XI is absolutely perfect. There’s genuinely nothing I would change about them. Their growth, their personalities, everything. I just think particularly, I adore everything about Act 2, from the story, characters, and just general events.
When it comes to Dragon Quest XI, I know technically I’m not “done” with the game. But I’m satisfied with the ending I got, and I don’t really have much of an interest in playing Act 3. Honestly, with what I’ve heard about the general premise of Act 3, it would probably leave me unsatisfied, and I feel like I’d prefer ending the game at Act 2. Is that sacrilegious? Probably. But I’ve been playing this game for 60 hours now, I think I’m Dragon Quest’d out, and I did get an ending, even if it isn’t the final ending. Maybe after a decent break I’ll return to play Act 3, but I do feel like I have beaten the game regardless of playing Act 3 or not.
But I will say though, I really enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest XI. It’s probably been 2 years since I’ve been trying to get it, so to finally get around to playing it feels like a dream come true. I really would like to play the other Dragon Quest titles at some point, though I definitely need a bit of a break from them, this one took me quite a while to beat. Yet again, I may return to DQXI to play Act 3 at some point, but not today.
I have to say, first and foremost, having a game with simple turn-based combat like this is really nice. And I like how you’re able to walk around the little arena as well, it just adds a nice amount of juice into something that’s rather stagnant in other games. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if the position of your characters matter or impact things in some way, but even if they don’t its fun just to move them around. And I was able to try out each of the playable characters in this game, and honestly they’re all really good. I think the general structure of the game allows you to try out each character enough to get used to them. Especially for me, the characters you get first in Act 2 were the ones I passed on using in Act 1. It may have just been coincidence for me, but it was a really smart choice all things considered.
And I adore exploring the game’s world. The main overworld of Edrea is certainly massive, but it creates this wonderful sense of scale that makes me enjoy just walking through it. The dungeons are also really fun to explore. Since (outside of the sea) enemies aren’t random encounters, it makes exploration feel so good. Especially since you’re not interrupted by random encounters all the time. That was one of my biggest pet peeves with Dragon Quest 8, so I’m glad to see that not being an issue here.
As well, the level grind didn’t seem too bad. In fact I don’t think I level grinded at all during the game, though I don’t know if that’s for better or for worse. By the end of Act 2, I was level 53, with the other characters being between 49-51. I had some challenge with the end boss of Act 2, so it’s hard to say if I was underleveled or not. This is more a feel thing than anything, but it really feels like it takes a long time for a character to level up, oftentimes taking so many battles before even one character levels up. Yet again this isn’t a negative, as I said I never needed to grind in the first place. It’s just odd in a feel sort of sense.
One of my favorite little options in Dragon Quest XI is Tickington. Being able to explore locations from previous Dragon Quests is really cool, even though I’ve only played 2 of them. And since it incorporates the 2D Mode that you can switch to, it’s nice to see all of the spritework made for the game as well. It’ll be funny when I finally get to the other Dragon Quest titles, and recognize the locations I saw from this game.
I also really love the story of the game. I wont go into too much detail here, especially with what occurs during Act 2, but there’s a lot that I really love. I think the main playable cast of Dragon Quest XI is absolutely perfect. There’s genuinely nothing I would change about them. Their growth, their personalities, everything. I just think particularly, I adore everything about Act 2, from the story, characters, and just general events.
When it comes to Dragon Quest XI, I know technically I’m not “done” with the game. But I’m satisfied with the ending I got, and I don’t really have much of an interest in playing Act 3. Honestly, with what I’ve heard about the general premise of Act 3, it would probably leave me unsatisfied, and I feel like I’d prefer ending the game at Act 2. Is that sacrilegious? Probably. But I’ve been playing this game for 60 hours now, I think I’m Dragon Quest’d out, and I did get an ending, even if it isn’t the final ending. Maybe after a decent break I’ll return to play Act 3, but I do feel like I have beaten the game regardless of playing Act 3 or not.
But I will say though, I really enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest XI. It’s probably been 2 years since I’ve been trying to get it, so to finally get around to playing it feels like a dream come true. I really would like to play the other Dragon Quest titles at some point, though I definitely need a bit of a break from them, this one took me quite a while to beat. Yet again, I may return to DQXI to play Act 3 at some point, but not today.
This review contains spoilers
The only game ever in which the prerendered cutscenes look way worse than everything else. The difficulty curve is a straight line until you're 80 hours in, then it jumps up 10 feet, becoming somewhat challenging, until the last 3 or 4 encounters where it jumps up again and becomes very challenging(in a good way, mostly). Silent/self-insert protagonist at its worst, passively watches as everything goes on around him despite the story telling us he's the more important character ever it's only really true when you get a special glowing hand during cutscenes. This is massively made worse in the 3rd act post time-travel, where at times you literally have a flashback of seeing how things are about to go down and you don't say a thing? It's not like the protagonist is mute in-universe either, he's clearly shown to be able to communicate...
Some instances of truly weird(read: bad) game design, like letting you farm coins in the monster casino only to take them all away at the end of that scene or taking away a ton of levels from your party after time travel(granted they do give you those back so that's only a half-complaint).
And yet, despite all that... It's so much goddamn fun. Toriyama's artstyle and designs never disappoint. The combat is about as fun as you can have it in a traditional turn based rpg(no doubt in large part due to the huge number of QoL upgrades in the Definitive Edition). The story, basic and cliche as it is and with the major flaw regarding the protagonist I mentioned before, feels like a cozy bedtime story you'd be read before bed as a kid, perhaps because of those elements and not in spite of them.
Dragon Quest XI is a game made up of all the things I have heard a million times before, and mostly hate to hear. "It's simple, but that's what makes it good!", "It gets better 20 hours in!", "It's so much better than the sum of its parts!". This time, they're all true.
Some instances of truly weird(read: bad) game design, like letting you farm coins in the monster casino only to take them all away at the end of that scene or taking away a ton of levels from your party after time travel(granted they do give you those back so that's only a half-complaint).
And yet, despite all that... It's so much goddamn fun. Toriyama's artstyle and designs never disappoint. The combat is about as fun as you can have it in a traditional turn based rpg(no doubt in large part due to the huge number of QoL upgrades in the Definitive Edition). The story, basic and cliche as it is and with the major flaw regarding the protagonist I mentioned before, feels like a cozy bedtime story you'd be read before bed as a kid, perhaps because of those elements and not in spite of them.
Dragon Quest XI is a game made up of all the things I have heard a million times before, and mostly hate to hear. "It's simple, but that's what makes it good!", "It gets better 20 hours in!", "It's so much better than the sum of its parts!". This time, they're all true.
The first act of the game is amazing, an absolutely wonderful experience and I tought it could even become one of my favorite RPGs ever; gameplay, music, characters, story (a simple story, but it's episodic nature really made me like it a lot), it was all there. Then comes Act 2 and overall all the last parts of the game. I won't say I hated it, but I had to "force" myself to finish the game. It's still enjoyable, mind you, but it's just a fall from grace compared to the first half of the game. I won't go into more details because I want to avoid spoilers, but exploring the same map AGAIN isn't really my idea of "fun". Overall still a very good game, but it's a shame because it could have very well dethroned Dragon Quest VIII as my favorite DQ, and it failed because of poor design choices at the end.
Dragon Quest XI S (PS4) has finally wrapped up after 120 hours, although there's plenty of side content left unfinished. To me, DQ XI feels like a comforting retreat for those seeking a straightforward adventure to save the world after a long day at the office, without the need for complex storylines or frustrating gameplay mechanics. It's pure escapism into high fantasy that feels refreshingly charming and heartwarming, with a well-paced gameplay and story progression that you can feel even if you only have 2-3 hours to spare each day.
I highly recommend playing the Definitive Edition for the enhanced quality of life features. The improvements are substantial, from the orchestrated soundtrack to the ability to fast forward through battles and craft anywhere, significantly enhancing the game's pacing. The story and character arcs also feel more fleshed out and complete, with elements that would feel sorely lacking if absent. Unlike some other re-releases like Ni No Kuni, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal where additional content can feel shoehorned in, DQ XI's additions seem more like cut content that should have been there from the start, making it truly deserving of its "definitive" title.
However, I do have several criticisms, particularly regarding Act 3. While it offers insights and interesting moments, it often undermines the dramatic writing and character arcs established in Act 2 for the sake of a premature and overly tidy closure. There's also a noticeable amount of reused areas with minimal cosmetic changes for post-content, and the spread of recipes right before the endgame forces players into a last-minute scavenger hunt for ingredients. Additionally, the forced grinding towards the end feels rather unnatural and disrupts the flow of the narrative.
One other disappointment is the lack of vocal OSTs during scenes where characters are shown singing. It's a missed opportunity considering how memorable such moments can be in games like Grandia 2 and Ar Tonelico.
Overall, DQ XI is a JRPG that "overstays its welcome" in some aspects, but it's also undeniably complete and packed with content that justifies its full price. My score: 4/5.
I highly recommend playing the Definitive Edition for the enhanced quality of life features. The improvements are substantial, from the orchestrated soundtrack to the ability to fast forward through battles and craft anywhere, significantly enhancing the game's pacing. The story and character arcs also feel more fleshed out and complete, with elements that would feel sorely lacking if absent. Unlike some other re-releases like Ni No Kuni, Persona 4 Golden, and Persona 5 Royal where additional content can feel shoehorned in, DQ XI's additions seem more like cut content that should have been there from the start, making it truly deserving of its "definitive" title.
However, I do have several criticisms, particularly regarding Act 3. While it offers insights and interesting moments, it often undermines the dramatic writing and character arcs established in Act 2 for the sake of a premature and overly tidy closure. There's also a noticeable amount of reused areas with minimal cosmetic changes for post-content, and the spread of recipes right before the endgame forces players into a last-minute scavenger hunt for ingredients. Additionally, the forced grinding towards the end feels rather unnatural and disrupts the flow of the narrative.
One other disappointment is the lack of vocal OSTs during scenes where characters are shown singing. It's a missed opportunity considering how memorable such moments can be in games like Grandia 2 and Ar Tonelico.
Overall, DQ XI is a JRPG that "overstays its welcome" in some aspects, but it's also undeniably complete and packed with content that justifies its full price. My score: 4/5.