LogFAQs > #951690456

#4. Dragon Quest XI (PS4, 2018)



I have a hard time ranking newer games as high as I do older games. It's not that I feel newer games are inferior or anything, but I've found years of enjoyment, sometimes even decades, in a lot of older games. So when I compare a game that was incredibly fun that I played one time a year ago, against a game that was incredibly fun both 20 years ago and a year ago, it's easier to hold the older game in higher regard. Up until this week, Dragon Quest XI was planned to be at #5 on my list. It's nothing against Lunar that I made the swap I talked at great length about how much I love Lunar. But as I thought more about what Dragon Quest XI meant as I played it and reflected on my feelings both now and how they may hold in the future, I think I had to make this swap. Dragon Quest XI was just that good.

Dragon Quest XI is one of the best looking games I've played. Being a more recent game, sure, it is technically impressive with things like draw distance on scenery and level of detail, but none of that will be a big deal in the long term. Even ignoring that though, The use of color, style, variety in scenery, the trademark Toriyama character designs, clarity of objects, and the camera work to let you me enjoy all these sights and events in the game. There were just so many times where I thought about how pretty the game looked. Some of the more mundane moments of the game did feel as such, in part because of how nice it was to look at things.

The standard Dragon Quest turn-based battle system framework is here. Characters can be customized with ability points to learn different skills or use different weapons better. But at the same time, each character is unique enough that you won't end up with four attackers, four magic users, or whatever. Each still has to play a specific role in battle. And it works out that you can make an assortment of characters, and an assortment of skills set, and it will all be useful. You'll have to change around the strategy used, but it can work. And it made things a lot of fun, swapping out characters, or changing a character from swords to whips because I found a new strong whip, and devising new battle strategies.



The storyline is where DQXI shines the brightest. There is strength in the main plot, there is strength in the characters, and there is strength in the locations and people you meet along the way. The plot follows the main character, who at the start finds out he was adopted and is actually the Luminary who is to save the world. It's a simple premise to begin with, but enough to get you moving as you meet characters and explore the towns. Every character that joins your party is important to the story, some evident quicker than others. They're also as unique in personality as they are in battle. And as you travel across the world, there are charming places to visit, suspiciously weird places, places with interesting people, or some that tie in to the main plot or the backstory of a main character.

Then at some point the game hits with a sharp turn of plot. And it's like, oh cool, we hit the big twist, except it's not that at all. Because it's not a game with just a story into a big reveal, and then down the home stretch. And these characters in your party, you see how the weight of events affect them, help them through things as they learn and discover and do. And through these character stories, you're uncovering big swings in the plot ad important moments. And all these places across the map, and townspeople, you learn more about how they feel and help through events. And there's more to all this, because all of these people and places are vitally important. And you realize all these individual threads of stories and characters, they are so intricately woven together, with everything affecting something else, and it's all so magical.

There are some intensely emotional points in these character stories, in these plot reveals, and in the events you see. DQXI is very very good at hitting home the full gravity of any situation, whether it be despair, love, hope, loss, or regret. All the emotions are there to smack you right in the face each time. If I came up to you and said, Hey, remember in DQXI, that really depressingly sad moment? That scene that felt so relieving? The big plot twist that you did not see coming? The really important moment that laid out the full the weight of the story? and we could think of different answers to all of those. The story just keeps rolling with the hits, consistently making big moments that shine, without feeling overshadowed by previous events or reducing the feeling of future events.

I don't normally care to get all trophies/achievements/whatever in a game unless I am very close, and even then I need to really like the game and find the last trophies not very taxing. But DQXI wasn't even a question, I just kept playing and playing and got all the trophies.





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ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER.
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