TEST IMPORT of Dragon Quest XI Echoes of an Elusive Age: The episode that is 10 years late
Last solo iteration of the main saga of the Dragon Quest to be released on a home console since episode VIII (13 years ago!), This eleventh part sounds the arrival of the series on console "new generation". Finally ... with a twist because Dragon Quest XI is available on Playstation 4 as well as on Nintendo 3DS! After the excellent Persona 5 and his extravagant universe and Final Fantasy XVand his cleavage but unique vision of the Japanese role-playing, Dragon Quest XI turn to prove to us that he will find his place in the hearts of lovers of the genre. Released in Japan on July 29, 2017 and scheduled for 2018 in Europe, here without further delay our review of Dragon Quest XI! Please note that this review is based only on the Playstation 4 version of the title, but that its content also applies to the Nintendo 3DS version, since the gameplay and scenario are similar on both media.
Is a good level of Japanese required to play in import?
A good foundation is needed to understand the title. We still have a J-RPG that lasts several hours, but the level used is not particularly noted. With a little effort and a good dictionary, you'll be able to cope with a good deal of the scenario. But we advise you to wait until the European release in 2018 if you are not sure of you, it would be a shame to miss a story as captivating!
A story that starts off like this ... A young orphaned boy collected by an old man in a lost village, a rite of passage to adulthood to accomplish that does not unfold as planned, the loss of your best Childhood friend and a quest around the world to complete after the destruction of your adopted village ... As much to say it immediately, those who expected a renewal of the license with this eleventh episode can of and already go their way. On the other hand, the others will know that in spite of a setting in the mouth one can not more classic, even caricature, they would be wrong not to leave his chance to the beautiful story that tells us this Dragon Quest XI.
It's in the old pots that we make the best scenarios
I'm not going to deliberately dwell on the details of the scenario to let you discover it for yourself, but know that without completely revolutionizing the narration of the Japanese role-playing game, the story that tells us Dragon Quest XI will keep you in touch. breath until the end of the fifty hours necessary to complete the title.
This is particularly due to the way the game offers us to understand his scenario. The title is cut into small portions of narration that are reminiscent of the episodic format related to television series. Each episode is lived through a specific quest or a relatively short-lived goal to learn about our hero, companions, and personal motivations.
Sometimes comical, sometimes dramatic or tragic, each of these narrative arcs is sufficiently well paced so that we chained the hours of play without wanting to let go of the controller.
This feeling is also reinforced by the endearing personalities of the companions who accompany our hero. Unsurprisingly we find the stereotypes of the genre with the cold thief in the heart on the hand, the old pervert or the witch too bossy but has the respondent.
Once again, Dragon Quest XI has the good idea to develop its main protagonists beyond the clichés on which they are based, offering us exchanges of great intensity between all this beautiful world. Each of them has their own reasons for following our hero, some obvious, others amazing, that we read through the conversations between our characters.
Stay speechless
You will never hear the voice of Dragon Quest's hero because he simply does not have one, like all other characters in the title. Their voices have been replaced by retro sound effects. This decision was taken so that Yuji Horii, scriptwriter of the title, could freely modify the dialogues at any moment of the development. However, I find it damaging not to be able to hear our heroes express themselves to give even more body and heart to an epic yet exciting.
Mixed report also concerning the audio part of the title. We find with pleasure the iconic themes of Koichi Sugiyama in orchestral versions of the most beautiful effect and all the sound wrapping deliciously retro that is the DNA of the series. On the other hand, we will deplore the reduced number of pieces composing the soundtrack of the game. The adventure being spread out over about fifty hours, the musics quickly come to miss. To be honest, it happened to me many times to simply cut the background music of the game because I could not stand hearing the theme of the world map for the twentieth consecutive time.
A little air of Jurassic Park
Akira Toriyama gave life to a little piece of paradise on our Playstation 4 called Rotozetashia. Its colorful world brings a breath of fresh air compared to the dark and gray worlds that we are used to sauces under cover of more "mature" content. We are still far from the flashy colors of a Persona 5, but we find a certain candor and lightness in the pencil line of the father of Dragon Ball which is welcome, especially during the exploration phases on the map of the world. The monsters are visible and it is quite funny to see them move and go about their business. With a bestiary composed of almost 400 different monsters, many from previous episodes, the world map of this eleventh episode to air museum outdoors Jurassic Park that will surely please the fans of the series!
On the other hand, once the feeling of discovery and the nostalgia are faded, one quickly becomes aware of the lack of ancillary activities available on this big map: some resources to be harvested by here, a secondary quest by that, some monsters around and it is finished. We would have liked Dragon Quest XI to offer us a more consistent universe. As soon as you stray from the path indicated by the title, it reminds us to order by blocking our route and cutting our impromptu tour. We are very far from the persistent and really open world that could offer us Final Fantasy XV despite its many flaws.
A more accessible universe
With Dragon Quest XI , you have to agree to be constantly caught by the hand in the game. However, it has the merit of smoothing the player's progress while avoiding wasting time because of unclear indications, trademark of too many J-RPG (Sania, you and your tree frogs I hate you).
Still, in this logic, the towns and villages you will visit are relatively small compared to current standards. But what they lose in size, they compensate in charm and accessibility. Each unexplored place is synonymous with new architecture and new secrets to discover. Amenities such as equipment shops, inns and churches are also easily recognizable, making every stay even more enjoyable.
Note that for the first time in the series, it is possible to jump! This allows you to go to the roofs of houses and discover in a new angle the urban environment and ... No ... In fact it does not change much. Needless addition so essential in short.
When Dragon Ball meets The Visitors
Regarding the design of the characters of Mr. Toriyama, we like or do not like. If you do not mind playing with Trunks, Goku, Bulma and their friends in mountebank costumes then you can be thrilled, Dragon Quest XI will offer exactly that! Personally, I have a little trouble with the style of our heroes. The tastes and the colors are not it.
Character modeling of Dragon Quest XI enabled by the Unreal Engine 4.1 is correct without screaming at the genius. With the unique style of Akira Toriyama, we would have liked the title fully assume its roots of Japanese animation and offers us a rendering similar to that of a Dragon Ball FighterZ for example to support the expressions of our protagonists and do even more vibrate the colors of the world of Rotozetashia. Unfortunately this is not the case, and the choice made by Square Enix is more like a compromise between ambitious 3D and animated styles that ultimately does not shock but does not impress either.
A stuck brilliantly executed
It is fine to expand on two pages on the universe and history of Dragon Quest XI , but the fight in all this? How is it?
You will understand, the key word of this game is "classicism". Because we do not change a system that works, Dragon Quest XI offers us a good old turn-based families without coloring or added sugar.
No gimmick Bravely Default way and its unique management of action towers, let alone Active Time Battle in Final Fantasy VII . Here we select an action, we do it and we wait patiently for it to replay. This system has the merit of having proven itself and, thanks to the expertise of Square Enix, remains effective today. Four characters maximum to control, each with their own skills: melee attacks, healing spells, offensive magic and support techniques. No mistake, we play in known terrain, or a little too much...
Make something new with old (from 2004)
Even when Dragon Quest XI tries to integrate a new feature , we discover that it is recycled from a previous episode.
Randomly your heroes can enter the "zone", drastically increasing their stats for a limited time. The effect can be sustained from one fight to another or until you activate a combined action between your heroes to inflict large damage or multiply the effects of a support spell. These combined actions all have a unique animation sequence depending on the characters involved. Although we never tire of discovering all the super-attacks of the game by trying different combinations, connoisseurs will soon understand that the "zone" is a polish stroke applied to the principle of "tension" of Dragon Quest VIII.
I forgot ! Next-gen requires, we can also move on the battlefield during his turn or that of the opponents and we can even try to hide behind a teammate to try to dodge enemy attacks ... Well, it does not not work huh. But it's always a useless addition so indispensable once again, am I mistaken?
Take a J-RPG player by the hand
Unfortunately it is not these new features that will succeed in hiding the lack of risk of this eleventh episode. Moreover, it is not only the game that does not take, players also have nothing to fear during their adventure.
It is, indeed, very rare to find yourself in trouble in Dragon Quest XI . Once you take the time to accumulate enough experience between each objective and give your characters a decent equipment, we evolve in the game without feeling the weight of any threat to oneself. This feeling is reinforced by the presence of camps allowing you to recover all your points of life scattered everywhere on the map of the world.
The combat system is oiled to perfection but players and players from the first hour already know all the mechanics and all the workings. We would have liked more risk taking from Square Enix and a tougher challenge.
Make new with old (dating from 2001 this time)
Regarding the progression system of your characters, nothing new under the sun of Rotozetashia. I ramble, I know, but it's a bit like that Dragon Quest XI , a lot of nostalgia and a nice dose of déjà-vu.
Dragon Quest XI proposes to change our characters through a simplified version of sphérier of Final Fantasy X . Each level gives you skill points to spend to specialize your heroes to one of the three branches proposed for each one.
Do you prefer that the main character have balanced skills by equipping them with a sword and a shield or will you do the brute by giving him a two-handed sword? You decide.
The spherer has proven itself in the past and has the merit of satisfying both the expectations of seasoned players planning statistically close to their composition as neophytes who have only to follow the junctions advised by the game. Mechanics perfectly applied in the case of Dragon Quest XI but which, again, will certainly not revolutionize the genre of Japanese role play.
The biggest challenge of all: the menus
What is certainly not happening in the box "revolution" in this Dragon Quest is the navigation in the menus of the title. I can very well hear the argument of nostalgia and classicism when talking to me about artistic direction, aesthetics or music, but in the case of the menus and sub-menus of the title, it is hardly forgivable.
We lose ourselves in menus to try to equip such a weapon with such a character, we do not propose to buy our obsolete equipment when we buy the most powerful at the merchants and we tear our hair to make sure distribute enough utility objects between each character in our group despite the avalanche of dialogs to validate.
It is laborious, very laborious to spend so much time in its inventory and sub-menus while it would have been possible to make the experience much more fluid using shortcuts while keeping the same aesthetic retro old episodes.
Another activity that will ask you to "have fun" menus in menus: crafts. Introduced in Dragon Quest X , Craftsmanship allows you to produce your own pieces of equipment or upgrade a piece of equipment you already own by adding a +, + 3 Korean MMORPG prefix. The system is not punitive, do not hesitate to abuse it!
Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is a title that will not please everyone. It's a real love letter to the old-fashioned J-RPGs where every dialogue, every drawing, every sound will reward the fans of the first hour who will take a crazy pleasure to live this old-fashioned experience on their modern console. . On the other hand, others who like me have fallen into the J-RPG later will have more trouble forgiving the archaic mechanics and lack of risk of this eleventh episode. Why do we impose menus that are not so intuitive? Where are the dubbing Where is the thrill of discovery? Nostalgia for some, immobilism for others: it's up to you to choose your side!
| WE LIKE | WE DO NOT LIKE |
|---|---|
| * Mechanics of combat perfectly oiled... | * but already seen and reviewed. |
| * The emblematic themes of the saga in orchestral version.. | * that quickly hit the nerves with so many different audio tracks. |
| * A long and captivating adventure from start to finish. | * This organization of menus, unacceptable. |
| * A casting of character to whom we attach sincerely. | * Where are the dubbing? |
| * A colorful and candid refreshing universe. | * Do not confuse "nostalgia" and "excessive recycling". |
| * The emblematic themes of the saga orchestral version. | * |
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CREDIT
THANKS FOR READING, ALSO CHECK OUT MY PREVIOUS TEST ON TEST of Xenoblade Chronicles 2: A cruise to paradise?)
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