Cute little licensed game. Nothing too fancy or complicated: the combat is streamlined and button-mashy (and that's normal, considering this is a gba game), the level design is often uninspired and sometimes a bit confusing. The music is nothing to write home about.

Stages are divided into normal sidescrolling beat-em-ups, flying stages, duels (with a different control scheme and fighting game mechanics), and some minigames. For such a short game, this is quite a lot of varety.

What really shines is the love for the source material, especially the incredible spritework and animation. For each and every saga depicted (from the start of the series, through the red ribbon arc and finally the evil king piccolo arc), the developers nailed the aesthetics of stages and bosses. I have some nitpicks, since the story has been condensed and altered, sometimes reasonably (I can understand why they wouldn't include Bulma flashing Muten in exchange for a dragonball), sometimes less reasonably (Goku loses both of the tenkaichi tournaments featured in this story, I don't get why they made him win them in this game).

But that's not really important, it doesn't take away from the charm of having such an underrated and under-represented part of the dragonball franchise immortalised in a short little (though somewhat unpolished) game.

This completely failed to grab me, and I abandoned it in record time, multiple times. I was captivated by this game's gorgeous visuals, but unfortunately that ended up being the only feature I would end up enjoying (that and sometimes the music). I don't dislike the gameplay, story and exploration, sure. But it all fills me with an overwhelming sense of meh.

The controls are ever-so-slightly janky, the inventory management is cumbersome, the exploration is largely unrewarding, and the towns. Oh moy god the towns. They are huge. Well, not really, but they feel huge, and not in a "wow, this place is huge!" sense, but more of a "oh god, there's more?" vibe.

The environment are charming and detailed, sure, but there is so much fluff, so many houses to trespass with nothing to find in them, so many people to talk to who have nothing substantial to say.

The overworld is interesting in theory, with how it incorporates Zelda II's encounter mechanics. But even that idea is explored in a very shallow way.

It all feels so superficial and unoriginal, I tried to pick it up in three different instances and it managed to bore me in a couple of play sessions every single time. Two years later, I'm calling it. This was the final chance for this game to impress me. It's just not for me, I guess.

As usual, dragon quest is a pure, distilled jrpg experience. It will never surprise or challenge the player with innovative mechanics, but it will provide some of the most meticuloisly refined turn-based mechanics out there.

I particularly loved the aesthetics on this one: the cel-shaded look is enchanting and timeless. The characters also shine, both in design and in personality. Most of the characterisation is conveyed through party banter and bickering that is somewhat sparse, but always charming. Some characterisation ilfor the main character is also conveyed through mechanics, i.e. his immunity to curses and cursed equipment, which cleverly hints at some mystery about him. That is a really good touch.

Combat is nothing surprising, but it is quite well crafted and balanced. The only spark of uniqueness it has is the "psyche up" system, which lends more than a few opportunities for tactical play.

Basically no grinding is required, each character grows into a useful role, and getting them to work together in synergy is quite satisfying. As a side point, only having 4 party members is a design choice that I wholeheartedly support: it makes the game more focus and doesn't force the player to choose what characters will be left to rot on the bench.

Having only played DQXI to its completion before this game, I was left a bit disappointed by VIII in some regards, mainly the town designs, which are a lot more generic than XI. But I guess that's an unfair criticism, as XI came out a decade later.

The main drawback of this game is its length. It took me 60 hours to finish it, and it really didn't need to be this long. I caught up with Dhoulmagus (the big overarching objective of the first half of the game) at about the 35 hour mark, and I feel that this was a great place to end it. Little did I know, I was barely halfway through, and the second half would be just more of the same, repeated as nauseam.

If you'd allow me a (badly crafted) metaphor, DQ to me is like a fine steak. It doesn't need fancy toppings or sides, just some salt and pepper, it lets the flavour of the top-quality meat speak for itself. No fancy mechanics, no experimentation, just finely crafted jrpg-ing. Unfortunately, though, this steak is, like, 2kg of meat. It's way too much for one person, and even the most rich and succulent cut of meat you ever had is going to tire you after eating that much.