Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age was a wonderful game. For me, it was my very first experience with the Dragon Quest franchise, and I honestly fell in love. I instantly felt like I missed out on years of wonderful JRPGs. I honestly don’t know what took me so long to give this franchise a shot, but I’m glad I finally did.
The first thing about Dragon Quest XI that stood out to me was the battle system. I love a good turn-based battle system and it was nice to see an RPG franchise stick with their roots in that department. It made me want to explore the rest of the franchise. The party members are unique and each bring something different to the table. Like in every RPG I play, I had a blast experimenting with different combinations of members.
I loved every single character here as well. Each character has so much heart and personality, and picking them up along my journey was very exciting. In fact, I found myself looking forward to that most. I’m always a sucker for an RPG that has you collect your party members along the way. It allows you to get to know the characters and their motives for joining your adventure.
The relationships between the characters brought a lot of depth to the storytelling as well. Some already knew each other and were traveling together, while some were on their own but wanted to join your cause anyways. It made for a very unique experience.
I think that when I get right down to it, I adore a good story that brings party members together for a common goal. Just like with Final Fantasy X, everyone was eventually working together to down SIn. It is the same here in Dragon Quest XI. Each member was there to help see the Luminary to his goal, and help save the tree of Yggdrasil and their world from evil.
Now, I played this game on the PS4 before the definitive edition was released, but the definitive edition allows you to switch between the modern 3D graphics, and the retro 2D graphics. When I go to replay this game, you can bet I’ll be playing it all in 2D. That is just such a cool concept that I wish games like Pokemon would take after.
That transformation applies to the soundtrack as well, which was wonderful. You can choose to hear the full orchestral soundtrack, or the original soundtrack. You can also pick between English or Japanese audio. It is great to have so many options on how you want to experience this wonderful game.
Regardless of how you play Dragon Quest XI though, you’ll be in for a treat. This game is full of heart and spirit, and it’ll keep you challenged. Not to mention the amount of gameplay here is rather robust. There’s a ton that this game has to offer.
The world of Erdrea is one full of magic and I enjoyed exploring all of it. Environments are bright and colorful, and there are a lot of differing locations. I also really loved the art design and character models for each enemy. Like the main characters, the monsters have their own personalities, too.
If you like JRPGs, you’ll like Dragon Quest XI. I imagine the majority of the fans were already Dragon Quest fans, but if you aren’t that’s okay. It was my first in the franchise and if anything, it just made me more motivated to educate myself on the franchise’s history and experience past entries.
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