DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2

Looks like a smashing time

Whatever you were hoping for in the sequel to Dragon Quest Builders, you’re going to get it. The building side has been ramped up – but so has the questing, RPG aspect. The whole world feels more developed this time round, and this is a much more involving game.

Your builder washes up on Vacant Island, an unwelcoming place. It functions a lot like Terra Incognita in the first game: you can improve it and build to your heart’s content, and the more you progress in the story, the more you can do on Vacant Island – but whereas Terra Incognita was separate from the story mode, Vacant Island functions more as a hub that you visit between other islands, and NPCs you befriend in the main game will join you there. This is also where your friends can join in in co-op multiplayer mode.

In story mode, just like in the first game, you smack chunks out of the landscape, walloping earth, sand, stone, trees, and even monsters to gather materials and reconstruct a blighted world. However, you aren’t just constructing rooms and defences. You’ll find yourself tunnelling channels for water to flow down, carving whole rivers through the landscape. NPCs still give you blueprints for rooms to construct. The building challenges sometimes felt a little weak in the first game, but in DBQ2 they’re more involved, right from the first level. (The queue of desperate villagers that forms when you finally build a loo is entertaining.) Cooking and crafting has also been made more complex. They now take time – you can’t just stand in front of a cooking spot and produce multiple dishes in an instant, and forges take a while to make things like metal ingots. However, if you have the materials on you to make, say three chairs, you can simply set the crafting table to make three at once, rather than having to make one after another. And on levels where farming features, that’s now a longer, more involved process too.

BRICK OR TREAT?

Waves of monsters and bosses make an unwelcome return – is there anything more annoying when you want to get on and build things than having to polish off some bloated creature? At least you still get to choose when you take them on.

On the subject of unwelcome returns, while you can give your friends access to your Vacant Island, you can also limit what they are able to do there. Which is handy if you have one (Ian!) who likes to smash their way through your builds like Mr Driller after three pots of coffee. We’re looking forward to bricking him up on his own island this July.

“IN STORY MODE, GATHER MATERIALS AND RECONSTRUCT A BLIGHTED WORLD.”

The look of the game is instantly familiar – and the classic Dragon Quest music returns too. It’s a delight.

Above Paragliding and swimming give you new ways to explore the landscape, allowing you to see more of it and uncover materials for your builds.

We’d really hoped the boss fights would be ditched this time round. But it wouldn’t be Dragon Quest without oversized monsters.

Left Malroth is your best bud. Where you go, he goes. He follows your lead, so if you start fighting monsters, he’ll happily start clubbing away alongside you.

Above You no longer need chimaera wings to warp home – you and Malroth can fast travel back via the map.