i actually played this fucking game so much time ago but a friend of mine said ughhh achtualyl you cannot say you finished the game before finishing the post game thats like an integral part of the main story and I was like OK WHAT THE FUCK OK and got burned out because this is legit a 100 hours game do you think in that span of time I would not get burned out + i forgot some of the stuff in the main story sorryyyyy teehee

played a lot of mainline dragon quest games in my life and I can confidently say that IX is my favorite one of the bunch and V and VIII coming closer to the top like it has all the legacy best elements with the added QoL and mechanics of the newest generation of videogames this ones great

now this one i cannot really say where it sits in the top and i wont even ask you to entertain the thought of making one due to the fact that I love all my babies a damn lot and I wont decide one over the other (IX is perfect im sorry im gonna pick that one kisses)

so umh I genuinely don't know where to begin reviewing this game because its basically so fucking big a game I have no real idea what to say

let's just go over the gameplay so we can get this shit out of the way and the TLDR of all this is gonna be this is genuinely one of the greatest JRPGs in terms of accessibility difficulty overall fun gameplay incredible personalisation tons and tons of content and variety in game flow and execution

as a textbook RPG I'm surprised at how good the battle system and general sense of pacing is like the main combat is as basic as it gets but it has so much shit put into it and never really feels bloated instead it's a perfect tool for both novices of the series and hard-core fans to explore a lot of strategizing customizing and battling with different characters and tactics and a shit ton of skills equipments spells attacks skill trees there's something for everybody lets just say that - gia gunn and seeing how expansive the overall game feels I can understand how the combat too benefits from that

also I realised at half my playthrough that i could switch characters IN BATTLE and I'm still pissed off by that like how much stupider can you get I pushed through the entire game convinced that I it wasn't possible to change almost dead characters and now you tell me I actually can BS this is basically final fantasy X type of gameplay and no tutorial actually explained it to me thats wild

apart from the usual dragon quest flare during the battles you got some more stuff like powers that activate randomly and combo stuff that really give a nuance to this game compared to the others and honestly I really like those even tho it's kind of a random thing and if you want a specific power you need to wait like 9+ turns for them to activate but they're such ace moves that it's understandable they work like that

and yknow thats it but the general flow of the gameplay is actually pretty damn tight seeing that you can actually do a lot of shit in battle I ended up going head first into enemies because fighting them was just THAT addicting

exploring the overworld is also a big mechanic of the game and the fact that you have to forage and find treasures for equipment or to create stuff in the furnace really makes the game even more expansive than it already is since everywhere you're gonna find some loot to enhance your general party stats to the point that most of the OP equipments are gonna be found just by exploring and crafting or doing some special side quests

oh yeah ! side quests suck ! as they always did in any game ever in the history of videogames so im not gonna shit on them this is like the standard for the industry so who am I to judge

sooooooo I think I talked about everything in this department so

art direction it is

when I first looked at these characters and NPCs general art style I was like damn this is actually the final iteration of toriyamas style like you can't get a better understanding of his shapes and design ethics than this

the world is filled with some incredible people apart from the main protagonists which we will get there don't worry we are left with a world feeling alive and breathing and all this with so many flawless details all around every single town in the game is absolutely unmatched they give off some particular vibes since they're always based on some culture and shit and it's just so good to traverse them and seeing the different architecture and dressing style and culture it's just so so good and this doesn't only apply to town even the overworld is filled to the brim with so much incredible scenery that every single frame of your playthrough can be confused as an impressionist painting im not joking there's something about the lighting the colors and everything that feels so profoundly evocative dragon quest was always dreamlike but this shit is off the charts

so yeah but what really takes the cake for me are the enemies and specifically the enemy rendition in perfect HD graphics I always had a thing for dragon quest monster designs (not a huge fan of the countless recolors tho that shit sucks ass) and seeing them come to life in such an animated and artistic masterpiece is honestly incredible and I loved the fact that in the beginning of the battle you find them in the classic pose before they shift to the idle animation I almost cried at how devotedly they used the source material and recreated something genuinely breathtaking like look at the gryphon (he's pretty hot) or the spitzfire or the professaurus (he's pretty hot) and many many many more that honestly I'm embarrassed to say this but there's some monsters I'd fuck this is the furry gene acting up

that being said yeah the first dragon quest iteration into the next gen consoles really gave us some of the most jaw dropping graphics ever and I'm not gonna lie and i need to show this game to people that say no I only play games with hyperrealistic graphics umh sure hetero but look at this

in general its really a fun time but the only downsides here is the ost now as much as I know they completely rehauled the music in the definitive version giving it an orchestral rearrangement now these songs are really beautiful nothing to say but it just feels like a dragon quest series medley at a theatre there's not a whole lot of new cuts here and there and the ones that they added are either annoying or passable sure dragon quest music as a whole is still pretty beautiful but I wanted some more into the game BUT they also gave me the greatest boss battle theme ever with that trombone going PRRRUHHUH I basically played the game waiting for that ost

that being said its time for SPOILER TERRITORY with characters and story

so first and foremost I love this cast and its probably gonna be one of my favorite rooster of characters not only in the dragon quest canon but also in the videogame landscape in general they're all so deeply written and they feel alive and breathing and they have some of the sweetest interactions ever in the universe thank you

the protagonist isn't really gonna be the deeper character in the game but they really augment the whole feeling and background with him being actually the song of the king there or whatever and it has to be said that his father is actually pretty fucking hot not gonna lie

being a silent protagonist of course you're not gonna get a lot out of him apart from the hilarious "no" options throughout the game and some one sided interactions between characters but he's still gay

and he also has some of the most fun character building in the entire party he's so versatile you can tackle him either as a physical fighter or a magical healer you can do whatever you want with him deadass

erik is probably my second fav one of the bunch he's a thief he's had it rough and he's basically a homosexual runaway after people actually got his sister or whatever now since he's traumatized and shit he actually shows little to no emotions but the little interactions he has they always deliver and sometimes he can be pretty fucking funny nonetheless

as a first party member it's clear he's the love interest im not gonna make any argument on that this is set in stone and I don't care one fucking bit now go away

his part of the story with his sister backstory and the loss of memory shit is interesting but never really left a big impact on me as much as I wanted to there's characters with some deeper storybeats and character development but I still love him a whole lot and always put him in the slutty outfit

serena and veronica are probably the characters who have the most focused story of the bunch they're the heroines of the game and its interesting that they actually split them in 2 different people so that one could be the over religious christian holy pure girl who always puts other in the first place and talks in formal japanese even when she's on the brink of death and veronica instead is the absolute peak characterisation in any way shape or form she's not only the most incredible comic relief character out of the bunch has some of the most fun punchlines I've ever witnessed in dragon quest she got cursed to be in a baby form and that makes it 100% funnier and she always packed some of the most heart wrenching lines and story developments out of all the characters in the entire game im not gonna lie

i have it ingrained in my fucking mind when you camp out in the open and serena goes to veronica and she says "sister when our leaves fall from the great yggdrasil do you think they're gonna fall together ?" and veronica says "don't say stupid stuff like this . but I hope they do" and then they get back to sleep together in serenity guys

no im not joking this moment was possibly the hardest hitting moment in the entire game beside the rab crying in front of the grave scene I was a complete fucking mess after this cutscene I cried for like 10-15 whole minutes because this was possibly the most bittersweet exchange in the entire game and when you also add the fact that they're both one of the most well written characters in the game you really get a glimpse of veronica actually being the big sis of the two even though usually its serena who's the one that looks like the wiser one (mentally and obviously physically in this moment)

like the bond these two share is so fucking deep I cannot even write about it without tearing up and the whole serena trauma arc after the sacrifice of veronica when she actually SAVED all her fucking friends and left her sister alone even though she said she wouldn't is probably the most depressing plot moment of the bunch I just cannot think of other stuff that hit this hard not even the mermaid storyline not even rab storyline nothing came close to serena cutting her own hair and inheriting most of veronica powers and moving on thats so fucking powerful

a pity they shit in the face of this beautiful writing epilogue with act 3 but we are gonna get there !!!!!!!!

so yeah I love veronica and serena they're my sweet little babies that I love very dearly and apart from this they also were fucking essential in battle serena is the ultimate healer of the bunch and can give some pretty drastic buffs to the party and veronica is the ultimate magic user using her fire magic to obliterate everything in front of them I'm sorry I love these girls too much

sylvando is an interesting case since I thought he was gonna be an incredibly homophobic character but instead he's actually a really good trope of gay guy and they treated him with a lot of care and respect and I was NOT expecting that its just so fucking good a character he's funny he's interesting he has a lot of depth and he's basically a huge metaphor of queerness and coming out and shit like that and I gotta say I really loved that

I'm not that huge of a fan of how japanese people treat gay characters but this time they outdid themselves like he's not just a queer walking trope character just for the sake of having a recurrent deprecatory and homophobic trope but he's actually a guy with a lot of facets apart from being queer and thats not ALL there is to him this is such great writing and the little talk with his father about him being a circus clown and his father accepting it was just heartwarming enough for me I love the guy

plus his father is pretty hot im sorry

and he's also a jack of all trades in the battles he can use like every single weapon ever and every single skill ever so that's fun

rab is an interesting case in the fact that I love the guy too damn fucking much but of course he's gonna be in the bottom of the characters list because old guy etc etc BUT his story of sorrow and sadness due to the loss of his daughter and her husband ? or son and his wife ? I told you I don't remember the story anyway yeah there's some really sad storybeats regarding him and I loved all of them plus the old dirty guy trope makes me always laugh idk

he's a mage and that means he can do a lot of stuff with his hands but since he's more of a versatile type of mage he doesn't really shines in any given skill but yknow he's useful sometimes I like him

jade is my girl I want her to kick me in the balls and call me slurs she has a little bit of backstory that makes some of her relationship to eleven clearer but ultimately I wanted the writing to give more focus to her character as a whole and not only the oh yeah she's the one who saved eleven as a baby because story and shit like that but STILL incredibly good character and a femme fatale to boot

and in battle she's also a fucking dmg queen and when you get her to higher levels she's basically a staple for metal slime grinding with erik

hendrik and jasper have a homosexual relationship and it's pretty funny how that's the entire motive for jasper being evil like "I just wanted to be like you then I realised I wanted to fuck you in the ass and then helped mordegon" ok internalised homophobia pop off so whatever they're both hot and they both care for each other and that's basically their entire plotline ngl

hendrik is super hot and i want to suck his dick so you might imagine my absolute awe at the fact that in act2 he's gonna join you like what the hell who even thought about giving me this heavy meat right in front of me like hendrik is one of those characters that make me quote tiffany new york pollard "I know his dick is big I know it I know is big oh god my heart hurts" so there's that

the bad guy to good guy change was kind of expected but I was not expecting him to join the party more power to me I guess I will just start playing this game with only one hand he's still one of the tankiest ones in the entire party and his longswords swing even harder than his longsword if you know what I mean

and he's just eleven but buff and no magic in the battle department so yeah there's that

jasper is a good villain and is also pretty fucking hot when he gets all naked and sweaty and mordegon is also an interesting villain in the series since this time its not gonna be an intergalactic demon conqueror thing because THATS FOR THE ACT3 WOWOWO

ok story

I enjoy this story but I think it has some ups and downs definitely

act1 makes a huge fucking impact in exploring the world and making new friends here and there and I'm a fan of basically every single story beat (albeit sometimes kind of side questy like most of the stuff youre gonna do here is padding in the different cities but it's FINE) a huge highlight for me is the little prince of that kingdom with the horse racers what was his name ok faris I want to fuck faris pretty hard so this was a huge highlight for me sorryyyyyyy teehee the mermaid quest is also pretty good in the fact that it made me mentally unstable and cautious of this game and also the winter witch quest is kind of fun like look at her ice britney spears

the final part of the act1 with mordegon destroying yggdrasil actually made me lose all my hair since I wants expecting this kind of climax in the middle of the story I was absolutely destroyed by this and the beautiful animated cutscene me when the whole world is destroyed: dayum kinda beautiful innit

so they all get scattered and it's time for extra stories

I'm not a fan of these extra stories !!! the end

sylvando one is a fucking chore eriks is ok and actually makes some sense to the amnesia shit because i wouldve been like huh ???? jades sexist as hell she is still pretty hot but idk if I wanted to see that and rab actually made me bawl so yeah nothing new

act2 is pretty interesting and also has some ups and downs particularly because youre gonna revisit the same exact places you did in act1 and see how they changed while also looking for your friends now I'm not against this because the scenery changes according to the new environment but its still a chore to go around places you already visited but whatever now there's hendrik following you so I can have some eyecandy at least and yeah this all takes a damn good spike in the story as soon as you find out veronica is dead and everything fucking crumbles and serena gets depressed and does the sakura move that shit actually HIT emotionally and also on a gameplay standpoint because at this point their gonna be like omg mordegon you bloody pooping proper

so kill mordegon

the end everyone's happy

good fucking story UNTIL act3

now I'm not a huge fan of act3 it takes everything that made act2 beautiful and spits in its face and says OK actually let's redo all that but with veronica alive which is fun

now I'm not against this kind of treatment because it made me see an alternate universe of things and watch some little changes in interactions throughout the different cities but it's YET AGAIN another act2 I cannot go on like this honestly I have the very based belief that this part of the game was basically put for the people who really love this game and want an endless variety of stuff to do

revisit old towns and go do according dungeons and see what differs from act2 some more trials here and there infinite side quests a lot more customization and levelling up and grinding to do and possibly the most BS final battle in the entire universe this is basically just made for dq11 ultra fans and even though I'm not one of them I ended up playing and finishing it anyway lmao

now I mean I'm not so much against this because I see it as extra stuff but if people tell me "dq11 is ALSO act3" I have to disagree this honestly all feel like a padding for those more 40 hours into the game and giving a honestly fun what-if scenario but apart from that nothing too hype if I have to be honest

still the serenica incident is a nice touch to the whole lore and I was convinced of the fact that erdwin was actually the guy from dragon quest 3 and I was like oh ok that's cool this is a sequel then you get to the finale and this is actually a prequel to dq3 because I confused erdwin with erdrick and how the fuck is this game a prequel If environments are definitely more technologically advanced than dq3 but I digress

whatever its cool and the ending made me teary eyed ngl

then you get the ending scene which is the beginning of dq3 and I fucking scream to hell and back what a nice way to finish this game i still got shivers what the fuck this was the sealing deal of how this game is actually just a love letter to the entire series I can't stress this enough

so uh good game one of the finest dq out there if it weren't for the fact that they're all good

veronica I love you so much