Finally Dragon Quest series is back on the big screen once more.

Dragon Quest series is a long running JRPG series from Square Enix. Famous for it’s traditional / classic style of RPG & also the character designer, Akira Toriyama, the mangaka of Dragon Ball series. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King was the last Dragon Quest to get a console release back in 2004. Since then, Dragon Quest IX, and then the remake of VII & VIII was released on Nintendo 3DS, while IV-VI got a NDS version. And with the success of Dragon Quest XI, Dragon Quest I to III are slated for PS4 release. (Dragon Quest I & II have already been released on Japanese PSN for PS4). Dragon Quest X is not considered as the main series because it’s an MMORPG, but it’s coming as well to PS4 soon in Japan.

For those who never played Dragon Quest series before, DON’T WORRY. Just like Final Fantasy, even though the game has numbering, the games don’t actually related to each other. So if this game is gonna be your first Dragon Quest, then let me say, “Welcome to the club”.

Dragon Quest XI is released on 28 July 2017 in Japan. 2 Versions of the game came out on the same day. The PS4 Version & 3DS Version. So, my review here is going to be based on the PS4 Version.

Before we go into an in-depth review of the game, please take a look of the trailer below to get the “feel” of the game.

Now that you have watched it, let’s get into the in-depth review!

• Story
  The game starts with a 4 minutes prologue which shows the peaceful Yugnoa Kingdom which was destroyed by monsters over night. Our hero is still a baby, and in the attempt of running away from the monsters, our Hero fell into the river and got separated from his family. The next day an Old Guy from Ishi Village found him and took care of him as a family.

16 Years after that tragedy, our hero is about to finish his coming of age ritual. Together with his childhood friend, Ema, they are supposed to climb to the top of God’s Rock behind the village. Together with Ema, both of them reach the top of the mountain together. And at that moment, the “Mark of Hero” starts flashing and call upon the lightning to save Ema who almost fell from the mountain due to monster attack. And that’s where your journey begins. The Hero is an incarnation of Legendary Hero who beats the Devil King a long time ago. To find out the meaning of the “Mark of Hero”, he embarks on a journey not knowing what’s waiting in front of him. Play the game and find out about it!

At first, Dragon Quest XI’s plot might feel a lil bit too simple. Going on a journey to defeat the evil king, just like any normal JRPG. But the back story to the plot & each characters are very well written. Like why Kamui became a thief, or the story behind Veronica & Senya, etc. Not to mentioned the character development which are super interesting. Every character in the game has a reason to join with our hero, and has a very good background story to back it up as well. Unlike Final *cough* Fantasy *cough* XV, you can see that the story connect from one to another and doesn’t feel rushed. And on top of that, the plot twist & story development is awesome. The story definitely caught me by surprise. You will never gonna be able to guess how the story is gonna end. I finished the game in 120 Hours, so the game itself packs a pretty great deal of volume in it.
I know this is going to feel a little bit overrated, but i guarantee you that Dragon Quest XI’s story is one of the best & exciting adventure you can get in this generation. (Yes, I personally think it’s better than Persona 5).

10/10 for the story. It gave me a complete satisfaction by the time i finished the game, without anything to complain.

• Gameplay
  If you ever played any of the Dragon Quest Series before, you won’t have any trouble playing this one as well. The battle system hasn’t changed since Dragon Quest I. In fact, i like how they keep everything simple. It’s still the same old Turn Based JRPG, where you can use magic and skill. Other JRPGs are getting complicated each time they release a new game, but not Dragon Quest. It’s easy, it’s simple, and it’s still the same throughout the whole series. But of course there are new stuffs as well, such as Skill Panel & Combination Attack.
  • Skill Panel
    Not too complicated, the skill panel is similar to Final Fantasy X Sphere Grid. When you level up, you will get Skill Point that can be used to unlock the Skill Panel. The skill panel is usually based on the type of weapon you are using & type of character you want to create. For example, our hero starts with 3 Skill Panel, which are One Handed Sword, Two Handed Sword, & Hero. While Martina has Claws, Spear, Fighter, Sex Appeal skill panel. So it’s better if you stick to one choice of weapon per character due to the skill panel development. You will get an increase stats / new skill / new magic from the Skill Panel.

   

  • Combination Attack
    I don’t think i have ever seen any combination attack on the previous Dragon Quest series. This is the first time they are using the combination attack system and it turns out to be awesome. So, you character will go into “Zone” mode every once in a while. (Kinda like limit break or something). During that “Zone” mode, your stats will increase greatly and you can do combination attack with other characters in your main party. There are 2 persons combination attack, 3 persons combination attack, and also 4 persons combination attack. Each one has a unique cutscene for the combination attack. By unlocking the skill panel, you’ll get the skill that you needed to do a combination attack. It’s automatically registered to the combination attack list once you have unlock all the skills needed for the attack. For example, Hero’s Fire Slash & Kamui’s Steal, by unlocking those two skills, you’ll get a combination attack called “Treasure Hunter”.

   

  • Transportation
    In the field you can ride horse, a small robot, bone monster, and even a small dragon to help you go through & explore the big maps. Talking about transportation, there are Sea & Sky Transportation in this game as well.

   

  • Mini Game
    And there are also some mini-game that you can do in this game. Such as Casino & Horse Race.

    

  • Costume
    How generous of Square Enix, this time Costumes are part of the item in game.  By equipping a set of items, you can change the appearance of your characters. As far as i know there are no DLC for Dragon Quest XI at the moment.

    

    

    

  • Sub-Quest
    This game has total of 60 Quests that you can take. You can check the progress and where you can get the quest from the Progress menu. Other than those 60 Quests, there are also secret quests that don’t appear on the list. Just like the old Dragon Quests series, there are secret quest for getting the strongest weapon and such things. It will be fun to find those secret missions on your playthrough.

Another 10/10 for the gameplay. The gameplay is simple and easy to understand for the new comer and for the fans of the series. It’s a good thing that they are keeping things that are good and not changing the whole system. But instead, they are adding new things to the system that people are familiar with.

• Graphics
  My experience of the game is based on my gameplay on PlayStation 4 Pro. Personally i think that the graphics are awesome, although everything might be too colorful. Check out some of the screenshots i took during my gameplay.

As you can see, the fields are really beautiful. Not to mention the town and village are big and can be explored. Even when you start playing the game, in one of the tutorial, they write something about “enjoying the scenery as you play”. And character model, faces, & expressions are also awesome. Most of the cut scenes in the game runs in real time (Not using a cutscene movie). By real time, i mean that it’s the same quality as when you are moving your characters. And also the detail of the clothing. If you zoom in into the Hero’s cloth, you can actually guess the material, because it looks so real. Villagers face also looks very good.

The graphics is easily 10/10. One of the best looking JRPG to date. 

• Sound & Music
  For those who used the play the old Dragon Quest series, the sound effect is still the same. Like when you go to church to pray, when you sleep, attack sound, or conversation sound. And the music are Orchestra, the Main Theme is still the same as ever with a new arrangement.As you all has already heard, this game has no voice over at all. I don’t know if they will include voice over for the Western version. The first time i heard about it, i was quite disappointed. The reason that it doesn’t have any voice over is so that the developer team can change the script however they want & no re-recording just because one sentence changed. That way, they can keep the originality of Dragon Quest & deliver it to us faster. Although it some events, i really wish that they have voice, because it will have much more impact to it. But what they lack in voice, they make it up on the background music. The BGMs of the game are AWESOME. Everything is in orchestra, and all of the musics are right for the moments of the game.

9/10 for the Sound & Music. I personally want a voice over for this game. Doesn’t mean that the game is bad without voice over. It’s already great. But with such great musics, if they also have voice over then it will be perfect.

• The Verdict
  I can say with confidence, that this is the best JRPG for PlayStation 4 to date. I won’t compare it to Persona 5, because fundamentally it’s a different kind of JRPG. Dragon Quest is an adventure JRPG, you feel like you travel the whole world together with the team. If you like classic RPG and this generation graphics, then you shouldn’t think twice about getting this game. It’s a must have. Oh and Square Enix is also giving us a surprise with an unannounced secret party member 😉

The score : 9.75/10
This might seems like an overrated score, but trust me, it’s that good. With an unexpected story, well developed back story, beautiful world, I enjoyed 120 hours I spent in Lotozetasia. Perhaps the Golden Era of JRPG might be coming back after all.

Erhanz wrote this review based on his experience in the game. He spent 120 Hours in it, finishing all the sub-quests, and getting a platinum trophy for it. This review is made based on the japanese version of the game.