Update 9/21/2023: It's been a little over a year since I finished Dragon Quest XI and it's still difficult for me to sum up my thoughts.
There is so much I love about it, from its charming characters to its ambitious scale to its unbelievable post-game content. It has moments that are up there with some of my favorite in the medium. The combat is also easily the best I've experienced in any turn-based JRPG.
But it's also filled with a lot of tedium, and unfortunately, I don't think its world grew much on me. Its traditional approach to old-school JRPG fantasy aesthetics offered few surprises.
Even when I believed parts of it looked pretty, I'm not sure if I ever felt wholehearted adoration for it. That style is what people love about Dragon Quest and I understand that, especially since it cannot be found much anywhere nowadays.
Inside me there is a constant battle reflecting on its most exhausting moments and trying to unravel my true feelings on its visual style. I'm completely comfortable saying I loved this game, yet I also don't know how to feel about it as a whole.
So yeah, I'm still uncertain on my final thoughts. I'm not sure when or if I ever will. It's already been a whole year since completion. When will this game stop haunting me?
Original review is as follows:
It's difficult to assign the entirety of Dragon Quest XI a single score. I've been playing this game on and off over the last three years, and according to my final playtime, that comes out to 113 hours.
DQXI hasn't been an insignificant part of those three years either, and all three acts have come to represent a sort-of lifelong saga for me. When I finally reached end credits, I felt lost.
DQXI had always been there for me, in the background, wanting to be played. Its world and its characters were a part of me, and although I was desperate to finally get the game over with, now that it's actually done, I've come out with mixed feelings.
Am I really ready to say goodbye to this world? To these characters? What does my life look like without Dragon Quest XI sitting in the back of my mind?
It's hard to say. I have plenty of criticisms and there's a good chunk of it that didn't work for me, but there are very few experiences in this medium that I can walk away from and feel this lost.
I think it'll take many months of reflection for me to fully understand my own feelings on it. For now, all I know is that this game is truly special.
There is so much I love about it, from its charming characters to its ambitious scale to its unbelievable post-game content. It has moments that are up there with some of my favorite in the medium. The combat is also easily the best I've experienced in any turn-based JRPG.
But it's also filled with a lot of tedium, and unfortunately, I don't think its world grew much on me. Its traditional approach to old-school JRPG fantasy aesthetics offered few surprises.
Even when I believed parts of it looked pretty, I'm not sure if I ever felt wholehearted adoration for it. That style is what people love about Dragon Quest and I understand that, especially since it cannot be found much anywhere nowadays.
Inside me there is a constant battle reflecting on its most exhausting moments and trying to unravel my true feelings on its visual style. I'm completely comfortable saying I loved this game, yet I also don't know how to feel about it as a whole.
So yeah, I'm still uncertain on my final thoughts. I'm not sure when or if I ever will. It's already been a whole year since completion. When will this game stop haunting me?
Original review is as follows:
It's difficult to assign the entirety of Dragon Quest XI a single score. I've been playing this game on and off over the last three years, and according to my final playtime, that comes out to 113 hours.
DQXI hasn't been an insignificant part of those three years either, and all three acts have come to represent a sort-of lifelong saga for me. When I finally reached end credits, I felt lost.
DQXI had always been there for me, in the background, wanting to be played. Its world and its characters were a part of me, and although I was desperate to finally get the game over with, now that it's actually done, I've come out with mixed feelings.
Am I really ready to say goodbye to this world? To these characters? What does my life look like without Dragon Quest XI sitting in the back of my mind?
It's hard to say. I have plenty of criticisms and there's a good chunk of it that didn't work for me, but there are very few experiences in this medium that I can walk away from and feel this lost.
I think it'll take many months of reflection for me to fully understand my own feelings on it. For now, all I know is that this game is truly special.