![]() The feeling of openness is, as ever, a facade: you’ll be blocked from accessing a new area until you’ve completed a main quest task or spoken to the right person. ![]() Most of them have quirky or adorable elements, whether in the nature of the task or the title it’s given. Quests are handed out with the regularity you would expect from a JRPG, some interesting, some grindy, a few to introduce you to the game mechanics. Your party bicker and amuse each other while your bland, mute hero looks on, dispassionate and enigmatic. There is the occasional twist but they rarely surprise, let alone shock. Thrust into the world from his sleepy hometown, he is passed from pillar to post by people he meets along the way, each with their own agenda but all drawn to him and his ever-growing party. Sometimes you just need to hold a red cloth and climb a treeĮven the story feels familiar: a typical hero’s journey where the reincarnation of a chosen warrior from ages past is hunted down once his true nature is revealed, because some believe his appearance foretells a great disaster. Each town, city or area is individually painted with a personality to distinguish it from the rest, and they all have a weapon shop and an item shop, along with a church to save at. Half the townsfolk in every settlement fixate on a couple of different events - comical or serious (though in Dragon Quest, things are rarely that serious) - which is all they could talk about the other half were there to point me to my next goal. The party characters I collected along the way all had wacky, differing personalities and quirks. Yet wandering around the sprawling world of Erdrea with my voiceless hero felt almost mechanical, an odd sensation where I could often predict to a scary level of accuracy what was going to happen. The series has always had its tropes just like Final Fantasy has moogles and chocobos, Dragon Quest has slimes and puntastic monster names, many of which have become regulars. The biggest problem this game has is that it tries to emulate Dragon Quest VIII in almost every respect. Not because it is bad - that simply isn’t the case, and Square Enix have done a capable job on development duty. This makes reviewing Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age a particularly troublesome task. ![]() Even after playing the older games re-released on the DS, the eighth entry was always the pinnacle for me. The voice cast was British and sterling, the cel-shaded graphics looked incredible and the orchestral soundtrack was simply fantastic. It was my first experience with the series and I loved how different it was to Final Fantasy: sillier, cuter, more forgiving. Without doubt, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King was one of my favourite games on the PlayStation 2.
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