Released 2015
Genre: Musou, Action, RPG
I think I'll start this review off by saying that I've only ever played a Musou game (e.g. Dynasty Warriors) once before and I was really stoned. I've been gaming for like 25 years, so I've had ample opportunity and my lack of interest has really been what's kept me from the genre. So why pick up this game? Square Enix essentially held the Dragon Quest franchise hostage, if this game didn't sell well in the west, we wouldn't be getting more Dragon Quest. I did my duty and spent the money to keep the franchise alive in the west. I'd bought the game, so I probably should try it, right?
Visual- I liked the way that this game looked! It has a kind of hand drawn aesthetic that's common to all of the games of the series. Dragon Quest 8 was one of my favorite games and I still appreciated the look of the game. I like the character design by Akira Toriyama (of Dragon Ball fame), but I can understand how they all look kind of same-y. The monsters are all a mix of cute and cool which helps a lot because you see each monster a ton of times. Literally hundreds.
Audio- The music that was in this game was pretty decent, but it didn't seem like there was very much of it. I'm pretty sure there was exactly one battle song that played for 80% of the game. The sound effects take center stage here since it's an action game and there really wasn't much variability there either. Your characters call out their abilities each time they use them because they suffer from some sort of memory condition I think. I probably heard "Inferno Slash!" ten thousand times. If you don't silence your controller sounds that little blurb will play from there as well! For your own sanity, silence that controller. The voice acting was okay for what it was, but there are such awkward pauses in many of the games from Japan that it makes the dialogue seem stilted. I don't know if that's a cultural thing to wait three full seconds before replying, but it makes the conversations really odd sounding. Maybe they didn't fix the timing for the sound clips after they translated it? I've no idea.
Gameplay- This game is a grind. You and your three friends literally clear out the same 20 maps of a mix of maybe 120 different types of monsters that come in hordes rife with "Mawkeepers" that serve as the spawning mechanisms. I didn't really mind the gameplay the first few levels, but it really doesn't change much for the subsequent 30 hours. I turned on podcasts or NPR to keep my brain turning entirely to mush. I think if you are just looking for a grindy game, this will probably scratch that itch quite well! The game does control fluidly and you have a large degree of control over your character's movement and attacks, so it seems satisfying when you are mowing down wave after wave of the same enemies. Your characters gain levels and you get to spend skill points to
Story- So riddled with tropes that it was hardly worth the time. I paused what I was listening to in order to listen to/read the story, but I don't think I really gained anything. The only character with any kind of development was the slime ally that occasionally heals your party. Everyone else is exactly the same at the end as they were when they were introduced. That being said, there were plenty of cameos from previous games in the series that were enjoyable if you knew the characters before. I can always use more Yangus and Jessica in my games.
Recommendation?
This game scratches a very particular itch. If you don't currently have an itch for something that's grindy, this game is not for you. As far as this game goes, I really don't know who this game is for... It's so radically different than the previous games in the Dragon Quest franchise, but it requires knowledge of the previous games in order to appreciate all of the cameo characters that join your party. I can't say that I regretted playing this game, but I think I will go back to my previous course of not playing any Musou games. 6/10
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