Dragon Quest XI Review: Frustrating yet near-perfect
It took me over a year to beat this game, and over a year to remember I hadn't already written this review! I genuinely thought I'd already covered this! Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age has been lauded as one of the best entries in the series ever since its release, feeling like a culmination of all the aspects before it. This is one of those rare series where nobody can really agree on which game is the best. III, V, VIII, and XI are usually considered the top-tier, but then you get people like me who find VI to be one of the best! And I know I'm not the only one! So, how does Dragon Quest XI truly hold up as an RPG? Do I find it to be a masterpiece, as many people say it is? That's what I, Brighton Nelson, will be discussing in today's article. Thanks so much for joining me on RPG Ranked today, and I hope you enjoy this review!
Combat - 7.5
This game has the really solid TTB system present in all the previous Dragon Quest games. While I do typically enjoy more unique, odd battle systems, there's a reason Dragon Quest has been so successful for decades. I would say this game has the best battle system in the mainline series thus far, but there's one problem: the difficulty balancing isn't the best. In normal mode, almost everything is a pushover. Yet, in Draconian mode, battles become tedious because the game is already so long that adding additional time to battles is needlessly frustrating! In a shorter game, like a 20-30 hour experience, this would be wonderful. However, this game just needed a good middle ground that isn't brain-dead easy for even elementary schoolers. Only the occasional dragon, huge monster, or superboss did anything to challenge the status quo... And I still never died throughout the game. Not once. Anyway, TTB systems are always great, especially a good old Dragon Quest one with party-switching capabilities.
Customization System - 9
While this game's customization certainly isn't beating the great monster and class systems from earlier in the series, it's still fantastic! The skill tree harkens back to Dragon Quest VIII in a wonderful way, with the same fantastic branching-path vibe and different weapons and skill sets that are really fun to constantly respec (if you so choose; I found it fun and worth the price). It's a blast to come up with different strategies, in my opinion! And, the cherry on top is the bigger character cast of 8 this time around, meaning there's twice the variety of Dragon Quest VIII. Or 50% more variety, if you play the 3DS version... Please do yourself a favor and play that one if it's your first time playing through it!
There's also a wickedly cool Synthesis system in this game! While it does get a tad tedious if you get a +3 on every item, you don't really need to play the fantastic minigame for your weapons and armor, as you just get some fun stat bonuses for your efforts! But the minigame is so sophisticated and well-developed that it is a genuine good time to upgrade items. It honestly reminds me of Flipline's iconic flash game, Jacksmith, in the best way...
Music - 5
Koichi Sugiyama, unfortunately, wasn't cooking that much with this soundtrack. I don't know whether the blame lies with him or someone else, but the approach here didn't work at all. While I do enjoy the new themes themselves, so many of the songs are recycled from previous entries that it goes beyond occasional nostalgia and simply feels lazy and unfinished for the game's scope.
With a world as big as this, with so many towns and such an extensive runtime, there shouldn't be this few tracks. Most SNES classics did a much better job than this! While the classic songs are wonderful, I can't give a 100+ hour RPG flowers for an 19-track soundtrack (not counting jingles). At least I think it was 19, it's been a while.
I literally turned off the soundtrack for the majority of the game because there was so little variety, even in a series that has always been more musically repetitive than most. Thank heavens this isn't Sugiyama's final work and that he composed many melodies for Beyond Dreams, because this would be quite a low note to end on. May he rest in peace, and may his wonderful legacy live on forever.
Story - 7.5
It breaks my heart and then some to say this, but the story here is a mixed bag. I can't say the story ultimately worked for me, nor can I call it the best in the series. Everything in the first act is beautiful, and some of my favorite storytelling and worldbuilding moments in any RPG! There are tear-jerking moments, there are whimsical moments, there are wondrous moments, and everything in between. I love the vignettes that lead you through the grand world, collecting characters and orbs. It's one of those grand, timeless adventures that builds toward a wonderful climax at the World Tree. And the game was smooth sailing throughout the whole act!
The second act is really interesting, as it has almost no new locations and is much more similar to the World of Ruin than anything else. It plays similarly, but without the awe of new locations and with a looser plot arc that ultimately mirrors the first act, though in a much darker yet less impactful way. It feels like a rather cyclical act that made me rather disappointed, even though there were plenty of phenomenal moments.
The third act is quite clever, and I absolutely enjoyed the concept of how it comes to be. Still, in execution, it unnecessarily convolutes the story and takes away from the emotional stakes, all while making a certain somebody less of a badass. I really love how it doesn't feel like another rehash, but it fundamentally falls apart and makes the game feel sanitized in a way.
While the story does take quite the nosedive for me, it's still diving into a decent pool. If I were to rate the story by act, I would give the first a 10, the second a 7.5, and the third a 5. When averaged out? It comes to a 7.5.
Characters - 9.5
While the story struggles at times, the characters are nearly perfect here! Even the Hero is surprisingly solid, thanks to his expressive facial animations and body language, which make him a captivating silent protagonist. Erik is an absolutely awesome bro character, and his bromance with the Hero is one of the best in any RPG I've played recently, even though it's a pretty one-sided relationship in which Erik carries all the weight (after all, only he can talk). Also, he looks way too much like Seth Balmore from Lost Odyssey, so that's always a plus.
Veronica is feisty, funny, and fantastic, even though she comes off really strong and annoying at first. Over time, you start to love her, though, and her very no-BS personality contrasts so well with her eventual hyper-heroism. Her sister, Serena, is soft-spoken, humble, and cute by contrast, and she really grows into her own throughout the story as a wonderful character who juxtaposes nicely with her twin. She's especially awesome at the end of the game, with a big moment that really makes her character pop.
Rab is a hilarious, mischievous old man with more depth than his initially stereotypical appearance suggests. He may be a tropey anime old man, but he's certainly a better iteration of the trope. Jade does feel unfortunately underdeveloped in the grand scheme of the cast, and is mostly just a hardcore older sister and overly used as a sex symbol. However, I still think she's solid enough, even as the weak link.
Hendrick, one of the antagonists, is also a major highlight. He always tries to be all stoic and chivalrous, but he consistently fails. What he doesn't fail at is being, perhaps, the most effectively comedic character in the franchise.
But the absolute king of the character cast is Sylvando. He may seem a tad stereotypical at first glance, but every time he speaks, he just gets more and more depth. It's an incredible progression, and he's one of my favorite characters in any RPG I've played. He's up there with Partitio Yellowil and Jansen Friedh as my top 3 GOATs currently (though, remember, I haven't played every single video game).
Overall, the only small thing holding this cast back for me is the slight tropey nature of Rab and Jade. Regardless, this is a near-perfect character cast for me.
Locations - 10
This game's dungeons aren't all that interesting in the slightest—there are only a couple worth remembering. However, the towns are so incredibly crafted that it'd be blasphemous to give this game any lower a score. This game has one of my favorite town lineups in video game history, if not my favorite! While it starts at humble beginnings, like many incredible RPGs do, it soon becomes something much greater.
From the bustling castle town Heliodor to Japanese-inspired spa town Hotto, where they only speak in haiku; the desert town Gallopolis that is obsessed with horse-racing and has a circus, and is run by an incompetent boy king; Gondola, a beautiful Venice-like European getaway; Octagonia, a multi-layered town with a coliseum and underground crime; Phnom Nonh and Angri-La, mysterious towns with supernatural elements that are based on Cambodia and China, respectively; Sniflheim, a town frozen-in-time by an unknown culprit; Pueto Valor, a cozy Spanish-inspired town with a major casino; Lanalulu, a wonderful settlement where you learn the story of a forgotten mermaid; Dundrasil, the ruined kingdom of the Hero's ancestors; the underwater mermaid town of Nautica that you explore after morphing into a fish; Arboria, the city of the Goddess, lost to the world below; and, my personal favorite, l'Académie de Notre Maître des Médailles, a terrific town of academia for humans and monsters alike, inspired by French architecture.
And, saying all that, there are plenty of smaller settlements throughout that you can stumble upon too! This is simply one of the most fleshed-out and incredible worlds I've witnessed in a video game, without much need for typical dungeon crawls. That being said, there are still a couple of great dungeons, like the Cryptic Crypt, where Veronica became a small person, or The Other Side, a dreamworld liminal space where you have to take down a whacked-out evil magic doll.
Quality of Life - 9
While the Definitive Edition added the Fun-Size Forge, I still should bring up just how annoying crafting could get in the OG version of this game. That was stupid. However, in the Definitive Edition, the only problematic thing is the method by which you switch between 2D and 3D. There has to be some way they could've made it make more sense and be less janky.
Sidequests - 7.5
For a game this long disregarding sidequests, the side content really needs to justify its existence for there to be a lot of it. While I can't say the additional content is anything special here, it still semi-succeeded at not being terrible. Most of the quests are fetch quests, but the Angri-La combat challenges and the Tickington quests are the main highlights here. The latter may just be replaying snippets from former games in the series, but it's fun to experience your characters jump from 3D to 2D and fight more bosses. While Tickington was a good time, the quests aren't all that much more than copycats, so, like the music, I can't rate this super high.
Art & Graphics - 9.5
Being able to play this game in both 3D and 2D is an absolute joy! It's brilliantly fun to experience Toriyama's same characters in both forms of visual art. All the people who designed the graphics for this game continue to prove just how wonderful Dragon Quest designs are, and just how valuable it is to create games in both 3D and 2D. This would be an absolutely wonderful thing to continue moving forward, but I highly doubt that will be the case because it'll mean a whole lot more effort... But, maybe!
The Verdict
Fun Factor: 9
Overall Score: 84%
Letter Rating: S
While it's not a perfect game, and I probably have more gripes with it than most, Dragon Quest XI is still one of my favorite RPGs and one of the best games in the series. There are very few games that can take you on this grand and wondrous an adventure, and I can't wait for the day Beyond Dreams comes out, and I get to foray into another world like this.
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