DRAGON QUEST XI: ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE
A BRIGHT AND VIBRANT JRPG THAT DOESN’T BREAK THE MOLD. $99.95 | PC, PS4 dragonquest.square-enix-games.com
It’s been over a decade since a proper, non-portable, single-player Dragon Quest game released in Australia, and for better or for worse, very little has changed since. Dragon Quest XI is naturally a better-looking and more polished game than 2006’s PS2 instalment Dragon Quest VIII (DQIX was a Nintendo DS exclusive and DQX, an MMO, never released outside of Japan), but it does very little to expand the scope of the JRPG.
In fact, aside from some fairly distinctive Dragon Quest markers – blue enemy slimes, the immediately familiar music – this could be just about any other whimsical fantasy RPG with turn-based combat. The protagonist is a “Luminary”, so in other words, he’s yet another JRPG “chosen one”, and from his inauspicious village beginnings he’ll soon embark on a quest of a lifetime. It’s the usual fantasy guff, in other words, and quite unlike the Final Fantasy series – which Dragon Quest lords it over in the series’ native Japan - there are very few surprises in store.
The hint is in the name: Dragon Quest XI seems determined to massage the nostalgic instincts of its aging audience rather than threaten to challenge them. You won’t be suffering any especially tough encounters in its perfectly serviceable turn-based combat, and if you’d prefer, you can set these encounters to play themselves. Meanwhile, exploring the expansive world of Erdrea is lovely, but don’t expect to be surprised: a forest here, a bit of snow there, a sprinkling of desert. It’s not like Ni No Kuni 2 played with the formula much either, but it at least had style on its side. Dragon Quest XI looks undeniably beautiful, but the style doesn’t deviate from light fantasy convention.
Which doesn’t mean this is a terrible game. If you’re an aforementioned nostalgic for the PS2-era, and if you’ve spent hundreds of hours playing poorly localised Japanese fantasy games just because you like the music and the colours, you’ll definitely want to play this. Finding myself awkwardly belonging to that latter category, I couldn’t write off XI entirely, though I did wish I was playing a Final Fantasy game – or even Dragon Quest Builders – instead. [ SHAUN PRESCOTT ]