Games I Beat: Dragon Quest Heroes

Dragon Quest Heroes The World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below
Musou RPG
1 Player
System: PS4
Developer: Omega Force
Year of Release: 2015
Beaten: October 25, 2015

First of all, Square Enix is using this game to hold a beloved series hostage, that being the titular Dragon Quest series. Allegedly the future of that series in the West is dependent on sales of this game. Ironically, this game is basically nothing like a true Dragon Quest game, so this strategy is pretty fucked up. Dragon Quest is personally my favorite RPG series, and if you too are a fan of turn based RPG's I highly suggest seeking out pretty much any of those games to check out (namely I, III, IV and VIII are the typically recommended entry points). If you enjoy the series, think you might or love Dynasty Warrior style games I implore you to pick up this title new. I don't like that Square Enix is holding their own property hostage like this, but I'm willing to negotiate with terrorists. I want new Dragon Quest games, especially those 3DS remakes dammit. (Having written this in the past and having been sitting on this for far too long, DRAGON QUEST VII AND VIII WERE ANNOUNCED TO COME WESTWARD THIS SUMMER! AHHHHHH!)

Also, this game is pretty good overall, just to get that out of the way here and now. I would never recommend purchasing a bad game, unless the situation was incredibly dire. Like some insane man broke into my home and demanded I blogged about how great some terrible games were. Oh if only I were that popular of a writer.

It took a while for me to fall for Dragon Quest Heroes. I was never interested in Dynasty Warriors, or any of it's many spin off games. I did play through Hyrule Warriors though (even wrote about it here) and I enjoyed that well enough. DQH plays a bit slower though, which admittedly is a pet peeve of mine. At some point though, while running around smacking various enemies in the face something just clicked. I was running around a field filled with little blue slimes, some almost hidden in the tall grass, and it just hit me, THIS is Dragon Quest. It's kind of difficult to explain, because it really doesn't play much like a Dragon Quest title at all, but in that moment it felt so Dragon Quest to me. And I adored it.

Graphically speaking, while not the most impressive, the art style looks nice and fits the feel of the series just fine. I don't remember any slow down, and I honestly don't notice nit-picky graphical problems like some others do. The music in the game is just as great as any other DQ soundtrack, nothing stood out to me, and nothing made me want to search out a copy of the soundtrack, but everything fit well enough. And really, that's all I'm asking for from either of these aspects in games. When they go above and beyond that's excellent, but if they just hit all the right notes, that's fine by me.

The plot is a bit... terrible. Evil is attacking the world, globe trot a bit, gather not evil friends, defeat evil, win. It doesn't help that the two main characters are VERY boring. The female is bold and runs right into danger, she doesn't really think, she just acts. The male is a strategist, and EVERY chance he gets he just starts droning on about how to handle any given situation (hint: run toward enemy, smack enemy). There are two other new characters, the King Doric who's simple personality was charming as he was just a loud happy-go-lucky bruiser. The other, Isla, is a scientist boomerang wielder, and honestly I don't really remember anything stand out about her. She's kind of flirty, kind of the brainiac of the group? She just kind of faded away into the background for me.

Characters guest starring from other games are not only the main draw, but the shining spots of the game. I don't want to ruin it, but every time one of these characters is revealed they have a cutscene, or more, showcasing a bit about them, and as a long time fan of the series I loved all of these. Terry is the same asshole warrior as before. Nera and Bianca have this REALLY awkward exchange throughout the whole game. Alena is still an adorable spit fire, and Kryll still needs to just tell her how she feels. While their rationale for why these characters show up is rather weak (seriously, when they return to their worlds do they just forget about this whole thing or what?) it doesn't matter, because the crossover extravaganza is exactly what drew most people in.

Gameplay is simplistic, basic combos in the vein of Dynasty Warriors, with skill trees for every character that are very similar and formulaic. It might feel like you're customizing your characters, but really your not. Standardized stat boosts are available for everyone. Each character has three main "skills" that can be different physical attacks, or magic, or what have you. And finally some unique bits with some overlap between characters that extend other attacks, or give slight new options in the form of better dodging or things like that. None of it is very deep, and after a while you'll quickly realize what you want to level up first. The one major new feature is the inclusion of giant enemies (at least as far as I'm aware that's a new addition here), usually this doesn't change things up too much, you still look for weak points, or utilize canons that are in some levels to help dish out more damage, but it is kind of thrilling fighting skyscraper sized cyclops, jumping up into their faces and slashing away at that big ol' evil eye.

One of my major problems with the game is that they took a bit too much out of Dragon Quest's book for this in parts. Like with side quests. You have to go to the side quest board, pick a quest, an overly long tune plays, then you can select another (but can only have so many active at once). Now you have to complete the objective, come back, turn in one quest at a time, listen to an overly long tune, and then receive an item and then turn in any other quests you might have had. There are well over 100 quests in this game, which adds up to a LOT of wasted time. Alchemy is the same way, where each time you try to alchemize something a shortish animation plays out which adds up quickly.

Did you see that though? My major problem with this game is honestly pretty trivial, just text somebody, or read something online, or have a TV show on, or just, I dunno, have a bit of patience and you can overcome most of this annoyance. Aside from that, the pretty lame story and the repetitive nature of the game (Dynasty Warriors) there isn't much else for me to complain. Well, except for the end-game content, but that's because they just designed it badly from the get go.

See, in Japan, these quests were added in as DLC after release, so it made sense to shove them all in the end of the game, most people would be at that point by then. But here, they include these quests (which are easy enough to complete at a lower level and ramp up as the quest lines progress) but still don't let you access them until the end of the game. So, if you like to complete games, you have to come to a screeching halt as the world is under threat from the ancient evil breaking loose as you fulfill some side quests for each character. And they aren't terrible, they show some more interaction with these characters we love, and they usually unlock ultimate weapons, or alternative costumes (which are terrible as per Hyrule Warriors) for their respective characters. Stuff you should be able to work towards throughout the game. It's just kind of frustrating, but I understand why they did it, even though they had the chance to pepper these quests throughout the game when they localized it.

And admittedly, there's one other thing that really bothered me, but it isn't really a complaint against the game so much so as it's a complaint against what the game could (arguably should) be. It plays out like Dynasty Warriors, but instead of menus between missions you've got a hub in the form of a ship. Missions take place on small maps and you warp in and out of them at the start and end of missions. The whole time I was playing this I couldn't help but wonder how much more amazing this game would have been with a true world map, of course fast travel would be necessary because trekking across the whole world would get tiresome, but god damn. Taking the combat from Dynasty Warriors, and everything else from Dragon Quest would create an absolutely stunning game that would make me completely disappear for at least a month or so. Maybe it's a good thing that didn't happen then?

All in all, Dragon Quest Heroes is a great game that I recommend checking out, especially for fans of Dragon Quest, but if you're only familiar with Dynasty Warriors, it's still worth checking out. Luckily DQVII and VIII already got announced for localization, so I don't have to hammer home the "please buy these" point home, but even so, you should give this game a whirl. Even if the plot is simple it maintains that same DQ charm through enemies, and the sporadic dialogue spouted off during missions, and cutscenes. Maybe the sequel will fix some of my problems, or maybe even add in a true world map!