Dragon Quest 11 review. The most classic jrpg

Hello everyone, I have long wanted to try to play the Dragon Quest series. In childhood, only Western RPG played, such as Gothic or Oblivion, and Jrpg of PC games almost did not go out, so I did not even know about the existence of Dragon Quest, although in Japan this is one of the most popular franchises. I did not want to start with the newest part before, and I always tried to find out the established series of games from earlier parts, even if they were not connected by the plot. For example, the Resident Evil played for the first time in 2017 for the first time and began with a remake of the first part. And a couple of years ago I tried to start with DQ7, but after 5 hours I quit. And as they later told me that it was possible one of the most stuffy parts and start with her acquaintance with the series is a very bad idea. As a result, after a couple of years I came to the conclusion that it is not necessary to get acquainted with the franchises from the old games, or you can just start with the newest and comfortable, and it’s time to go through DQ11.

In short, of course, it is worth playing if you like classic jrpg. Or you want to try to join this genre for the first time, this game is very suitable to be your first jrpg with a step -by -step fighter, but it is worth considering that the game is quite long and very classic.

Pros

1) pleasant characters, each with their secrets. 2) it is better to design locations and they are more interesting to explore them than most other JRPG 3) good graphics by the standards of the majority of JRPG 4) a good, quite exciting craft (for example, recently played Tales of Xillia and there is no craft at all) 5) good combat system 6) there is a quick movement

Cons

1) In order to use objects during the battle, such as hilk, they need to be moved separately to each time in the inventory each time 2) the plot is sometimes very stretched 3) you need a little grind of 4) little voice acting 5) additional tasks are not interesting

Prosesses Blossom Tsekhoshchina+- 1) Very classic plot (it may like it, on the contrary, tired of the post-nourishing post and want classics) 2) A peculiar style and design from the author Dragon Ball Akira Thoriyama (but I personally do not really like this anime style, and Tales of or Ni No Kuni was more visually)

And if interesting in detail, then read on.

About the game and development

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of An Ellusive Age – Jrpg from Square Enix. The eleventh part of the Dragon Quest video game series was released in Japan in July 2017 and around the world in September 2018. And the expanded version of the Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of An Elusive Age – Definitive Edition was released for Nintendo Switch in September 2019 and for the rest of the platforms in December 2020. I played in the latest version.

This was one of the first games announced for Switch, initially wanted to make a completely open world in the game, but they refused this idea, since it contradicted the stories that the developers wanted to tell. And this, by the way, is the first part, which was officially released on a PC.

The difference between a reprinted version with the original is that in an improved version, a portable blacksmith is available to almost any place. You can configure the speed of animation during the battle. Japanese voice acting, and orchestral soundtrack. And at any moment you can switch the game to a classic view in the style of games with SNES. But the original was better than the graphics, as the new version was postponed straight from the switch.

The creator of the series Eugi Khoria mentioned in the Infent that they tried to focus on the first three parts of Dragon Quest in the development of the eleventh. They largely wanted to return to the roots of the series. Even the logo of the game refers to the first part, only the dragon now looks the other way.

The game in Japan came both at the Nintendo 3DS and PS4 at the same time, in fact, two different teams made two different games on different engines (the PS4 version was developed on Unreal Engine 4 by the way) but both versions use the general sketches of the plot and gameplay from Eugene Khoria Khoria Khory.

An interesting fact, only during the development of the eleventh part of Akir Toriyam and Koichi Sugiyama (the composer of all parts of Dragon Quest) met personally for the first time. Before that, Khoria did not know that in all this time Toriyama never personally met with Sugiyama.

The developers were from the very beginning against any DLS and microtransactions, they believed that it was better to direct the resources for polishing the game or to a full -fledged new part than to do DLS to 11.

Plot, characters and atmosphere

The game takes place in the Erdrea world. The main character of the game is the newborn prince of the kingdom Dandravil. And almost immediately after his birth, the monsters army attacks the castle, and when he tried to save the prince, he is dropped into the river and he sailed alive to the distant lands. Where he finds him, swimming along the river, an old man named Chalki. The hero adopts the daughter of Chalki – Amber and he grows in their village. After the ceremony of the majority of the protagonist, Amber reveals the truth to him about his birth and adoption and sends him to a meeting with King Carnelian from Heliodor. However, the king accuses the hero that he is an evil creature and child of the Demon and that all the troubles in the kingdom from him throw the hero into the dungeon.

And in prison, the main character meets a thief named Eric, who, after he saw a tattoo-sign, Luminari, understands that his meeting with the hero is not accidental and decides to help him from now on, and together they run away from prison and go towards the Erd tree, in the center of the world, which can give answers to questions to questions.

Yes, the plot is very classic: the protagonist, the prince, who has lost his kingdom, and now he must gather his group of adventurers and fight evil (even not Kuni 2, who recently played and which he wrote, also has a similar plot). But in this partly charm, apparently many players from Japan most like this series for continuity to traditions. But this game also has its unexpected plot turns, so not everything here is completely predictable and obvious.

Spoilers to the end.

Most of all that surprised in this game this is the false ending. The game is very long and I probably already played at 70 hours when I came to the last castle and failed the boss. Everything is supposed to: there is a logical end of the plot, there are credits, you are thrown into the main menu and you make saving for a new game plus. The only ending with a taste of bitterness, as one of our companions dies.

And what do you think? You can continue to https://nongambancasinos.co.uk/review/seven-casino/ play after the end of the game, find new quests and chat with NPS around the world and watch how they react to the end of history. But the most important thing is that you will find out that it is in this world with the help of one artifact it is possible to travel in time and after several quests and finding the time tower, you move back in time before your companion died. Yes, everything is right. The last act begins. That is, the first false ending is 70% of the game. Then say that I was surprised to say nothing. I definitely did not expect this.

The main character, unfortunately, is much less like in Ni No Kuni 2. GG is not voiced, but this is a classic as in old Jrpg, but I don’t like it so much, the same problem with Metro Exodus, for example, it seems that the characters are talking very strangely with the main characters, as if he were backward. I understand the lack of voice acting at the GG in some Western games where there are a lot of content and because of a branched plot of the player, the player has a greater selection of dialogue options, like in Disco Elysium, Dragon Age First or Skyrim even. But here the plot is linear and you very rarely have a chance to choose in the “yes” or “no” dialogue, while this choice does not affect anything. In general, most of the game, it seems that GG does not have its own character.

But with companions things are better. About each of the companions will be their episodes in the plot and their characters and history are well revealed over time. Almost all companions with a double bottom, everyone has their own secrets that they do not immediately reveal.

At any moment you can stop and click on the menu to talk with your companions, they always have comments about each moment from the main plot or they suggest and remind what to do next. Plus, after that, you can press separately for each of the members of the group and they will still have their own comments separately from the whole group. But almost all of them are always not voiced, there is only voice acting only in the main Kats. That is, all the same, for me, DQ11 loses the Tales of series here, but this is understandable with Tales of almost no one can compete from the JRPG series with regard to talking with satellites.

An interesting fact, by the way, from an interview learned that the favorite character of the developers themselves was Silwango (I have far from my favorite). In the Japanese version, he uses the female manner of speech, which was difficult to convey in English.

There are many famous voices in Japanese voice acting. For example, just akio ōTSUKA, which in the Japanese version, voices a Snake in MGS or Adachi in Yakuza 7, here he voiced the king from the city in the Spanish style.

Secondary NPS with clouds above the head sometimes completely tell nonsense, and sometimes something interesting and complement the plot with details or make references to the events that have occurred. In the course of the game, the same secondary characters sometimes have new dialogues commenting changes in the plot. The authors were steamed to write a lot of additional dialogs for all NPS.

In the game, each city is stylized under one of the countries of the real world. There are kingdoms similar to Italy and Spain. There are cities similar to China and Japan. The names of the characters, the name and how the characters say in English are also stylized under these countries.

But the most important thing is that the game is very atmospheric, you can go to houses in cities. Yes, there is almost nothing to do there, except to open a chest or read one book, but in every city the houses are made in their style and simply interestingly consider the interiors and penetrate the atmosphere.

Yes, the style of graphics in the game is anime, but it is far from, for example, the games of the Tales of series. Since here the designer of the character of Akira Toriyam is very similar to the Anime Dragon Ball (like Ni No Kuni with an anime from the Ghibli studio) that is, the game gives the game with such a pleasant lamp old anime, but in a modern wrapper.

By the way, in the game there are cool, super grafoned CGI videos that are completely unlike anime inserts as if from anime as they make in many others Jrpg.

MUSIC

The game has a high -quality, classic orchestral series (especially in reprint) music, but, unfortunately, it is not for my taste. The soundtrack here is very solemn and even just with a chill study of the location, too intrusive pathos music plays too much. The same situation was with Tales of Arise for example. And here and there I lacked light chilova, unobtrusive music, for example, I have in Zelda Botw or even in Hogwarts Legacy recent.

Yes, the same well -known and permanent composer of the entire series of games of Koichi Sugiyama worked on the game. Unfortunately in 2021, he died at the age of 90. But he was very active and until his death he still wrote new music. At one time, his music was inspired by many other famous composers from Japan. Of course, I respect his music very much, but still purely subjectively it is not quite for my taste.

Another developers, remaining faithful classic games of the series, I believe, left most of the sounds from the first parts of the games. All the sounds that accompany you when you press the buttons in the menu, getting the level, lift objects, everything seems to be from the games of the beginning of the 90s

Gameplay, combat system and study of locations

The basis of gameplay here is very classic for jrpg. Come to a new city, do a couple of quests sides there, perform the plot for an hour or two, update the armor in stores and further in the next city along the way passing the dungeons or just Grindya a little in the mob field. And roaming from city to city in different settings and biomes.

The combat system is also very classic for step -by -step jrpg, but, of course, there are its own characteristics. In battle, 4 of your characters are at the same time and if they die, then a spare team comes to the stage, so you have a second chance. Here is a full-fledged step-by-step fighter, that is, opponents are waiting for your course, and not like in the finals of the times of 7-9 they go themselves if you do not have time to choose the action.

Each important plot battle is a new thoughtful challenger. Each type of opponents, of course, has its own characteristics, it is interesting to move on the plot, because I want to see new types of monsters and understand what their weaknesses. It is interesting to do this also because in Dragon Quest, opponents have an unusual design for those who first play in the series. There are classic monsters wandering from one part to another, but I played for the first time in this series, so for me they were all in a novelty and most of them are quite different from opponents from the Final Fantasy or Tales of for example. And if you, on the contrary, are familiar with the old parts of the franchise, it will be pleasant to see how these monsters look in modern graphics.

Opponents from the middle of the game, of course, sometimes begin to repeat themselves. You can find the same first monsters of only a different color (but this is also like almost everywhere in JRPG) but they still have new abilities that can be taken by surprise.

And if the battle lasts quite a long time, and your characters constantly get damage, then over time they gain a scale and go into several moves into a furry mode, which allows you to fulfill a special ability together with a partner if you have guessed and you have several characters in this mode.

Sometimes, it seems that the boss devotes you without a chance, but you should figure out its features and change the group and tactics a little, so you easily win it.

For example, I was stuck somewhere in a 40% game on the boss, which fascinates every move, and in order to fill it up, at least, it was necessary to send Sylvando to the main group and with the help of it to remove the charm.

There are no random battles here, (Random Encounters) except when you travel by ship. On ordinary locations on land, all opponents can be seen from afar and you can either bypass them, or have time to hit the first to apply part of the damage before the start of the battle and get an advantage.

You can also configure tactics during the battle to the allies, and they will fight automatically and in most cases even quite well, so, in fact, if you want, you can manage only one main character.

The pumping and grind liked more than, for example, last year he played in Yakuza 7. There were special several dungeons in which there were homeless people (literally such an adversary), giving a huge amount of experience and there was no point in swinging just like that on the streets in random battles. And if you don’t know about this chip, then in Yakudze it was possible to lose a lot of time trying to grin just on ordinary random opponents. And in DQ11, on almost all locations, there is a chance in a regular battle to meet metal slines, which give 10 times more experience, moreover, they can also be forcibly called up, I use the super ability of three specific characters at the same time. There are many guides on YouTube about how to do it. But here and without guides everything is clear enough and you can pump normally, simply by killing additional monsters between the missions of the main plot.

Interestingly, some armor affects not only the characteristics of the character, but changes the appearance. It would be cool of course if the whole armor in the game changed its appearance, but for this, obviously, the budget would be even more needed.

There are not very many additional tasks (although in fact there are about 50 of them like). Usually, when you come to a new city, you can take 2-3 new quest sides. But most often you are asked or to bring some item that can be knitted from a certain monster or you need to defeat the monster with a special way, for example, to finish it with a certain ability.

There is also a magazine with stamps, it is a little like the first part of Ni No Kuni. Collect stamps on certain milestones when you collect them 5 or 10 you get a reward. But in the first part of Ni No Kuni, the stamps were given for the execution of the quests sid, but here you just find the medals scattered around the world, for example, sometimes they lie in chests, and then you hand over their NPS.

In general, the game quite often reminded me of Ni No Kuni, although of course it should be the other way around since the DQ franchise is much older. But at the same time, in the end, I liked DQ11 less. Although the companions of the protagonist are better disclosed here and you are more often interacting with them, but GG itself is better in NNK.

There is craft in the game, in the reprint you can do almost anywhere using a mini forces. If you are trying to create an item while relaxing in the camp, then some missing ingredients will be automatically offered to buy from a merchant. When creating things, there is a mini game, almost every item has its own template and you need to forge in the correct sequence to get an object with an amplification that gives more armor or damage. New recipes for creating items can be found by reading books on shelves in completely random buildings or sometimes just chatting with secondary NPS.

You can just buy items from merchants, for example, recalling, Tales of Xillia, who played recently there was no craft at all.

Here you can jump (yes for JRPG is still a rarity) and use the stairs in some special places or go through a thin beam, so the study of locations is slightly more thoughtful and interesting than in many JRPG, but still easier, comparing, for example, even with old Western RPGs of the Morrovind and Gothic 2 type 2.

At a certain moment, probably, a percentage of 30 games appears almost a real sensation of Open Vorld and nonlinearity. It seems that you can finally go not right on one way, but, for example, to any of 3 seats, all are available at once, but still opponents there are different levels and it is still better to go in order. And then after a while the game becomes quite linear again.

Unfortunately, the game has a lot of backing (yes I know this is often an integral JRPG feature). It becomes especially noticeable after the middle of the game. At this point, you will get a special red key with which you can now open half the doors that you met earlier in the game, but could not unlock, by the way, there is still another half of the doors that still cannot be opened. Especially for the sake of them, you do not need to return to most locations, because even according to the main plot you will again send you to go through almost all previous places for the second time.

There is a horse in the game, but for me it was a little better than a horse from Dragon Age Inquisition. I did not use it for most of the game, but here it at least really accelerates a little, and not just when the shift on the screen appears on the screen, imitating acceleration as in DAI. The maximum with its help can be reduced on long extensive cards to reduce travel time by 5 seconds. But what is more interesting in the game there is a system of mounds-monsters, on the map you can sometimes find illuminated opponents, and when you overcome them, you can use as a rider animal and each of them has its own peculiarity. For example, a monster like ostrich, if it is defeated, it will be possible to jump high with it and get new chests.

The game, fortunately, has a quick movement. But, unfortunately, sometimes according to the plot you are forbidden to use it.

By the way, there is a casino here, several different slot machines, in the style of one -armed bandit. At first you change your money to special tokens, and then twist it in machine guns, if you accumulate a huge amount of 50 thousand, 100 thousand, you can exchange it for special weapons. But I did not do this, twisted 10 minutes just to try and yes it seems to have any schemes how to make these tokens quickly and correctly (without SMS and registration), but I did not bother with this. I completely do not like card games like poker or casino in games, so that in Yakudze and in RDR2 for example, I completely ignored them.

Well, that’s all. As a result, the game liked the game and it was interesting for the first time to plunge into the DQ franchise, but it certainly will not become one of my favorite Jrpg.