Developer(s): Square Enix
Publisher: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo Switch (also available on Playstation 4, Steam, Nintendo 3DS in Japan)
Play-time: 100 hours (help)
Emerging from over 100 hours of scouring the land of Erdrea, having taken in the sights and sounds of its gorgeously realised locales, I understandably began to question what had caused me to devote such time to hunting slimes. Was it the whimsical cel-shaded world populated with characters designed by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame? Was it the supreme English localisation peppered with puns, alliteration, and turns-of-phrase tirelessly translated from thousands of lines of Japanese? While these are all brilliant hooks that leave an impression on the player long after the journey is over, what kept me engrossed throughout my time playing Dragon Quest XI: Echoes Of An Elusive Age were the endless options and smart inclusions at the player’s disposal to customise their adventure. The Dragon Quest series has always had an impeccable understanding of what makes the JRPG an engrossing genre, so to see those traditional systems combined with modern convenience for an ever-busier, more mobile player base is commendable. Add to that the recent enhanced port for the Nintendo Switch and its extra inclusions, and you have a JRPG that not only feels incredibly light on busy work, but one of the most satisfying examples of the genre this generation.
Digging through Dragon Quest XI’s options menus, it is immediately apparent that player choice was a priority of the game’s design. The speed of battles can be changed mid-fight in case you want to speed through a gruelling grind session. There is a quick menu with an option to call your horse/whale and view the quest catalogue, although I will never understand why it does not also include the option to fast-travel, or ‘zoom’. When opening the map, rotating the camera will indicate the direction the player is facing in real-time, helping the player orientate themselves and plan their next route. Cutscenes can be skipped whether it is your first playthrough or your fifteenth. And of course, as with many modern RPG’s, encounters on the overworld are completely avoidable and the Luminary’s breakneck running speed means that even enraged monsters stand no chance of catching up to you – forget bringing light to the world or whatever, the Luminary should become a professional sprinter. While I could not personally find a use for the auto-run function and promptly set all party AI to follow my orders rather than act automatically, the fact that those options exist is great. Some of them I can even see addressing the accessibility needs of some players, such as the ability to play the entire game one-handed, which can only ever be a plus.
If you feel that legging it across the map from every conflict trivialises the game’s challenge, then there are the appropriately named ‘Draconian Quest’ settings. Again, these can be activated or deactivated at any time during a playthrough: there’s no picking ‘hard mode’ at the beginning of the game before getting a feel for how the game is defining ‘hard mode’ and then wanting to start over because the difficulty fails to hit your sweet spot. The tweaks range from negligible (forbidding buying items from shops) to downright masochistic (game over if the protagonist dies). While not much has changed with regards to the series’ turn-based combat formula, Dragon Quest XI’s considered features feel like the logical evolution of the franchise. Some of these features are the kind I never want to play another RPG without, some of them are just nice additions, and some of them are just a bit odd, but they all boost the replayability of a game that is already a massive timesink.
Unfortunately, where the game risks overwhelming players with these options is in its baffling UI. Not even the hundred hours getting used to the game’s menus could blind me to how clunky and unintuitive they are to navigate: the ‘Misc.’ section certainly lives up to its name, with a lot of the game’s best options, such as efficient party healing, thrown in there in a seemingly random order. Why the character skill tree is hidden here is a conundrum I will take to my grave. Most of these features are only discoverable through experimentation or tips when the game loads because God forbid someone break my immersion while I’m fighting an evil mural called ‘Dora-in-Gray’ to tell me how characters’ position in the party line-up affects their defence. In all seriousness, complaints about UI seem minor, but it is frustrating considering how carefully the game strives for convenience in most other areas.
In addition to its gameplay, the streamlining of JRPG conventions trickles down to the structure of Dragon Quest XI’s story, which is divided into little vignettes not too dissimilar to the episodes of an anime (there’s even a kitschy tournament arc). Each town you come across has its own one-to-two-hour-long predicament which complements the length of an average play session nicely. A lot of the time it can be hard to see how most of the things you’re doing serve the overall story besides liberating people from the oppression of flamboyant monsters and generally being an all-round goody two-shoes, but the episodic structure kept me invested just to see what eccentric NPC or boss I would face next. The best Dragon Quest stories have rarely been groundbreaking in premise but win fans over with individual character moments over the course of a globetrotting epic, and Dragon Quest XI is brimming with those in easily digestible chunks.
Yet once Mordegon the Lord of Shadows has been defeated, his keep in ruins, the dust parting to usher in a new age, Dragon Quest XI does something that is quite rare for RPG’s: it ties its postgame content directly to the main story without pressuring those not willing to push on for an extra 30 or so hours by framing it in a time-travel, alternate-timeline plot. The victorious party is given a chance to roll the dice, go back in time, and try to get a better outcome, sparing the bloodshed of act two. Those who do forge on will be treated to eye-opening, if predictable, revelations, but the risk involved in going back in time means that it would be quite reasonable for players to make the choice to remain in the act two timeline, create their own headcanon and, satisfied with the ending they already received, move on to another game.
I have heard criticisms levelled at this part of the game and can absolutely see why undertaking a third round trip of Erdrea filled with monsters suffering from a severe case of power-creep would deter many players. Personally, I relished the opportunity to explore every inch of the map in any order I wished, seeing the events of act two play out in alternative ways. Whereas other linear RPG stories like Final Fantasy X have asked me to re-tread the corridors and routes of the world after all story content has passed, Dragon Quest XI’s postgame rekindled the magic of the game’s first hour for me, of stepping out into the Heliodorian Fields and being let loose on the world. What’s more, it did all of this without ever really fatiguing me. What this postgame’s setup offers is a satisfying ending for every type of player, for both the commuter content to see the game’s 60-hour finale and the completionist eager to conquer every corner of the map. It is a clever diegetic way to acknowledge different player habits and validate all of them.
The series’ trademark purity and consistency is not without its faults, however. The story being so fragmented makes the world design feel a tad empty at times. It’s almost too convenient. The occasional sidequest to retrieve legal documents for a mermaid defence attorney prompts a chuckle, but with so few things to do in each town it’s too easy to dash from linear event to gated story beat. This does make the more open postgame more satisfying by comparison, but it does not feel entirely fair to expect a player to slog through 60 hours to get there if they are not already invested in the core gameplay loop. There are simply too few ways to interact with this gorgeous world and some settlements are served, consumed, and spat out so quickly that it amplifies the crudeness of some of the more outrageous racial stereotypes they are based on. In terms of its story and world design, Dragon Quest XI is like fast-food – incredibly good fast food, the kind where the cashier might give you a knowing wink and slip an extra pickle under your bun, and the food is also based on a cherished family recipe – but the moment-to-moment gameplay can lack an identity that extends beyond ‘incredibly solid JRPG’.
All-in-all, Dragon Quest XI respects your time, however much you are willing to put into a game of this type. With so many neat systems with which to customise your experience, the game is a seamless fit for the Nintendo Switch. If you are looking for something that is going to light your world on fire, you probably won’t find it here. True to the cloth it is cut from, Dragon Quest’s eleventh outing does little to convert players who are not already sworn JRPG fanatics. For those who are, however, you’ll finda robust example of the genre that is a joy to play, crammed with features that make sinking a hundred hours into it a no-brainer. Almost.