REVIEW | Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition - 3D Mode (Nintendo Switch)

BY THE TIME the credits finally rolled after 70 hours, I knew there's still more to be done in the post-game. Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition is game that is hard to express without gushing everything that's great about this game.

A TIMELESS TALE

The story is basic in premise, as it centres around the chosen one who has been destined to destroy evil. Though simple from the get-go, the whole narrative delves into a deeper world-building experience with an overarching story that delights and pulls your heartstrings. 

The game's brisk pacing means that you will be weaving your way across a whirlwind narrative that subverts expectations. Throughout your journey, it's a lot about discovering the world and the people that inhabit this space, you'll meet companions and form a bond with them throughout the adventure. If you've watched the recent Dragon Quest My Story movie on Netflix, expect a similar story beats. 

It's a story that keeps you hooked, kinda like watching an anime, with mysteries to uncover, villains, to vanquish, characters with a story to tell and tender moments that make up for overall great experience in storytelling, despite its basic beginnings, it ends up being the most memorable experience. 

OLD SCHOOL BATTLIN'

Dragon Quest games don't stray too far away from their roots as a traditional turn-based RPG, whereby it's simply a choice of which moves you want to use during a turn. This time around, instead of random battles, enemy encounters and battles can be initiated by the player as the enemies appear on the field/overworld. 

While I wasn't initially invested in the turn-based mechanics as the Tactics command (essentially the AI) did a competent job selecting the appropriate moves during battles. It wasn't until I reached the near end of the second act when the Tactics commands couldn't cut it anymore due to the increased in the difficulty of the enemies.

The tougher enemies in the post-game were such a rude awakening that it made me realised that I needed to take full control of the team and properly strategise every move as every enemy encounter now can turn deadly. This is due in part because I've been breezing through the game by heavily relying on the Tactics command. 

Once you've taken full control, this is where you can go really formulate a proper plan of attack when battling enemies. Each character has abilities and spells at your disposal, that with the right combination of tactics, it makes for a far satisfying combat experience that rarely gets boring. 

As you level up and learn new spells, you also earn skill points which can be used to unlock more abilities and further buff up your characters. Depending on the role and playstyle assigned to a character, your team combination may come out much different from other players. 

Asides from levelling up, you can equip armours, accessories, weapons which can either be obtained, bought or crafted. With the portable forge and finding recipes during your travels, you can craft and improve an arsenal of equipment that would help you throughout your journey.

On top of the main story, which will take you past the 70-hour mark, there are plenty of things to keep you busy in the world of Edrea. There are a variety of sidequests and mini-games to take part in that rewards you with better equipment, crafting materials and recipes. When exploring the world, taking the off-beaten path is often rewarded with new areas to discover and treasures to loot.

Speaking of which, the world is broken up into several areas, each of which is quite huge to explore. From sprawling dungeons to open fields to the quaint villages, there's always something to see and uncover as the lush landscape and beautiful structures really give the world a very lived-in vibe. 

PRETTY LANDS, DEADLY MONSTERS 

Akira Toriyama's character art is fully realised in this game. Each monster you encounter are animated beautifully and does resemble their 2D counterpart. The environment and locations are vibrant with colours and textures, asides from a few areas which tends to look a bit drabby. 

Despite that, some of the locations are quite pretty too. From the lofty village of Cobblepot to the Castle of Heliodor, there are so many areas that are a sight to behold. These areas are segmented but cover a huge terrain to explore every area littered with enemies to battle. 

In terms of performance, given the scope of the game, it runs smoothly for most of the parts. There are times when the games stutter a bit, occasional pop-ins but none of it detracts on how fluidly this game move. The port town seems to suffer the most upon entering the area. 

Unlike its original PlayStation 4 brethren, the overall graphics had to take a bit of a dip for this version. Despite this, however, with a large amount of content you get from this game, it's still amazing to see this game running smoothly the way it does on the Nintendo Switch.

SOUND & MUSIC

In terms of sound design, with DQXIS expect great music from the sweeping orchestra, the superbly done voice acting for both Japanese and English, to the clever use of sound effects that harken back to the old games. Though after 80 hours of gameplay, the music tends to get repetitious despite being in different areas, the battle song is really catchy and will probably stay with you for many years.  While the game does give you the option to choose between synthesised or full orchestra, I'd opted for the latter for a better auditory experience. 

WHAT'S NEW?

With the definitive edition, Square-Enix saw fit to add a ton of feature to make sure that the game is streamlined and filled to the brim with quality of life improvements. If you've only played the original, here are some of the improvements that were included in the definitive version:

• Option to speed up battles
• Skipping cutscenes and autoplay options
• Portable fun-sized forged can be used anywhere when it was previously only be used at the campsite, 
• Outfits can be equipped as cosmetics without using their corresponding armour and helmet.
• Can call upon horses with the horse hailer
• Quick access to the command menu - with almost no need to go find them in the menus.
• Ores and materials harvested/found are automatically added to inventory, no need to pick 'em up anymore.
• Easily switch between turn-based battle and free movement during battles.
• New character-specific scenarios to play as.

One of the interesting features of DQXI is the ability to play the game in its entirety in 2D. 

Initially, I thought this would seamlessly switch between 2D and 3D playstyle like Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap but that is not the case here. You have to save your current game to switch over to the 2D mode. In this mode, the progression works in chapters which don't necessarily carry over to your 3D adventures if you haven't reached there yet. It really is a roundabout way of doing things. So, in this case, it's better to play exclusively one mode to fully experience a more cohesive story. Fortunately, you have the chance to play in the 2D mode as part of the main story's sidequests, which is sufficient enough. 

CONCLUSION

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition is an easy recommendation for fans of the series, the narrative alone is quite engaging as it felt like you're binge-watching your favourite fantasy anime. I had to constantly remind myself to stop playing continuously and paced myself after completing a story arc or one of their side missions. I loved every character that inhabits this world and the places where you get to travel to. It literally felt like the quickest 100 hours of my life. 

The quality improvements introduced in the game is a total godsend which further enhances an already excellent experience. While criticism about its traditional turn-based system is an obvious flaw, it's a refreshing change of pace when the market is saturated with overly convoluted games mechanics.

Overall, Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition is a game that is a joy to play and one that you should not miss out as part of your JRPG library.

REVIEW SCORE: 9/10 

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