It's kind of weird to look at a Minecraft crossover spinoff and go "I think this game rules because of the story," but it unambiguously does rule because of the story. I was drawn to this game by the initial premise of the plot: namely, that it takes place in the timeline where the hero of the first Dragon Quest takes the Dragonlord up on his offer to rule half the world, so you're essentially rebuilding after the apocalypse.
The game does a great job of building upon the world of Dragon Quest 1 because of that, both literally and figuratively. Each chapter has you rebuild one of the primary locations in Aelfgard, each of which has its own narrative as part of the larger plot. There are a lot of fun twists and turns in said stories, and the characters are extremely charming... particularly the silent protagonist, who's actually very strongly characterized through others' interactions with them. I think the mysteries surrounding the Builder are really well done, and a reveal about them in the late game knocked me right upside the head.
"But, like, it's Minecraft," you say. "It's about the gameplay, right?" And the gameplay is pretty fun! I had a lot of fun building things and decorating buildings, and the exploration was a lot of fun... though it does run into a few problems when it comes to the combat, which isn't... really that great. I was going to do all the fun little extra missions, but when there was a restrictive combat-related mission in the last chapter, I just went "welp, guess I don't need to master this game!" There are a few items which make combat more fun, but they're usually limited to the end of their respective chapters or just not available in others... which brings me to another problem.
Each chapter has its own list of recipes that you're allowed to use, and you have to restart the list of things you know how to build each time. This isn't actually as frustrating as it could be and I feel like it gave each location its own identity, but I do think it kind of hurt that some mechanics were locked to exactly one chapter... and the free building mode, which I didn't mess around with as much as I probably should have. In my defense, while being allowed to ride around on a Great Sabrecub was cool, this mode expected a lot more of you before it stopped making your inventory so restrictive.
The music was kind of Early Dragon Quest's Greatest Hits, which is a case of Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Made A Pretty Good OST. I'll admit this game kind of made me realize I just don't like Sugiyama's boss music philosophy, because the standard boss theme for this game is the extremely catchy random encounter theme from Dragon Quest IV... but the final boss music is kind of ponderous and not really all exciting, which is kind of what I've come to expect from Sugiyama.
Anyway, I've heard Dragon Quest Builders 2 has more quality of life features that address the complaints I do have about the game to such an extent that it kind of obsoletes this game, but I do think this game is worth playing still! It's got great jokes and a really fun story that plays around with the OG Dragon Quest in interesting ways, so I think it's elevated above some of the early installment jank by that alone. I can't wait to play the second game and see what that has in store!
The game does a great job of building upon the world of Dragon Quest 1 because of that, both literally and figuratively. Each chapter has you rebuild one of the primary locations in Aelfgard, each of which has its own narrative as part of the larger plot. There are a lot of fun twists and turns in said stories, and the characters are extremely charming... particularly the silent protagonist, who's actually very strongly characterized through others' interactions with them. I think the mysteries surrounding the Builder are really well done, and a reveal about them in the late game knocked me right upside the head.
"But, like, it's Minecraft," you say. "It's about the gameplay, right?" And the gameplay is pretty fun! I had a lot of fun building things and decorating buildings, and the exploration was a lot of fun... though it does run into a few problems when it comes to the combat, which isn't... really that great. I was going to do all the fun little extra missions, but when there was a restrictive combat-related mission in the last chapter, I just went "welp, guess I don't need to master this game!" There are a few items which make combat more fun, but they're usually limited to the end of their respective chapters or just not available in others... which brings me to another problem.
Each chapter has its own list of recipes that you're allowed to use, and you have to restart the list of things you know how to build each time. This isn't actually as frustrating as it could be and I feel like it gave each location its own identity, but I do think it kind of hurt that some mechanics were locked to exactly one chapter... and the free building mode, which I didn't mess around with as much as I probably should have. In my defense, while being allowed to ride around on a Great Sabrecub was cool, this mode expected a lot more of you before it stopped making your inventory so restrictive.
The music was kind of Early Dragon Quest's Greatest Hits, which is a case of Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Made A Pretty Good OST. I'll admit this game kind of made me realize I just don't like Sugiyama's boss music philosophy, because the standard boss theme for this game is the extremely catchy random encounter theme from Dragon Quest IV... but the final boss music is kind of ponderous and not really all exciting, which is kind of what I've come to expect from Sugiyama.
Anyway, I've heard Dragon Quest Builders 2 has more quality of life features that address the complaints I do have about the game to such an extent that it kind of obsoletes this game, but I do think this game is worth playing still! It's got great jokes and a really fun story that plays around with the OG Dragon Quest in interesting ways, so I think it's elevated above some of the early installment jank by that alone. I can't wait to play the second game and see what that has in store!