Ele não tem tanto estilo quanto Persona, não é tão popular quanto Pokémon, nem tão realista quanto Final Fantasy. Ele é Dragon Ball... com espadas. Dragon Quest não traz inovações na história, nem no gameplay. Ele não tenta te surpreender, porém funciona. Simples assim, você é o Luminary, o escolhido (Wow), e tem que salvar o mundo do mal (Quem diria?). A gameplay é o bate e espera padrão, mas sem random encounters, o que é muito bom.
Tratando-se da dificuldade, tudo nos Atos 1 e 2 é ridiculamente fácil, enquanto o Ato 3 é difícil até você grindar um pouco, aí torna tudo fácil. Incluindo o boss final do jogo, que morreu em incríveis 4 turnos.
A soundtrack não é tão boa quanto a de outros JRPGs, mas certas músicas se destacam, quando estão orquestradas. O velho nazista não deixou usarem a versão boa das músicas na versão que eu joguei, então eu sofri escutando as versões horríveis em MIDI. (Isso foi corrigido na versão definitiva).
Em resumo, DQ11 é um jogo bom demais para se deixar passar, e recomendo demais para qualquer um que queira perder várias horas em um bom RPG.

The pinnacle of classic Dragon Quest and a very obvious homage to the series as a whole. If you want a modern version of classic turn-based RPG battling, this is it - it does not innovate on the formula whatsoever, but tunes everything to a fine point. The base mode is a little too easy, but the game does include options to make gameplay harder, so I don't fault it for that. The two things that do hold it back are the length and the OST - first of all, the game is too long, especially if you play all of Act 3, the game really overstays its welcome. I recognize it's partially my fault for wanting to 100% the game, but I eventually reached a point where I was just looking forward to the game being done. As for the OST, there are a lot of good songs that are woefully underused - you'll basically hear the same 3-4 songs everywhere, which get a little tiring. I appreciate that they switch up the world map music in Act 3, which doubles as another homage to earlier games, but you eventually get quite sick of the standard battle music.

My history with the Dragon Quest series extends way, way back to my early childhood...

It goes all the way back on the NES, with the very first title... and this was at the time where it didn't even go by the name "Dragon Quest" yet, being called Dragon Warrior in the States. It was my first JRPG (forget JRPG, it was my first RPG period!)... and for my first experience, I'll bluntly state that I hated it. The menu system was as archaic and abysmal as you can imagine, the game's battles just confused and annoyed me, I hated the way all the dialogue was written - it was probably the one game my uncle owned, that I thought was an absolute piece of trash. Hell, give me Simon's Quest over this any day, at least that game had Bloody Tears! Dragon Warrior's music, on the other hand... shudders

I still have that awful fight theme burned into the early recesses of my memory... here it is if you weren't alive back then, or don't know what I'm referring to. Nobuo Uematsu, it is not...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMga6n9BW7M

All in all, it left such a lasting impression on me, that I was just done with RPGs. RPGs=Bad to my young, naive brain. And that persisted throughout the entire NES and SNES generations; I didn't pick up a single RPG during that time period... it wasn't until Final Fantasy VII on the original PS1 where I fell in love with the genre. But this isn't the review to talk about Final Fantasy, so to continue with my Dragon Quest tale - fast forward a few years and I happened across Dragon Warrior VII on the PS1... at this point, I think I must have felt like an RPG vet, having played many of the early Final Fantasy games, getting caught up on the absolute masterpiece that was Chrono Trigger, and other Squaresoft titles, etc. "Hey! I remember you...," I thought to myself, "maybe I didn't give you a fair shake back in the day... let's see how much you've improved since the first game." So I grabbed DQVII and gave it a go...

Aaaand wow... it was exactly what I remembered from the first damn game. DQVII felt like a damn relic from the past coming back to haunt my ass! It was archaic, old, had terrible graphics for its time, and I don't think I ran across a single battle in over 2 hours of gametime... it was literally the anti-thesis of everything that I loved about my favorite game: Final Fantasy VII. "How are there 7 of these damn things!?" My revisit with the series was a disaster! I recall getting a little further into DQVII, but I just couldn't take it and ended up putting it down for good.

Next up was DQVIII on the PS2... and this is an embarrassing one, but I literally bought the game for the Final Fantasy XII demo disc that came with it (a mistake on my part, I may add)... I remember putting in DQVIII for a short spell, but the moment I saw those menus, it brought back horrible memories, and I put it away. It was as if I had Dragon Quest PTSD.

So now we finally reach present times with the release of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age on the PS4... I honestly couldn't tell ya what made me even consider giving this game a chance... boredom? Money to burn? I like pain? It all maybe goes back to a coworker of mine bringing it to my attention one day at work... but still, I can't put a finger on what compelled me to order this game... but damn... it is almost unbelievable to say after this sad tale, but I'm so glad I did. I guess the 4th try was the charm!

This was the Dragon Quest game for me... and I think I finally, truly get it. I LOVED my experience with DQXI!

It shouldn't even be a serious question after telling my entire life story, but DQXI is by far the greatest title in the series. No questions asked! So, what changed with this one!? It's hard to really put into words, but I'll try my best without delving into any spoilers...

I still don't know what exactly clicked with me - it still has that "old-school", archaic feel to it, but unlike the first game and DQVII that felt "too old" to me, this one feels just right... it is like comparing an 80's JRPG vs a mid-90's one. Trust me; it makes all the difference!

This game still has "old school" leveling, no in-depth, crazy gameplay systems, standard turn-based combat, etc. But maybe with so many JRPGs opting for a more action approach nowadays, I can appreciate sticking with the "tried and true" formula. I can completely understand if people don't like this game, for many of the same reasons I gave for not liking earlier titles, especially since it keeps close to its series' roots. But I can respect that - I'm glad we have franchises out here that don't try to reinvent the wheel every iteration, and stick with what they're good at, and what its fanbase likes. Tip of the cap to 'em on that!

DQXI just felt like a proper adventure to me... one I haven't experienced in a long, long time from a JRPG. And boy oh boy, is it an epic adventure! Lasting me damn near 200 hours before I finally got the platinum... there was something comfy about the whole experience - it immersed me in a way, many RPGs could only hope to accomplish. I enjoyed pretty much everything about it: it's story, characters, world, plot twists, etc. The game felt like pure quality and love! And some of the moments were beyond incredible - there were a couple times I thought the game was going to end, and it just kept going and going... but I welcomed its continuation with open arms. I'm sure if you were a series vet, you'd appreciate it even more than myself!

In summary, if you felt anything like me in the past: you despise archaic 80s RPGs and all their grinding, enjoy the Final Fantasy series more, etc. step out of your comfort zone on this one and give DQXI a chance. It may surprise you; I know it did me!

Appendix Note
One word of caution: This version of the game has absolute dookie water for music - god awful doesn't even begin to describe it... Like even if it was average, hell, slightly below average, this game would have been given a perfect 5/5, but the music and music alone brings it down to 4.5/5. My suggestion is to bring your own tunes if you can stomach doing such a blasphemous thing when playing an RPG... I can't, so I stuck with the ear grating melodies throughout (the main DQ theme is the one and only banger!). Oh well, I guess DQXII has something to improve on in the next release. :)

Great game, marred by a bad final act and a horrendous final boss fight.

edit

Okay now that I've calmed down let's talk about this game a little.

Dragon Quest XI is a really Stellar game most of the way. While the story isn't incredible it tells a solid story with good characters. It's charm and atmosphere is delightful and has some of the best combat I've ever played in a JRPG. Seriously it made grinding fun for me.

Where this games loses the plot is act 3 for me. I don't like the story choices, and the final boss, for my taste, was incredibly difficult and unfair unless you do bunch of grinding to get specific weapons/powers and pep, which, already 60 hours into a game is a gigantic ass (and one too much for me).

It's not enough to spoil my time with this game, I'm considering it finished after act 2. I like the story that told more anyways. Great game.

A great iteration of the turn based RPG in the modern day. Other games have since come out and updated the formula to greater success, but I still believe that this game kept the torch lit for the likes of Octopath Traveler to shine.

The story was genuinely interesting, and chock-full of the charm and wonder that comes with the world of Dragon Quest. The tongue-in-cheek humour wedged between important story beats made sure the game kept serious but also kept light when it was important to (and it does get very important to). The story did wane longer, but as I was going for the Platinum trophy, I imagine more streamlined playthroughs would have more easily struck that balance.

This game will go down as one of the best RPGs of it's console generation, and I definitely think it may be the best of the turn based RPGs available on the PS4.