In many ways, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Illusive Age is the perfect JRPG. A work of alchemical wonder, Square Enix‘s latest separates and distills everything that has made the genre — and this series — great over the decades, refines it, and puts it back together to make something new and surprising. Whether you’ve been playing Dragon Quest for almost thirty years like I have, or looking to dive in to your first JRPG, Dragon Quest XI stands as an exemplar of presentation, pacing, and polish.
The narrative setup is genre comfort food. You assume the role of a silent protagonist who is destined by prophecy to save the world from an ancient evil. You are the fabled luminary, and while many have been eagerly awaiting your arrival, others fear that your existence may initiate great calamity. As the world prepares for light and darkness to finally collide, alliances and hostilities are formed in the most unexpected ways and places.
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It’s the kind of story we’ve all heard before, but Dragon Quest XI tells it exceptionally well. The cast of characters will swell over the first fifteen-or-so hours of playtime, and by the time you manage to form a full party of heroes, you’ll have made incredible friendships with people you care about.
I found the character writing and voice acting to be consistently enjoyable. While you can skip through conversations at your own pace, I found myself waiting for voice lines to fully play out. The various, colorful accents and over-the-top theatrical deliveries make the adventure seem more authentic and exotic, and even minor NPCs deliver entertaining performances.
You’ll soon discover, though, that the true stars of your adventure are the enemies you’ll encounter throughout the world. I’ve been playing Dragon Quest since the original Dragon Warrior launched on the NES, and never have Akira Toriyama’s brilliant monster designs been so faithfully and vibrantly recreated in a video game.
Slimes, Golems, Dragons, Wyverns… all of the series staples and more recent additions and boss designs are all incredibly detailed and expressive in their animations. They’re wonderful to watch. They’re actually adorable for the most part, and I found myself willingly running into enemy encounters so I could watch the spectacle unfold. There’s nothing quite like watching a goofy demon bewitching members of your party, and causing them to dance and wiggle with careless smiles on their faces. Swords, daggers, whips, staves, flashy magical spells and “pep” attacks (think limit breaks) make fighting fast and fun.
Dragon Quest XI‘s combat is turn-based, but don’t let that turn you off. Battles play out quickly, and every character in your party is capable of at least two different fighting styles. Characters each have two main weapons they’re capable of wielding, and as you level up, you’ll branch into a skill-tree that unlocks various buffs and unique skills for each weapon.
You can respec your skill-tree at a moment’s notice in certain areas, and every party member (including the protag) can be programmed to fight on your behalf if you don’t feel like dishing out every single command. You also have the option of avoiding enemy encounters entirely. Enemies roam the open world in plain sight, and with the exception of stretches of naval exploration, you’ll never have to worry about random encounters.
And that’s fantastic news, because you’ll want to explore every nook and cranny of this gorgeous world. Lush oases, rolling green plains, harsh deserts, dense forests… They’re all packed with life, with monsters, and with secrets. There are chests and collection points everywhere, and your curiosity is always rewarded with valuable loot and materials. If you’re not finding gold or gear, you’re finding the things you need to forge powerful weapons, armor, and accessories for yourself. Side-quests range from hilariously entertaining to downright tedious, but the rewards are typically worth your time.
I also have to offer up more specific praise for the cities and towns in Dragon Quest XI. JRPG towns are have always been places of special respite and progress; they’re rewards for what could be hours of exploration and fighting, and the developers really did seem to design these towns and cities as rewards. They’re so packed with color, interesting details, characters, and secrets. A little while into your journey you’ll unlock a fast-travel spell, and I expect most of you will be back-tracking to most of the cities you’ve visited to roam their streets, complete side-quests, and soak up the sights and sounds.
In most JRPGs, grinding is accepted as a kind of necessary evil, but Dragon Quest XI is paced such that you very rarely have to go out of your way to grind and level up for anything. There’s a subtle formula at play throughout your adventure that sees you arrive somewhere new pursuing your main quest objective, then something will happen that forces you to explore a bit before you can continue, you’re funneled into a hostile area to retrieve or do something, and by the time you make it back to actually resume your main quest, you’ve done enough fighting and exploring to level up adequately and acquire some new gear.
If it sounds like this is a kind of “forced grinding,” you’d be partially right. The story is structured in a way that ensures that you do enough fighting to progress at a good pace, and that’s something I really appreciate. I’d rather feel like I’m constantly tending to my main objective, even when it takes me out of my way to do something, than have to put on the brakes and wander the world aimlessly just so I can fight monsters and level up. Dragon Quest XI dangles a narrative carrot in front of you from start to finish, so there’s always a logical sense of urgency in everything that you do.
Echoes of an Elusive Age is a very fitting subtitle. Dragon Quest XI hearkens to a golden age of JRPGs in a heartwarming way, but bravely pushes the series into the new age. The presentation is absolutely world-class, and quality-of-life revisions quietly, subtly improve every facet of the user experience. If you can’t get into DQXI, then JRPGs just aren’t for you.
If you’re long-time fan of the series, then I can tell you from personal experience that from the moment the overture march sounds out from the menu screen, until the time you put finally put the controller down at journey’s end, you’re in for the most beautiful and compelling Dragon Quest adventure you’ve ever experienced.
ComicBook’s Score: 4.5 / 5
