Dragon Quest XI S Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition

I have to start this review with a big disclaimer, this is the first main line Dragon Quest game, that I have ever played. I have enjoy the Builder series, as well as the Heroes games, but never have I played the main RPG’s before, but having sunk a lot of time into Dragon Quest XI, I think I will be correcting that as soon as I can.

Dragon Quest XI, which we will stick with for the name, tells the story of the Luminary, a reincarnation of a hero, who had previously defeated a great evil. Though you are the Luminary, your journey to reveal yourself does not go to plan as you are quickly branded the Darkspawn and thrown in the prison, but with the help of another prisoner, you bust out and begin your quest to do something. At the outset of your quest, there is no great evil to smite, no fair maiden to rescue, just a need to escape the guards of the Kingdom of Dundrasil and eventually, you will leave the land you know, but that is where your adventure begins. The story does not follow the usual beats, sure there are the usual cast of characters you meet, but there is enough variety in the main story, to keep things fresh, this is highlighted by the fact that you are the Luminary and there is nothing evil to stop right now.

As you progress further into the story, you will slowly start to meet many of the characters that inhabit the world, from the folks that live and work in the towns and cities, to the members of your party. As you escape with Erik, the first addition to your party is Veronica, who at first glance is a precocious little child, with an ability to perform advanced magic, but you soon learn things are not as simple as they first seem. This is the case with most of the characters, while they initially appear to be one way, their motivations will soon show how they really are, eventually though, you will begin to encounter guards from Dundrasil, a they are still hunting you and it is after your first encounter that you acquire access to a ship and can begin to explore the world far more freely.

Exploration is a big deal here, each area of the world has a general theme, but then contained within the countries are different locales that are ripe with things to do and monsters to fight. As this is an RPG, you will find yourself in combat a lot of the time and sometimes, discovering a different enemy to fight is enough of a reason to push further forward. As you explore, you will begin to notice some similar landmarks, usually around campsites and statues, where you can rest and spend some time crafting new items and weapons, the cycle is one that is easy to get into. There were times when I felt under powered when facing off against bosses, so getting into that rhythm of exploring, fighting and resting was something I was able to do with little fuss. When you are at the campsite, or even in town, you can hit up the Fun-Size Forge, which is a way to craft new weapons or armour for yourself, or your party and even upgrade existing ones. The little system that they have in place here, is actually pretty fun, learning when you need to use a big bash or a little one, is crucial if you want to make the best stuff possible.

Of course, as an RPG, there is a lot of fighting and the game offers up two different way to see it play out, along with a host of other options of course. Now the ways in which you can view, don’t actually change up the combat, instead they just provide a different view on things, so your mileage on these may vary. As far as the options for fighting go, these is a lot of choice here and which way you go, will impact how much you have to do, or how little. Basically, you can choose to make a choice each turn, or let the game play it for you, thankfully though, if you go the auto route and find the game is making silly choices, you can manually swap back at any time. For the auto options though, there are a few, you can choose to focus on attacking, or throw in liberal use of the MP to damage enemies with spells, or a blend of offence and defence. The fun is that you can set those options for each of the four members of your party, making it so you can make the most out of any particular person. As battles wage on, all participants, even the enemies will take damage and after a while, the characters will activate Pep, this allows them to dish out more damage in a turn, for as long as it lasts, or spend it in one massive attack. Depending on the members of your party, there are different options for the attack you do, so learning the ones that work with the members you like, is something to think about.

As you progress through the game, you will encounter a little glowing guy near a desert gate, who quickly determines you who are and takes you to their realm, which happens to be in the form of a 16-bit RPG. There is a whole quest line here, that requires exploring the 3d world and then returning to the 16bit one, but that is not what I am talking about there, instead what I am on about is the fact that you can play the entire game in the old school aesthetic if you choose to. The locations, the characters, the items, all have a retro look to them, so for fans of the old school experience this is a mode for you, however there is a restriction. During the game, when you save at either a church or a statue, you can swap to the 2d mode, what this does though is take you back to the start of the chapter you are in, your progress is saved in the 3d world, but you will have to replay a whole host of game again in 2d.

As the game sports two, very distinct visual styles, presentation is something that is a big deal here, the games visual, in the 3d world are really well done, with the characters and the world itself, all showing up very well on the Switch. Most of the areas that you enter are quite large, which does pose a little problem for the Switch, as objects tend to pop in and it is quite noticeable, locations like the cities and towns don’t have the same issue with objects, but people do it from time to time. The characters, especially the main character, even though they have blurry lines, there is still enough to recognise them easily enough. The locations are quite nice to explore, though I do wish there was more of a mix of styles, most locations tend to have a single theme going for it and there is nothing that really extrapolates from it.  On the 2D side, the game looks great, there is very little that does not work for it, the menus are similar to the 3d ones, but still manage to maintain that classic style; the character all maintain their looks, so a quick look and you know who is who.

The audio side is wonderful, especially with the fully orchestrated score and having the option to swap from one to the other, the other being the midi score that released on the PlayStation 4 release. The score is quite amazing, there are some really nice pieces that are worth listening to, on their own, the one piece that I dislike is the battle music, which is something that you hear a lot. The music starts from the beginning each time you enter a battle, and as some of them can be only a few seconds long, you only hear a little before it is done, but then, another battle a moment later and it starts up all over again. The voice work is also a little splotchy at times, the bulk of the cast provide solid performances, but there are a few times when it loses believability with some odd inflections of voice. The Japanese track is solid as well, so you have double the choice of tracks, if one does not work for you.

Dragon Quest XI S Echoes of Elusive Age Definitive Edition is a wonderful version of an epic rpg, with a lot of content there is so much game to enjoy. Being able to take it on the go makes it far more accessible to everyone, as you don’t need to spend hours in front of the couch anymore. Being able to swap between game styles is a nice touch, though it is unlikely you will actively do so, until the game forces it upon you. With a nice cast of characters that are easy to spend dozens of hours with, there is little stopping you from venturing with this epic.

Review copy provided by Nintendo