Kularian
16 Reviews liked by Kularian
Some of the imagery and ideas were good but shortfalls in the game design and some particularly on-the-nose writing made for an ultimately mediocre experience.
Honestly I'm mostly upset that they had a cute actress in the live-action scenes and forcefully dubbed over herđ
Shame the concepts weren't executed better, even bigger shame that such a large part of the response to it is to ridicule teenagers for being depressed over dumb thingsđ
Honestly I'm mostly upset that they had a cute actress in the live-action scenes and forcefully dubbed over herđ
Shame the concepts weren't executed better, even bigger shame that such a large part of the response to it is to ridicule teenagers for being depressed over dumb thingsđ
I know a lot of people were kinda soft on it but I really loved the story mode for the base game so I found this DLC to be a bit frustrating. Its good, expected comic book-y stuff like the rest of Mortal Kombat but I don't know. My favorite part of the base game was the mom-daughter stuff with Cassie and Sonya. So of course this DLC focused a lot on the worst mother character of all time, Sindel. It does make for an interesting contrast and the focus on villains is cool but I just am not sure the ending is satisfying enough to make up for how it felt like all my favorite characters got done dirty. The most frustrating aspect of this DLC is that my opinion on it entirely depends on what happens in the next two Mortal Kombat games lol.
Other than that I like the three new characters (Fujin the most) and having Robocop is sweet but I already had my mains so wasn't too interested in trying them out.
Overall Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath is a pretty solid expansion with a good if somewhat frustrating conclusion to the story and good new character additions. I do think the original 40 dollar price tag for it is positively ridiculous but thankfully you can get it for much cheaper on sale. Its a solid add-on to my favorite fighting game and I can't ask for too much more than that.
Just wanted to leave this little mini review. I also recently got the platinum for both the PS4 and PS5 version of the basegame if that doesn't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I currently have MK1 installed and I def need a bit of a fighting game break but I am very eager to play it nonetheless, will definitely be reviewing that as well đ
-----TLDR----
+ Good new additions to the roster
+ Interesting set up for the future of MK
- Too many of my characters got disrespected in story mode lol
Nancymeter - 70/100
Trophy Completion - N/A
Time Played: 2-4 hours
DLC Completion #2 of November
DLC Completion #35 of 2023
Other than that I like the three new characters (Fujin the most) and having Robocop is sweet but I already had my mains so wasn't too interested in trying them out.
Overall Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath is a pretty solid expansion with a good if somewhat frustrating conclusion to the story and good new character additions. I do think the original 40 dollar price tag for it is positively ridiculous but thankfully you can get it for much cheaper on sale. Its a solid add-on to my favorite fighting game and I can't ask for too much more than that.
Just wanted to leave this little mini review. I also recently got the platinum for both the PS4 and PS5 version of the basegame if that doesn't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I currently have MK1 installed and I def need a bit of a fighting game break but I am very eager to play it nonetheless, will definitely be reviewing that as well đ
-----TLDR----
+ Good new additions to the roster
+ Interesting set up for the future of MK
- Too many of my characters got disrespected in story mode lol
Nancymeter - 70/100
Trophy Completion - N/A
Time Played: 2-4 hours
DLC Completion #2 of November
DLC Completion #35 of 2023
Cocoon
2023
I never gave this game much thought from the glimpses I've seen of it up to release, but the quadruple combo of it being a shorter game published by Annapurna that got high review scores and is day one on Game Pass made it very hard to ignore. I'm glad I didn't as I can confidently say that Cocoon is so far my favorite Indie game of 2023.
The game never tells you how to do anything, which is one of my favorite things about it. It just feels intuitive, and its solely up to you to figure things out. I got stumped a lot but outside of something I'll get to in a bit, it basically never felt like the game was unfair. And even when things seemed impossible, every single time I found out the solution I was impressed with how clever the game was. The puzzle design is just simply excellent here and it feels consistently rewarding.
Now there is a reason this game is missing a star. A few smaller issues first: I didn't really care about the art style. It feels a bit generic but its not a bad looking game either so not really a negative. The soundtrack also exists. Its fine I guess, but I never really noticed it which feels like a missed opportunity. Also if this game has a story, its very vague. I'm sure there's some deeper meaning to everything but it very much takes a backseat. These three things are fine and didn't really bother me as the gameplay is still very engaging but they do stop me from fully loving it.
Now about the actual things I dislike about the game. It took me around 5 and a half hours to beat. This is a great length for a game like this, and the puzzles continued to expand and stay interesting the whole time. That being said, there were several moments that felt like finales where the game just kept continuing on after. It led to a conflicting feeling where I was enjoying the puzzles but still wishing for the game to be over. It was just a bit exhausting to be thrown for a loop that much. The only other thing I dislike about this game are some of the timed puzzles. For the most part these are perfectly fine, but in the last fourth there is three different timed sections each made up of three different parts. They're sort of like a boss battle but if you fail any part you have to restart the whole section. While other bosses do make you restart, at least they were based on skill, but this one is solely on timing. This led to a lot of having to redo parts I already knew how to just to get back to the part I was actually stuck on and it was quite frankly a pain in the ass. I don't like timed puzzles and this was a bad way to implement them. Otherwise the bosses are all sort of similar but still unique enough that their presence makes the game more interesting.
Overall, Cocoon is a fantastic puzzle game that's held back only by a handful of small things and the very occasional annoying section. None of its negatives take away from the fact that its highly creative and one of the best games I've played in an already stacked year.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far <3
Nancymeter - 85/100
Achievement Completion - 80%
Time Played - 5 hours 43 minutes
Completion #29 of September
Completion #192 of 2023
The game never tells you how to do anything, which is one of my favorite things about it. It just feels intuitive, and its solely up to you to figure things out. I got stumped a lot but outside of something I'll get to in a bit, it basically never felt like the game was unfair. And even when things seemed impossible, every single time I found out the solution I was impressed with how clever the game was. The puzzle design is just simply excellent here and it feels consistently rewarding.
Now there is a reason this game is missing a star. A few smaller issues first: I didn't really care about the art style. It feels a bit generic but its not a bad looking game either so not really a negative. The soundtrack also exists. Its fine I guess, but I never really noticed it which feels like a missed opportunity. Also if this game has a story, its very vague. I'm sure there's some deeper meaning to everything but it very much takes a backseat. These three things are fine and didn't really bother me as the gameplay is still very engaging but they do stop me from fully loving it.
Now about the actual things I dislike about the game. It took me around 5 and a half hours to beat. This is a great length for a game like this, and the puzzles continued to expand and stay interesting the whole time. That being said, there were several moments that felt like finales where the game just kept continuing on after. It led to a conflicting feeling where I was enjoying the puzzles but still wishing for the game to be over. It was just a bit exhausting to be thrown for a loop that much. The only other thing I dislike about this game are some of the timed puzzles. For the most part these are perfectly fine, but in the last fourth there is three different timed sections each made up of three different parts. They're sort of like a boss battle but if you fail any part you have to restart the whole section. While other bosses do make you restart, at least they were based on skill, but this one is solely on timing. This led to a lot of having to redo parts I already knew how to just to get back to the part I was actually stuck on and it was quite frankly a pain in the ass. I don't like timed puzzles and this was a bad way to implement them. Otherwise the bosses are all sort of similar but still unique enough that their presence makes the game more interesting.
Overall, Cocoon is a fantastic puzzle game that's held back only by a handful of small things and the very occasional annoying section. None of its negatives take away from the fact that its highly creative and one of the best games I've played in an already stacked year.
Thanks for reading if you made it this far <3
Nancymeter - 85/100
Achievement Completion - 80%
Time Played - 5 hours 43 minutes
Completion #29 of September
Completion #192 of 2023
Dead Space
2023
The remake of Dead Space was a wonderful surprise. I know that a lot of people were hyped about this new version, but I never had contact with the original release, and I was never a fan of survival horror. I had the opportunity to play this new version, and I had a great time with it.
Dead Space is a third-person shooter with elements of survival horror. While facing enemies that resemble demons, you have to conserve ammo and manage items.
The gameplay is pretty good. There is a variety of guns available, and the shooting mechanics are really well done. However, I must mention the movement system: the character feels heavy, making it difficult to escape from enemies. At times, it can feel like you're controlling a character from Demon's Souls in a shooting game.
The story is interesting but reminiscent of the Alien franchise. It revolves around a person who arrives on a giant space ship and encounters a monster infestation that has nearly wiped out everyone. I won't spoil much, but I believe it follows the same storyline as the original game.
I only had one problem with the game that was preventing my progress. At one point, I was being chased by a monster and managed to escape. Later on, I had to return to a place I had been to before. The problem was that this monster was trapped at the only entrance door to that place, preventing me from entering. I had to retrieve an old save from before I was chased, losing an hour of gameplay.
The remake of Dead Space brings a classic PS3 game to PS5 and Xbox Series consoles with modern visuals and controls. It feels like a new game. The graphics are impressive, some of the best I've ever seen. The performance is also quite solid at the moment.
I believe that if you enjoy third-person shooter games, you should definitely give it a chance. It's one of the best games released in 2023.
Dead Space is a third-person shooter with elements of survival horror. While facing enemies that resemble demons, you have to conserve ammo and manage items.
The gameplay is pretty good. There is a variety of guns available, and the shooting mechanics are really well done. However, I must mention the movement system: the character feels heavy, making it difficult to escape from enemies. At times, it can feel like you're controlling a character from Demon's Souls in a shooting game.
The story is interesting but reminiscent of the Alien franchise. It revolves around a person who arrives on a giant space ship and encounters a monster infestation that has nearly wiped out everyone. I won't spoil much, but I believe it follows the same storyline as the original game.
I only had one problem with the game that was preventing my progress. At one point, I was being chased by a monster and managed to escape. Later on, I had to return to a place I had been to before. The problem was that this monster was trapped at the only entrance door to that place, preventing me from entering. I had to retrieve an old save from before I was chased, losing an hour of gameplay.
The remake of Dead Space brings a classic PS3 game to PS5 and Xbox Series consoles with modern visuals and controls. It feels like a new game. The graphics are impressive, some of the best I've ever seen. The performance is also quite solid at the moment.
I believe that if you enjoy third-person shooter games, you should definitely give it a chance. It's one of the best games released in 2023.
To the Moon
2011
To The Moon is an indie game focused on telling a story that makes us reflect on our lives. Its simple gameplay allows anyone to have the same experience.
The game tells the story of two "scientists" working for a company dedicated to fulfilling the last wishes of dying clients. One day, these two set out to attend to an unconscious old man in his final days but are unable to fulfill their task until they understand why he desires his wish so strongly.
To accomplish their job, the scientists must use their machine to explore the old man's life, allowing the player to connect with the story and experience emotional moments.
I won't reveal too much, but this game made me contemplate my life and my relationships. It was the perfect game for me when I was seeking this perspective.
The gameplay is very simple. You just have to walk through different locations and solve easy puzzles. It's clear that the developers focused on the storyline and kept the gameplay simple. I don't see it as a negative aspect since their objective wasn't to have complex mechanics. In the end, they did what was necessary to provide players with a good experience.
The visuals are quite good. They have a nostalgic feel reminiscent of old games with some upgrades. Again, their objective wasn't to create something entirely unique, but the characters are expressive, and the locations are well-crafted.
To The Moon is one of those games developed to make you contemplate your life. If you enjoy this type of game, I highly recommend playing To The Moon.
The game tells the story of two "scientists" working for a company dedicated to fulfilling the last wishes of dying clients. One day, these two set out to attend to an unconscious old man in his final days but are unable to fulfill their task until they understand why he desires his wish so strongly.
To accomplish their job, the scientists must use their machine to explore the old man's life, allowing the player to connect with the story and experience emotional moments.
I won't reveal too much, but this game made me contemplate my life and my relationships. It was the perfect game for me when I was seeking this perspective.
The gameplay is very simple. You just have to walk through different locations and solve easy puzzles. It's clear that the developers focused on the storyline and kept the gameplay simple. I don't see it as a negative aspect since their objective wasn't to have complex mechanics. In the end, they did what was necessary to provide players with a good experience.
The visuals are quite good. They have a nostalgic feel reminiscent of old games with some upgrades. Again, their objective wasn't to create something entirely unique, but the characters are expressive, and the locations are well-crafted.
To The Moon is one of those games developed to make you contemplate your life. If you enjoy this type of game, I highly recommend playing To The Moon.
Songs for a Hero is a game that tries something new. In the gaming industry, we have seen many games that are similar to one another, but that's not the case here.
When I say "something different," I'm not referring to the gameplay. Songs for a Hero is a traditional 2D platformer with jumps and sword fights against enemies. However, the gameplay feels like an old game and lacks responsiveness. Controlling the character feels heavy, which is not ideal for a game like this.
So what sets this game apart from everything else? The music! Now, if you don't know anything about this game, you might assume that I'm talking about the soundtrack. However, that's not the case.
Songs for a Hero has a narrator similar to Stanley Parable, for example. The difference is that the narrator sings a song all the time, narrating what you're doing during the game. It's incredibly fun and humorous! The narrator constantly makes jokes about gaming conventions, such as rescuing princesses and floating platforms.
The game is available in English and Brazilian Portuguese. If you are fluent in either of these languages, you'll have a great time, and I guarantee you'll be laughing within the first few minutes.
The only downside is that the narrator gives the impression that everyone will have the same experience playing the game. The developers tried to make it feel like the narrator is singing about your own journey, but ultimately, it's all scripted.
The visuals are not particularly impressive. The game lacks a distinct visual identity. If they had put more effort into this aspect, the overall experience would have been better.
In the end, Songs for a Hero is a remarkable project that originated from videos created by a small Brazilian YouTuber. I believe you should give it a try for a few minutes, and if you have fun, continue until the end. It's definitely worth a try.
When I say "something different," I'm not referring to the gameplay. Songs for a Hero is a traditional 2D platformer with jumps and sword fights against enemies. However, the gameplay feels like an old game and lacks responsiveness. Controlling the character feels heavy, which is not ideal for a game like this.
So what sets this game apart from everything else? The music! Now, if you don't know anything about this game, you might assume that I'm talking about the soundtrack. However, that's not the case.
Songs for a Hero has a narrator similar to Stanley Parable, for example. The difference is that the narrator sings a song all the time, narrating what you're doing during the game. It's incredibly fun and humorous! The narrator constantly makes jokes about gaming conventions, such as rescuing princesses and floating platforms.
The game is available in English and Brazilian Portuguese. If you are fluent in either of these languages, you'll have a great time, and I guarantee you'll be laughing within the first few minutes.
The only downside is that the narrator gives the impression that everyone will have the same experience playing the game. The developers tried to make it feel like the narrator is singing about your own journey, but ultimately, it's all scripted.
The visuals are not particularly impressive. The game lacks a distinct visual identity. If they had put more effort into this aspect, the overall experience would have been better.
In the end, Songs for a Hero is a remarkable project that originated from videos created by a small Brazilian YouTuber. I believe you should give it a try for a few minutes, and if you have fun, continue until the end. It's definitely worth a try.
Octopath Traveler II
2023
I completed this game a month ago so my review points are a little buried in my memory, but what hasn't been buried is how much I adored playing through it. The visuals in Octopath are gorgeous, and the box art for this being so nice honestly had more impact on my interest in it than I care to admit, but what I didn't expect was for the music to surpass it.
The OST for this game has got to be one of my favourites, ever. Such an amazing number of tracks with a huge range of tones and styles, all of them a joy to listen to. It's hard to overstate how pretty some of the songs are, and I think if my bottom-tier memory remembers only one thing about Octopath Traveler II, I'd like it to be that.
... However, it won't be that, because this game made the eye-watering decision to lock it's platinum trophy behind it post-game megaboss. Now I love JRPGs, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at them. I get by for sure, but any time I look up a strat or hear how someone else is running their party I realise that mine is using maybe 15% of it's full potential. This game does not allow you to buy-back equipment that you sell, so when my dumbass sold a weapon that turned out to be essential in just about every megaboss build I found online.. đ„č
It took me around 100 hours to beat the story, maybe 20 to cleanup everything else for the platinum and (I can't be certain because reloading my save meant the time wasn't tracked) I'm certain I spent no less than 20 hours grinding and throwing myself at this boss for the final trophy. Honestly it was probably closer to 40.
10 days worth of on-off grinding/attempts, sometimes for hours, sometimes just 2-4 tries. At one point I was so discouraged and quite frankly broken that I uninstalled the game to spare myself the pain of failure, only to redownload it a few days later with hopes of beating it out of spite.
I have seen people beat this boss with ease over 30 levels lower than my party were (I grinded from 50-60 range to 80-90 just for this) and despite having almost exactly the same gear (aside from stuff I'd sold) I wasn't doing nearly as much damage as they were đ„č (I had also spammed all my stat nuts in inopportune ways without realising bc I am ranked #1 worst jrpg player)
Anyway all this to say, I finally did it. I don't know how, the numbers fell in my favour and by some miracle I actually beat it, and that's rad đ
This "review" is unhinged but I should also say that I love the characters and the combat system was immensely fun to use the whole time, really enjoyed it. Biggest gripe with the game would be the difficulty spike but I expect that's a skill issue. Also the way the travelers meet is kinda goofy but I really don't think that affected my enjoyment at all.
Overall I would definitely recommend this to anyone even remotely interested, it's a fantastic time and a really refreshing structure in how the story was told (for me, I haven't played 1 or Live A Live) -- Just maybe don't worry about the platinum or play on Switch (which I might have to for the first game đ„č)
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good mid-year, Final Fantasy XVI is around the corner and with this being my 124th platinum I'm hoping that one isn't quite so painful to make as my milestone 125! đ
P.S. I just remembered there was a line near the end of Temenos' story that went so fucking hard, it was like "[Your Gods] created this world, and in their folly saw fit to taint it with humans" and that's so fkn rawđ©
The OST for this game has got to be one of my favourites, ever. Such an amazing number of tracks with a huge range of tones and styles, all of them a joy to listen to. It's hard to overstate how pretty some of the songs are, and I think if my bottom-tier memory remembers only one thing about Octopath Traveler II, I'd like it to be that.
... However, it won't be that, because this game made the eye-watering decision to lock it's platinum trophy behind it post-game megaboss. Now I love JRPGs, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at them. I get by for sure, but any time I look up a strat or hear how someone else is running their party I realise that mine is using maybe 15% of it's full potential. This game does not allow you to buy-back equipment that you sell, so when my dumbass sold a weapon that turned out to be essential in just about every megaboss build I found online.. đ„č
It took me around 100 hours to beat the story, maybe 20 to cleanup everything else for the platinum and (I can't be certain because reloading my save meant the time wasn't tracked) I'm certain I spent no less than 20 hours grinding and throwing myself at this boss for the final trophy. Honestly it was probably closer to 40.
10 days worth of on-off grinding/attempts, sometimes for hours, sometimes just 2-4 tries. At one point I was so discouraged and quite frankly broken that I uninstalled the game to spare myself the pain of failure, only to redownload it a few days later with hopes of beating it out of spite.
I have seen people beat this boss with ease over 30 levels lower than my party were (I grinded from 50-60 range to 80-90 just for this) and despite having almost exactly the same gear (aside from stuff I'd sold) I wasn't doing nearly as much damage as they were đ„č (I had also spammed all my stat nuts in inopportune ways without realising bc I am ranked #1 worst jrpg player)
Anyway all this to say, I finally did it. I don't know how, the numbers fell in my favour and by some miracle I actually beat it, and that's rad đ
This "review" is unhinged but I should also say that I love the characters and the combat system was immensely fun to use the whole time, really enjoyed it. Biggest gripe with the game would be the difficulty spike but I expect that's a skill issue. Also the way the travelers meet is kinda goofy but I really don't think that affected my enjoyment at all.
Overall I would definitely recommend this to anyone even remotely interested, it's a fantastic time and a really refreshing structure in how the story was told (for me, I haven't played 1 or Live A Live) -- Just maybe don't worry about the platinum or play on Switch (which I might have to for the first game đ„č)
Thanks for reading! Hope everyone's having a good mid-year, Final Fantasy XVI is around the corner and with this being my 124th platinum I'm hoping that one isn't quite so painful to make as my milestone 125! đ
P.S. I just remembered there was a line near the end of Temenos' story that went so fucking hard, it was like "[Your Gods] created this world, and in their folly saw fit to taint it with humans" and that's so fkn rawđ©
Man, I really hope more of this series gets localised, especially future releases.
This game is so all over the place in it's vibe but it is exactly the sort of shit that I get really into for no clear reason. Some of it is unintentionally hilarious, and a lot of the actually dark/touching scenes are near ruined by their presentation (or just happening immediately after something utterly ridiculous) but the whole thing was fascinating and genuinely entertaining.
Really cool seeing how things changed over the 6 days in-game, and revisiting places/meeting back up with people is a cool concept. In a way the game being such a mess served well to keep me in a constant state of never knowing what was around the corner, befitting of a disaster situation but not at all in a way that was appropriate for a lot of its moments.
I recall ages ago someone recommended that I play this drunk with friends but honestly binging the whole thing (both endings and platinum with a guide) in a single, 15ish hour run made for exactly the kind of time I was hoping for đ
Ultimately, I can't really recommend this game to anyone unless you're already captivated by the idea of going around an area during a crisis trying to help people and shit but I can promise anyone who is tempted that it is not just 12+ hours of calling out and helping people trapped under rubble. Game is honestly like the fkn domino meme with how unexpected some of the things that happen are lol.
Overall I'm actually really glad I gave this a chance, I don't even remember how it got on my radar to begin with but the thought of playing it hasn't left my mind for a few years now, so this is a great relief and a huge win :) Hopefully 5 isn't too far away, I'd be happy paying for that one when it drops lol
Anyway thanks for reading y'all, if anyone knows of any games/series even remotely similar to this please let me know! I've got a feeling Shenmue might fit the boot but idk, looks more just slow and boring but could be wrong. Til next time <3
P.S. Been on a roll this month and haven't reviewed the past few games, not sure if I will. tl;dr Dead Rising 2 and 1 are both clunky and survivors are hellish. 2 is a clear improvement but nostalgia and the addictive gameplay loop makes them both fun (3 is best tho) -- Kena was super cute and the collectibles weren't as bad as expected but the combat really brings it down for me, I suck fs but it just didn't need to be that hard/awkward for a game that sold itself on being adorable (bc it is)
This game is so all over the place in it's vibe but it is exactly the sort of shit that I get really into for no clear reason. Some of it is unintentionally hilarious, and a lot of the actually dark/touching scenes are near ruined by their presentation (or just happening immediately after something utterly ridiculous) but the whole thing was fascinating and genuinely entertaining.
Really cool seeing how things changed over the 6 days in-game, and revisiting places/meeting back up with people is a cool concept. In a way the game being such a mess served well to keep me in a constant state of never knowing what was around the corner, befitting of a disaster situation but not at all in a way that was appropriate for a lot of its moments.
I recall ages ago someone recommended that I play this drunk with friends but honestly binging the whole thing (both endings and platinum with a guide) in a single, 15ish hour run made for exactly the kind of time I was hoping for đ
Ultimately, I can't really recommend this game to anyone unless you're already captivated by the idea of going around an area during a crisis trying to help people and shit but I can promise anyone who is tempted that it is not just 12+ hours of calling out and helping people trapped under rubble. Game is honestly like the fkn domino meme with how unexpected some of the things that happen are lol.
Overall I'm actually really glad I gave this a chance, I don't even remember how it got on my radar to begin with but the thought of playing it hasn't left my mind for a few years now, so this is a great relief and a huge win :) Hopefully 5 isn't too far away, I'd be happy paying for that one when it drops lol
Anyway thanks for reading y'all, if anyone knows of any games/series even remotely similar to this please let me know! I've got a feeling Shenmue might fit the boot but idk, looks more just slow and boring but could be wrong. Til next time <3
P.S. Been on a roll this month and haven't reviewed the past few games, not sure if I will. tl;dr Dead Rising 2 and 1 are both clunky and survivors are hellish. 2 is a clear improvement but nostalgia and the addictive gameplay loop makes them both fun (3 is best tho) -- Kena was super cute and the collectibles weren't as bad as expected but the combat really brings it down for me, I suck fs but it just didn't need to be that hard/awkward for a game that sold itself on being adorable (bc it is)
Recently I've been trying to raise my overall completion percentage and have been trying to get the rest of the trophies in games I never got far in. For some reason I decided I wanted to play a shitty game, so I chose this one. I wanted to play something bad and be able to say hey look, I did it. And goddamnit did I do it, platinum and all.
This game is like, twilight for forty year old men. Does your dad have a lot of tattoos and wear shirts that say "Don't Tread on Me" or "Facts Don't Care About Your Feelings"? He'd probably like this game.
Originally I couldn't even beat the first level before abandoning it. I gave it a half star, did a quick rant and called it a day but now am I so glad I finished it because everything about this game was unintentionally hilarious. It tries to take itself so seriously, there is not a single hint of irony or self awareness. This game thinks its cool as fuck, as evident by the ridiculous title - and that is the only saving grace.
Make no mistake, this game doesnt get the honor of "so bad its good" Its just bad. But it is the laughable-ness that will keep you sane through the 8-12 hour runtime. So many parts of this game are silly that at one point I told my boyfriend I was worried that there was so much I'd forget some of it for this review, and honestly thats probably true.
Firstly the character models are all pretty ugly. Most of them look like stock assets. All the characters suck too. The main character, Cahal, looks like discount Captain Price and has about as much substance as an empty jar of peanut butter. None of the characters are really all that likeable or memorable, the only one i thought was cool is just because he has an eyepatch, and the only one I kind of liked is just killed randomly offscreen. The story itself is also pretty pisspoor, and I tuned out for nearly the entirety of it. Tries to throw in some weird dialogue choices like the game actually earns to share a similarity to Mass Effect. None of these choices matter until at the end where you can chose between two endings, but both are bad. The game tries to be emotional at a few parts but the acting makes it funny and its not like you care about whats happening to begin with.
The animations, particularly for takedowns are also very goofy. Outside locations have visual variety but nearly every single indoor combat/stealth section looks almost identical. You will see the exact same assets over and over again.
That leads me to the gameplay itself. There are a few hub world areas where your main groups camp is literally within a mornings stroll away from enemy bases and military strongholds. Its not like you're in hiding either, it is explicitly shown the enemies know that you're right next to them. Its just incredibly silly and the game would of worked better if it kept to being linear. Theres not much to do in these areas either, except for a few collectibles and sidequests. These collectibles come in two types: notes and "spirits". The notes Im being honest I didnt read a single one I couldnt be bothered to give a fuck about the game. Maybe they gave more about the lore but the game doesnt even bother to explain itself outside of it so I couldnt be bothered either. The spirits are things you can only see in your enhanced visionâą that every third person game has. Theyre basically like magical plants that Cahal just stands there and sniffs for experience. Yeah, its funny. The sidequests are all just busy work with objectives similar to what you do in the base game already. These are completely pointless, and all they serve to do is give you more experience. If you dont plan to platinum this (which frankly having a sub 1% platinum is the only reason you should play this) then you can skip them and nothing of value is lost. This experience is used to upgrade your skill tree. Mostly to give yourself more combat abilities, with some being tactical. These are all fine, I guess. Maybe about half the abilities are actually useful, and you can get to one of the ultimate ones incredibly quickly anyways.
Now there is the combat itself. Most sections allow you to do stealth. The stealth is bad. The areas are poorly designed, mechanics are only introduced in the first few missions and just continue through the rest of the game. Plus it creates a very big disconnect, if you cause a huge ruckus and get reinforcements called on you in one area, the next area wont have enemies on alert anyways. You have a crossbow that you can upgrade to allow you to shoot cameras and turrets to disable them, but the aiming on that is terrible. Also a lot of levels towards the end have big enemies guarding exits that can neither be taken down or killed in a timely manner with the crossbow, making stealth basically useless. Which is okay, because most of the time you're just gonna opt for the actual combat because its a lot more fun.
In all honesty its the only good thing about the game, but even then its not great. Its basic hack and slash stuff, you'll get some new moves from the skill tree but nothing will make you change up your gameplay. Theres a few different enemy types but you can fight them all basically the same. There is no incentive, not even cool combos, to do anything other than spam your moves until you win. Id say at least visually it looks nice but... not really. Outside of one boss the enemy designs are all pretty meh. There is a lot of blood but absolutely zero gore which is another thing that makes this game so hard to take seriously despite its desperate attempts. It especially makes the executions look terrible. and the enemies dont even get bloodied themselves. The game isnt particularly hard either, but it does get kinda bullshit as you go on, lots of battles just go on way too long with so many enemies and its really more annoying than anything.
The combat is passable for the most part, but by the end you're gonna wanna opt for the terrible stealth instead so you dont have to sit through another shitty battle. Except you cant. Because remember? Big enemy boy is camping the exit.
This has no effect on the quality of the game itself, but I feel like it has to be mentioned. The trophy list despite the low percentages is really easy. Just nobody wants to get far in this game. I however only gave this a second chance because of trophies, and am still a bit shocked at me actually going through with this. The game does have a lot of miscellanious trophies which I do like, but they are so incredibly easy that by the end of the second mission I had every single one of them besides one for an enemy that hadnt been introduced yet. Theres a silver trophy for killing 250 enemies that I got in the first level. Theres also a few times where you will get two story trophies at the exact same time, for just doing one thing. Theres also one for getting every single spirit. There is no way to track them or even chapter select so if you miss one you'll have to play the entire game a second time and I hope nobody puts themself through that. You also get one for each ending choice. You can continue from your completed save but it just puts you after you made the choice anyways, which is a bruh moment, Thankfully you can just restart the mission. Like I said it doesnt really matter, and going for trophies helped me get through it, its just a bit hilarious how poorly they were all thought out and is kind of an example of how the rest of the game is.
So thats Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood. If I did have one positive, its that I like the metal song on the title screen. Other than that I hope Ive demonstrated how much of a mess this game is, and I didnt even cover everything. This game is far from the worst I've played, but its definitely one of the worst I've beat. Thanks for reading <3
God I hope theres a sequel. And I hope its not much better.
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #213)
Time Played: 12 hours 21 minutes
Nancymeter - 36/100
Game Completion #115 of 2022
September Completion #5
This game is like, twilight for forty year old men. Does your dad have a lot of tattoos and wear shirts that say "Don't Tread on Me" or "Facts Don't Care About Your Feelings"? He'd probably like this game.
Originally I couldn't even beat the first level before abandoning it. I gave it a half star, did a quick rant and called it a day but now am I so glad I finished it because everything about this game was unintentionally hilarious. It tries to take itself so seriously, there is not a single hint of irony or self awareness. This game thinks its cool as fuck, as evident by the ridiculous title - and that is the only saving grace.
Make no mistake, this game doesnt get the honor of "so bad its good" Its just bad. But it is the laughable-ness that will keep you sane through the 8-12 hour runtime. So many parts of this game are silly that at one point I told my boyfriend I was worried that there was so much I'd forget some of it for this review, and honestly thats probably true.
Firstly the character models are all pretty ugly. Most of them look like stock assets. All the characters suck too. The main character, Cahal, looks like discount Captain Price and has about as much substance as an empty jar of peanut butter. None of the characters are really all that likeable or memorable, the only one i thought was cool is just because he has an eyepatch, and the only one I kind of liked is just killed randomly offscreen. The story itself is also pretty pisspoor, and I tuned out for nearly the entirety of it. Tries to throw in some weird dialogue choices like the game actually earns to share a similarity to Mass Effect. None of these choices matter until at the end where you can chose between two endings, but both are bad. The game tries to be emotional at a few parts but the acting makes it funny and its not like you care about whats happening to begin with.
The animations, particularly for takedowns are also very goofy. Outside locations have visual variety but nearly every single indoor combat/stealth section looks almost identical. You will see the exact same assets over and over again.
That leads me to the gameplay itself. There are a few hub world areas where your main groups camp is literally within a mornings stroll away from enemy bases and military strongholds. Its not like you're in hiding either, it is explicitly shown the enemies know that you're right next to them. Its just incredibly silly and the game would of worked better if it kept to being linear. Theres not much to do in these areas either, except for a few collectibles and sidequests. These collectibles come in two types: notes and "spirits". The notes Im being honest I didnt read a single one I couldnt be bothered to give a fuck about the game. Maybe they gave more about the lore but the game doesnt even bother to explain itself outside of it so I couldnt be bothered either. The spirits are things you can only see in your enhanced visionâą that every third person game has. Theyre basically like magical plants that Cahal just stands there and sniffs for experience. Yeah, its funny. The sidequests are all just busy work with objectives similar to what you do in the base game already. These are completely pointless, and all they serve to do is give you more experience. If you dont plan to platinum this (which frankly having a sub 1% platinum is the only reason you should play this) then you can skip them and nothing of value is lost. This experience is used to upgrade your skill tree. Mostly to give yourself more combat abilities, with some being tactical. These are all fine, I guess. Maybe about half the abilities are actually useful, and you can get to one of the ultimate ones incredibly quickly anyways.
Now there is the combat itself. Most sections allow you to do stealth. The stealth is bad. The areas are poorly designed, mechanics are only introduced in the first few missions and just continue through the rest of the game. Plus it creates a very big disconnect, if you cause a huge ruckus and get reinforcements called on you in one area, the next area wont have enemies on alert anyways. You have a crossbow that you can upgrade to allow you to shoot cameras and turrets to disable them, but the aiming on that is terrible. Also a lot of levels towards the end have big enemies guarding exits that can neither be taken down or killed in a timely manner with the crossbow, making stealth basically useless. Which is okay, because most of the time you're just gonna opt for the actual combat because its a lot more fun.
In all honesty its the only good thing about the game, but even then its not great. Its basic hack and slash stuff, you'll get some new moves from the skill tree but nothing will make you change up your gameplay. Theres a few different enemy types but you can fight them all basically the same. There is no incentive, not even cool combos, to do anything other than spam your moves until you win. Id say at least visually it looks nice but... not really. Outside of one boss the enemy designs are all pretty meh. There is a lot of blood but absolutely zero gore which is another thing that makes this game so hard to take seriously despite its desperate attempts. It especially makes the executions look terrible. and the enemies dont even get bloodied themselves. The game isnt particularly hard either, but it does get kinda bullshit as you go on, lots of battles just go on way too long with so many enemies and its really more annoying than anything.
The combat is passable for the most part, but by the end you're gonna wanna opt for the terrible stealth instead so you dont have to sit through another shitty battle. Except you cant. Because remember? Big enemy boy is camping the exit.
This has no effect on the quality of the game itself, but I feel like it has to be mentioned. The trophy list despite the low percentages is really easy. Just nobody wants to get far in this game. I however only gave this a second chance because of trophies, and am still a bit shocked at me actually going through with this. The game does have a lot of miscellanious trophies which I do like, but they are so incredibly easy that by the end of the second mission I had every single one of them besides one for an enemy that hadnt been introduced yet. Theres a silver trophy for killing 250 enemies that I got in the first level. Theres also a few times where you will get two story trophies at the exact same time, for just doing one thing. Theres also one for getting every single spirit. There is no way to track them or even chapter select so if you miss one you'll have to play the entire game a second time and I hope nobody puts themself through that. You also get one for each ending choice. You can continue from your completed save but it just puts you after you made the choice anyways, which is a bruh moment, Thankfully you can just restart the mission. Like I said it doesnt really matter, and going for trophies helped me get through it, its just a bit hilarious how poorly they were all thought out and is kind of an example of how the rest of the game is.
So thats Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Earthblood. If I did have one positive, its that I like the metal song on the title screen. Other than that I hope Ive demonstrated how much of a mess this game is, and I didnt even cover everything. This game is far from the worst I've played, but its definitely one of the worst I've beat. Thanks for reading <3
God I hope theres a sequel. And I hope its not much better.
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #213)
Time Played: 12 hours 21 minutes
Nancymeter - 36/100
Game Completion #115 of 2022
September Completion #5
A Memoir Blue
2022
First off I just want to say I love the water theme/setting to this. The underwater city is awesome especially with neon signs - Memoir Blue is the best thing like this since Shark Tale. I wholeheartedly enjoy the surrealness to it. The strand-type genre is over I want more games like this that make you feel like you're playing an aquarium storybook.
It also has some pretty music! It doesnt play much but Its very soothing when it is there. The gameplay is pretty standard for these types of games, but I didnt mind it and thought it worked quite well in some instances. The game is also quite short, but short games are my thing and short works better for this genre. Unfortunately this game feels too short and doesnt leave you much time to get invested with the characters or the plot much. The plot itself is good I think, and it tells an emotional story. The problem is that its just not super engaging.
Reading interviews from the creator of this game: it's clearly a passion project with a very personal message. The game just doesnt really do anything new or impressive to make the story resonate. Beyond the awesome visuals the game just feels a bit generic. Indie games have grown so much and these days need a bit more to excite, otherwise ones like this will just end up feeling like the Call of Duty's or Pokemon's of the genre. There is a lot of promise from this team though, and for their first game I think its a good foot in the door.
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #212)
Time Played: 1 hours 28 minutes
Nancymeter - 60/100
Game Completion #111 of 2022
September Completion #1
It also has some pretty music! It doesnt play much but Its very soothing when it is there. The gameplay is pretty standard for these types of games, but I didnt mind it and thought it worked quite well in some instances. The game is also quite short, but short games are my thing and short works better for this genre. Unfortunately this game feels too short and doesnt leave you much time to get invested with the characters or the plot much. The plot itself is good I think, and it tells an emotional story. The problem is that its just not super engaging.
Reading interviews from the creator of this game: it's clearly a passion project with a very personal message. The game just doesnt really do anything new or impressive to make the story resonate. Beyond the awesome visuals the game just feels a bit generic. Indie games have grown so much and these days need a bit more to excite, otherwise ones like this will just end up feeling like the Call of Duty's or Pokemon's of the genre. There is a lot of promise from this team though, and for their first game I think its a good foot in the door.
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #212)
Time Played: 1 hours 28 minutes
Nancymeter - 60/100
Game Completion #111 of 2022
September Completion #1
Dragon Quest XI is a phenomenal game. It stands firm as one of the greatest JRPGs Iâve personally ever experienced, and I expect is among the greatest titles within the genre of all time.
I have a lot to say about this title so for those of you who may not want to read 158 hoursâ worth of thoughts, Iâll summarise it briefly here: The gameplay, polish and presentation of Dragon Quest XI is off the charts. Everything works and looks exactly as it should, there are basically no instances where youâll find yourself against impossible odds or hit a wall of âbullshitâ, it just works. Itâs also incredibly accessible to players of all preferences and skill-levels, this game was made to be enjoyed by anyone and in my honest opinion, it succeeds. So, letâs get into it a little deeper.
It's worth mentioning that I will not be discussing major spoilers in this review, however if youâre familiar with JRPG or anime tropes/cliches there will be allusions to those which may reveal some minor or incredibly âstandardâ/expected beats.
Starting off with the first and perhaps most important thing the DQ XI experience offers:
ACCESSIBILTY.
Dragon Quest XI does not come with traditional difficulty options, much like the majority of more classic JRPGs. What it does do, however, is give players several ways to make it easier or harder to fit their own preference. The biggest of these are the âDraconian Questâ options presented upon starting a new game, a list of settings that you can decide before playing if youâd prefer to enable or disable. These include certain challenge modes like No Shopping or No Armour, Reduced Experience, Shypox â a randomly triggered status ailment that embarrasses you/your allies -, and my personal favourite: âParty Wiped Out if Protagonist Perishesâ
Thatâs right. You can disable one of the most frustrating and often merciless features of classic JRPGs. Thank the Gods.
The caveat with these modifiers is that if you disable all of them then you canât adjust them once youâre in the game, however I believe that anything you enable can be later disabled via a save point without consequence.
This isnât the only way that DQ XI makes itself more accessible to suit your play style though, oh no. One of the most impressive features of this title is one that honestly didnât really hit me fully until Iâd tried it myself: 2D Mode. The entire game, start to finish, can be played in either a modern 3D style, complete with interactive combat where you can move around the battlefield and watch gorgeous attack animations, or a classic 2D mode, returning to the use of flashing sprites and screen shakes instead. Both modes have redesigned locations to accommodate the dimensions available in each, and my favourite difference between the two: random encounters - or more importantly â lack thereof.
If you prefer the old school 2D sprite-based, synthesised, random-encounter-ridden experience of old JRPGs, you can have that. If youâd rather see the world in beautiful 3D, run around the overworld yourself and be able to actively avoid enemies roaming the lands, you can have that too! The entire. Fecking. Game. Honestly who does that?! Square went above and beyond making the whole game twice just to make sure EVERYONE could enjoy it, itâs absurd and I cannot respect this decision enough.
You can switch between 2D and 3D mode at any time, and if your save file in 3D mode is further along than in 2D, you can select which chapter of the game to pick up from in 2D and just keep going, meaning there is (once again) no consequence for playing around and trying both out. [Iâm not certain if the same applies going from 2D to 3D but I would expect so?]
Believe it or not, Iâm not done. I mentioned the Draconian Quest difficulty modifiers earlier, and how they can be used to adjust the difficulty of the game from the start/at any time if enabled. But another, more subtle, thing that DQ XI does to ensure no-one gets left behind is giving the player freedom for 99%, if not all, of the game. Let me explain.
Iâm sure weâve all hit walls in games where we get stuck, the boss is simply too hard, our party are under-levelled, poorly equipped, we werenât prepared to face a challenge and our last save was x amount of time ago. With no other choice, weâre forced to lose progress to train harder and make push any further. This will not happen in Dragon Quest XI, I can guarantee it. You may find a boss you canât beat, absolutely (although in all honesty this will most likely only be late into Act III when the difficulty is amped up and more things become optional than not,) but you will never be in a position where you canât just load to right before the fight, go away and prepare to return stronger.
At one point in Act II, there is a part where you need to defend an area from a large-scale attack. âOh shit.â I thought, âThis is where I may well meet my first roadblock. I hope I saved recently just in case Iâm too weak for this.â â Arriving at the front line, I saw an NPC with a marker on the mini-map, speaking to him, well it made me laugh honestly. He essentially told me âIf the enemies prove too strong, try going into that cave there and honing your skills while we hold them offâ ⊠Iâm sorry, what? The front lines of this story-locked battle offer a save point and a dungeon specifically to grind in? Hell, I wouldnât be surprised if I was able to rest/heal and go back to the nearest store as well, I couldnât believe it.
This game was made so that it can be played by everyone. And it absolutely can. I would confidently say that the only thing less-experienced players might struggle with is the final-final boss (and the optional post-game bosses ofc, but assuming theyâre not here for those anyway), but the final boss of the game can be significantly weakened in 1 turn using a trick that the game teaches you, urges you to do and makes it impossible to miss, so even that battle Iâd wager you can manage.
Just to finish up, the game also has settings to adjust the battle speed, whether the score is symphonic or synthetic, the DQ VIII OST is available as well and every single thing Iâve mentioned here can be adjusted at any time, without consequence. (Besides enabling the Draconian Quest modifiers if theyâre all disabled at the start)
With all that said, letâs talk about the game itself:
WHAT IS DRAGON QUEST XI S: ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE?
Dragon Quest XI â as Iâm sure you know by now â is a grand open world JRPG adventure, following our Hero in his journey from the small town of Cobblestone as he learns of and fulfils his destiny as the Luminary of Legend. Itâs a tale as old as time, and the heads up I gave at the start about common tropes is because, at its very core, the A-plot of the game is somewhat⊠generic. But with a world this rich of diverse locations, captivating characters and a plethora of really good B-plots and mini-arcs, the main story doesnât need to be anything else. Itâs a vessel. Itâs what drives us on our way through the game and provides us all the experiences along the way. Thatâs not to say that the A-plot doesnât have its own surprises, some of the biggest story beats left me utterly bewildered. But if you were to summarise it to its most basic form; itâs good guy goes to stop bad guy, init.
So what sets it apart from every other JRPG with this clichĂ©, âfabled heroâ premise?
THE PACING.
The pacing of this game, particularly in Act I, is superb. Everything that happens does so at a reasonable scale, every new development that sounds like it may drag proves that expectation wrong, I canât think of a single moment in Act I where a setting or arc overstayed its welcome. Now this doesnât mean that itâs rushed either. There are absolutely a couple parts where the task at hand feels like it should have taken longer than it does, or where something thatâs needed is just conveniently discovered, but honestly in a game that runs most players around 100 hours or more I really struggle to criticise there being a handful of these moments across all 3 Acts. There are times in Act II or III where an arc or dungeon runs on a little longer than it maybe should, but with these the option to run by enemies and get through them more quickly is available to you anyway (in 3D) so again this is more a comment than a complaint.
THE COMBAT.
The combat system in DQ XI, while simple, is one of the most fun systems Iâve played in a standard turn-based RPG to date. Itâs hard to put into words why exactly it feels so good, but the things I think that warrant the most attention are the control you have over the party and just how dynamic everything is (again, in 3D. 2D battles lose a lot of this flare and in my opinion are vastly inferior â but for those who long for the days of old, have at it!) The combat in DQ XI see the party and enemies facing off in a battlefield fitting to the location it was initiated, a ring surrounding them on the ground within which the controlled member can move freely or exit the ring to attempt an escape.
The party can be controlled using either by direct commands or via âtacticsâ, anyone familiar with turn-based combat is surely familiar with these, and the behaviour of any member on the team can be set to anything from the list independently â including the Hero. When playing in 3D, the turns are visually demonstrated in real-time, in that if your party attacks 1 thru 4, you will select and perform the action for each member in that order. If the turn order is Hero > Enemy > Party Member 3 > PM 2 > Enemy > PM 4, you will select the action for each party member on their turn, making it possible to react to the battle as it happens.
(In 2D mode, the actions are all selected at the start of the round, and play out as selected using the turn order, which is obviously harder as it removes this reactive option)
Each party member comes with a variety of skills enabling them to perform actions and wield different weapons to suit, and the beauty of this is that all your equipment can be changed mid-battle on that personâs turn without consequence. Went into a tough fight without a shield? Pop that on as soon as itâs your turn and it wonât cost you a damn thing. Accessibility once again, you can adjust your party on the fly in real time â want to equip a greatsword to use a certain ability and then swap back to a shield while you buff â you can do that!
The combat, like everything else in this game, gives you the tools to play the game the way that you want to. And guess what, those skill points you spent to unlock abilities and strengthen certain branches in an allyâs skill tree? Yeah, you can reset those at any time for so cheap you wonât even notice. Spent 20 levels kitting out Hero as a sword & shield guy but just found a super strong greatsword â refund those skills and get the greatsword branch of the tree filled out, son! This was so useful in helping me adjust my playstyle to certain areas or enemies, or even just to mix up my playstyle and try new things. Iâm telling you man the game is for everyone, make it yours.
I would be remiss to discuss the combat without touching on the Pep Powers at least a little. Iâve mentioned briefly how dynamic the combat is in 3D, every attack has an appropriate animation, the characters leap toward the enemy before swinging and leap back after if youâre standing further away, this offers no tactical advantage, but it looks good yâknow? Itâs so much more engaging than the 2D alternative where you see a flash or a flutter of sparkles across the screen and the enemy sprites flicker. Pep Powers take this to another level, basically being super-moves that can be used when a party member becomes âpepped upâ, a status effect that buffs their stats and unlocks said skills. This effect is typically unlocked when taking damage and is most easily acquired by just blocking for a few rounds and tanking a couple blows at reduced damage.
The Pep Powers themselves function similarly to things in other games, the Showtime! Events in Persona 5 Royal for example, or All Out Attacks from the same franchise. They use 2, 3 or 4 members of the party to come together and perform something spectacular. There are LOADS of these skills, bespoke to different characters and combinations of such. Some require only the user to be pepped up while others require all participants to be, itâs insane how much variety there is. Some of them utilise unlocked skills to put enemies to sleep before whacking them, others form great shields around the party, turn a member to steel before launching them at the enemy like a cannonball (and most importantly for those of you hoping to grind levels) massively boost the exp gained from a battle and change the enemies into metal slimes, the rarest monster that reward insane exp even without the previous boost. These all look superb and there are so many I doubt Iâve even seen half of them. In short, the combat just feels amazing and even after 158 hours I could happily spend another 100 fighting with this system. That said, fighting isnât the only thing youâll be doing, maybe youâd prefer to get lost in the world and spend more of your time exploring, so howâs that?
THE WORLD.
The world of Dragon Quest XI is just that, a World. In laymanâs terms: itâs fucking massive. To put it more poetically: it succeeds in broadening your horizons consistently for the first 2 acts without at any point feeling overwhelming. You start out in a small village, what I like to dub Tutorial Town, it has just enough to teach you the ropes and familiarise you with the game/backstory without overstaying itâs welcome. The first stretch of your journey is to venture out to a major city, a huge deal for you and those around you at the time. The fact you receive a horse to journey on is a âwow momentâ for young Hero, horses arenât needed to get around in Tutorial Village, just how big is the rest of the world? A horse is not the only means of transport you will acquire throughout this game. I wasnât expecting any of what I got, and each time new places opened up to me I felt a similar sense of awe as in those early moments. âI can go where!?â In hindsight my JRPG knowledge should have prepared me for this, but thatâs just how immersed I became in my travels. Hero is â unfortunately â a silent protagonist, but the game often makes up for this by succeeding in making you, the player, fill his shoes. More on this later.
Every new location you explore in Dragon Quest XI feels different to the last. Every town or city has a unique design and architecture, inspired by places in our own world and beautifully crafted and populated just enough to feel alive. There are stalls being tended, children playing hide and seek, men standing on piers contemplating their wasted potential. Youâre there, man. Youâre in Erdrea, itâs hard not to take it all in. Excitedly searching every house for chests, âreadingâ the books dotted around to unlock new recipes, searching wardrobes for items or mysterious Mini Medals, what are they for and why do they seem to be locked in so many bedrooms? Youâll find out. Dragon Quest does a fantastic job of creating a world in which the story is occurring, as opposed to creating a world to accommodate the story. The locations are all significant and have their own arcs, but they donât feel as though they are only there so that the plot can happen, rather the plot is happening around/to them. All this talk of plot and arcs brings me nicely to the next important topic.
THE STORY.
I mentioned earlier that the A-plot in this game, when boiled to bare bones, is somewhat generic. And it is. But the story told throughout, and the smaller stories encountered along the way are what really keep this game interesting (besides the characters of course, but weâll get to that.)
Every location across Erdrea has its own conflict, each acting as an arc that must be completed before it is possible to proceed to the next. While not all stellar, they all do exactly what they need to in terms of introducing new characters or allies and establishing the âvibeâ of the new area and its enemies. The majority of them have ties to party members, giving them a more personal feel, and even those that donât are able to tell deeply personal stories of characters we barely know and that have no relation to the A-plot, resulting in every step of this long journey feeling fresh and worth caring about. I wonât go into too much detail on this for obvious reasons, but some examples include a prince who has been faking his capabilities, a village using a mural to attract tourists that has a dark turn, and an openly (albeit it isnât explicitly stated) gay man returning to his hometown and facing someone from his childhood, whom he has been avoiding due to his sexuality. Like I said, this world is real, and so are the people in it.
THE CHARACTERS.
You canât have a great game without great characters. If a game expects you to spend dozens of hours with its cast, then itâs only fair that you expect said cast to be enjoyable to be around. Given that Dragon Quest follows a typical party structure, how exactly does it make that interesting? Well.
The stand-out in the cast by far is Sylvando, who takes the role of Performer. This court jester-esque circus veteran has enough charm and personality for the whole group. Heâs flamboyant, heâs talented, strong, emotional, empathetic, funny and his sense of justice is admirable to say the least. DQ XI would not be the same without him and heâs got two â yes, two - of the most interesting arcs within the game, each wildly different from the other. (Also him being gay isnât played for laughs and heâs well respected. He is not a caricature.)
The rest of the cast are similarly unique with their own personalities shining through in all the right ways. Veronica is my personal favourite, a bratty know-it-all whoâs got more sass than 2B has ass and will make sure everyone you meet knows it. The others vary between being a little close to clichĂ© and really interesting, if only for certain arcs, but I wonât get into those because a lot of what makes these people who they are is related to their arcs and stories. There it is again, right? The characters are real, theyâre made of their experiences with the world.
And it doesnât stop there either, every city or town has its named side characters, even side quests can pump a heavy dose of personality and backstory into a random nobody who just wants you to help them find their son or fix their marriage. There is even a whole-ass town where everyone talks in haiku forâŠsome reason. There are inns being run by kids while their parents are sick, why? I donât know but I remember it donât I? Itâs the little things.
The characters â bar those who serve only to populate the towns of course â are all, people⊠Except for Hero, sadly. Almost every step this game suffers from the usual âanother party member has announced what to doâ or has someone look at you and say âHm? Youâre thinking of doing this, arenât you?â ⊠Hero works as a great self-insert for the exploration elements of this game, but this whole silent protagonist thing is dated. Itâs not the end of the world, I wouldnât say that it ruins anything per se, but itâs the weakest part of the writing by far, and with characters like Sylv and Veronica by his side it sticks out like a sore thumb.
THE THREE ACT STRUCTURE.
Initially, I had planned to structure this review in the same way as the game, getting the main points out of the way first, and then covering each act for what it is separately without giving away why or how theyâre so different. But Iâve talked enough, by this point youâre either sold and are willing to give DQ XI a try, or you hate JRPGs and stopped reading 3,000 words ago â I wonât judge.
Instead, Iâd like to summarise how I felt about the Acts briefly and give my thoughts on why I think all three hold up:
This will have the most spoiler-y content, but will still be as vague as humanly possible so that at worst the âclichĂ©â story beats may become apparent
ACT I â The first act is very much an adventure; discovering new places, meeting new people, and learning about what exactly the Luminary of Legend is and what youâre going to need to do. Banish a Dark power to maintain or restore light? Got it. Step 1 is getting to Yggdrasil, lesgo. You reach it, stuff happens, thatâs Act I.
ACT II â The second act is also an adventure of sorts but is less about finding the world and more about finding the inner strength of the party. Until now theyâd all known the legend and wanted to help, but how exactly will they become what is required to complete such a feat? Act II is the training arc, if you will, but it goes deeper than just punching some slimes and telling yourself you can do this. Itâs the slowest of the Acts, but itâs necessary.
ACT III â The final act is the one in which youâll be doing the most free-roaming, optional quests and bosses and ultimately âgrindingâ for that super boss at the end. In a way, the world is almost different now, so returning to locations rewards you with new mini-arcs to be done, generally related to the ones before it but met in a new light (poetic, right?) Initially I wasnât the biggest fan of what this Act serves to do, but by the end I am wholly satisfied by the experience all the same.
Of the three, Act I was my favourite in terms of pacing and discovery, Act II was my favourite in terms of story and characters, and Act III was my favourite in terms of freedom and gameplay. The world is yours to play with, go ham!
THE VERDICT.
Dragon Quest XI is a game like no other. When looked at as a complete package, everything together as one, you can both see and feel the ungodly amount of thought and care than went into creating it. Itâs polished beyond belief and literally everything it does just works. As intended. As described.
If youâve read all this and you still arenât sure if the game is for you â although honestly, how? lmao - the best thing I can suggest is trying it for yourself because guess what? The game has a free demo on Switch and Playstation, and I believe is available on Gamepass. Just go play it!
I put this title off for years because I couldnât get over how ridiculous Toriyamaâs art style looked to me. I was never into DBZ and the fact half the villagers are just blobs with eyes physically put me off. I persevered and would now go so far as to call this game beautiful. The cutscenes especially are gorgeous. Trust me whatever is putting you off just give it a try. Itâs free!
I donât know if Iâll ever get an experience like this again. I donât speak lightly when I say that this is far and away one of the best JRPGs Iâve ever played. No other game has had me excitedly spam â!!!! The game has [this]!!â or âomg you can do [that]!?â so many times to my girlfriend while playing. Every gripe I take with JRPGs is acknowledged and addressed â with the sole exception being the silent protagonist. Itâs amazing. The only reason this game only made #4 in my Top Rated is because FF7R is in a league of its own; with characters, writing and a combat system that are unrivalled to me personally. And because Persona has had such an impossible impact on me with its music, charm, characters, and calendar system that I couldnât rightfully consider DQ XI to be âmore significantâ to me personally. But as a game? Oh itâs #2 baby, dare I say it could take #1 if we look at it strictly from a mechanical level.
If youâre a fan of JRPGs, just play it, seriously. You read all this you couldâve been out of Tutorial Village by name, socks blown off already!
And with all that said, thank you for reading this. I hope you got something out of it and look forward to being called a Jade simp in the comments đ
MISC COMMENTS AND HONOURABLE MENTIONS.
Thatâs right bitches, I have even more to say!
Iâve rambled enough so Iâll make this more of a list:
- Some armour changes your appearance, appearance can be set without equipping the matching armour, pog.
- The music could definitely afford to be better. Iâve seen complaints that itâs âbadâ and idk that Iâd go that far but it could use some more unique tracks and more than one combat theme
- The voice acting is great, love me some British and Scottish accents as always. There are some scenes with âsingingâ that arenât dubbed which is weird but eh, drop in the pond.
- I experienced no glitches or bugs in my 158 hours of playtime.
- The 2D Tickington side quests are mostly short and pretty easy. Theyâre related to the previous games and while I havenât played those to recognise places/people I still enjoyed doing them.
- The platinum requirements for this are not nearly as daunting as they appear, and the final costume for Jade can be cheesed using 2D level select instead of beating the ultra mega fuck-you secret post-game boss.
- That boss can suck my dick.
- Jade is hot.
I love you all thank you for coming to my TED Talk, stay safe and have fun! Iâll see you at the Dragon Quest XII premiere <3
I have a lot to say about this title so for those of you who may not want to read 158 hoursâ worth of thoughts, Iâll summarise it briefly here: The gameplay, polish and presentation of Dragon Quest XI is off the charts. Everything works and looks exactly as it should, there are basically no instances where youâll find yourself against impossible odds or hit a wall of âbullshitâ, it just works. Itâs also incredibly accessible to players of all preferences and skill-levels, this game was made to be enjoyed by anyone and in my honest opinion, it succeeds. So, letâs get into it a little deeper.
It's worth mentioning that I will not be discussing major spoilers in this review, however if youâre familiar with JRPG or anime tropes/cliches there will be allusions to those which may reveal some minor or incredibly âstandardâ/expected beats.
Starting off with the first and perhaps most important thing the DQ XI experience offers:
ACCESSIBILTY.
Dragon Quest XI does not come with traditional difficulty options, much like the majority of more classic JRPGs. What it does do, however, is give players several ways to make it easier or harder to fit their own preference. The biggest of these are the âDraconian Questâ options presented upon starting a new game, a list of settings that you can decide before playing if youâd prefer to enable or disable. These include certain challenge modes like No Shopping or No Armour, Reduced Experience, Shypox â a randomly triggered status ailment that embarrasses you/your allies -, and my personal favourite: âParty Wiped Out if Protagonist Perishesâ
Thatâs right. You can disable one of the most frustrating and often merciless features of classic JRPGs. Thank the Gods.
The caveat with these modifiers is that if you disable all of them then you canât adjust them once youâre in the game, however I believe that anything you enable can be later disabled via a save point without consequence.
This isnât the only way that DQ XI makes itself more accessible to suit your play style though, oh no. One of the most impressive features of this title is one that honestly didnât really hit me fully until Iâd tried it myself: 2D Mode. The entire game, start to finish, can be played in either a modern 3D style, complete with interactive combat where you can move around the battlefield and watch gorgeous attack animations, or a classic 2D mode, returning to the use of flashing sprites and screen shakes instead. Both modes have redesigned locations to accommodate the dimensions available in each, and my favourite difference between the two: random encounters - or more importantly â lack thereof.
If you prefer the old school 2D sprite-based, synthesised, random-encounter-ridden experience of old JRPGs, you can have that. If youâd rather see the world in beautiful 3D, run around the overworld yourself and be able to actively avoid enemies roaming the lands, you can have that too! The entire. Fecking. Game. Honestly who does that?! Square went above and beyond making the whole game twice just to make sure EVERYONE could enjoy it, itâs absurd and I cannot respect this decision enough.
You can switch between 2D and 3D mode at any time, and if your save file in 3D mode is further along than in 2D, you can select which chapter of the game to pick up from in 2D and just keep going, meaning there is (once again) no consequence for playing around and trying both out. [Iâm not certain if the same applies going from 2D to 3D but I would expect so?]
Believe it or not, Iâm not done. I mentioned the Draconian Quest difficulty modifiers earlier, and how they can be used to adjust the difficulty of the game from the start/at any time if enabled. But another, more subtle, thing that DQ XI does to ensure no-one gets left behind is giving the player freedom for 99%, if not all, of the game. Let me explain.
Iâm sure weâve all hit walls in games where we get stuck, the boss is simply too hard, our party are under-levelled, poorly equipped, we werenât prepared to face a challenge and our last save was x amount of time ago. With no other choice, weâre forced to lose progress to train harder and make push any further. This will not happen in Dragon Quest XI, I can guarantee it. You may find a boss you canât beat, absolutely (although in all honesty this will most likely only be late into Act III when the difficulty is amped up and more things become optional than not,) but you will never be in a position where you canât just load to right before the fight, go away and prepare to return stronger.
At one point in Act II, there is a part where you need to defend an area from a large-scale attack. âOh shit.â I thought, âThis is where I may well meet my first roadblock. I hope I saved recently just in case Iâm too weak for this.â â Arriving at the front line, I saw an NPC with a marker on the mini-map, speaking to him, well it made me laugh honestly. He essentially told me âIf the enemies prove too strong, try going into that cave there and honing your skills while we hold them offâ ⊠Iâm sorry, what? The front lines of this story-locked battle offer a save point and a dungeon specifically to grind in? Hell, I wouldnât be surprised if I was able to rest/heal and go back to the nearest store as well, I couldnât believe it.
This game was made so that it can be played by everyone. And it absolutely can. I would confidently say that the only thing less-experienced players might struggle with is the final-final boss (and the optional post-game bosses ofc, but assuming theyâre not here for those anyway), but the final boss of the game can be significantly weakened in 1 turn using a trick that the game teaches you, urges you to do and makes it impossible to miss, so even that battle Iâd wager you can manage.
Just to finish up, the game also has settings to adjust the battle speed, whether the score is symphonic or synthetic, the DQ VIII OST is available as well and every single thing Iâve mentioned here can be adjusted at any time, without consequence. (Besides enabling the Draconian Quest modifiers if theyâre all disabled at the start)
With all that said, letâs talk about the game itself:
WHAT IS DRAGON QUEST XI S: ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE?
Dragon Quest XI â as Iâm sure you know by now â is a grand open world JRPG adventure, following our Hero in his journey from the small town of Cobblestone as he learns of and fulfils his destiny as the Luminary of Legend. Itâs a tale as old as time, and the heads up I gave at the start about common tropes is because, at its very core, the A-plot of the game is somewhat⊠generic. But with a world this rich of diverse locations, captivating characters and a plethora of really good B-plots and mini-arcs, the main story doesnât need to be anything else. Itâs a vessel. Itâs what drives us on our way through the game and provides us all the experiences along the way. Thatâs not to say that the A-plot doesnât have its own surprises, some of the biggest story beats left me utterly bewildered. But if you were to summarise it to its most basic form; itâs good guy goes to stop bad guy, init.
So what sets it apart from every other JRPG with this clichĂ©, âfabled heroâ premise?
THE PACING.
The pacing of this game, particularly in Act I, is superb. Everything that happens does so at a reasonable scale, every new development that sounds like it may drag proves that expectation wrong, I canât think of a single moment in Act I where a setting or arc overstayed its welcome. Now this doesnât mean that itâs rushed either. There are absolutely a couple parts where the task at hand feels like it should have taken longer than it does, or where something thatâs needed is just conveniently discovered, but honestly in a game that runs most players around 100 hours or more I really struggle to criticise there being a handful of these moments across all 3 Acts. There are times in Act II or III where an arc or dungeon runs on a little longer than it maybe should, but with these the option to run by enemies and get through them more quickly is available to you anyway (in 3D) so again this is more a comment than a complaint.
THE COMBAT.
The combat system in DQ XI, while simple, is one of the most fun systems Iâve played in a standard turn-based RPG to date. Itâs hard to put into words why exactly it feels so good, but the things I think that warrant the most attention are the control you have over the party and just how dynamic everything is (again, in 3D. 2D battles lose a lot of this flare and in my opinion are vastly inferior â but for those who long for the days of old, have at it!) The combat in DQ XI see the party and enemies facing off in a battlefield fitting to the location it was initiated, a ring surrounding them on the ground within which the controlled member can move freely or exit the ring to attempt an escape.
The party can be controlled using either by direct commands or via âtacticsâ, anyone familiar with turn-based combat is surely familiar with these, and the behaviour of any member on the team can be set to anything from the list independently â including the Hero. When playing in 3D, the turns are visually demonstrated in real-time, in that if your party attacks 1 thru 4, you will select and perform the action for each member in that order. If the turn order is Hero > Enemy > Party Member 3 > PM 2 > Enemy > PM 4, you will select the action for each party member on their turn, making it possible to react to the battle as it happens.
(In 2D mode, the actions are all selected at the start of the round, and play out as selected using the turn order, which is obviously harder as it removes this reactive option)
Each party member comes with a variety of skills enabling them to perform actions and wield different weapons to suit, and the beauty of this is that all your equipment can be changed mid-battle on that personâs turn without consequence. Went into a tough fight without a shield? Pop that on as soon as itâs your turn and it wonât cost you a damn thing. Accessibility once again, you can adjust your party on the fly in real time â want to equip a greatsword to use a certain ability and then swap back to a shield while you buff â you can do that!
The combat, like everything else in this game, gives you the tools to play the game the way that you want to. And guess what, those skill points you spent to unlock abilities and strengthen certain branches in an allyâs skill tree? Yeah, you can reset those at any time for so cheap you wonât even notice. Spent 20 levels kitting out Hero as a sword & shield guy but just found a super strong greatsword â refund those skills and get the greatsword branch of the tree filled out, son! This was so useful in helping me adjust my playstyle to certain areas or enemies, or even just to mix up my playstyle and try new things. Iâm telling you man the game is for everyone, make it yours.
I would be remiss to discuss the combat without touching on the Pep Powers at least a little. Iâve mentioned briefly how dynamic the combat is in 3D, every attack has an appropriate animation, the characters leap toward the enemy before swinging and leap back after if youâre standing further away, this offers no tactical advantage, but it looks good yâknow? Itâs so much more engaging than the 2D alternative where you see a flash or a flutter of sparkles across the screen and the enemy sprites flicker. Pep Powers take this to another level, basically being super-moves that can be used when a party member becomes âpepped upâ, a status effect that buffs their stats and unlocks said skills. This effect is typically unlocked when taking damage and is most easily acquired by just blocking for a few rounds and tanking a couple blows at reduced damage.
The Pep Powers themselves function similarly to things in other games, the Showtime! Events in Persona 5 Royal for example, or All Out Attacks from the same franchise. They use 2, 3 or 4 members of the party to come together and perform something spectacular. There are LOADS of these skills, bespoke to different characters and combinations of such. Some require only the user to be pepped up while others require all participants to be, itâs insane how much variety there is. Some of them utilise unlocked skills to put enemies to sleep before whacking them, others form great shields around the party, turn a member to steel before launching them at the enemy like a cannonball (and most importantly for those of you hoping to grind levels) massively boost the exp gained from a battle and change the enemies into metal slimes, the rarest monster that reward insane exp even without the previous boost. These all look superb and there are so many I doubt Iâve even seen half of them. In short, the combat just feels amazing and even after 158 hours I could happily spend another 100 fighting with this system. That said, fighting isnât the only thing youâll be doing, maybe youâd prefer to get lost in the world and spend more of your time exploring, so howâs that?
THE WORLD.
The world of Dragon Quest XI is just that, a World. In laymanâs terms: itâs fucking massive. To put it more poetically: it succeeds in broadening your horizons consistently for the first 2 acts without at any point feeling overwhelming. You start out in a small village, what I like to dub Tutorial Town, it has just enough to teach you the ropes and familiarise you with the game/backstory without overstaying itâs welcome. The first stretch of your journey is to venture out to a major city, a huge deal for you and those around you at the time. The fact you receive a horse to journey on is a âwow momentâ for young Hero, horses arenât needed to get around in Tutorial Village, just how big is the rest of the world? A horse is not the only means of transport you will acquire throughout this game. I wasnât expecting any of what I got, and each time new places opened up to me I felt a similar sense of awe as in those early moments. âI can go where!?â In hindsight my JRPG knowledge should have prepared me for this, but thatâs just how immersed I became in my travels. Hero is â unfortunately â a silent protagonist, but the game often makes up for this by succeeding in making you, the player, fill his shoes. More on this later.
Every new location you explore in Dragon Quest XI feels different to the last. Every town or city has a unique design and architecture, inspired by places in our own world and beautifully crafted and populated just enough to feel alive. There are stalls being tended, children playing hide and seek, men standing on piers contemplating their wasted potential. Youâre there, man. Youâre in Erdrea, itâs hard not to take it all in. Excitedly searching every house for chests, âreadingâ the books dotted around to unlock new recipes, searching wardrobes for items or mysterious Mini Medals, what are they for and why do they seem to be locked in so many bedrooms? Youâll find out. Dragon Quest does a fantastic job of creating a world in which the story is occurring, as opposed to creating a world to accommodate the story. The locations are all significant and have their own arcs, but they donât feel as though they are only there so that the plot can happen, rather the plot is happening around/to them. All this talk of plot and arcs brings me nicely to the next important topic.
THE STORY.
I mentioned earlier that the A-plot in this game, when boiled to bare bones, is somewhat generic. And it is. But the story told throughout, and the smaller stories encountered along the way are what really keep this game interesting (besides the characters of course, but weâll get to that.)
Every location across Erdrea has its own conflict, each acting as an arc that must be completed before it is possible to proceed to the next. While not all stellar, they all do exactly what they need to in terms of introducing new characters or allies and establishing the âvibeâ of the new area and its enemies. The majority of them have ties to party members, giving them a more personal feel, and even those that donât are able to tell deeply personal stories of characters we barely know and that have no relation to the A-plot, resulting in every step of this long journey feeling fresh and worth caring about. I wonât go into too much detail on this for obvious reasons, but some examples include a prince who has been faking his capabilities, a village using a mural to attract tourists that has a dark turn, and an openly (albeit it isnât explicitly stated) gay man returning to his hometown and facing someone from his childhood, whom he has been avoiding due to his sexuality. Like I said, this world is real, and so are the people in it.
THE CHARACTERS.
You canât have a great game without great characters. If a game expects you to spend dozens of hours with its cast, then itâs only fair that you expect said cast to be enjoyable to be around. Given that Dragon Quest follows a typical party structure, how exactly does it make that interesting? Well.
The stand-out in the cast by far is Sylvando, who takes the role of Performer. This court jester-esque circus veteran has enough charm and personality for the whole group. Heâs flamboyant, heâs talented, strong, emotional, empathetic, funny and his sense of justice is admirable to say the least. DQ XI would not be the same without him and heâs got two â yes, two - of the most interesting arcs within the game, each wildly different from the other. (Also him being gay isnât played for laughs and heâs well respected. He is not a caricature.)
The rest of the cast are similarly unique with their own personalities shining through in all the right ways. Veronica is my personal favourite, a bratty know-it-all whoâs got more sass than 2B has ass and will make sure everyone you meet knows it. The others vary between being a little close to clichĂ© and really interesting, if only for certain arcs, but I wonât get into those because a lot of what makes these people who they are is related to their arcs and stories. There it is again, right? The characters are real, theyâre made of their experiences with the world.
And it doesnât stop there either, every city or town has its named side characters, even side quests can pump a heavy dose of personality and backstory into a random nobody who just wants you to help them find their son or fix their marriage. There is even a whole-ass town where everyone talks in haiku forâŠsome reason. There are inns being run by kids while their parents are sick, why? I donât know but I remember it donât I? Itâs the little things.
The characters â bar those who serve only to populate the towns of course â are all, people⊠Except for Hero, sadly. Almost every step this game suffers from the usual âanother party member has announced what to doâ or has someone look at you and say âHm? Youâre thinking of doing this, arenât you?â ⊠Hero works as a great self-insert for the exploration elements of this game, but this whole silent protagonist thing is dated. Itâs not the end of the world, I wouldnât say that it ruins anything per se, but itâs the weakest part of the writing by far, and with characters like Sylv and Veronica by his side it sticks out like a sore thumb.
THE THREE ACT STRUCTURE.
Initially, I had planned to structure this review in the same way as the game, getting the main points out of the way first, and then covering each act for what it is separately without giving away why or how theyâre so different. But Iâve talked enough, by this point youâre either sold and are willing to give DQ XI a try, or you hate JRPGs and stopped reading 3,000 words ago â I wonât judge.
Instead, Iâd like to summarise how I felt about the Acts briefly and give my thoughts on why I think all three hold up:
This will have the most spoiler-y content, but will still be as vague as humanly possible so that at worst the âclichĂ©â story beats may become apparent
ACT I â The first act is very much an adventure; discovering new places, meeting new people, and learning about what exactly the Luminary of Legend is and what youâre going to need to do. Banish a Dark power to maintain or restore light? Got it. Step 1 is getting to Yggdrasil, lesgo. You reach it, stuff happens, thatâs Act I.
ACT II â The second act is also an adventure of sorts but is less about finding the world and more about finding the inner strength of the party. Until now theyâd all known the legend and wanted to help, but how exactly will they become what is required to complete such a feat? Act II is the training arc, if you will, but it goes deeper than just punching some slimes and telling yourself you can do this. Itâs the slowest of the Acts, but itâs necessary.
ACT III â The final act is the one in which youâll be doing the most free-roaming, optional quests and bosses and ultimately âgrindingâ for that super boss at the end. In a way, the world is almost different now, so returning to locations rewards you with new mini-arcs to be done, generally related to the ones before it but met in a new light (poetic, right?) Initially I wasnât the biggest fan of what this Act serves to do, but by the end I am wholly satisfied by the experience all the same.
Of the three, Act I was my favourite in terms of pacing and discovery, Act II was my favourite in terms of story and characters, and Act III was my favourite in terms of freedom and gameplay. The world is yours to play with, go ham!
THE VERDICT.
Dragon Quest XI is a game like no other. When looked at as a complete package, everything together as one, you can both see and feel the ungodly amount of thought and care than went into creating it. Itâs polished beyond belief and literally everything it does just works. As intended. As described.
If youâve read all this and you still arenât sure if the game is for you â although honestly, how? lmao - the best thing I can suggest is trying it for yourself because guess what? The game has a free demo on Switch and Playstation, and I believe is available on Gamepass. Just go play it!
I put this title off for years because I couldnât get over how ridiculous Toriyamaâs art style looked to me. I was never into DBZ and the fact half the villagers are just blobs with eyes physically put me off. I persevered and would now go so far as to call this game beautiful. The cutscenes especially are gorgeous. Trust me whatever is putting you off just give it a try. Itâs free!
I donât know if Iâll ever get an experience like this again. I donât speak lightly when I say that this is far and away one of the best JRPGs Iâve ever played. No other game has had me excitedly spam â!!!! The game has [this]!!â or âomg you can do [that]!?â so many times to my girlfriend while playing. Every gripe I take with JRPGs is acknowledged and addressed â with the sole exception being the silent protagonist. Itâs amazing. The only reason this game only made #4 in my Top Rated is because FF7R is in a league of its own; with characters, writing and a combat system that are unrivalled to me personally. And because Persona has had such an impossible impact on me with its music, charm, characters, and calendar system that I couldnât rightfully consider DQ XI to be âmore significantâ to me personally. But as a game? Oh itâs #2 baby, dare I say it could take #1 if we look at it strictly from a mechanical level.
If youâre a fan of JRPGs, just play it, seriously. You read all this you couldâve been out of Tutorial Village by name, socks blown off already!
And with all that said, thank you for reading this. I hope you got something out of it and look forward to being called a Jade simp in the comments đ
MISC COMMENTS AND HONOURABLE MENTIONS.
Thatâs right bitches, I have even more to say!
Iâve rambled enough so Iâll make this more of a list:
- Some armour changes your appearance, appearance can be set without equipping the matching armour, pog.
- The music could definitely afford to be better. Iâve seen complaints that itâs âbadâ and idk that Iâd go that far but it could use some more unique tracks and more than one combat theme
- The voice acting is great, love me some British and Scottish accents as always. There are some scenes with âsingingâ that arenât dubbed which is weird but eh, drop in the pond.
- I experienced no glitches or bugs in my 158 hours of playtime.
- The 2D Tickington side quests are mostly short and pretty easy. Theyâre related to the previous games and while I havenât played those to recognise places/people I still enjoyed doing them.
- The platinum requirements for this are not nearly as daunting as they appear, and the final costume for Jade can be cheesed using 2D level select instead of beating the ultra mega fuck-you secret post-game boss.
- That boss can suck my dick.
- Jade is hot.
I love you all thank you for coming to my TED Talk, stay safe and have fun! Iâll see you at the Dragon Quest XII premiere <3
SuperHot VR
2016
Superhot VR is proof that VR is good for more than just porn. Its a must play and definitely the most fun I've had with the system so far.
The main game was fun, and to this date is the rarest and possibly hardest platinum I have. But after playing this, I can't imagine ever wanting to go back. It translates so well to VR its incredible. Dodging bullets in slow mo is both the coolest thing ever and also a great workout. Your enjoyment with this is probably gonna vary a lot with how much space you have and how active you are. You can beat this game stationary pretty fine, but it is at its absolute most fun when you are diving behind cover yourself or dropping to the floor like wannabe Max Payne.
The game is a bit short and can be beaten under two hours, but for an early VR game thats not really a big deal. Any longer might have overstayed its welcome. Plus if you want more out of it, completing the main missions unlocks quite a few modes, namely endless and alternate takes on the main campaign with harder challenges like one life or headshots only - so theres quite a lot to get out of this.
The game can be quite hard, and having to restart a level completely if you die can be frustrating. You'll be moving around a lot in this and might find yourself having to recenter when you jump to a new section a lot which led to a handful of deaths but ultimately is the only real negative I have about this. I do wish they added more campaigns or levels but as is I can't recommend it enough
Nancymeter - 90/100
Game Completion #110 of 2022
August Completion #30
The main game was fun, and to this date is the rarest and possibly hardest platinum I have. But after playing this, I can't imagine ever wanting to go back. It translates so well to VR its incredible. Dodging bullets in slow mo is both the coolest thing ever and also a great workout. Your enjoyment with this is probably gonna vary a lot with how much space you have and how active you are. You can beat this game stationary pretty fine, but it is at its absolute most fun when you are diving behind cover yourself or dropping to the floor like wannabe Max Payne.
The game is a bit short and can be beaten under two hours, but for an early VR game thats not really a big deal. Any longer might have overstayed its welcome. Plus if you want more out of it, completing the main missions unlocks quite a few modes, namely endless and alternate takes on the main campaign with harder challenges like one life or headshots only - so theres quite a lot to get out of this.
The game can be quite hard, and having to restart a level completely if you die can be frustrating. You'll be moving around a lot in this and might find yourself having to recenter when you jump to a new section a lot which led to a handful of deaths but ultimately is the only real negative I have about this. I do wish they added more campaigns or levels but as is I can't recommend it enough
Nancymeter - 90/100
Game Completion #110 of 2022
August Completion #30
Monster Sanctuary
2020
There is such a thing as doing too much, and by God is this game guilty of that.
On top of the "which monsters do I want" thing that's inherent to monster-catching rpgs, every monster also has a skill tree, leaving you to consider what kind of role it'll play in battle (you can unlock a good chunk of it by max level, but not all of it, so you do have to commit, though it is possible to reset the tree with some common, buyable items).
Each one also has four, count them, four equipment slots that you absolutely cannot ignore - each of these can also be upgraded up to +5 using crafting materials. This is annoying, as traditional equipment is very much a no-no in monster-catching rpgs, imo.
And then - yes there is indeed more - you eventually acquire the ability to change every monster to either Light or Dark forms, each one possessing one passive skill, and I didn't even mention each monster having elemental weaknesses and resistances, as you'd expect from the genre.
It's a lot to keep track of, too much I would argue. Here's a game that encourages switching monsters around (every egg you hatch comes in the level of your current party), but makes it kind of a pain to actually switch them around a lot. There's no "transfer equipment" or "optimize gear" button, you're stuck doing it manually.
I also get the feeling they focused more on the post-game than anything. The amount of cool shit I've encountered when I was almost done is crazy. "Oh, that sounds cool, I'd like to use that", but then just thinking of switching around my already pretty good party, nah.
With so much stuff to keep track of, this game's balancing suffers - debuffs feel particularly better than just about any other strategy - if you look around, you'll find tons of guides that tell you to use a debuff party to 5-star the Champions.
Some of the skills on the trees can also be difficult to determine how good they are at first glance, since there's a lot of RNG involved.
Still, as you can tell by the rating, I did enjoy the game quite a bit, playing it for 40+ hours doing a ton of optional stuff (including defeating every single Champion). I just wish the devs didn't throw literally everything in this game, as I have no doubt I would have enjoyed it even more.
It does help I'm a metroidvania whore and find turn-based RPGs super chill.
It's one of those games that verge on true greatness. Almost there, but there's some too obvious flaws
On top of the "which monsters do I want" thing that's inherent to monster-catching rpgs, every monster also has a skill tree, leaving you to consider what kind of role it'll play in battle (you can unlock a good chunk of it by max level, but not all of it, so you do have to commit, though it is possible to reset the tree with some common, buyable items).
Each one also has four, count them, four equipment slots that you absolutely cannot ignore - each of these can also be upgraded up to +5 using crafting materials. This is annoying, as traditional equipment is very much a no-no in monster-catching rpgs, imo.
And then - yes there is indeed more - you eventually acquire the ability to change every monster to either Light or Dark forms, each one possessing one passive skill, and I didn't even mention each monster having elemental weaknesses and resistances, as you'd expect from the genre.
It's a lot to keep track of, too much I would argue. Here's a game that encourages switching monsters around (every egg you hatch comes in the level of your current party), but makes it kind of a pain to actually switch them around a lot. There's no "transfer equipment" or "optimize gear" button, you're stuck doing it manually.
I also get the feeling they focused more on the post-game than anything. The amount of cool shit I've encountered when I was almost done is crazy. "Oh, that sounds cool, I'd like to use that", but then just thinking of switching around my already pretty good party, nah.
With so much stuff to keep track of, this game's balancing suffers - debuffs feel particularly better than just about any other strategy - if you look around, you'll find tons of guides that tell you to use a debuff party to 5-star the Champions.
Some of the skills on the trees can also be difficult to determine how good they are at first glance, since there's a lot of RNG involved.
Still, as you can tell by the rating, I did enjoy the game quite a bit, playing it for 40+ hours doing a ton of optional stuff (including defeating every single Champion). I just wish the devs didn't throw literally everything in this game, as I have no doubt I would have enjoyed it even more.
It does help I'm a metroidvania whore and find turn-based RPGs super chill.
It's one of those games that verge on true greatness. Almost there, but there's some too obvious flaws
Shadow the Hedgehog
2005
It's Christmas day, 2005. The tree is surrounded by wrapped gifts for my siblings and I to open, I don't even know this game exists. Among the gifts are 3 particularly large boxes with no tags on. "Those are for decoration", Mother says, urging me not to touch them for fear of ruining the display. This is the first year we've used fake gifts as decoration, strange.
The day goes on, many a gift is opened and smiles fill the room. But a young Jake can't help but feel a little disappointed that he received no video games for his beloved Nintendo Gamecube console. How much longer must he replay Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Super Monkey Ball and The Incredibles before his horizon would expand...
But then. The impossible should occur. "Jake, aren't you going to open your last present?" My face becomes the definition of bewildered. "L-Last present? I got them all didn't I?" I ask, naively searching under the tree for the lost gift. "Oh really? Then I suppose you don't want what's in here."
I couldn't believe my eyes. There she was, my own mother, whom I'd learned to trust and rely on, gesturing to the so-called 'decorative' box from earlier. Denial filled my soul. "Ha! I'm not stupid, there's nothing in there" I shake the box to prove its lack of contents. But then, what's this? A rumble. Contact is being made between objects beneath the santa-covered paper.
I can hardly contain my excitement, and tear the paper away in an instant! Inside, a large cardboard box. I open that.. and inside...
... Another box, complete with wrapping paper. Another, another, at least 9 boxes, all individually wrapped and progressively decreasing in size. It was a hard fought battle, but at the end I saw him. It was a face I knew well.
Shadow the Hedgehog. And what's this? He has A GUN!? I threw myself upstairs to play it. And have since forgotten almost every single thing about it.
I cannot rate a game I don't remember, but I do remember how I received this game, so I'm giving it 2.5 stars out of respect.
The day goes on, many a gift is opened and smiles fill the room. But a young Jake can't help but feel a little disappointed that he received no video games for his beloved Nintendo Gamecube console. How much longer must he replay Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, Super Monkey Ball and The Incredibles before his horizon would expand...
But then. The impossible should occur. "Jake, aren't you going to open your last present?" My face becomes the definition of bewildered. "L-Last present? I got them all didn't I?" I ask, naively searching under the tree for the lost gift. "Oh really? Then I suppose you don't want what's in here."
I couldn't believe my eyes. There she was, my own mother, whom I'd learned to trust and rely on, gesturing to the so-called 'decorative' box from earlier. Denial filled my soul. "Ha! I'm not stupid, there's nothing in there" I shake the box to prove its lack of contents. But then, what's this? A rumble. Contact is being made between objects beneath the santa-covered paper.
I can hardly contain my excitement, and tear the paper away in an instant! Inside, a large cardboard box. I open that.. and inside...
... Another box, complete with wrapping paper. Another, another, at least 9 boxes, all individually wrapped and progressively decreasing in size. It was a hard fought battle, but at the end I saw him. It was a face I knew well.
Shadow the Hedgehog. And what's this? He has A GUN!? I threw myself upstairs to play it. And have since forgotten almost every single thing about it.
I cannot rate a game I don't remember, but I do remember how I received this game, so I'm giving it 2.5 stars out of respect.
Katana Zero
2019
How 'bout we make a sidescrolling samurai Hotline Miami, with a clearer and interesting plot, complete with dialogue options, charm and an in-game explanation for its mechanics? Yes, that should work.
Also my gf bought it for me so brownie points up the walls :p
Also my gf bought it for me so brownie points up the walls :p