(header graphic is from an in-game scene)
Some opening comments
When I saw the announcement and trailers for Dragon Quest XI, something told me I would love this game. I don’t know what it was. The graphics looked great, but graphics don’t usually sell a game for me by themselves. The premise is the “you’re the chosen one and you’ll save the world” plot, which the game actually spins surprisingly well, but I didn’t know this at the time, as the way the game spins this premise goes into spoiler territory. The promotional materials basically described a modern-looking game deeply rooted in series tradition, which is, like, the dictionary definition of Dragon Quest. Given my history with not being able to get into the series, I really don’t know what pushed me to buy this game on release day.
We’ll just say I did it because Jade. Jade is the reason I got this game.
Anyway, Dragon Quest XI is one of the best RPGs I have ever played. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of my taste/history in video games would immediately see what a massive statement that is. The characters, even the ones who aren’t Jade, are all great and have unique personalities. The NPCs in towns all feel like they’re alive and part of an organic world. The towns all have unique feels – there’s a town where everyone speaks in haiku and another populated by mermaids who always speak in rhyme. Some events in the game are heart-wrenchingly moving, but the game paradoxically doesn’t take itself too seriously. On paper, that looks like a recipe for a disjointed disaster, but DQXI transgresses this quest with incredible finesse.
DQXI is long. I clocked circa 150 hours from the beginning to the true ending. I never felt the length. I never felt like the game was dragging along. The only time I can remember being irritated was trying to get this achievement where I needed to win a jackpot in the casino…and that’s pretty much RNG. I hate luck-based content, but to be fair, it’s for a meaningless achievement that I only pursued because I’m a completionist.
So yeah. This game gets a shrine from me easily. I’m going to keep things pretty simple and show a few screenshots of my characters. I’m also going to nitpick the plot because that’s what I did for my review of DQIX and it seemed appropriate for…tradition?
Let’s talk about the plot
Note: I’m not saying the plot is bad or that other RPGs have perfect and amazing plots (neither are true). I’m writing these because I nitpicked the first DQ game I finished and I thought I’d do the same here.
Anyway, here’re some stats
Some opening comments
When I saw the announcement and trailers for Dragon Quest XI, something told me I would love this game. I don’t know what it was. The graphics looked great, but graphics don’t usually sell a game for me by themselves. The premise is the “you’re the chosen one and you’ll save the world” plot, which the game actually spins surprisingly well, but I didn’t know this at the time, as the way the game spins this premise goes into spoiler territory. The promotional materials basically described a modern-looking game deeply rooted in series tradition, which is, like, the dictionary definition of Dragon Quest. Given my history with not being able to get into the series, I really don’t know what pushed me to buy this game on release day.
We’ll just say I did it because Jade. Jade is the reason I got this game.
Anyway, Dragon Quest XI is one of the best RPGs I have ever played. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of my taste/history in video games would immediately see what a massive statement that is. The characters, even the ones who aren’t Jade, are all great and have unique personalities. The NPCs in towns all feel like they’re alive and part of an organic world. The towns all have unique feels – there’s a town where everyone speaks in haiku and another populated by mermaids who always speak in rhyme. Some events in the game are heart-wrenchingly moving, but the game paradoxically doesn’t take itself too seriously. On paper, that looks like a recipe for a disjointed disaster, but DQXI transgresses this quest with incredible finesse.
DQXI is long. I clocked circa 150 hours from the beginning to the true ending. I never felt the length. I never felt like the game was dragging along. The only time I can remember being irritated was trying to get this achievement where I needed to win a jackpot in the casino…and that’s pretty much RNG. I hate luck-based content, but to be fair, it’s for a meaningless achievement that I only pursued because I’m a completionist.
So yeah. This game gets a shrine from me easily. I’m going to keep things pretty simple and show a few screenshots of my characters. I’m also going to nitpick the plot because that’s what I did for my review of DQIX and it seemed appropriate for…tradition?
Let’s talk about the plot
Note: I’m not saying the plot is bad or that other RPGs have perfect and amazing plots (neither are true). I’m writing these because I nitpicked the first DQ game I finished and I thought I’d do the same here.
- After I return to Cobblestone the first time, I somehow go back in time, which allows me to talk to Chalky, who uses this information to write a letter that present-day me finds. Why didn’t Chalky simply go home and tell Amber NOT to send me to Heliodor? That could’ve avoided…basically everything.
- The whole Yggdrasil thing seems strange. People talk about Yggdrasil like it has some sentience – she “chose” me as her champion, for example. But the villains can just waltz into its heart and steal my power to get into it? Is the World Tree, source of all life and holy power, completely helpless? After the first time the Dark One attacked Yggdrasil, don’t you think the Arborians would’ve erected more defenses then? To make drive the point further home, we later learn the World Tree is…actually a dragon. She could absolutely have done something.
- Yggdrasil is the source of all life, with each living thing a leaf on the tree. So when Mordegon destroys the tree and obliterates all the leaves, shouldn’t all life on the planet have died?
- Let’s talk about Mordegon after he absorbs all the World Tree’s powers. Why didn’t he just kill everything himself? He certainly had the power to do so. He’s basically following the way of Corvus from Dragon Quest IX.
- After the Yggdrasil event, I lose my Luminary powers. The game literally says this and all the skill panels in the Luminary area disappear. Then how is it I can still have visions using an Yggdrasil root in Castle Heliodor? Also, shouldn’t that root be dead, since the World Tree is dead? Why do I need to have that vision anyway? It’s a scene of Hendrik’s past, and Hendrik is right there with a perfectly good memory of all those events.
- Let’s talk about Mordegon again. We learn that Morcant, Erdwin’s best friend, became corrupted by Calasmos and killed Erdwin, becoming Mordegon. This was like a millennium before the game’s events and the game begins with one of the first monster attacks in centuries, which is itself triggered by Mordegon trying to kill me right after my birth. So what was Mordegon doing this entire time? Rab’s investigations reveal that Mordegon did indeed wreak havoc at some point, so did he just…stop? Until I was born like 1000 years later?
- The first time I break the time sphere to go back in time, the Timekeeper basically says that I destroy the timeline all the way back to the last “node” (in this case, I return to right before I ascend to the World Tree, so the entire sequence of events from Jasper incapacitating me to Mordegon’s dragon form being defeated cease to exist). But at the end of the game, when I allow Serenica to go back in time, it’s totally inconsistent. She goes back in time and the current timeline that I’m in stays perfectly intact. And honestly, wouldn’t it have made a more bittersweet and impactful moment if I sacrificed my entire adventure’s history so that Serenica and Erdwin could have a happy ending?
Anyway, here’re some stats
And now for my level 99 party that absolutely wrecked Calasmos: